Biblical Hebrew

The Hebrew Bible (known in Hebrew or is a set of archaic dialects in which were written many papers, the most notable is the Bible Hebrew (with the exception of books and sections written in Judeo-Aramaic ).

We assume that biblical Hebrew was the language of everyday Hebrews and Israelites. Although it was already underway in the Roman period, he continued to be taught in Jewish schools , but also in Christian theological seminaries , and still is in the public schools in Israel. He is also the subject of assiduous study by linguists and archaeologists operating in the territory corresponding to the land of Israel.

Elements of Biblical Hebrew are also used in modern Hebrew literature, media and occasionally the conversation. The Hebrew Bible is indeed easily read by anyone who speaks modern Hebrew. However, these two forms differ in vocabulary, grammar and phonology.

Photograph of the stele of Mesha. Dating from 850 ACS about, she recounts the victories of Mesha in his rebellion against the kingdom of Israel , corroborating the events described in the Second Book of Kings.
Written in Moabite, a language very close to the Hebrew Bible, written in paleo-Hebrew characters, this stele is one of the oldest inscriptions in biblical or related language known to date.

It is difficult to date the point at which the Hebrew Bible came into use. Currently several inscriptions dating from the ^tenth century BC. BC have been discovered, written in that language or a dialect very close, the Gezer tablet , which lists an agricultural calendar, the Zayit primer that contains a score of letters, and the ostraca of Khirbet Qeiyafa.

It considers the beginnings of the Hebrew Bible in the ^twelfth century BC. AD. ^{Dialects Hebrew used in the Hebrew Bible}

From a linguistic point of view, the biblical Hebrew language belongs to all the Semitic languages of the North Western Group, which includes the Canaanite languages, including the Moabite , the Amorite and Ugaritic , and Aramaic , which the Hebrew Bible is less close. According to the Bible . Books of the Bible written in the kingdom of Israel , whose Book of Amos , also appear to contain residues of a local dialect, and it is assumed that Hebrew was written in which most of the Bible Hebrew is the dialect of the tribes of Judah , the Bible calls "Jewish language" (Yehudit ). Finally, a competing version of the Bible was written by the Samaritans in their own dialect of Hebrew.

Evolution of the Hebrew Bible

Reconstructions of Biblical Hebrew

Textual criticism applied to the Bible can detect within the biblical corpus, sometimes in the same way, grammatical and lexical variants. This is particularly true of passages in prose and poetry critics feel that they are the first to have been written, the rest being explanatory elaborations later .

The Hebrew Bible also suffers the influence of increasingly sharp Aramaic, both in its grammar than vocabulary. If Aramaic is spoken before the Babylonian exile by the ruling class , the books written in the period from 500 to 60 FAC, the Book of Jeremiah , the Book of Esther and the Book of Chronic betray many Aramaic: for example, the preposition conditional Illou () replaces Lou (), and the relative pronoun aer (), which introduces a subordinate clause ('that') is replaced by a clitic , e - (- ), which will be used extensively later, both in Mishnaic Hebrew in modern Hebrew . This growth continues in the extra-canonical literature and Deuterocanonical such as Dead Sea Scrolls and Sirach (in its Hebrew version), where the Hebrew is mixed with many borrowings from Aramaic, but also Greek and Persian.

This strongly suggests that the Hebrew Bible was already a largely literary language, while the language of everyday life became closer to Mishnaic Hebrew. He gradually gave way to the Hebrew of the Second Temple period , which succeeds the Mishnaic Hebrew, whose testimony recorded in the Talmud states that it was already virtually known at the time of writing of the Mishna . Thus closes the ^second century classical period of Hebrew, which follows the medieval Hebrew , a language entirely from books.

Preservation of the Hebrew Bible

However, parallel to the natural decline of the Hebrew Bible in the spoken language, special care is taken to keep jealously reading and pronunciation correct: this work is known for Massor (transmission). Probably initiated before the period Maccabean , by Jewish sages, the Soferim mainly discussed in the Talmud, but Ezra could have been part , it is then transmitted to the smallest detail by other sages, Masoretes , which different schools, each with its particular annotation system and its "standard" version of the Masoretic text, worked between the ^seventh century and the ^tenth century. Further signs of fussy masters lectionis ( consonants a abjad used to rate the vowels or semi-vowels ), whose academic researchers assumed that they were added to a text exclusively consonantal Masoretic each school has its own vocalization system and cantilation text. In ^the eighth century , the system in force in the school of Ben Asher , chief representative of the Massor of Tiberias , is needed on its rivals Babylonians.

