Is Hebrew a Germanic language?

[Wulfhere]

Strange as it may appear, there are those, such as Prof. Ghil'ad Zuckermann, who claim that it could be.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Hebrew#Classification

Hebrew had been a dead language for at least two millennia, used only in liturgy, when it was revived in the 19th century, and those who revived it were native Yiddish speakers - Yiddish being a dialect of German, with a lot of Hebrew loan words in it. There is no doubt that Yiddish influenced the revived language very greatly, but some have gone further and argued that Modern Hebrew is basically Yiddish in grammatical structure, merely with a Hebrew vocabulary. It has also been heavily influenced by Russian, Arabic and English.

[Europa]

Hey mate,put that pipe down please!

Semitic language.

[leisitox]

Hebrew is middle eastern, yiddish revived hebrew in some extent and mix it with german. Could be influenced by other languages too...
BUT isnt a germanic language because it root is Afro-Asiatic-Semitic and you cant change that.

[Arne]

It is as much a Germanic Langauge as i´m a Russian Speaker.

[Insuperable]

no, because German is a middle eaastern language:laugh:

[Arne]

no, because German is a middle eaastern language:laugh:

It´s clearly "Southern" German Influenced..
Everyone knows that. :rolleyes:

[StonyArabia]

Hebrew is very far from Germanic tongues, and in fact very close to Arabic. Hebrew evolved from the Cannanite tongues that were spoken in the Levant that are tied to modern day Arabic, which is really Northern Arabic. As for Hebrew being German it's a laugh riot.

[Wulfhere]

Hebrew is very far from Germanic tongues, and in fact very close to Arabic. Hebrew evolved from the Cannanite tongues that were spoken in the Levant that are tied to modern day Arabic, which is really Northern Arabic. As for Hebrew being German it's a laugh riot.

Did you actually read my opening post? Modern Hebrew is not descended from Ancient Hebrew.

[Peter Nirsch]

close this trolling thread please. It's offensive.

[Cynical]

No, Hebrew isn't a Germanic language.

[Óttar]

Ghilad Zuckermann isn't saying Hebrew is a Germanic language. Rather, he is saying that modern Hebrew, what he calls "Israeli" is a Semitic-Indo-European hybrid language.

Here are links to an argument between Ghilad Zuckermann and Hillel Halkin who takes issue with Zuckermann's calling modern Hebrew "Israeli" :

http://forward.com/articles/4052/hebrew-vs-israeli/

Here is Zuckermann's response:

http://yiddish.haifa.ac.il/tmr/tmr09/tmr09013.htm

Here is a YouTube video featuring Zuckermann and this issue:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC6sHNrs0F4

[Skjaldemjøden]

LOL

This has to be the twentieth time you've left a pointless comment on a thread that's been dead for years. If you have nothing better to do at least revive an interesting conversation instead of shitposting on a shitpost.

[lonewolfcypriot]

I am pretty sure it is semetic