Jeffrey G. Bowers
Linguistics 450
July 16, 1999
Dr. Cynthia L. Hallen

Introduction

Hebrew may be the only language to be the main language of two nations separated by a gap of more than two thousand years. Before and after this gap, Hebrew experienced periods of relatively normal change as a result of influences from within and from without. Between these periods, Hebrew was limited to use in the religious and scholarly pursuits of the Jews. While it may seem that Hebrew was effectively dead during the time, it actually continued to change and adapt to the environment and need of its users. This constant (though more subdued) continued life of Hebrew during the Jewish Diaspora made it possible for the Jews to return to Palestine and begin again to use Hebrew as a part of daily life. Thus, Hebrew did not live, die and resurrect. Rather, it has experienced three distinct phases of life that have all contributed to what

Hebrew now is.

Anthony Arlotto tells us that Hebrew comes from Northwest Semitic, which comes from Semitic, which comes from Common Hamito-Semitic, which comes from proto-Afro-Asiatic (Arlotto 48). Historically, Hebrew is among the oldest of the Semitic languages and while its specific origins are uncertain, it definitely traces back to at least 1200 B. C. (Fellman 67). According to Bible-based Jewish tradition, Abraham is considered to be the father of the Jews and of their language. He began as nomadic herder (probably an Amorite) who grew up near Ur (either the Ur in southern Mesopotamia or the one in northern Syria) and later migrated to Palestine (Harris 37, 44). Scriptural accounts (and perhaps a 4,000 year-old Egyptian text-Harris 44) suggest that his travels included significant time in Egypt, but that most of his later life was spent in Palestine with considerable influence over a relatively large group of men. Since civilization in Egypt was more advanced, Egyptian language and culture probably had effect on religious and scientific registers of Abraham and his followers, while the local Canaanite people and their culture would have had more influence on the business and social registers of their language.

From Abrahams day down to the time of the Persian Empire in the late sixth century B.C., Abrahams descendants probably had quite a bit of contact with the Egyptians almost constantly. Remarkably, there is relatively little evidence of this contact in the Hebrew Bible. Still, there are quite a few Egyptian names that show up in other early Hebrew texts (esp. the Book of Mormon, ex: Helaman 1:3). The only other sign of Egyptian influence is the V-S-O sentence structure that only occurs in relatively rare cases (Gee). Egypt had a greater influence on the Hebrew language than other major powers that were in this region during this time period. However, most records suggest that external influences (in general) were relatively minor. Internally, the state of the Hebrew language probably followed the state of Israeli politics though out this period. When the Israelites left Egypt and entered Canaan, each tribe had a separate government and geographic location as well as distinct dialects of Hebrew. Their religious celebrations and a poetic-liturgical form of Hebrew were the major part of what they had in common. When King David united the Israelites, the upper classes of all the tribes began associating between tribes much more frequently. As a result, the language of these upper classes became more uniform. Later, as Israel and Judah separated into two kingdoms, the language of their respective upper classes probably grew more and more distinctive up to the late eighth century B. C. when Assyria invaded and destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel

(Fellman 68). While these changes and trends in early Hebrew are mostly conjectural, it seems logical that the various forms of government that ruled the Hebrew speakers would have played a major role in the early development of Hebrew and its dialects.

The Babylonian captivity of the Jews began a transition that led to the second phase of Hebrew. When Zedekiah rebelled against restrictions imposed by Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar responded by destroying Jerusalem, taking prominent Jews as captives back to Babylon, and dispersing the rest of the Jews. In captivity, the Jews began limiting their use of Hebrew to religious settings as a matter of survival. When Cyrus conquered the Babylonians, his Persian government was much more religiously tolerant. They actually helped the Jews return to their homeland. However, between the beginning of Babylonian captivity, and this long, drawn out return, the Aramaic language (which the tolerant Persians seemed more inclined to adopt than eliminate) quickly became the lingua franca for the entire region. The returning Jews continued using Aramaic as their common language for several centuries while keeping their Hebrew restricted to synagogue and religious discussions. With Aramaic as their first language, the Jews became more likely to use Aramaic words when they just could not quite think of the right word in Hebrew (as seen in the books of Daniel and Ezra and in a few other isolated incidences). After a couple of centuries, they even began using the Aramaic script for the alphabet of their written Hebrew that they still use today (Ricks).

