From: Dean Snyder (dean.snyder@jhu.edu)
Date: Tue May 25 2004 - 07:46:56 CDT
James Kass wrote at 5:12 PM on Monday, May 24, 2004:
>Peter Kirk writes,
>> Well, if you asked the ancient Phoenicians this question, of course they
>> would have said "yes" because the script used in their time for Hebrew
>> was very similar to their own script.
>Of course, they'd have said "no" because modern Hebrew didn't exist
>in their time. So, they'd not even know what modern Hebrew was. The
>script used in their time for Hebrew wasn't "very similar to their own
>script"; it *was* their own script.
Modern Hebrew without the adjunct notational systems is Jewish Hebrew and
DID exist while the Phoenicians were still around in the first few
centuries BC. In fact Jews used both diascripts, Palaeo-Hebrew and Jewish
Hebrew, contemporaneously.
>"Palaeo-Hebrew" is a modern term and a modern concept.
Obviously "Palaeo-Hebrew" is a modern term; the concept is however a very
old one - just look at the Dead Sea scrolls, turn-of-the-era Jewish
coins, etc., where it is employed in an archaizing way.
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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