Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997 22:57:43 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199711140357.WAA02664@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: "Mark E. Shoulson" Sender: Lojban list From: "Mark E. Shoulson" Subject: Re: SWH (was Re: Linguistics journals) X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: John Cowan In-Reply-To: <199710230501.BAA25655@cs.columbia.edu> (message from Edward Cherlin on Wed, 22 Oct 1997 22:01:09 -0700) Status: OR X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 1293 X-From-Space-Date: Thu Nov 13 22:57:53 1997 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU >Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 22:01:09 -0700 >From: Edward Cherlin > >It would be interesting to compare this with the revival of spoken Hebrew >in Palestine, which reportedly derived from the determination of one family >to use Hebrew exclusively at home. Er, "in Israel" might be more appropriate, even without political considerations (the name of the country), since we are discussing features that relate to the polity known as Israel (Hebrew is its official language). Presumably this would be Ben-Yehudah. I've not studied the history terribly much myself, but he is generally considered the father of modern Hebrew. But his Hebrew, which he did speak at home and which he did force his family to speak, has some pretty drastic differences from what became normative Modern Hebrew. I've read an article here and there about talking with his daughter, some of the usages she had. It was sort of like finding someone who spoke really stilted Shakespearean English (and not as well as Shakespeare) as a vernacular. "Please" was "ana" instead of "b'vaqashah": sounded something like "prithee" or "I most humbly beg"; "Thank you" was "chen chen" instead of "todah", etc. If Modern Hebrew is descended from Ben-Yehudah's home language, it isn't directly. ~mark