The Canaanite languages continued to be everyday spoken languages until at least the 2nd century AD. Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language today. It remained in continuous use by many Jews well into the Middle Ages and up to the present day as both a liturgical and literary language and was used for commerce between disparate diasporic Jewish communities. It has also remained a liturgical language among Samaritans. Hebrew was revived by Jewish political and cultural activists, particularly through the revitalization and cultivation efforts of Zionists throughout Europe and in Palestine, as an everyday spoken language in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the mid-20th century, Modern Hebrew had become the primary language of the Jews of Palestine and was later made the official language of the State of Israel.
The primary modern reference book for the many extra-biblical Canaanite inscriptions, together with Aramaic inscriptions, is the German-language book Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften, from which inscriptions are often referenced as KAI n (for a number n).[3]
Modern Hebrew, revived in the modern era from an extinct dialect of the ancient Israelites preserved in literature, poetry, liturgy; also known as Classical Hebrew, the oldest form of the language attested in writing. The original pronunciation of Biblical Hebrew is accessible only through reconstruction. It may also include Ancient Samaritan Hebrew, a dialect formerly spoken by the ancient Samaritans. The main sources of Classical Hebrew are the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and inscriptions such as the Gezer calendar and Khirbet Qeiyafa pottery shard. All of the other Canaanite languages seem to have become extinct by the early 1st millennium AD – except Punic, which survived into late antiquity, or possibly even longer.
Slightly varying forms of Hebrew preserved from the first millennium BC until modern times include:
Medieval Hebrew – Jews, liturgical, poetical, rabbinical, scientific, literary; lingua franca based on Bible, Mishna and neologisms forms created by translators and commentators
Haskala Hebrew – Jews, scientific, literary and journalistic language based on Biblical but enriched with neologisms created by writers and journalists, a transition to the later
The Phoenician and Carthaginian expansion spread the Phoenician language and its Punic dialect to the Western Mediterranean for a time, but there too it died out, although it seems to have survived longer than in Phoenicia itself.
^Waltke & O'Connor (1990:8): "The extrabiblical linguistic material from the Iron Age is primarily epigraphic, that is, texts written on hard materials (pottery, stones, walls, etc.). The epigraphic texts from Israelite territory are written in Hebrew in a form of the language which may be called Inscriptional Hebrew; this 'dialect' is not strikingly different from the Hebrew preserved in the Masoretic text. Unfortunately, it is meagerly attested. Similarly limited are the epigraphic materials in the other South Canaanite dialects, Moabite and Ammonite; Edomite is so poorly attested that we are not sure that it is a South Canaanite dialect, though that seems likely. Of greater interest and bulk is the body of Central Canaanite inscriptions, those written in the Phoenician language of Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos, and in the offshoot Punic and Neo-Punic tongues of the Phoenician colonies in North Africa. "An especially problematic body of material is the Deir Alla wall inscriptions referring to a prophet Balaam (c. 700 BC), these texts have both Canaanite and Aramaic features. W. R. Garr has recently proposed that all the Iron Age Canaanite dialects be regarded as forming a chain that actually includes the oldest forms of Aramaic as well."
Bibliography
The Semitic Languages. Routledge Language Family Descriptions. Edited by Robert Hetzron. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Garnier, Romain; Jacques, Guillaume (2012). "A neglected phonetic law: The assimilation of pretonic yod to a following coronal in North-West Semitic". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 75 (1): 135–145. CiteSeerX10.1.1.395.1033. doi:10.1017/s0041977x11001261. S2CID 16649580.
Rendsburg, Gary (1997). "Ancient Hebrew Phonology". Phonologies of Asia and Africa: Including the Caucasus. Eisenbrauns. ISBN978-1-57506-019-4.
Waltke, Bruce K.; O'Connor, M. (1990). An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. ISBN978-0-931464-31-7.
