Question... was there not enough time for Hebrew to have developed?

"Harran is referred to in texts from the Ur III period c. 2000 bc as a temple (é.h̬ul.h̬ul) for the worship of Sin the moon-god, and its occupation is confirmed by archaeological evidence. Its strategic position made it a focus for Amorite tribes according to Mari texts of the 2nd millennium bc, and later an Assyrian centre fortified by Adadnirari I (c. 1310 bc) with a temple embellished by Tiglath-pileser 1 (c. 1115 bc). Harran rebelled and was sacked in 763 bc, an event used by Sennacherib’s officials to intimidate Jerusalem (2 Ki. 19:12 = Is. 37:12). The city was restored by Sargon II, and the temple repaired and refurnished by Esarhaddon (675 bc) and by Ashurbanipal. After the fall of Nineveh (612 bc) Harran became the last capital of Assyria until its capture by the Babylonians in 609 bc. The Chaldean Dynasty’s interest in the Babylonian temples led to the restoration of the Sin temples at Harran and at Ur. At the former the mother of Nabonidus (who lived to 104), and at the latter his daughter, were made the high priestesses. It was a thriving commercial city in contact with Tyre (Ezk. 27:23)." [NBD3]

"Haran. A city by this name has been continuously occupied in this area since at least the 3rd millennium b.c. The Mari texts reflect life in the area during the early 2nd millennium b.c. very similar to that of the biblical patriarchs. Its continuous occupation may be due to its strategic position at the crossroads of trade routes going between the major commercial centers of that part of the world. This fits well with the biblical account of Abraham’s prosperity, and the ease with which the patriarchs traveled and sent messengers to the area after settling in Canaan (cf. Gen. 24)... With Ur this city provided sites for famous temples of Sin, the moon-god. Assyrian rulers repeatedly added to the city, used it as a provincial capital, and embellished its temple. After Nineveh fell (612 b.c.), the final Assyrian government was located in Haran until defeated by the Babylonians in 609 b.c. The Babylonians restored the worship of Sin in both Ur and Haran. Nabonidus’s mother (who died at age 104) was high priestess in the temple at Ur, and later his daughter was high priestess in the temple at Haran." [ISBE]

"Haran is situated about 100 km N from the confluence of the Euphrates and the Balikh (a tributary of the Upper Euphrates) and 80 km E of the city of Carchemish on the winding upper Euphrates river. It is located at the confluence of the wadis which join the Balikh in winter, also at 80 km W of the city of Guzana or Gozan (Tell Halaf) and halfway between Guzana and Carchemish on the E-W road which links Nineveh on the Tigris and the E Mediterranean countries, at the point where the N-S route along the Balikh crosses. “The city of Nahor” in Gen 24:10, mentioned as the place where Rebekah’s parents lived, may be identified with “Nakhur,” which is often mentioned in the Mari tablets as well as in the Middle Assyrian documents of the 7th century b.c. According to Albright it is located below Haran in the Balikh valley, judging from the name of a town Til-Nakhiri, “the Mound of Nakhur,” in the above documents (FSAC 115, 236–237). It was probably another town, different from the city of Haran, but still in the Haran district. In Assyrian documents we see more names of towns similar to the names of the people in Terah’s family: e.g., Til-Turakhi, “Mound of Terah,” probably also located on the S Balikh like Til-Nakhiri, and Serugi “Serug,” modern Seruj, some 55 km W of Haran. “ [ABD]

"Kramer’s comment is of interest: “Our new piece, therefore, puts it beyond all doubt that the Sumerians believed that there was a time when all mankind spoke one and the same language, and that it was Enki, the Sumerian god of wisdom, who confounded their speech. The reason for this fateful deed is not stated in the text; it may well have been inspired by Enki’s jealousy of Enlil and the universal sway over mankind which he enjoyed.” ... Sufficent attention must be paid to the fact that the material is from mythological sources. As with other Sumerian mythology, however, there is historical reference, as Kramer suggests. In the text it is quite clear that at a not-too-remote point in the past a linguistic change occurred in which Sumer, once unified, experienced a breakup of language. We cannot, of course, date this with any precision. But the fact that the text comes from about the time of the fall of the Third Dynasty of Ur is suggestive of the connection. During the reign of Shusin, the fourth king of the Third Dynasty of Ur, there began serious incursions into Sumer by Amorites from the Arabian desert.   These inroads and attacks on Sumerian cities up and down the Euphrates valley were soon supplemented by attacks from the east by Elamites. The attacks ultimately led to the downfall of the Third Dynasty of Ur about 1960 B.C., the event that marked the political end of Sumerian civilization. The Semitic family of languages spoken by the invaders was different from the language of the Sumerians, which had been spoken for at least a thousand years continuously since Sumerian civilization began about 3000 B.C. Kramer notes, “Sumerian was an agglutinative tongue unrelated to the inflected Semitic family of languages of which Hebrew forms a part.” There had, of course, been periods of Semitic control of Sumer during the third millennium B.C., the best known being the Old Akkadian period (c. 2360-2180 B.C.). During this period Semites overran the whole of Sumer under their greatest king, Sargon I. A Sumerian revival occurred about 2100 B.C. when the Neo-Sumerian king Gudea re-established Sumerian power and culture at Lagash. This Semitic factor does not, however, diminish the point under consideration. It only suggests that the breakup of the Sumerian language perhaps went on progressively over a period of time. The distintegration and mixing of the language reached its climax with the invading Semites and the fall of Sumerian civilization corresponding with the overthrow of Ur III about 1960 B.C. The connection is plausible since Gen 11:7 notices the linguistic breakup of the “land of Shinar” paralleled in Sumerian poetry. ... Finally, in both cases this breakup of language is due to the power and action of deity. But, although the texts do not clearly say so, the breakup was brought on by historical causes, including the invasion of the land by Amorites and Elamites and the normalization of their speech in Sumer. This is consistent with the Biblical pattern of judgment since elsewhere in Scripture the processes of’ history are regularly used to accomplish divine purposes. The Biblical narrator states only the origin and primary source of the judgment (God) and the final result (confusion of language). He does not state the intervening causes. Thus the narrative is compressed, being only as detailed as was appropriate to the writer’s purpose. [The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society.  22/1 (March, 1979) 20]

