Re: First Appearance of Definite Article in Hebrew and Canaa
Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 12:35 pm
Isaac Fried:
Thanks so much for that. That’s a great example from modern Hebrew poetry.
I agree with you that from the very beginning, Hebrew had the definite article. It’s nice to know that finally, beginning in 2009, there’s a mainstream Biblical linguist out there who agrees with that. Although I’m not good at linguist-speak, here’s my attempted paraphrase:
The definite article is very old. It already existed at least as far back as proto Canaanite, i.e. it developed before Hebrew split from its sister languages.
Isaac Fried, I’m not sure if you believe in the existence of “proto Canaanite”, or if you believe that “Hebrew split from its sister languages”. But nevertheless, I think you can readily appreciate that the foregoing is a scholarly way of agreeing with your basic concept that as soon as there was Hebrew, there was the definite article.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
Thanks so much for that. That’s a great example from modern Hebrew poetry.
I agree with you that from the very beginning, Hebrew had the definite article. It’s nice to know that finally, beginning in 2009, there’s a mainstream Biblical linguist out there who agrees with that. Although I’m not good at linguist-speak, here’s my attempted paraphrase:
The definite article is very old. It already existed at least as far back as proto Canaanite, i.e. it developed before Hebrew split from its sister languages.
Isaac Fried, I’m not sure if you believe in the existence of “proto Canaanite”, or if you believe that “Hebrew split from its sister languages”. But nevertheless, I think you can readily appreciate that the foregoing is a scholarly way of agreeing with your basic concept that as soon as there was Hebrew, there was the definite article.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois