[Avodah] Language Acquisition

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Apr 25, 2021 at 09:50:30PM -0500, Jay F. Shachter via Avodah wrote:
>> But what I was wondering was, why did you assume that Kenaani
>> language was more comprehensible to Yitzchaq than the Aramaic of his
>> own clan?  There was less cross-pollenation with the language of the
>> Ivri that early on, but more, Yitzchaq likely was intentionally
>> taught the language of Avraham's past.

...
> Now, we know that the descendants of Avraham eventually switched from
> speaking Aramaic to speaking the Hebrew of the Cannanites...

Chazal assume that we spoke Aramaic all through the period. It is unclear
to me whether they are saying it was as a first language, leaving Hebrew
for ritual use only, or whether our primary language was Hebrew, and we
spoke Aramaic as a regional lingua franca.

But they also assume that Avraham's clan and hangers on didn't integrate,
which is why Yishma'el's and Esav's marriage choices, or for that matter
Yehudah's, was considered so negatively.

More, they assume the Canaanite language was more Hamitic than Semitic.
That the language we know as Canaanite now is more the product of the
influence of Aramaic and Hebrew on a group of Benei Cham than the language
they started out with.

> But even if the midrashim are not literally true...

Well, conflicting midrashim cannot both be historical.

Actually, sometimes... there are two valid but conflicting ways to
describe a human situation or community. But you know what I mean.

He made souls in Charan. That's pasuq. You can take it midrashically,
that he taught monotheism and attracted hangers on. Even if only Eliezer
followed him to war. Or literally, he had unnamed children, perhaps with
unnamed wives and shevachos.

> had enough of an Aramaic-speaking household with him that he could
> have raised his son to be fluent in the Aramaic of his land, his
> birthplace, and his father's house -- if Yitzxaq wasn't the generation
> that switched over from Aramaic to Hebrew, then who was? ...

Maybe no one, as above. Maybe it took many generations. Maybe Hebrew
evolved from Aramaic more in Mitzrayim than anywhere else, with only
finishing touches in the conquest era.

(This is the same flaw as in the so-called Kuzari Proof. How often to
things switch in a single generation rather than evolve over many?)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 "The most prevalent illness of our generation is
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   excessive anxiety....  Emunah decreases anxiety:
Author: Widen Your Tent      'The Almighty is my source of salvation;  I will
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF    trust and not be afraid.'" (Isa 12) -Shalhevesya