How medieval Hebrew was acquired?

[Dr. Biró Tamás Sándor]

Dear List members,

I am seeking your opinion (or pointers to literature) on medieval Hebrew from a language acquisition perspective.

Naively, I would assume that Jewish kids (boys -- sorry) started to learn the Humash at the age of 3 to 5, and so they would develop an early L2 competence in Biblical Hebrew (its classical stage). As they would be exposed to other varieties of Hebrew only much latter (liturgy, Mishna and further rabbinic literature, archaic and late BH etc.), that knowledge must be only secondary to their knowledge of Biblical Hebrew. Consequently, I would naively expect medieval Hebrew to be strongly influenced by BH. And yet, this is clearly not the case.

Naively, I would also assume that Rashi was copying the language of the text being commented when he was writing his commentaries. His commentaries on the Talmud is full of Aramaism, while his commentaries on the Bible is plain Hebrew. And yet, it is not Biblical Hebrew, but rabbinic Hebrew. It seems as if rabbinic Hebrew was simpler for him, as well as for his audience, than a language variety imitating Biblical Hebrew. Biblical Hebrew wasn't alive, but rabbinic Hebrew was, in some sense.

Do we have evidence for the late spoken Hebrew (the variety that became rabbinic / Mishnaic Hebrew, when used as a literary language) to survive into the middle ages, say, in the yeshivot? Do we know about how the students developed their active writing skills in Hebrew? Were they supposed to "hand in essays" in something like rabbinic Hebrew? Did they have discussions in Hebrew, comparable to the discussions in Latin at the medieval European universities? Was rabbinic Hebrew alive in this sense, more than Biblical Hebrew?

By the way, do we have sources about the oral language competences of (educated / less educated) people in Hebrew in the Middle Ages?

Are we aware of rabbis with dyslexia, who were unable to acquire Hebrew, so that they could compose their own work, although otherwise they were erudite and able to teach or to deliver psakim?

Thanks for your suggestions and ideas,

Tamas Biró

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