Prolegomena for the Sociolinguistics of Classical Hebrew

Abstract

The study of Classical Hebrew has largely proceeded from the assumptions of 19th century neogrammarians as well as formalist approaches. Their linguistic assumptions are based on the study of contemporary spoken languages that and particularly ill-suited to deal with all the facets of an ancient written language like Classical Hebrew. Language, and particularly written language, is part of a cultural system. As such, the approaches in sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics need to integrated into the study of Classical Hebrew.