"This leads to a study of his ascription as “Abraham the prince” (Gen 23:5, AV) or the נשׂיא, a title given by a group of foreigners living among the Canaanites who also held land rights in the same region de facto. This was after Abraham had lived in the area for sixty-two years (cf. Gen 12:4; 17:17 ; 23:1 ) when the “sons of Heth” (Hittites) under Ephron who owned the field and cave of Macpelah in a district of Canaan treated Abraham with respect as the head of a clan residing as their neighbors... “We look on you as a mighty leader among us” (Gen 23:6), they said, and there is no hint that Abraham’s dealings with them were unexpected, insincere, or contrary to accepted local custom. Whether this phrase is taken as a superlative or as an acknowledgement of his affiliation to God by men of another religion, the use of the term nasi clearly denotes a position of dignity and leadership. It is similarly used in early texts of the chiefs of the Midianites (Josh 13:21; Num 25:18) and Shechem (Gen 34:2), which, with Edom, were all tribes involved in the promise made to Abraham (17:4–8 }). The title is later applied to David and Solomon (1 Kings 11:34) as to the chief political authority, comparable to the later “king” (melek) (Exod 22:28)…. Moreover, the suggestion that the term may well include the idea of official selection by the people would be appropriate in a situation where ten named ethnic groups all lay claim to adjacent territory in the same area as that promised to Abraham (Gen 15:18–21). Such groups would normally make local alliances for defence as did Abraham during the time of the raid on Sodom by a covenant-association with Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner specified as part of the local “Amorites” (14:13, 21 ). By such an agreement the parties rendered themselves liable to provide forces to assist an injured colleague. That Abraham was the acknowledged leader on this occasion may also be shown by reference to them as dependent on Abraham’s division of the spoil (14:24 ), and to him is attributed both the reception of the intelligence information and the military leadership in which his initiative and stratagem culminated in a surprise night attack resulting in complete victory. He was acknowledged as leader of the group both by the king of Salem and by the king of Sodom and such leadership may not have resulted solely from his affinity to Lot whose cause he was espousing…. It was, however, not only those living within the bounds of the land promised to Abraham by the covenant land-grant who reacted to Abraham as the leader of the group occupying defined territory. Abraham is portrayed as the head of a substantial family group who had acquired possessions and dependents before entering Canaan (Gen 12:5). He was a person of independent means, well able to provide for his family (cf. 24:22 ). His wealth was increased by gifts given by the king of Egypt (12:16, 20 ) so that he could be called “a very rich man” (13:2 ). The Hebrew כּבד here also denotes the honor and respect due to a man of high position, thus demonstrating that he was not simply a poor wanderer. … Difficult though the episode in Egypt may be to interpret, Abraham was still held in awe by the royal household there even after the so-called “deception of an innocent pharaoh” was known (Gen 12:10–20). A major Egyptian ruler would have dismissed an insignificant foreigner without recompense. This accords with the evidence of the attitude of other external rulers to him… There is evidence too that another foreign ruler, Abimelech, king of Gerar “in the land of the Philistines,” was prepared to deal with Abraham as one of equal status and to enter with him into a covenant-treaty which included provision of territorial rights (Gen 20:15). It is more likely that this was conceived as an inter-state relationship rather than an inter-individual relationship since, when the terms were considered to have been broken by Abimelech’s unwitting action over Sarah, the divine curses which guarded such agreements were thought to fall not merely on Abimelech as an individual but on his city-state (20:7, 9 ) and the penalties to be paid publicly are duly prescribed (20:16 )… The status of Abraham can be examined further, for it may not be without significance that Abraham as a leader (נשׂיא) undertook the responsibilities normally associated with the ruler of a small state or with that of a provincial governor appointed by a great king. The role of the latter in the second millennium B.C. is reasonably well known from the Mari correspondence. His title šāpit̮̣um (Heb שׁפט) denotes “the one who governs” on behalf of the supreme ruler who has given him the office. Such a person was customarily addressed as “lord,” being a superior person of dignity (as Abraham was addressed by the Hittites, Gen 23:6, 11, 15) who worked through a chief steward who had wide administrative powers (as did Abraham through Eliezer, Gen 15:2). The office and title of šāpit̮̣um occurs in the Ebla texts ca. 2300 B.C. and appears to be the form perpetuated in Palestine in the time of the regional “governors” (a better translation than “judges,” Judg 2:16–18). The latter, like Abraham, were held to be sub-governors acknowledging the Lord God as “the supreme Governor of all the earth” (Gen 18:25; cf. Judg 11:27). The extent of the governorship varies according to local requirements and conditions, though it was always geographically defined. In exercising their responsibilities some governors worked through local chiefs (abu bîtīm = “father of the house” [clan]), who could administer territories in the name of the local king or deity. Provincial governors were usually granted lands by the overlord for their maintenance in lieu of salary. This may have significance for understanding the full purpose of the divine land-grant made to Abraham and his successors. The responsibilities and duties of the governors differed little from those of the local city-state rulers, who were occasionally employed in a similar role.... The governor was also involved through agents in commercial activity, and such may be reflected in a few of the indications from which it was once argued that Abraham was a merchant-prince" [DJ Wiseman, Bibliotheca Sacra —V134 #535—Jul 77]

"His relations with foreigners while staying near Shechem, in Egypt, Gerar and Machpelah, portray him as a respected leader of a group with whom they dealt as with an equal. He acted as acknowledged leader of a coalition which rescued his nephew Lot who had been taken from Sodom by a group of ‘kings’ (Gn. 14). Stress is laid on his life, not so much as a ‘pilgrim’, but as a ‘resident-alien’ (gēr) without a capital city. He was a wealthy man with servants (14:14) and possessions (13:2), living amicably among Canaanites (12:6), Perizzites (13:7), Philistines (21:34) and Egyptians, and negotiating with Hittites (23). [NBD3]

"Haran was an Aramaean city and was famous for its worship of the lunar Sin-and-Nikkal cult. This system was an offspring of the cult found in Sumerian Ur. Sin and his wife Nikkal were not only revered here, but throughout Canaan and even in Egypt. [BEB].

