Biblical Hebrew language

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Biblical Hebrew, sometimes called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, in which the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh was written, and which the ancient Israelites spoke.

It is not spoken in its pure form today, although it is studied by religious Jews – as well as Christian theologians, linguists and Israeli archaeologists – for practical application and deeper understanding in their studies of the Tanach and its commentaries. Jews usually learn it when studying ancient scriptures. Classical Hebrew is taught in most if not all public schools in Israel.

Biblical Hebrew can be read by anyone familiar with modern Hebrew. The differences between Biblical Hebrew and modern Hebrew are mainly in grammar, modern vocabulary, and Biblical Hebrew's distinct writing style. Although Modern and Biblical Hebrew's grammar laws are often different, parts of Biblical Hebrew are often used in literary Modern Hebrew. Elements of Biblical Hebrew are also often used in conversation and in the Israeli media.

Definition

This article describes the Biblical dialects of Hebrew. These flourished between the 12th and 6th centuries BCE and comprise all of the Hebrew Bible but for several Aramaic sections and isolated loanwords.

The precise meaning of the term Biblical Hebrew varies with context and may refer to any of the following:

all Hebrew dialects found in the Hebrew Bible, including the Archaic Biblical, Biblical, and Late Biblical Hebrew dialects
the Hebrew of only the corpus of the Hebrew Bible itself, not including other texts - such as inscriptions - that use related Hebrew dialects
Tiberian Hebrew, also called Masoretic Hebrew, which is an early-medieval vocalization of the Hebrew Bible's ancient consonantal text

From a linguistic point of view, the Classical Hebrew language is usually divided into two periods: Biblical Hebrew, and Roman Era Hebrew, having very distinct grammatical patterns.

Biblical Hebrew is further divided into the so called 'Golden Age' Hebrew (before 500 BCE) and 'Silver Age' Hebrew (500 BCE to 60 BCE). Silver Age Hebrew has many borrowings from Aramaic, for example the use of the conditional particle ˈilluː (אִלּוּ) replacing luː (לוּ). Another shibboleth between the two, is the use of the relative pronoun ʔaˈʃer (אֲשֶר) (introducing a Restrictive clause, 'that') in the earlier period, being replaced with the clitic ʃe- (-שֶ) in the later, both being used in Mishnaic and Modern Hebrew.

Roman Era Hebrew, or Mishnaic Hebrew, was further influenced by Greek and Persian, mainly through the dialect of Aramaic which was the Lingua franca of the area at the time.

Modern adaptions of Classical Hebrew are in active use today, mostly in the form of various modern Jewish dialects of Hebrew, as well as Samaritan Hebrew language, which is used primarily by the Samaritans.

As Biblical-Hebrew vocalization is derived from the Masoretic system applied to ancient texts, Biblical Hebrew is somewhat a mixture of these elements. It is the mixed language that is discussed in this article.

Most words in Biblical Hebrew are derived from a three letter root usually given in the Qal perfect 3rd masculine singular form. There are exceptions to this rule though most of these are lone words from non-semitic roots. For most English speaking readers who use the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon it is this three letter root word that must by looked up to find a definition.

Descendant languages

Phonology

The phonology as reconstructed for Biblical Hebrew is as follows (from Lambdin, with modifications):

Name	Letter	Phoneme and Allophone (IPA)
’ālep̄	א	/ʔ/
bêṯ	ב
gîmel	ג
dāleṯ	ד
hē	ה	/h/, null at the end of words.
wāw	ו	/w/, null after /o/ or /u/
zayin	ז	/z/
ḥeṯ	ח	/ħ/
ṭēṯ	ט	/tˁ/
yōḏ	י	/j/, null after /ɛ/, /e/, or /i/
kap̄	כ, ך	/k/ - [x] allophonically
lāmeḏ	ל	/l/
mēm	מ, ם	/m/
nûn	נ, ן	/n/
sāmeḵ	ס	/s/
''‛ayin	ע	/ʕ/
pēh	פ, ף	/p/ - [f] allophonically
ṣāḏēh	צ, ץ	/sˁ/
qōp̄	ק	/kˁ/ (But Like /q/)
rēš	ר	/r/ (Prob. Trilled like Arabic.)
śîn/šîn	ש
tāw	ת

Biblical Hebrew had a vowel system based on the cardinal vowels , which occurred in short, long, and extra-long forms. Some follow Lambdin's use of macrons to mark long vowels and circumflexes to mark extra-long ones. Aside from these vowels, there were also four "reduced", extra-short ones, ə, ă, ĕ, and ŏ (all but the schwa, /ə/ seem to have been allophonic).

