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Semitic Syntax: Not Strong Evidence?
#6
Paul Younan Wrote:Shlama Akhan Steven,

But, the Hebrew of the OT is excellent, is it not? The Arabic of the Quran is excellent, is it not?

Aren't both of these collections considered to be primary sources in their respective linguistics circles?


"Excellent" is a bit of a misnomer. There are portions of the Hebrew Bible, for example, that number of scholars believe could have been translations of prior traditions along with a great number of loan words, there are distinct dialectical differences (readily differentiated by shibboleths) between northern Israelite and southern Judahite Hebrew that in places mingle in odd ways, and don't forget the portions of Daniel and Ezra that flip-flop between Hebrew and Aramaic (which is more a function of how old they are in the volume; pre-exile vs post).

The Qur'an is believed to have some Syriac influences (granted not nearly as extensive as "Luxembourg"'s hypotheses), and these are apparently more obvious in older pre-standardization copies of the Qur'an (but that is beyond my working knowledge to discuss in-depth).

The Eddas and Sagas of Norse tradition swap between dialects and are primarily prose, rather than formal speech. The bulk of Buddhist texts are made up of a large assortment of languages in various forms of formality. Within Hinduism, there is a huge divide between Vedic Sanskrit (when it was a spoken language) and Classical Sanskrit (when it became a liturgical language) with expected differences within the Hindu scriptures written in them (one being more "natural" where the other is more translational, albeit formalized).

There really are few religious volumes that are homogeneous, and very few languages that aren't "vulgar" in some way. "Uneducated" here becomes a squiffy term, as prior to the modern era, being able to *write* meant you had some learning. Koine is far from a creole, strictly speaking. The only great examples of "uneducated" inscriptions I can point to from Biblical times are some scribbles on ossuaries as well as graffiti on walls such as what was found in Pompeii. :-)
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Re: Semitic Syntax: Not Strong Evidence? - by SteveCaruso - 11-19-2013, 05:07 AM

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