"At the time of Terah and Abram, the culture of the people of NW Mesopotamia, in the region around Haran, was a mixture of Hurrian and Amorite elements on a Sumero-Akkadian foundation defined and illustrated by the Cappadocian tablets, the Mari documents, the Code of Hammurapi, the OB letters from Babylon, and the Nuzi tablets of the 15th century b.c. [ABD]

When you have entered the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it,  2 take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the LORD your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name  3 and say to the priest in office at the time, “I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come to the land the LORD swore to our forefathers to give us.”  4 The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the LORD your God.  5 Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous." [Deut 26.1ff]

"wandering Aramean. The creedal statement contained here emphasizes the nomadic character of Israel’s ancestors. The original homeland of Abraham and his family is generally identified as Paddan Aram or Aram Naharaim. The mention of Arameans in relation to Abraham and Jacob is likely a reference to scattered tribes of peoples in upper Mesopotamia who had not yet coalesced into the nation of Aram that appears in later texts. Based on other examples from cuneiform literature, the name Aram may in fact have originally been that of a region (cf. Sippar-Amnantum of the Old Babylonian period) that was later applied to people living there." [BBC]

"Abraham then moved to Harran in northern Syria (upper Mesopotamia), and it is to this region that he sent his servant to find a wife for Isaac and to which Jacob went for the same purpose. Once again, personal and place names found in this area (e.g., Serug, Terah, Nahor, Jacob) echo those in Genesis. Particularly striking proof of the antiquity of the biblical tradition are names like Ishmael, Isaac, and Jacob, which are Amorite imperfects. De Vaux observes that the names Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob “belong to onomastic types which were well known before the Israelites emerged as a people and, what is more, they appeared in the very regions from which the patriarchs came according to the Bible.” “One is bound to conclude that these traditions have a firm historical basis” (Early History, 199, 200). More recently A. Malamat (Mari, 31) has affirmed that the patriarchal names common to Mari and the OT constitute “a most potent argument in favour of the antiquity of Israel’s proto-historical core.”.. The Amorite background of the patriarchs may explain their close relationship with the Arameans (e.g., Laban’s family), who were probably descended from the Amorites who appeared to have settled in this area in the early second millennium (cf. de Vaux, Early History, 200–209). Another striking feature of the patriarchs is their lifestyle. They are not bedouin who migrate across deserts on camels, nor are they traders on donkeys, although they own donkeys and keep to the trade routes. Rather, they are seminomadic: they move from place to place when the situation demands it but stay for longish periods in one place making agreements with local townspeople. Their main occupation is keeping flocks and herds, but sometimes they sow and raise crops. Studies by Rowton (OrAnt 15 [1976] 17–31) and Malamat (JNES 35 [1976] 13–20) suggest that patriarchal society was dimorphic, i.e., a tribal grouping partially settled in towns or villages but partially on the move with their flocks. Such social groupings have doubtless existed throughout Middle Eastern history, but it is striking that the texts from Mari (c. 1700 b.c.), which lies between Ur and Harran, exemplify this type of existence. Not only does patriarchal society seem to be organized like Mari’s, but many Mari terms (e.g., pasture land, inheritance, tribes, leaders; cf. Malamat, Mari, 33) find parallels in the Bible. While it would be wrong to insist that these parallels demonstrate that the patriarchal age is contemporary with Mari, as dimorphism is a recurrent phenomenon, the differences between patriarchal society and that of the monarchy period in Israel suggest that Genesis enshrines valid historical reminiscence of earlier times." [WBC, Gen 16-50]

"People brought up within a western society often think that the monolingualism that forms a routine part of their existence is the normal way of life for all but a few 'special' people. They are wrong. Multilingualism is the natural way of life for hundreds of millions all over the world. There are no official statistics, but with around 5,000 languages co-existing in fewer than 200 countries  it is obvious that an enormous amount of language contact must be taking place; and the inevitable result of languages in contact is multilingualism, which is most commonly found in an individual speaker as bilingualism. [HI:WAL, 360]

"Bilingualism or, more generally, multilingualism was a pervasive fact of life throughout the ANE, as it is in much of the modern world. At Ugarit [a single city!], as is well known, no fewer than eight languages in five scripts are attested. (The fact that there are three papers in this volume devoted to one or another aspect of bilingualism at Ugarit is thus perhaps not surprising.) At Hattusa, too, some eight languages are attested, albeit, interestingly, not the same eight. Nearly (or officially) monolingual nations and societies are, and always have been, the exception rather than the rule. [John Huehnergard, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, volume 62 (2003), Book review section, pp.294-298]

"...there are many societies in which at least some members grow up speaking two or more languages fluently (often members of minority ethnic groups, who learn from birth both the language of their own group and the dominant language). [John Huehnergard, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, volume 62 (2003), Book review section, pp.294-298]

"Pardee notes that while hymns seem always to be written in Hurrian, the ritual texts are written in Hurrian, in Ugaritic, or in a mix of both languages, for no obvious reason. Since there is nothing to suggest that the Hurrian and Ugaritic parts of the mixed-language texts were written by different scribes, Pardee concludes that these few texts indicate that some scribes, at least, received a bilingual education." [John Huehnergard, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, volume 62 (2003), Book review section, pp.294-298]

"As Mesopotamian kings turned their political ambitions to empires, the need for translators arose. Scribes, already trained in the spoken and written forms of two languages, were the natural choice to assume this task. However, there is little indication of how scribes achieved proficiency in additional languages. At the time of the Akkadian Empire, references to translators of the languages of Melukkha and Kutha appear. The Ur III king Shulgi boasted that in his palace he alone knew how to speak Elamite and Amorite. The Mari tablets of 1780 BCE mention the presence of translators in trading caravans. In the Middle Babylonian period translators were needed to deal with the Mitannian army. International activity between Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Hittite empires in the middle and late second millennium necessitated translators from cuneiform into Egyptian. Texts from the Egyptian city of Amarna (Akhetaten) refer to cuneiform scribes learning Egyptian, as well. The appearance of the title "head of the translators" indicates that there was an organized cadre of these professionals.” [OT:CANE:2274]

“Tablets from the Old Assyrian trading colony at Kanesh (modern Kultepe) demonstrate that some merchants were literate, having received training sufficient to enable them to send letters and maintain business records. However, most merchants hired scribes to do this work for them.” [OT:CANE:2273]

"Sumerian was a living language in the third millennium BCE. Akkadian competed with and eventually replaced Sumerian, becoming the lingua franca of the entire ancient Near East during the second millennium BCE." [OT:DLAM, 14f]

"In the second millennium, the language of international communication was Akkadian cuneiform, used far beyond the region in which it was a language of everyday speech. It was, for example, used in correspondence between Egypt and the Hittites. Either both countries had scribes highly competent in Akkadian cuneiform, or (less probably) both courts employed bilingual Babylonian scribes. One letter to the Pharaoh, exceptionally written in Hittite [tanknote: a non-Semitic language], addresses the recipient scribe directly and requests a reply in the same language, indicating that some Egyptian scribes could both read and write Hittite. A literary composition of the thirteenth century attests the knowledge of foreign languages amongst Egyptian scribes; the writer takes the opportunity of working in odd phrases to demonstrate his mastery of Canaanite. For example, after describing how the scribe of the commissariat arranges provisions for an expeditionary force sent into Palestine to crush a rebellion, he attributes to the Beduin looking on, the comment sopher yodea, Canaanite for 'a shrewd scribe!'. [CBGR, 104]

