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Hebrew a Dead Language? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Juan M. Senior Member Colombia Joined 5898 days ago 460 posts - 597 votes  | Message 33 of 43 13 November 2008 at 7:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Great thread!
I'd be curious to know what kind of works are written in Hebrew today. I know Israel is a scientific powerhouse, and that its people are very highly educated. Is there a situation though--comparable perhaps with India--where scientific and scholarly works are frequently produced in English, or do they also employ Hebrew as a standard for fresh academic and literary creation? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| gogglehead Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 6074 days ago 248 posts - 320 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Russian, Italian | Message 34 of 43 15 November 2008 at 8:36am | IP Logged | |||||
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Yeah Thanks J, might just do that!
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| roller1 Bilingual Diglot Newbie Australia Joined 5834 days ago 3 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English*, Modern Hebrew* Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 35 of 43 03 December 2008 at 9:02am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hebrew is definitely not a dead language - I can guarantee that much as a native speaker.
Regarding the changes it has undergone since Biblical times, there is no doubt that the language has been radically transformed. When it was originally revived, Eliezer Ben Yehuda intended for the language to be based on the Sephardic pronunciation, retaining distinct sounds between letters such as Het and Khaf, Qof and Kaf, Ayin and Aleph, and so on. However, with the massive influx of European refugees early in the birth of the state, the language was largely Ashkenazified and Europeanized in its pronunciation and it lots many of these distinctly Semitic characteristics. Naturally, each wave of immigration also brought (and continues to bring) changes to the language, with words constantly being absorbed into Hebrew. Indeed this should not be surprising, given that the language was dead for 2,000 years it suffered from a severe word shortage. Thus, not only were foreign words absorbed, but tens of thousands of Modern Hebrew words were coined by deriving them from Biblical words using the "three letter roots" as the basis. In other words, there's little doubt that Modern Hebrew is very very different from Biblical Hebrew in terms of syntax, vocabulary, pronunciation, and so on. Having said that, to say it is a completely different language - or even a Slavic non-Semitic language - is ridiculous. A Modern Hebrew speaker with a decent level of education can still open up a Bible in the original Hebrew and read freely. It may be uncomfortable or difficult to understand in some instances(in the same way that reading Shakespeare is uncomfortable or difficult to many average English speakers today), but there's no doubt we're dealing with a very closely related language. For example consider the opening of the book of Genesis: In the beginning God created the Heaveans and the Earth. The earth was without form and empty, with darkness on the face of the depths, and God's spirit moved on the water's surface." The original Hebrew is: "Bereshit Bara Elohim et Ha'Shamayim ve'et Ha'Aretz, veha'Aretz hayta tohu va'vohu, vehoshech alpnei hatehom, ve'ruach elohim merachefet al pnei hamayim." Literally any Hebrew speaker would be able to read this sentence without any problem, and understand it fully. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| roller1 Bilingual Diglot Newbie Australia Joined 5834 days ago 3 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English*, Modern Hebrew* Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 36 of 43 03 December 2008 at 9:06am | IP Logged | |||||
*I'd like to apologize for the double post* I am not sure about scientific works specifically, since I'm not much of a scientist myself, but Hebrew is definitely employed as a language to write academic books and articles in the humanities, philosophy, economics, history, and so on. However, you would have a very difficult time getting through University (at least in most cases) without at least a decent level of English, since naturally the amount of research available in Hebrew is minute when compared to English. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Juan M. Senior Member Colombia Joined 5898 days ago 460 posts - 597 votes | Message 37 of 43 03 December 2008 at 11:54am | IP Logged | |||||
English has indeed become a necessity pretty much anywhere academics are pursued. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| J-Learner Senior Member Australia Joined 6029 days ago 556 posts - 636 votes Studies: Yiddish, English* Studies: Dutch | Message 38 of 43 03 December 2008 at 10:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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One of my reasons (among many) for learning languages is have access to academic works and books in those languages. I think every language that has anything written in it can only serve to help understand this world we live in. Hebrew is no exception.
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| Juan M. Senior Member Colombia Joined 5898 days ago 460 posts - 597 votes | Message 39 of 43 04 December 2008 at 9:09am | IP Logged | |||||
I'd love to eventually read this kind of material. What are some good online bookstores where one might browse what's available in these fields?
This is the reason why I learn languages too. It is amazing that after thousands of years Hebrew is again contributing fresh and vital pages to our understanding. I definitely plan to pursue this language. What an exceptional people and culture. Edited by JuanM on 04 December 2008 at 9:21am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Timbo Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5375 days ago 3 posts - 4 votes Studies: Modern Hebrew Studies: Arabic (Levantine) | Message 40 of 43 12 March 2010 at 6:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
And in regard to scientific works etc, Israel has and continues to make many significant discoveries: infact you will find that a huge amount of our modern technology has been made possible by Israeli researchers(like the computer you're on right now). Israeli scientists have also made huge progress in medecine, for example, a couple of days ago (10 March 2010) Israeli scientists found MS signs that appear years before symptoms. Edited by Timbo on 12 March 2010 at 6:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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