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To: editor-surveyor; Gene Eric
About 1/3 of English vocabulary is Hebrew derived words.

I ask again; care to provide any credible substantiation for that claim?

Even if any Hebrews, Jeremiah in particular, travelled to England and Ireland over 2,500 years ago (and while an interesting “theory”, it is a nothing more than a myth invented by 19th century romantics and perpetuated by those who subscribe to the “Mystic” and “Magical” Ireland – i.e. “New Agers” and a few misguided Jews and Christians desperately wanting to trace themselves to one of the “Lost Tribes”), there is no trace of their (Hebrews) having any impact on the language and culture of those islands during that time.

As for your claim that Hebrew is a root language of English, I would point out to you that “English” even the most ancient of “Old English” dialects was not spoken in England and Ireland 2,500 years ago. They spoke one of several Celtic/Gaelic languages, many now extinct; branches of languages on the Indo-European language tree, languages that like Old English, German, Scandinavian and even French and Latin have more in common with Sanskrit and Persian languages than with Hebrew which is on the Afro-asiatic tree of languages. (And Gene Eric posted a very good graphic on this). And excepting for isolated pockets of Celtic/Gaelic languages that remain even today, the Germanic English replaced the Celtic/Gaelic languages with the Anglo-Saxon invasions and later the Norman Invasions when Anglo-Norman French/English started having a direct influence on the English language. Add to that the language of the Norse who contrary to popular misconception, did not simply raid and pillage England and Ireland but settled and some would even say “civilized” western England and many parts of Ireland. And we also see in the entomology of English, the extensive use of Anglo-Norman French and Latin among the nobility and highly educated. This is why we see so many diplomatic terms with French language origins and legal, medical and scientific terms with Latin roots and everyday words with a Germanic and or Norse origins. French became the language of diplomacy and Latin the language of the Christian Church and of science and English with its Anglo-Saxon Germanic roots, the language of the everyday. A few words of Celtic origin are found in modern English but very few and not nearly as many as one would expect.

And Hebrew words that made it into everyday English usage are very few and far between, many of them mostly localized to areas with substantial Jewish populations and with much later immigrants, and those Hebrew words that did come earlier are mostly found in common “Christian” names (John, Joshua, David, Mary, Sarah, etc.), and came to English well after the Christianization of Western Europe and via the Bible as translated into Greek or Latin and not as any direct influence of contemporary Hebrew speakers 2,500 years ago.

If what you claim were true, we should expect to see a profound influence of Hebrew on the Celtic languages and on place names in England and Ireland dating back 2,500 years or on the common names of that time period – which we simply don’t.

95 posted on 12/02/2012 2:11:13 PM PST by MD Expat in PA
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To: MD Expat in PA

Wow, this really diminishes your personal pride, huh?

Get a life.


96 posted on 12/02/2012 3:18:22 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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