The following is a link to a scholarly article on the history of Hebrew:
http://www.adath-shalom.ca/history_of_hebrew.htm#tenses
Of note is the statement in the article:
One important impact of the Europeanization of Hebrew semantics was to move Hebrew from an "objective" language emphasizing what is being described in a narrative, and its state of completeness, to a "subjective" language more concerned with the place, and to a certain extent, time of the narrator (see Rosén).
The net result is that while the grammar and vocabulary of Israeli Hebrew are overwhelmingly Hebrew, the range of meanings and associations of the words are overwhelmingly European. This combined with the differing implications of the tenses in Biblical, Mishnaic and Israeli Hebrew makes Israelis, unless specially trained, poor choices for teaching Biblical Hebrew.
The "bottom line" would seem to be that if one wants to learn Biblical Hebrew then one needs to directly study Biblical Hebrew rather than first learning Israeli Hebrew. Of course, one reason for learning Israeli Hebrew is because there are many scholarly articles about Biblical Hebrew written in Israeli Hebrew.
S
http://www.adath-shalom.ca/history_of_hebrew.htm#tenses
Of note is the statement in the article:
One important impact of the Europeanization of Hebrew semantics was to move Hebrew from an "objective" language emphasizing what is being described in a narrative, and its state of completeness, to a "subjective" language more concerned with the place, and to a certain extent, time of the narrator (see Rosén).
The net result is that while the grammar and vocabulary of Israeli Hebrew are overwhelmingly Hebrew, the range of meanings and associations of the words are overwhelmingly European. This combined with the differing implications of the tenses in Biblical, Mishnaic and Israeli Hebrew makes Israelis, unless specially trained, poor choices for teaching Biblical Hebrew.
The "bottom line" would seem to be that if one wants to learn Biblical Hebrew then one needs to directly study Biblical Hebrew rather than first learning Israeli Hebrew. Of course, one reason for learning Israeli Hebrew is because there are many scholarly articles about Biblical Hebrew written in Israeli Hebrew.
S
