In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language

Hebrew As A Language Is Just Over 3,000 Years Old, And The Story Of Its Alphabet Is Unique Among The Languages Of The World. Hebrew Set The Stage For Almost Every Modern Alphabet, And Was Arguably The First Written Language Simple Enough For Everyone, Not Just Scribes, To Learn, Making It Possible To Make A Written Record Available To The Masses For The First Time. Written Language Has Existed For So Many Years-since Around 3500 Bce-that Most Of Us Take It For Granted. But As Hoffman Reveals In This Entertaining And Informative Work, Even The Idea That Speech Can Be Divided Into Units Called Contents; List Of Tables; List Of Figures; Acknowledgments; Part I Getting Started; 1 Introduction; 2 Rules Of The Game; Part Ii Antiquity; 3 Writing; 4 Magic Letters And The Name Of God; 5 The Masoretes; 6 Pronunciation; Part Iii Moving On; 7 The Dead Sea Scrolls; 8 Dialects In The Bible; 9 Post-biblical Hebrew; Part Iv Now; 10 Modern Hebrew; 11 Keep Your Voice From Weeping; Part V Appendices; Appendix A More About The Rules Of The Game; Appendix B Further Reading; Bibliography; Index; About The Author Joel M. Hoffman. Description Based Upon Print Version Of Record. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 245-249) And Index. English