External links
Some West Semitic Inscriptions
How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs Biblical Archaeology Review
May 13, 2023
canaanite, languages, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, octob. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Canaanite languages news newspapers books scholar JSTOR October 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message Not to be confused with Knaanic language The Canaanite languages or Canaanite dialects 1 are one of three subgroups of the Northwest Semitic languages the others being Aramaic and Amorite all originating in the Levant and Mesopotamia They are attested in Canaanite inscriptions throughout the Levant Mesopotamia Anatolia and the East Mediterranean and after the founding of Carthage by Phoenician colonists in coastal regions of North Africa and Iberian Peninsula also Dialects have been labelled primarily with reference to Biblical geography Hebrew Israelian Judean Biblical Samaritan Phoenician Punic Amorite Ammonite Moabite Sutean and Edomite the dialects were all mutually intelligible being no more differentiated than geographical varieties of Modern English 2 This family of languages has the distinction of being the first historically attested group of languages to use an alphabet derived from the Proto Canaanite alphabet to record their writings as opposed to the far earlier Cuneiform logographic syllabic writing of the region which originated in Mesopotamia CanaaniteGeographicdistributionLevant CarthageLinguistic classificationAfro AsiaticSemiticWest SemiticCentral SemiticNorthwest SemiticCanaaniteSubdivisionsAmmonite Moabite Edomite Phoenician Punic Hebrew revived Glottologcana1267These extremely closely related tongues were spoken by the ancient Semitic speaking peoples of Canaan and Levant an area encompassing what is today Israel Jordan the Sinai Peninsula Lebanon Syria Palestine and also some areas of southwestern Turkey Anatolia western and southern Iraq Mesopotamia and the northwestern corner of Saudi Arabia The Canaanites are broadly defined to include the Hebrews including Israelites Judeans and Samaritans Amalekites Ammonites Amorites Edomites Ekronites Hyksos Phoenicians including the Carthaginians Moabites and Suteans Although the Amorites are included among the Canaanite peoples their language is sometimes not considered to be a Canaanite language but very closely related The Canaanite languages continued to be everyday spoken languages until at least the 2nd century AD Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language today It remained in continuous use by many Jews well into the Middle Ages and up to the present day as both a liturgical and literary language and was used for commerce between disparate diasporic Jewish communities It has also remained a liturgical language among Samaritans Hebrew was revived by Jewish political and cultural activists particularly through the revitalization and cultivation efforts of Zionists throughout Europe and in Palestine as an everyday spoken language in the late 19th and early 20th centuries By the mid 20th century Modern Hebrew had become the primary language of the Jews of Palestine and was later made the official language of the State of Israel The primary modern reference book for the many extra biblical Canaanite inscriptions together with Aramaic inscriptions is the German language book Kanaanaische und Aramaische Inschriften from which inscriptions are often referenced as KAI n for a number n 3 Contents 1 Classification and sources 1 1 North Canaan 1 2 South Canaan 1 3 Other 2 Comparison to Aramaic 3 Descendants 4 See also 5 References 6 Bibliography 7 External linksClassification and sources EditThis section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed August 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message The Canaanite languages or dialects can be split into the following 1 4 North Canaan Edit Phoenician including Punic Carthaginian The main sources are the Ahiram sarcophagus inscription the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar the Tabnit sarcophagus the Kilamuwa inscription the Cippi of Melqart and the other Byblian royal inscriptions For later Punic in Plautus play Poenulus at the beginning of the fifth act South Canaan Edit Ammonite an extinct Hebraic dialect of the Ammonite people mentioned in the Bible Edomite an extinct Hebraic dialect of the Edomite people mentioned in the Bible and Egyptian texts Hebrew The only Canaanite language that is a living language and the most successful example of a revived dead language Moabite an extinct Hebraic dialect of the Moabite people mentioned in the Bible The main sources are the Mesha Stele and El Kerak Stela Other Edit Other possible Canaanite languages Philistine language attested by several dozen inscriptions in Phoenician script scattered along Israel s southwest coast in particular the Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription Ugaritic although the inclusion of this language within Canaanite is disputed by whom The Deir Alla Inscription written in a dialect with Aramaic and South