Is Hebrew a Germanic language?

**Wulfhere** · 04-12-2012, 11:14 PM

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_...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** · 04-12-2012, 11:17 PM

Hey mate,put that pipe down please!

Semitic language.

**leisitox** · 04-12-2012, 11:17 PM

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~~** · 04-12-2012, 11:18 PM

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

**Insuperable** · 04-12-2012, 11:21 PM

no, because German is a middle eaastern language

**~~Arne~~** · 04-12-2012, 11:22 PM

Originally Posted by Whitebastard

no, because German is a middle eaastern language

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

**StonyArabia** · 04-12-2012, 11:30 PM

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** · 04-12-2012, 11:34 PM

Originally Posted by CircassianWine

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.