Naming the flowers
Robert Alter, 24 February 1994
A History of the Hebrew Language
by Angel Sáenz-Badillos, translated by John Elwolde.
Cambridge, 371 pp., £24.95, December 1993,0 521 43157 3 Show More
by Angel Sáenz-Badillos, translated by John Elwolde.
Cambridge, 371 pp., £24.95, December 1993,
Language in Time of Revolution
by Benjamin Harshav.
California, 234 pp., £19.95, September 1993,0 520 07958 2 Show More
by Benjamin Harshav.
California, 234 pp., £19.95, September 1993,
“... they are habitually called in Israeli Hebrew), the earlier strata of the language may have become in some ways antiquated but were never made obsolete. A literate speaker of modern Hebrew is probably no farther removed from the language of the Bible than a speaker of modern English is from the language of Shakespeare: the basic vocabulary is ... ”