"From 2000 to 1750 b.c. there was a considerable trade in western Asia between Anatolia and Assyria [tanknote: much of which would have gone through Haran], between Mari on the Euphrates and states to the east and west of the Euphrates, and between western Asia and Egypt. Some of the donkey caravans were quite large, up to 500 animals, divided into smaller groups under the charge of individual attendants. After the 19th century b.c. the much stronger mules replaced donkeys, and by the 11th century b.c. camels replaced the mules. Documentary evidence verifies these caravans from Egypt and Assyria. One famous group of 37 Asiatics who visited Egypt about 1900 b.c. is portrayed on the tomb of Khnum-hotep at Beni-hasan. Genesis 37 mentions Ishmaelite caravan traders bearing gums, balm, and myrrh on their way to Egypt." [BEB]

"In the light of frequent messenger activity between mutually unintelligible language speakers, the problem arises as to how precisely the messenger verbalized his message in such diverse linguistic environments. Was the messenger expected to be conversant in more than one language? If not, did he travel with an interpreter or was an interpreter assumed to be waiting on the receiving end? The frustration of the language barrier surfaces when Ashurbanipal notes the arrival of a messenger from a land which had not formerly communicated with Assyria: "The tongues of the East and of the West, which Assur had poured into my hand - there was no master of his language, and [his] tongue remained strange, so that they could not understand his speech." The ability of Shulgi in responding to foreign ambassadors is certainly not normative: "I answered in those five languages while in my palace no one else could understand foreign tongues."… (Shulgi B 217-218. Note Wenamun's first words when he is cast ashore on Cyprus (Wenamun 2.76-78): "I greeted her (the princess) and I said to the people who were standing around her: 'Isn't there one among you who can understand Egyptian words?' And one of them said: 'I understand!' And I said to him: "Say to my lady that . . . .") [OT:MASW, 163]

"Interpreters are already attested in the Sargonic period (eme-bala), with their office inscribed on seals and having their own supervisors. Their presence among the Assyrian merchants in Cappadocia is not unexpected (targumannum), and interpreters are known for foreigners in an Old Babylonian text. From this point on, they are attested down through the NeoAssyrian period. Their relatively important status has been suggested in the light of some data… Gelb notes that the evidence for translators is most abundant in the earlier period and declines from the end of the second millennium onward; if this is not a result of the accident of discovery, he notes that the rise of Akkadian as a lingua franca may have diminished the need for translators. We might add, however, that even in the first millennium, when the Assyrian empire began to find Aramaic a desirable language of diplomacy, it was to their advantage to be able to address their vassals in their native language (2 Kgs 18:26-28).12” [OT:MASW, 164/5]

“In the [Sumerian] tablets, the Sumerians were found listing all the items of their experience in long inventories. Thus they carefully listed all the names of plants, animals, fish, and even grammatical constructions in long texts running to many tablets. They had even developed multi-lingual dictionaries, which listed terms in Sumerian with their equivalents in Akkadian, Hurrian, and even Hittite. In the last several years, archaeologists have found such lists at Ebla in North Syria. These tablets give equivalent words in Sumerian and Eblaite (a previously unknown West Semitic language).” [NIEBF, p. 337]

"Shortly before 2000 pressure for migration began to build in the area of western Arabia and southern Palestine. Wars and, in areas of declining fertility, the pressure of overpopulation have have been the cause for this. The main destintions of these migrations had for some time been Syria and Mesopotamia. Many tribal groups long remained nomadic shepherds, while others engaged in the cultivation of grain as seminomads or transhumants. Still others managed to gain a foothold in the cities, often even seizing the political leadership there. The Northwest Semitic and Old Canaanite dialects which they spoke never became written languages, as far as we know, although many Canaanite words are found in the Babylonian texts, primarily those from early second millennium Mari on the middle Euphrates. On the evidence of their Canaanite names, many Old Canaanites came to Babylonia as mercenary soldiers and workers at the time of the Third Dynasty of Ur, soon after 2000. There they were called "Amurru" (= west)-people; accordingly, many today refer to them as Amorites. In Babylonia, too, many Amurru people rose through military command to positions as rulers of cities, and even kings of larger areas. Since new waves of Canaanites continued to come to Babylonia over many decades, the mass of Amurru-people remained a dependent population, often of low status." [Soden:20f]

"Aramaic was originally spoken by Aramean tribes who settled in portions of what is now Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Irag, a region bounded roughly by Damascus and its environs on the south, Mt. Amanus on the northwest and the region between the Balikh and the Khabur rivers on the northest. The Arameans were a Semitic people...Though Aramaic was spoken during the second millennium BC, the first extant texts appear at the beginning of the first millenniun."

"By the time of the Amarna period [tn: 14th century BC], people of the eastern Mediterranean regions had been bilingual--in some regions multilingual--for centuries; they wrote Mesopotamian languages, but conversed in their local languages." [OT:CANE:2412]

"There is a big difference between script and language, though they tend to be confused. A language consists of a system of sounds. It does not have to be written down. Indeed languages were spoken for millennia before writing was invented and there are still today some unwritten languages (e.g. in India and South America). Any particular language can be represented more or less satisfactorily in any system of writing. One could invent a new system of writing one's own language but one would have to face up to the difficulty of reconciling several conflicting demands on the system. One such demand is the need to keep things simple, so that the new writing system is not so complex as to he unlearnable, but there is also a need to represent all the sounds of the language distinctively, so that the system is unambiguous. ... The writing systems of the ancient Near East prior to the invention and spread of the alphabet from c. 1700 BC onwards included a large number of syllabic signs, i.e. with each sign representing a syllable. They were developed from forms of pictographic writing in which small pictures stood for objects and concepts. These had been in use, principally in Egypt and Mesopotamia, since before 3000 BC. Syllabic writing became widespread and new forms of syllabic writing continued to be developed (e.g. Hittite, Cretan, Byblian). ... A syllable normally consists of at least two sounds, most commonly a consonant followed by a vowel. Since all languages have far more possible syllables than they have individual sounds (/ba/, /be/, /bi/, /bo/, /bu/, /da/, /de/, /di/, do/, /du/ are all separate syllables), syllabic systems involved a very large number of signs. The total number of cuneiform signs in the system used in Mesopotamia, for example, is almost six hundred, though some of these retain a pictographic type of function, representing whole words. Many signs had more than one sound-value. Fortunately much smaller repertoires of signs and restricted variations of value were current at any one time and the context would usually show what was intended." [HI:RTP:201]

) and the Greeks are generally credited with adding all of the vowels into the alphabet later.