Historical sound changes

Consonantism

As Biblical Hebrew (BH) evolved from Proto-Semitic (PS) it underwent a number of mergers,:

PS */ð/ and */z/ merged as BH /z/
PS */θ/ and */ʃ/ merged as BH /ʃ/
PS */θˁ/, */ɬˁ/, and */sˁ/ merged as BH /sˁ/
PS */ɣ/ and */ʕ/ merged as BH /ʕ/¹⁾
PS */x/ and */ħ/ merged as BH /ħ/¹⁾
PS */w/ and */j/ merged as BH /j/ in word-initial position; > Ø between vowels
PS */ʕ/ > BH Ø (with compensatory lengthening) in the syllable coda
PS *-/át/ > BH -/áː/ in the ending of the feminine; not in the status constructus).
PS */h/ > BH Ø between vowels in the pronominal suffix (with contraction, see below).

1) Greek transcriptions (see also "Various names in Hebrew and Greek") provide evidence that Biblical Hebrew maintained the proto-Semitic consonants /ɣ/, /x/ for longer than the writing system might suggest. Thus ʿǍmōrāh (עֲמוֹרָה) is transcribed as Gómorrha (Γόμορρα) in Greek, whereas ʿĒḇer (עֵבֶר) is transcribed as Éber (Ἔβερ) with no intrusive g; since comparative Semitic evidence shows that proto-Semitic */ɣ/ and */ʕ/ both became `ayin (ע) in later Hebrew, this suggests that the distinction was still maintained in Classical times. Similarly Raħēl (רָחֵל) is transcribed as Rhakhḗl (Ῥαχήλ), whereas Yisˁħāq (יִצְחָק) becomes Isaák (Ἰσαάκ).

Vocalism

PS */á:/ > BH /o:/; in word-final position > /a:/ (Canaanite shift)
PS */a:/ > BH /a:/
PS */í:/ > BH /i:/ or, before ה ח ע, /i:^a/ ();

in word-final position regularly > /ɛ:/

PS */ú:/ > BH /u:/ or, before ה ח ע, /u:^a/()
PS */ó:/ > BH /o:/
PS * > BH /u:/;

in an open syllable before a following */o:/ > BH /i:/

PS * > Ø in word-final position
PS * in open unstressed syllables > Ø ("") two or more syllables before the stressed syllable;

before or after א ה ח ע > /^a/ ("") or, if the adjacent syllable has or , /^ɛ/ ("") and ("") respectively;

in verbs also in the second syllable of the word if the following syllable is stressed;

in nouns in the second syllable of status constructus > /^ə/ (the consonant carrying the š^eəwa is marked with "" or the following consonant is fricative, indicating that it was preceded by a vowel).

PS */á/ > BH /a:/ in open syllables (sometimes /a/, /ɛ/)
PS */a/ > BH Ø;

immediately before the stress > /a:/ (””);

in closed syllables > /i/

PS * > BH or, before ה ח ע, ("");

in closed syllables in verbal forms > or, before ה ח ע, /a/;

in syllables that were closed already in Proto-Semitic > /a/ ("Philippi’s law")

PS */i/ > BH /i/ or, before or after ה ח ע, /a/;

immediately before the stress > /e:/ ("")

PS */u/ > BH Ø ("") or /^ɔ/ (””);

in closed syllables > /ɔ/ ("") or, before a geminated consonant, /u/

PS */áw/ > BH /a:w/
PS */aw/ > BH /o:/
PS */áy/ > BH /ay/ or in an open syllable, /e:/ or, in word-final position, /ɛ:/
PS */ay/ > BH /e:/
Contractions after loss of PS */h/ in the pronominal suffix:

*/-a-hu:/ > /-o:/

*/-a-ha:/ > /-a:/

*/-a-hɛm/ > /-a:m/

*/-e:-hɛm/ > /-e:m/

*/-i:-hu:/ > /-i:w/

*/-i:-hɛm/ > /-i:m/

*/-u:-hɛm/ > /-u:m/

*/-ay-hu:/ > /-a:w/

Resources

Bonnie Pedrotti Kittel, Vicki Hoffer, and Rebecca Abts Wright, Biblical Hebrew: A Text and Workbook Yale Language Series; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1989.
Kautzsch, E. (ed.) Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar. Eng. ed. A. E. Cowley. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910.
Lambdin, Thomas O. Introduction to Biblical Hebrew. London: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971.
Würthwein, Ernst. The Text of the Old Testament (trans. Erroll F. Rhodes) Grand Rapids: Wm.B.Eardmans Publishing. 1995. ISBN 0-8028-0788-7.

Notes

ISBN 1-56563-206-0 Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon by Francis Brown, S. Driver, C. Briggs

External links

History of the Hebrew Language

Grammar and Vocabulary

Basic Biblical Hebrew Grammar (introductory)
The Kittel Hebrew Words Database (Second Ed.) Learn by use of flashcards 490 important Biblical Hebrew words.
Learn to write the Hebrew characters

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