In reply to message #0
Shlama Akhi Michael, Abraham, being a Chaldean (the Chaldean nation consisted of 5 Aramean tribes) and living near Babylon and Ur, would have spoken Aramaic and Akkadian. Hebrew is, in fact, an adaptation by Abraham's descendants of various already-existing Semitic languages in Canaan and the surrounding areas (Primarily, Ugaritic and Pheonician) mixed with Aramaic/Akkadian. It is this interplay between Akkadian/Aramaic and the "Language of Canaan" that produced Hebrew. Similiarly, Abrahams other descendants - the Arabs, produced a language by intermixing Aramaic, Egyptian and South Arabic (Yemeni.) Likewise, the Assyrians of today speak modern Aramaic ("Syriac"), which has mixture of many different languages in it. So, think of Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic as descendants of Akkadian and Aramaic - also, they had interplay with several languages that surrounded them for hundreds of years, before they began to look and sound somewhat different from each other. They all had a common root - first, Akkadian (the oldest Semitic language), then Aramaic (the language of the Patriarchs, whom were themselves Arameans.) Before Arabs and Hebrews existed (i.e., before Abraham), the Semitic peoples were the Assyrians (spoke Akkadian), Babylonians (spoke Akkadian), Phoenicians (spoke Phoenician), Ugarites (spoke Ugaritic) and the Arameans (spoke Aramaic & Akkadian.) All these languages, while distinct, are related and have common words, roots and alphabet. It is from this Semitic stock in Mesopotamia (primarily, the Arameans & Chaldeans) that the Hebrews and Arabs came. As for when "Hebrew" became the language of the Isrealites, it's hard to tell exactly. It was probably a very gradual process, beginning when they (the Patriarchs) left their homeland and people in Mesopotamia. Hope this makes sense.
Fk^rwbw 0ml4
Peshitta.org
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, Jul-05-2001 at 06:42 PM, (1)
