From: Dean Snyder (dean.snyder@jhu.edu)
Date: Fri Apr 30 2004 - 11:06:35 EDT
Philippe Verdy wrote at 3:45 PM on Friday, April 30, 2004:
>Suppose that a modern Hebrew text is speaking about Phoenician words, the
>script
>distinction is not only a matter of style but carries semantic
distinctions as
>well, as they are distinct languages. It's obvious that a modern Hebrew
reader
>will not be able to decipher a Phoenician word, and even understand it if
>it is transliterated to the Hebrew script.
You are grossly exaggerating the language differences here:
Phoenician Hebrew
1st Millenium BC 2nd Millenium AD
ykbd ykbd both = "he will honor"
tbrk tbrk both = "she will bless"
bqsh bqsh both = "he searched for"
btm btm both = "houses"
...
In fact, the differences between the West Semitic languages of ancient
Canaan are often treated as dialectical differences. (And modern Israeli
Hebrew can be viewed as a dialect of ancient Hebrew.)
And don't forget that to an ancient Hebrew reader the Phoenician glyphs
for all these characters are practically identical to the ancient Hebrew
"counterparts".
>Even though there's a continuum here, having the choice between a historic
>script and the modern Hebrew script will be useful to allow writing
texts with
>mixed scripts (notably for didactic purposes, and vulgarization books).
This could easily be, and in fact is being, done right now via font
specification.
Respectfully,
Dean A. Snyder
Assistant Research Scholar
Manager, Digital Hammurabi Project
Computer Science Department
Whiting School of Engineering
218C New Engineering Building
3400 North Charles Street
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Maryland, USA 21218
office: 410 516-6850
cell: 717 817-4897
www.jhu.edu/digitalhammurabi
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