The internal influences from this period originate with the people who used Hebrew most often in this period. Most of them were Pharisees. As a part of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucids, many Jews from the middle and lower classes began a new Pharisaic (meaning pure) order of Judaism in opposition to the Greek-influenced Sadducees. Not only did they bring their lower class Hebrew into greater usage in the synagogues, they also developed a system for representing (and thereby preserving) vowels for scriptural texts. They even began keeping track of how many times specific words and even letters were used in a line, in a book and in the whole Hebrew Bible. Later this intense study of Hebrew led to scholarship in all areas of academia. Almost all of the great Jewish scholars of this period published in Hebrew. This made Hebrew a strong academic language. In fact, the era between 800 and 1400 A. D. is referred to the High Middle Ages of Hebrew because in this era, scholarly books from all western countries were more commonly made available in Hebrew than in any other language. However, with increased Jewish persecution and the invention of the printing press, scholars turned more to other languages for publishing their written works. Hebrew was again left as a synagogue language (Fellman 70-71).

The same Jews who were the internal influences on Hebrew also provided a medium for external influences. Until 800 A. D., Aramaic and Greek had the greatest effects on the Hebrew of the Pharisees. During the High Middle Ages, scholars frequently used Arabic (the other scholarly language of that era) to fill in gaps in their Hebrew (71). Still, most of the scholars involved probably read and wrote Hebrew with little or no verbal interaction. So while limited external influences kept Hebrew lacking many every-day terms, its academic vocabulary continued to grow and change from the effects of the languages that were most familiar to those who used the Hebrew.

The current phase of Hebrew began with Eliezar Ben Yehuda. In the late nineteenth century, many Jews began to feel a need to reunite in their ancient homeland, Israel. Ben Yehuda was among those who felt the desire strong enough to actually move to Jerusalem. Shortly after arriving, he began using Hebrew at home, in a Jewish school that he established, and in public with anyone who might understand. He felt that a renewal of Hebrew was a necessary part of the reuniting of the Jews. He set standards for vocabulary and grammar based on Biblical Hebrew. [Two examples of terms derived by this criteria are sheka, which refers to a sunken place in Biblical Hebrew and an electrical outlet in Modern Hebrew; and teka, which refers to a thrust in Biblical Hebrew and an electrical plug in Modern Hebrew (Brown, Zilberman).] As more and more Jews moved in from different countries with different native languages, most of them began using Hebrew as a matter of convenience. It was the one language that all Jews knew to at least some degree. The sum effect was a community and later a nation that used (and uses) Hebrew for communication in all arenas of daily life. As a result of the nature of this renewal, Hebrew has been heavily influenced by the masses of immigrants (and probably tourists as well) coming mostly from all parts of Europe and the United States. In particular, people have frequently had to borrow from their native languages to supplement Hebrews lack of adjectives, and terms for modern technology. Overall, it has changed and continues to change quite rapidly. Modern Hebrew has not yet stabilized. Now that there is such a large non-religious, native Hebrew population, it is hard to guess how long it will retain its Biblical foundations. In the end it may become what others already see as being a European language in an outward Hebrew garb (Asher 1538).

Each of the phases of Hebrew has had distinct characteristics that have resulted in unique forms of influence and unique rates of change. Spoken language was most heavily affected during the first phase. Written language was most affected in the second phase. However, in the current phase, improved forms of communication and relatively astronomical degrees of immigration has changed Hebrew faster and in more ways than ever before. Hebrew was never completely dead, but few languages are more alive than Hebrew is today.

Arlotto, AnthonyIntroduction to Historical Linguistics. Houghton Mifflin Company,

Boston, Massachusetts. 1972.

Asher, R. E. edit.Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Pergamon Press Ltd., Cambridge, Great Britain. 1994.

Brown, F., et al editsA Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford University Press, Oxford, Great Britain. 1951.

Fellman, JackA Brief History of the Hebrew Language. General Linguistics. Vol. 34, no. 2. State University of New York at Binghamton, New York. 1994

Gee, Johnpersonal interview. at FARMS on June 25, 1999.

Harris, Roberta L.The World of the Bible. Thames and Hudson Ltd., London. 1995.

Ricks, Stephen D.personal interview. at BYU on June 25, 1999.

Zilberman, ShimonThe Compact Up-to-Date English-Hebrew, Hebrew-English Dictionary. Zilberman, Jerusalem, Israel. 1997