6. Of course, most languages will mix these types during their development, and a modern bumper sticker, tee-shirt, or Internet email might combine all of these types!



7.  Basic script adoption by a people (or individual, for that matter) can be quick. Given a cross-language lexicon (ideally with access to a bilingual translator), a competent writer could begin producing their original language in a new script almost immediately. And, given that script adoption was often a compulsory act after military loss(!) and more often required to buy/sell large quantities of goods (requiring bilingual contracts) with an international partner, this was a frequent, frequent process in the ANE. But, as with the spoken language, they might continue using their native script for internal matters, and the 'compulsory' or 'advantageous' script for transactions with outsiders.

8. An astute reader might already see a problem for these folks: translating a word-sign document into a syllabic or alphabetic script might take considerably more space! One word-sign character for "the river that runs from mountain X into lake Y" might require considerably more characters to write (like it did here!).

9. Many of these spoken languages also changed scripts over time. Sumerian originally was writen in word-signs and pictographs, but later used the Akkadian cuneiform syllabic script for encoding. Hebrew originally used the Phonecian script, but later moved to the Aramaic square script. And in the pictrographic languages, many of the older pictograms were 'recycled' to refer to specific words, syllables, or individual signs.

Now, lets move on into Canaan...smile]


The first thing we need to look at for the period 2500-2000+ BC is the importance of the Ebla empire for the linguistic background.

Ebla was a city in northern Palestine, which built and ran a powerful empire until its gradual conquest by the Akkadians (under Naram Sim). It had an extensive commerical network , which survived all the various changes in political landscape (i.e., Akkadian, Mari, Hittite, Amorite). Haran was a royal city of Ebla, with tribute obligations and political allegiance. There would have been much, much interaction between the land of Haran/Harran and Ebla:

"Ebla. Ancient Syrian city-state identified with the contemporary site of Tell Mardikh. According to one text discovered there, Ebla was a huge city, with a population of 260,000. That a quarter of a million people could crowd into a city the size of Old Jerusalem is explained by the fact that many of the farmers and workers lived in the surrounding area in tents or possibly in beehive houses made of clay brick. Such beehive villages are found even today in the vicinity of Tell Mardikh. Only the palace, the treasury, the storerooms, and the essential facilities and personnel for operation of the city-state, would as a rule be located within the city walls. Even so, the population density in the city would be extremely high. Ebla was a commercial center, manufacturing items of textiles, wood, ceramics, gold, silver, and other metals. A large number of the clay tablets unearthed are economic documents, recording transactions with many other cities, stretching from Asia Minor to Egypt and from Cyprus to Iran (Persia)." [BEB]

"In a paper read in 1986... I showed, to the best of my ability, that the term empire applied to the political formation headed by Ebla is indeed fully appropriate and that its structure and institutions conform to the generally accepted definitons of an empire... Ebla dominated at that time a teritory of about 85,000 sq km (32,800 sq mi) in northern Syria and northwestern Mesopotamia. Approximately half of it was controlled and exploited directly by the state apparatus of Ebla through territorial governors (lugal), from twelve to sixteen in number, numerous local overseers (ugula), and still more numerous agents (maskim) of various dignitaries. The other half (mainly in the north, on the Euphrates, and in Osrhoene, but interspersed with direct Eblean possessions) was ruled by a great number of client kings, all of whom carried the same title (en) as their Eblean overlord but markedly differed among themselves as to atheir actual standing. The client kings had to swear allegiance to the king of Ebla, to pay him a fixed amount of tribute in precious metals, cattle, cloths, and artifacts, and to deliver, when required, teams of corvee workers." [EBLA3:51f, Astour; he also lists Harran as one of the five 'royal cities' on page 59, and notes that Harran sold sheep to Ebla's commerical rival--and largest customer!--Mari, on behalf of Ebla, p.60]

"Ebla bordered in the southwest on Hamath and in the northwest on Emar. But it had contacts also with other city-states of upper Mesopotamia, for instance, with Abarsal... It is possible that the kings of the cities situated between the Euphrates and the Belikh--Irridum and Harran--were dependents of Ebla. But the latter had important cultural and trade ties also with towns lying much farther to the sourtheast: Kakmium and Gasur byond the Tigris (Gasur, latter the Hurrian city of Nuzi...)...One should especially stress Ebla's connection with Kis in the northern part of Lower Mesopotamia. It seems that it was mainly Ebla (along with Mari) which secured for mesopotamian traders the road to the forests of the Lebanon and the Amanus and to the silver and copper mines of Asia Minor." [EBLA4:11f, Diakonoff]

"Recent discoveries at Tell Mardikh (ancient Ebla), south of Aleppo, have revealed, during the Early Bronze Age, a thriving and highly sophisticated Syrian culture. The finding there of a major archive of clay tablets has added a new dimension to our understanding of the international relationsh in the third millennium BC. For, although relatively few of the texts have been translated so far, it is clear that by about 2500 BC Ebla exercised some form of political control as far south as Damascus, and had commercial ties over an even wider area. This would help to explain the increasing number of Syrian objects found at sites in the north of Palestine, which must now be taken as evidence for the establishment of active commercial relations between the two regions. " [OT:PPC:39]

“Prior to the discovery of cuneiform texts at Ebla, a third-millennium Canaanite language was postulated but unproved. Now Eblaite is tentatively identified as Old Canaanite because of its affinity with later Canaanite dialects. Eblaite was in use among urban peoples of Syria [tanknote: includes Haran]. Amorite was apparently the language of the rural people…Eblaite likely differed only dialectically from Amorite, and linguistically there is little distinction between Amorite and Canaanite dialects until the middle of the second millennium…” [POTW:167f, Schoville, 1994; TN: if you could speak Amorite, you could understand Canaanite--and vice versa--during the time of the Patriarchs]]

