A History of the Hebrew Language

by Angel Sáenz-Badillos, Shelomo Morag (Foreword), John Elwolde (Translator)

A History of the Hebrew Language is a comprehensive description of Hebrew from its Semitic origins and the earliest settlement of the Israelite tribes in Canaan to the present day. Professor Sáenz-Badillos sets Hebrew in the context of the Northwest Semitic languages and examines the origins of Hebrew and its earliest manifestations in ancient Biblical poetry, inscriptions, and prose written before the Babylonian exile. He looks at the different medieval traditions of pointing classical Biblical Hebrew texts and the characteristic features of the post-exilic language, including the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He gives particular attention to Rabbinic and medieval Hebrew, especially as evidenced in writings from Spain. His survey concludes with the revival of the language in this century in the form of Israeli Hebrew.

Genres: Language, History, Linguistics, Nonfiction, Jewish, Religion, Judaism

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[IVellon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked all chapters except for the one about Medieval Hebrew which I found to detailed for an introduction (also in comparison with the other chapters).
The author provides all examples both in Hebrew as well as in transliteration and translation.

[Eric Chevlen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Hebrew Bible is the ur-source of all subsequent iterations of the Hebrew language. But not all words which were in circulation at the time of the writing of the Torah are recorded in it. That worthy collection of books has no word for "fever," "anachronism," or "diarrhea." Therefore, when Hebrew ceased to be the everyday spoken language of Jews, around the 2nd century CE, but remained an important language of writing, new words had to be created to enhance the language as received. Along with new words, new grammatical forms had to be created. Rabbinic Hebrew borrowed both vocabulary and syntactical elements from Aramaic and Arabic (and rarely Indo-European languages) to forge the language the sages needed. Even more remarkable is the restoration of Hebrew to an everyday spoken language in Israel, a language capable of expressing the full range of thoughts of the country's inhabitants. (Yes, of course modern Hebrew has borrowed and modified many foreign terms, but a thoughtful examination of this paragraph will show that to be true also of modern English.)

A History of the Hebrew Language tells the story of this steady evolution. The book's style is quite academic, making it a poor choice for readers who are not scholars of the subject or serious amateurs. At times, the book seems to be more of a historiography than a history, with innumerable references to academic studies in several languages.

In reviewing how generations of scholars treasured and gingerly modified the Hebrew language, I am grateful to them for having kept the language alive, sustained it, and brought us to this happy season.

[Dougald · Rating 4 out of 5]

The four stars represent my interest in the subject of the Hebrew Language. This work surveys all the different "stages" of the Hebrew language and highlights some of the key works, authors, and features of each stage. Morphological and Lexical differences, as well as, influences from other languages are also considered.

I am not an expert in every stage of the Hebrew language. I found it fascinating to learn, for example, of the different debates that raged during the Medieval period as to whether Medieval Hebrew should resemble Rabbinic Hebrew or Biblical.

Overall, a fascinating work. It will be something I can return to and glean for information when I begin to deepen my study on this subject.

[Joe Q. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an overview of the literature around the history of the Hebrew language to about 1990. It is an academic text, makes heavy use of concepts in linguistics, and provides very few examples, especially in the first part of the book -- and the examples it does provide are individual words or perhaps two- or three-word phrases. The author assumes familiarity with linguistic jargon and a basic understanding of Arabic and Aramaic. I had a hard time following the text -- and I have a decent understanding of biblical Hebrew, and have spent a good amount of time with Rabbinic and Medieval texts as well. Definitely not for beginners or even hobbyists.

[Felicity Chen · Rating 4 out of 5]

You’ll definitely want a familiarity with linguistic terms either before starting this book, or else have google close at hand to define them! 😅 I definitely learned a lot of linguistics along the way haha. Great info, concise for what it is. Lots of examples! Very technical.

[Timothy Decker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A standard work, amazing info, well researched (understatement). I would prefer 4.5 stars just b/c it was a bit boring and tedious. But thankfully, the mountain of information was kept to 290 pages.

[Tamás Tóth · Rating 5 out of 5]

From causes transearned between proto-IE and proto-Semitic to the end of 20th century...

[Alfonso Sanchéz]

BUSCANDO LIBRO

[Matthew Rawlings · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful but as exciting as the title sounds!

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Angel Sáenz-Badillos, a professor of Hebrew at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, originally wrote this history of the Hebrew language in Spanish in 1988. It was translated into English by John Elwode in 1993, and though it has been reprinted and made available as an ebook, it has not changed since the paperback reprinting of 1996. Sáenz-Badillos and then his publisher had probably been sitting on the manuscript for some time, as there are very few citations from before 1980. So, the first thing you need to know about this grammar is that it is rather out of date for readers well into this millennium.

All Hebrew words and phrases are cited in the Hebrew alphabet and accompanied by transliteration. But to really get anything out of this book you'll need at least some knowledge of Biblical Hebrew plus its tradition, that is, the Hebrew-language terms for grammatical categories and concepts. Even with this understanding, you're likely to find Sáenz-Badillos’s presentation frustrating. He simply throws out one piece of individual trivia after another concerning sound or morphological changes out without giving us a clear, organized picture of overall stages. Sáenz-Badillos also assumes that readers are already familiar with disputes among specialists. This is not a friendly introduction to the field like, say, Penny’s history of Spanish that Cambridge University Press published at the same time. Maybe one could profitably use this for an expanded understanding of the field after working through a real introductory history, but going here first will only be an exercise in frustration.

Finally, it is worth nothing that Sáenz-Badillos admits early on that he's not so interested in Modern Hebrew, as he feels continuity was broken in the time between Medieval Hebrew and the restoration of the language in the budding state of Israel. He does, however, dedicate 12 pages to the polemics surrounding this restoration, far less than prior stages of the language. So, if Modern Israeli Hebrew interests you, you'd be better served with another publication.

[Robert Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The chapters are
Hebrew in its Semitic context
Hebrew, a NW Semitic language
Pre-exilic Hebrew
Biblical Hebrew
Second Temple Hebrew
Rabbinic Hebrew
Mediaeval Hebrew
Modern Hebrew

The first five chapters should be a must for Biblical scholar, including second year Hebrew students. A short summary might be: The Hebrew we read in our MT is as if a German-American edited an edition of Beowolf! The Niqqud and Accents are definitely un-Inspired, right though they may often be. Even our consonantal text is usually not enough to tell us what King David sounded like to himself.

Obviously, from that last sentence, this book is not written from any faith-perspective, but it is a needed volume none the less. I want a copy for myself, it makes me realize I need a similar volume for Greek!

[Alec · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is quite difficult to read this book. For a specialist, it is not very deep, but contains a large bibliography, and the text may be taken as an expansion of the bibliography, and seems useful in this light. For a layman, it is a demanding and confusing reading, and lacks examples even on crucial points. I do not think this is the only way to write on the topic.

[Kitty Red-Eye · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the advanced linguist only. If one is really into linguistics and Hebrew, I'm sure this is a gem. For the less advanced, almost unreadable. If not into those two at all, don't even think about it.

[Joseph Tepperman]

so very academic! beyond comprehensive. how they know what samaritan vs. yemenite SOUNDED like is beyond me.