However, if the Massor manages to fix the pronunciation of both vowels of stresses, it could not retain a significant portion of the phonological repertoire of Hebrew Bible, as shown by a comparison between the text and that of the Masoretic Septuagint. Moreover, if the signs are universally accepted Tiberian vocalization, their reading is not uniform in Jewish communities around the world. Thus it identifies the different traditions of pronunciation, including the Yemeni Hebrew , the Jewish Ashkenazi and Sephardic Hebrew. As for the Tiberian vocalization of Masoretes themselves, it is no longer valid, although it is well documented.

Characterization of the Hebrew Bible

Writing

The Hebrew Bible is based on the Hebrew abjad , still used today in modern Hebrew. It is the same for Jews and the Samaritans, although the names of some letters differs between the two: samech sin'gath or sin'kath is called by the Samaritans, the th, Tsada, and taw, Tapha or TAF.

The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet (Ktav ivri), originally used by the Hebrews, was a derivative of the linear alphabet , near the Phoenician alphabet. He was replaced, among Judeans income from the Babylonian exile , by a variant of the Aramaic alphabet (Ktav Ashouri). This however was not adopted by the Samaritans, whose alphabet is still very close to its ancestor paleo-Hebrew.

Phonology

consonants

The Hebrew Bible differs from its supposed ancestor, the Proto-Semitic , a reduction of phonemes ^, , whose list is given in the table below.

Indeed, the consonants protosemitic corresponding Arabic t (), kha (), dhal (), shin () ZA () and Gayne () have rendered the Hebrew Bible with shin () , heth (), zayin () Tsadi () Tsadi () and 'ayin () respectively (which explains many differences in pronunciation between modern Hebrew and Arabic, including on the town in the south of the land of Israel, called 'Aza in Hebrew and Gaza in Arabic).
It seems however that a distinction was still at the phonological level in biblical times, at least as regards the 'ayin and Heth. Indeed, the Septuagint has preserved a pronunciation archaic mrh (), transcribing Gomorrha () with a gamma , while Eber () is transcribed Eber () without guttural intrusive, and similarly, Rahel () is transcribed with a chi (, Rhakhl ), while Yi Haq () becomes Isaak () .
Subsequently, the letter sin ( corresponding to S) coincides with the samech (, corresponding with the s), which will be fully accomplished in the Mishnaic Hebrew.
Moreover, at some point, the Hebrew Bible distinguished for six phonemes, called " " (bg "d kp" t), which are the subject of a consonant shift is ie a phonetic modification of the consonant according to its morphological or syntactic environment from one form to a form occlusive fricative, that is to say respectively Vocalist

The system of vocalization ( niqqoud ) Tiberian currently in use (though the vocalization is different from the modern Masoretes) has seven regular vowels ( Patah , Qames , quark , sl , Hirik , Holem and req , corresponding to / a / , / /, / e /, / /, / i / and / u / of the International Phonetic Alphabet) and the w (short vowel or silent, can be combined with a vowel, E / A / O, to form semi-vowels), the qibb (/ u / short) and pim (signs combining with Patah, and Qames sl, indicating a short vowel). Some researchers in linguistics Hebrew, Tiberian niqqoud did not indicate the difference between the length of consonants and Masoretes themselves were not doing, but this opinion is disputed. In its Romanization of Hebrew, Thomas Oden Lambdin uses macrons to indicate long vowels, and circumflex accents to mark extra-long vowels.
The Babylonian vocalization system has only six vowels, Patah is considered equivalent to sl.

It appears that biblical Hebrew has again evolved from a proto model, which would have scored three short vowels and three long vowels to move towards a system based on the cardinal vowels ( / iueoa / ). Some changes, including the substitution of a href = "% C3% Alphabet_phon A9tique_international" title = "International Phonetic Alphabet"> / a: / by / o: / , are found throughout the Canaanite languages ( hence the difference between , Salome and , salami), others are typical of Hebrew.

Tone

The accent does not usually phonemic value, but is set according to the phonological conditions. It is generally Oxyton ( milra in Hebrew), falling on the last syllable. In some parts of speech, emphasis is paroxyton ( mil'l in Hebrew) on the penultimate syllable.

In some cases, stress has phonemic value, changing the meaning of the term, for example in the doublet sha va ( ) indicating a past form - sha va ( ) that indicates a present.

Morphology

References

• The tables are adapted from Hebrew phonology Lambdin, Thomas O. Introduction to Biblical Hebrew. London: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971.

Leave a Reply