"Earlier articles in this series have pointed out interconnections between Eblaite and later attested Northwest Semitic languages, especially Ugaritic, Hebrew, and Aramaic. In the present essay, I wish to put forward additional items for comparison, all from the realm of the lexicon. As the reader reads the following information, I ask that he or she keep in mind my previously stated opinion that Eblaite is to be linked with Amorite and Aramaic in a Sprachbund to be called Syrian Semitic, part of the Northwest Semitic (or West Semitic) branch. ... It is noteworthy that in the lexical items presented there is a high degree of coherence between Eblaite and Aramaic...As I stated at the outset, my previously expressed view on Eblaite is that it is to be grouped with Amorite and Aramaic to form a Syrian Sprachbund. The exact relationship among these languages cannot be described more specifically; we plainly lack the necessary data to state anything more specific. But the links between Eblaite and Aramaic, which have been pointed out both in my earlier study and in the present article, are not unexpected. The role of georgraphy is important here, for the language that inherited the spatial domain of Eblaite 1500 to 2000 years later was Aramaic. It is only natural that this Semitic language should play an important role in the elucidation of the Eblaite vocabulary. .." [Ebla4:199, 207; Rendsburg, 2002]

"Initially, Eblaite was thought to be an early form of West Semitic because of the location of the site in northwest Syria, well outside Mesopotamia proper. However, at this time  [c.2004] there is a general agreement among Assyriologists that Eblaite represents a form of East Semitic and , possibly, even an early dialect of Akkadian." [ HI:WAL:223, Huennergard and Woods]

"According to the present data [c.1985], Eblaite is a very archaic language of the Semitic family in the Afrasian linguistic phylum. It seems that the number of isoglosses connecting it with Northeast Semitic Akkadian is almost equal to the number of isoglosses with West Semitic languages (according to M. Dahood with Canaanite, according to E. Lipinski with Aramaic; however note the important isoglosses with Arabic and South Semitic). All this proves that Eblaite was a part of the Common Proto-Semitic dialect continuum, with a position between East and West Semitic." [Ebla2:29, Diakonoff, 1990]

"Eblaite is a border language. To simplify a complex situation one may think of Ebla as located between East Semitic Mesopotamia and Northwest Semitie Syria-Palestine." [Ebla2:127, Gordon, 1990]

"Taken as a whole, it seems that throughout Northern Syria, from Ebla to the Euphrates and the Tigris, the same names or name types were used. Therefore, the evidence is that the same language and the same tradition prevailed. ... We must therefore conclude that on the sole basis of personal names it would be very difficult to distinguish the language of Ebla from the Old Akkadian of Kish" [Ebla1:16f, Archi, 1987]

"The language of the central area of Northwest Semitic during the second millennium BCE is known indirectly through a number of ancient Egyptian sources, especially the so-called Execration Texts from the twentieth to nineteenth centuries BCE, some Proto-Canaanite inscriptions and seals from the eighteenth century BCE onward, the El-Amarna letters from the fourteenth century BCE, and the pseudo-hieroglyphic texts from Byblos, from the first half of the second millennium BCE... The 379 letters from Tell el-Amarna began to be discovered in 1887 – they are cuneiform tablets through which the lords of the Mesopotamian states and the vassals of the Egyptians in Syria and Palestine communicated with the rulers of Egypt. Many of them have come from the central and southern areas of Byblos, Gezer, Jerusalem, and Megiddo. They date from around 1385-1355 BCE and usually include Canaanite glosses and other signs of influence from the scribes' mother tongue on the Akkadian which they wrote.” [HI:HHL, 33]

"AMARNA. (Tell) el-Amarna is the modern name of Akhetaten, capital of Egypt under Amenophis IV (Akhenaten) and his immediate successors, c. 1375–1360 bc. The ruins lie some 320 km S of Cairo on the E bank of the river Nile. The site extends about 8 x 1 km and has been partially excavated. The impressive remains include temples, administrative buildings, tombs with wall paintings as well as the buildings of many prosperous estates with houses often of uniform plan. .. The importance of Amarna for biblical studies lies in the series of letters written in cuneiform on clay tablets found by chance in 1887. With subsequent discoveries, the number of documents recovered now totals about 380. The majority are letters from various Asiatic rulers to the pharaohs Amenophis III and IV in the period c. 1385–1360 bc; nearly half come from Palestine and Syria. They supply important information concerning the history of the area, providing a vivid picture of the intrigues and inter-city strife which followed the weakening of Egyptian control shortly before the Israelites entered the land. ... Our knowledge of the political geography of Palestine at this time is helped by references to various local rulers, such as Ammunira of Beirut, Abimilki of Tyre, Akizzi of Qatna and Abdi-tirši of Hazor. Some of these names can be correlated with contemporary texts from Ugarit (Ras Shamra). In addition to the local historical evidence, these letters are important for the wider implications of alliances between Egypt and the rulers of Mitanni and Babylon, often concluded, or supported, by marriages between the ruling families. References to an Egyptian official named Yanhamu, who attained high office, remind one of the position of Joseph, though the two cannot be identified. Yanhamu’s name is a Semitic form, and one of his functions was the supervision of the grain supply during a time of scarcity for the pharaoh’s Syrian subjects. The tablets are also of great linguistic importance. All but two are written in Akkadian, the lingua franca of the whole ancient Near East in this period. The presence at Amarna of Mesopotamian literature (myths of Nergal and Adapa, a story of Sargon of Akkad) and lexical texts including a list of Egyptian and Akkadian words indicates the influence of Akkadian, and this is supported by the discovery in 1946 of a fragment of the Gilgamesh Epic (c. 1400 bc) at Megiddo. The letters from Palestine and Syria are written mainly in local W Semitic dialects of Akkadian, and they provide valuable information about the Canaanite language in its various local forms before the arrival of the Israelites. Letters from King Tushratta of Mitanni have also added considerably to our knowledge of the non-Semitic Hurrian language." [NBD3}

