03-19-2004, 08:14 PM
Shlama Akhi bar-Khela,
Keep in mind, that of the three major Semitic tongues (Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic) - only Hebrew ceased to be a spoken language for nearly 2,500 years. Of course, lots of information and understanding would have been lost during all those centuries.
Finally, think about the relationship of Aramaic to Hebrew and Arabic in this way:
Imagine you had two sons who went off into different parts of the world and founded two different, but related, communities. After a few centuries of isolation from each other, each one will start to speak their own ever-so-changing form of the language that YOU conversed with your sons in. These two forms will resemble each other to some extent, but will always have a greater relationship to the "parent" tongue that you spoke than they ever would have to each other. In other words, each branch has more in common with the trunk than with the other branch.
This is exactly what happened with Aramaic, and its siblings Hebrew and Arabic.
Abraham~Ibrahim was a Chaldean - and the Chaldeans were made up of 5 Aramean tribes who settled in southern Iraq. So therefore, the "Father of Faith" to all these people was, indeed, an "Iraqi."
Since Abraham was a Chaldean~Aramean, it naturally follows that he spoke what all other Chaldean~Arameans at the time spoke. So this is the parent language of both the "Isaacites" and the "Ishmaelites."
But again, remember, that of these three languages that are all related in one way or another.....only Hebrew died out as an everyday language spoken as the primary language of people in their homes, etc.
Both Aramaic and Arabic continue to be spoken to this very day. So, of course, in order to understand Hebrew better....we should make reference to it's sibling - Arabic.....but ESPECIALLY the parent of the both of them - ARAMAIC. <!-- s:biggrin: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/biggrin.gif" alt=":biggrin:" title="Big Grin" /><!-- s:biggrin: -->
Keep in mind, that of the three major Semitic tongues (Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic) - only Hebrew ceased to be a spoken language for nearly 2,500 years. Of course, lots of information and understanding would have been lost during all those centuries.
Finally, think about the relationship of Aramaic to Hebrew and Arabic in this way:
Imagine you had two sons who went off into different parts of the world and founded two different, but related, communities. After a few centuries of isolation from each other, each one will start to speak their own ever-so-changing form of the language that YOU conversed with your sons in. These two forms will resemble each other to some extent, but will always have a greater relationship to the "parent" tongue that you spoke than they ever would have to each other. In other words, each branch has more in common with the trunk than with the other branch.
This is exactly what happened with Aramaic, and its siblings Hebrew and Arabic.
Abraham~Ibrahim was a Chaldean - and the Chaldeans were made up of 5 Aramean tribes who settled in southern Iraq. So therefore, the "Father of Faith" to all these people was, indeed, an "Iraqi."
Since Abraham was a Chaldean~Aramean, it naturally follows that he spoke what all other Chaldean~Arameans at the time spoke. So this is the parent language of both the "Isaacites" and the "Ishmaelites."
But again, remember, that of these three languages that are all related in one way or another.....only Hebrew died out as an everyday language spoken as the primary language of people in their homes, etc.
Both Aramaic and Arabic continue to be spoken to this very day. So, of course, in order to understand Hebrew better....we should make reference to it's sibling - Arabic.....but ESPECIALLY the parent of the both of them - ARAMAIC. <!-- s:biggrin: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/biggrin.gif" alt=":biggrin:" title="Big Grin" /><!-- s:biggrin: -->
+Shamasha Paul bar-Shimun de'Beth-Younan
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