Canaanite characteristics which is classified as Canaanite in Hetzron Sutean language a Semitic language possibly of the Canaanite branch Amalekite possibly a Hebraic dialect of southern Canaan Comparison to Aramaic EditThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed January 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Some distinctive typological features of Canaanite in relation to the still spoken Aramaic are The prefix h used as the definite article Aramaic has a postfixed a That seems to be an innovation of Canaanite The first person pronoun being ʼnk אנכ anok i which is similar to Akkadian Ancient Egyptian and Berber versus Aramaic ʾnʾ ʾny The a gt ō vowel shift Canaanite shift Descendants EditThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed August 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message Modern Hebrew revived in the modern era from an extinct dialect of the ancient Israelites preserved in literature poetry liturgy also known as Classical Hebrew the oldest form of the language attested in writing The original pronunciation of Biblical Hebrew is accessible only through reconstruction It may also include Ancient Samaritan Hebrew a dialect formerly spoken by the ancient Samaritans The main sources of Classical Hebrew are the Hebrew Bible Tanakh and inscriptions such as the Gezer calendar and Khirbet Qeiyafa pottery shard All of the other Canaanite languages seem to have become extinct by the early 1st millennium AD except Punic which survived into late antiquity or possibly even longer Slightly varying forms of Hebrew preserved from the first millennium BC until modern times include Tiberian Hebrew Masoretic scholars living in the Jewish community of Tiberias in Palestine c 750 950 AD Mizrahi Hebrew Mizrahi Jews liturgical Yemenite Hebrew Yemenite Jews liturgical Sephardi Hebrew Sephardi Jews liturgical Ashkenazi Hebrew Ashkenazi Jews liturgical Mishnaic Hebrew Rabbinical Hebrew Jews liturgical rabbinical any of the Hebrew dialects found in the Talmud Medieval Hebrew Jews liturgical poetical rabbinical scientific literary lingua franca based on Bible Mishna and neologisms forms created by translators and commentators Haskala Hebrew Jews scientific literary and journalistic language based on Biblical but enriched with neologisms created by writers and journalists a transition to the later Modern Hebrew used in Israel today Samaritan Hebrew Samaritans liturgicalThe Phoenician and Carthaginian expansion spread the Phoenician language and its Punic dialect to the Western Mediterranean for a time but there too it died out although it seems to have survived longer than in Phoenicia itself See also EditAncient Hebrew writings Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions Classification of Semitic languages Northwest Semitic languages Proto Canaanite alphabet ShibbolethReferences Edit a b Rendsburg 1997 p 65 Rendsburg 1997 p 66 For example the Mesha Stele is KAI 181 Waltke amp O Connor 1990 8 The extrabiblical linguistic material from the Iron Age is primarily epigraphic that is texts written on hard materials pottery stones walls etc The epigraphic texts from Israelite territory are written in Hebrew in a form of the language which may be called Inscriptional Hebrew this dialect is not strikingly different from the Hebrew preserved in the Masoretic text Unfortunately it is meagerly attested Similarly limited are the epigraphic materials in the other South Canaanite dialects Moabite and Ammonite Edomite is so poorly attested that we are not sure that it is a South Canaanite dialect though that seems likely Of greater interest and bulk is the body of Central Canaanite inscriptions those written in the Phoenician language of Tyre Sidon and Byblos and in the offshoot Punic and Neo Punic tongues of the Phoenician colonies in North Africa An especially problematic body of material is the Deir Alla wall inscriptions referring to a prophet Balaam c 700 BC these texts have both Canaanite and Aramaic features W R Garr has recently proposed that all the Iron Age Canaanite dialects be regarded as forming a chain that actually includes the oldest forms of Aramaic as well Bibliography EditThe Semitic Languages Routledge Language Family Descriptions Edited by Robert Hetzron New York Routledge 1997 Garnier Romain Jacques Guillaume 2012 A neglected phonetic law The assimilation of pretonic yod to a following coronal in North West Semitic Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 75 1 135 145 CiteSeerX 10 1 1 395 1033 doi 10 1017 s0041977x11001261 S2CID 16649580 Rendsburg Gary 1997 Ancient Hebrew Phonology Phonologies of Asia and Africa Including the Caucasus Eisenbrauns ISBN 978 1 57506 019 4 Waltke Bruce K O Connor M 1990 An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax Winona Lake Indiana Eisenbrauns ISBN 978 0 931464 31 7 External links EditSome West Semitic Inscriptions How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs Biblical Archaeology Review Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Canaanite languages amp oldid 1154484130, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