"The Amarna letters were written in cuneiform signs on clay tablets. The cuneiform script was already known in northern Syria in the 2d half of the 3d millennium b.c. (at Ebla). The Canaanite cuneiform tradition is rooted in the north Mesopotamian [tn: includes Haran] and north Syrian traditions of the OB period (18th–17th centuries b.c.) (Anbar and Na˒aman 1986–87). Almost all the letters in the Amarna archive are written in Akkadian, i.e., an East Semitic language. Thus, letters exchanged between the Egyptian pharaohs and their vassals in Canaan were written in a language that was foreign to both. Akkadian (i.e., Babylonian) had acquired in the 14th century b.c. the status of an international language (lingua franca), by which kings reigning all over the Near East were able to communicate. ... The art of reading and writing cuneiform was known only to a relatively small group of experts who studied this craft for a period of many years. The diffusion of the Amarna letters all over Canaan and the many local variants show that expert scribes were situated in all of the important kingdoms. Since all diplomatic correspondence was in their hands, they attained a high social position and had certain influence on the direction of foreign affairs. A number of letters (EA 286:61–64; 287:64–70; 286:62–66; 289:47–51; 316:16–20) illustrate how important it was at that time to find ways to flatter and patronize the Egyptian royal scribes. .. A small number of letters to “great kings” were written in their local language, i.e., Assyrian (EA 15), Hurrian (EA 24), and Hittite (EA 31–32), while the rest were written in Akkadian, although the dialect of these letters is sometimes regarded as “peripheral.” That is because the language of these letters has retained certain archaic features, such as sign forms, logograms, vocabulary, and grammar, which were considered “classical” in earlier periods but have already disappeared from the cuneiform tradition of Mesopotamia and have been preserved only in the western periphery (Moran 1987: 22–24). .. Two cuneiform traditions may be detected in the Canaanite and north Syrian letters. The one is Hurro-Akkadian, which is typical of tablets emanating from the north, that is, Hurrian-speaking kingdoms that were governed and influenced by Mitanni (Wilhelm 1970; Izre˓el 1985; Moran 1987: 24–27). The other tradition is widespread in all areas of Canaan and was strongly influenced by the current West Semitic language. The grammar of these documents was so deeply transformed by the local language and dialects that the letters may be regarded as being “West Semitized” (Rainey 1975: 395). The Canaanite Amarna letters (with the exception of the letters from Jerusalem and Tyre: see Moran 1975a; Grave 1980: 216–18; 1982: 178–79) may be regarded as eastern in their vocabulary and as western in their grammar (Moran 1987: 27). It goes without saying that they constitute a very important source for the study of the dialects current in Canaan in the 14th century b.c. (Moran 1950; 1960; 1965; Rainey 1971; 1973; 1975; 1978; Izre˓el 1978)." [ABD]

"Akkadian, firmly entrenched as the lingua franca of the Near East during the Amarna age, is the basic language of the Amarna Tablets. As might be expected, these documents have thus assisted scholars in solving certain grammatical and lexical problems inherent in the Akkadian of the period, even though Amarna Akkadian exhibits numerous linguistic archaisms. At the same time, however, the epistolary materials often reveal Amorite, Egyptian, Hittite, Hurrian, and (most importantly) Canaanite linguistic substrata, reflecting the mother tongues of the native scribes. All the Canaanite Amarna Letters display a mixture of Akkadian and Canaanite dialects, although a few are almost completely Canaanite with only the thinnest of Akkadian veneers. Amarna Canaanite and the Ugaritic documents from Râs Shamrah have helped immeasurably to establish the nature of proto-Hebrew and to trace its development into the classical language of the OT. Often the Canaanite Vorlage was all-pervasive, reaching not only into vocabulary, grammar, syntax, morphology, and phonology but also into phraseology and mode of expression, so that, e.g., when a scribe from Byblos wished to verbalize the concept of “from time immemorial” he did not write, in standard Akkadian parlance, ištu labiriš (or, as in later times, ultu ulla), but coined the phrase ištu dārīti, an Akkadian rendering of such Canaanite equivalents as Heb mē‘ôlām. Canaanite scribes also frequently glossed Akkadian words and phrases with their Canaanite counterparts. For example, the difficult Akk ḫuḫāru, “trap, snare,” which appears often in the Byblian letters, is usually explained immediately thereafter by Can kilūbu (=Heb kelûḇ), which has the same meaning. Needless to say, the scribes themselves did not always agree as to proper procedure in various matters. The Jerusalem Amarna correspondence, for example, exhibits scribal peculiarities demonstrating it to be the product of a scribal tradition different from that of the other Canaanite Amarna dialects." [ISBE]

"From inscriptions that predate the abecedaries of the Izbet Sartah ostraca (twelfth century BC), some fifteen Proto-Canaanite signs representing consonantal phonemes are identificable with some degree of certainty. As these match the Proto-Sinaitic data, as well as the data from the later West-Semitic languages, it may be assumed that the original Proto-Canaanite consonantal inventory was similar to, if not identical with, the Proto-Sinaitic inventory and that the two groups of texts represent the same language, or two or more languages/dialects descended from a common ancestor. ... Virtually all other aspects of the linguistic description of Canaanite dialects are derived from the texts written in Akkadian cuneiform (tn: Amarna texts)." [HI:WAL:288f]

"UGARIT is modern Ras Shamra, located 1 km from the Mediterranean Sea and 10km N of Syrian Latakia. C. F. A. Schaeffer began excavations in 1928, first at Ugarit’s port by the bay of Minet el-Beida, then at Ras Shamra until 1969. M. Yon has directed the work since 1978. Although occupied as early as the 7th millennium bc, the site flourished in the 2nd millennium. In the Late Bronze Age (1550–1200 bc) the city-state controlled a region of 2,000 square kms, including a large agricultural plain and an excellent port (Yon). It enjoyed a moderate Mediterranean climate. Historical archives begin with King Niq-maddu II (1360–1330 bc) followed by the Hittite domination of the region through the intermediary Carchemish at the end of the 14th century. The Hittite-Egyptian treaty (c. 1270 bc) allowed the kingdom to develop with an increasing centralization of power. The king controlled a large palace that formed the centre of a fortified acropolis within the city. This and the towering temple of Baal were the two most impressive landmarks. Ugarit disappeared shortly after 1200 bc for reasons unknown but perhaps related as much to climatic change and internal problems as to any invasion from the sea (Dupont). .. Excavators of Ugarit have unearthed thousands of inscriptions from the Late Bronze Age. Texts preserving Egyptian, Cypro-Minoan, Hurrian and Hittite languages occur, but most of the clay tablets preserve writing in Akkadian and Ugaritic languages. Ugaritic script represents one of the earliest alphabets, composed of twenty-nine letters written in cuneiform. The Ugaritic language is one of the earliest West Semitic languages attested by a sizeable corpus and variety of inscriptions. Rivalled only by the Dead Sea Scrolls, the texts from Ugarit represent the most important collection of written evidence yet discovered for better interpreting the OT. Study of the Ugaritic language has demonstrated a flexibility in the use of prepositions and other syntactical features, and has expanded the West Semitic vocabulary of known words and their usage. When applied to biblical Heb., this has provided for new interpretations of difficult texts and rendered unnecessary many textual emendations of previous generations. .. Although the citizens of Ugarit distinguished themselves from ‘Canaanites’, they shared a common culture. Religious, epistolary, lexical, administrative, legal and contractual texts have been discovered at Ugarit (Pardee and Bordreuil)." [NBD3]

