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Ok, but that's not shocking or amusing because that's the already-known archaeological situation of the pre-Roman Levant understood by anybody who was paying at
by cmrdporcupine 3y ago
Ok, but that's not shocking or amusing because that's the already-known archaeological situation of the pre-Roman Levant understood by anybody who was paying attention and didn't have an ethno-supremacist or religious axe to grind?
There were probably dozens of different West Semitic speaking cultures/groupings, with plenty of cultural mixing. Hebrew (and Aramaic) speakers were only one of many in the region, all with competing claims over grazing and growing lands, etc. The Bible basically alludes to this all over.
What you have there is the stories of various fragments of it that distilled into more or less powerful tribal federations and, eventually, kingdoms. Told from their vantage, because the others did not commit theirs to writing.
And by the 3rd or 4th century AD, all West Semitic languages had basically gone functionally (but not liturgically) extinct, but the cultural and religious traditions of one of them tenaciously held on through the diaspora.
- jqpabc123 3y agoYes but semi-plausible debate still exists. Genetic evidence could eliminate this.
- codesnik 3y ago"by the 3rd or 4th century AD" - that early?!
- cmrdporcupine 3y agoHebrew itself was "extinct" as a spoken language by about 200ce. Until the 20th century when it was revived. It was replaced by Aramaic and Greek. Aramaic lived for a longer period, but then slowly died out. As a liturgical language western Aramaic / Syriac lived on, and eastern variants for longer but as a widespread, spoken lived language in the Levant I believe Greek replaced it, and then Arabic. I understand that "Jewish Palestinian Aramaic" lingered on for some time in some smaller communities.
- qwytw 3y ago> I believe Greek replaced it I think that was only the case in urban areas and/or amongst the more educated upper and middle classes. Syriac and other Aramaic languages were still widespread amongst local Christian population well into the Islamic perod.