“Ugaritic. This is the West Semitic language of the Canaanites. It records in a shortened, nearly alphabetic script the legends and religious literature of the period 1800 to 1400 B.C. Many Ugaritic words—and some whole expressions—are identical with those in the earlier parts of the Hebrew Bible.” [NIEBF, 338]

"The origin of the sea-faring Phoenicians is obscure, though according to Herodotus (1. 1; 7. 89) they arrived overland from the Persian Gulf area, via the Red Sea, and first founded Sidon. The earliest archaeological evidence of their presence may come from the ‘proto-Phoenician’ finds at Byblos (ancient Gubla or Gebal, Ezk. 27:9, modern Gebail) dated c. 3000 bc. This important site has been excavated since 1924 by the French under Montet and Dunand. Byblian ships are depicted on Egyp. reliefs of the time of Sahure in the 5th Dynasty (c. 2500 bc) and there can be no doubt that by the 18th century there was an extensive trade in timber and artistic commodities between Phoenicia and Egypt. The Phoenicians by this time had settled in their first colonies along the coast at Joppa, Dor (Jdg. 1:27–31), Acre and Ugarit (Ras Shamra). They chose easily defensible natural harbours and gradually dominated the local population as at Ras Shamra (level IV). ... For some centuries Phoenicia was under the economic and quasi-military control of the Egyptian 18th and 19th Dynasties, and Arvad was among the places claimed to have been captured by Tuthmosis III (c. 1485 bc). Nevertheless, the letters written by Rib-Addi of Byblos and Abimilki of Tyre to Amenophis III at Amarna in Egypt show that, by c. 1400 bc, Ṣumur and Berut had disaffected and with Sidon, which appears to have maintained its independence, were blockading Phoenician cities. When the ‘sea-peoples’ invaded the coast c. 1200 bc, Byblos, Arvad and Ugarit were destroyed and the Sidonians fled to Tyre, which now became the principal port, or, as Isaiah claims, the ‘daughter of Sidon’ (23:12)." [NBD3]

"... Ugarit was a major commercial center that linked the ancient Near East to the Aegean. Ugarit is named in documents found at Ebla, Mari, Alalakh, Bogazkoy, Tell Aphek, and Amarna, while documents from Ugarit evidence the city's political and commercial relations with Crete, Cyprus, Hatti, Egypt, and various Syro-Palestinian city-states. Written communication between Ugarit and places external to the city-state was carried on in Akkadian, the lingua franca of the time. Ugaritic was used for matters of concern internal to the city-state. ...  Given Ugarit's destruction in the early twelfth century BCE, there were no direct ties between it and the ancient state of Israel (tn: assumes late date of Conquest). ... Scholars concur that Ugaritic is a Northwest (also called Syro-Palestinian) Semitic language, the subgrouping of ancient Semitic languages of which Classical Hebrew was a member. Scholars disagree, however, on whether Ugaritic should be classified along with Hebrew as a Canaanite Northwest language or belongs to a separate and otherwise unexampled branch of the Northwest Semitic language family. ... Although Ugaritic is not a direct ancestor of Hebrew and may not even be a member of the Canaanite language family..." [REF:BB, 227-229]

"Linguistically, however, Ugaritic is considerably more archaic than any of the well-attested Northwest Semitic languages, and probably descends directly from a Levantine 'Amorite' dialect. All indications are that it is not more diretly related to East Semitic (Akkadian) than to West Semitic. ... From rare mentions of Ugarit in texts from other sites (Mari, el-Amarna), it is clear that the inhabitants of the city were of so-called Amorite stock, for they bear Amorite names and maintained cultural relations with the other Amorite kingdoms of the eighteenth century BC. ... The Ugaritic language was only one of at least eight languages (and/or writing systems) in use at Ugarit. The one other Semitic language attested is Akkadian, the international lingua franca of the time, in which approximately 2,000 texts are written in syllabic cuneiform... A number of texts have also been found in Sumerian, Hittite (written in standard syllabic cuneiform and in hieroglyphic), Egyptian, Hurrian (written in Ugaritic consonantal cuneiform and in standard syllabic cuneiform), and Cypro-Minoan (not fully deciphered). " [HI:WAL:288f]

"The classification of Ugaritic as a NW Semitic language is generally accepted. Its position within NW Semitic, however, has been a matter of considerable debate; some scholars consider Ugaritic to be a dialect of Canaanite, while others, noting that it does not participate in a number of Canaanite innovations, argue that Ugaritic represents a separate branch of NW Semitic distinct from both Canaanite and Aramaic. [ABD, s.v. "Languages"].

“The Hebrew language is a highly mixed tongue, the child of several parents. It is the result of a fusion of Akkadian, Canaanite, and Aramaic…  [PCE2, 63]

“For example, the Book of Genesis contains many Egyptian expressions as well as a few early Akkadianisms. “ [NIEBF, 340]

“Hebrew belonged to the Semitic group of languages. It was directly related to such ancient Semitic languages as Aramaic, Akkadian, and Ugaritic…” [NIEBF, 338]

“The spread of Akkadian as the language of administration thoughout the Near East led to contacts with Indo-European languages and also facilitated the borrowing of hundreds of its lexical items by languages like Hebrew.” [HI:HHL, 13]

"Within the Canaanite group, Hebrew has a special place, almost half-way between Phoenician and Old Aramaic, and, in its turn, a centre of innovations which spread throughout the neighbouring areas.” [HI:HHL, 43]

"Akkadian is one of the major parents of the Hebrew tongue, and many obscure words and phrases in Genesis have been clarified by comparing Hebrew and Akkadian. Some features of Hebrew grammar and vocabulary have been made more intelligible by tracing them back to Akkadian.” [PCE2, 58]

"If, in various ways, we recognize in Hebrew elements that differentiate it from the neighbouring Canaanite dialects, we do not believe that these are derived from the Aramaic or Amorite that the Israelites might perhaps have spoken before they settled in Canaan, but instead that they result, for example, from linguistic conservativism, from independent linguistic developments within Hebrew, and from dialect diversity..” [HI:HHL:56]

"growing up in Pharaoh’s court. Growing up in the household of Pharaoh would have involved certain privileges in terms of education and training. This would have included training in literature and scribal arts as well as in warfare. Foreign languages would have been important for any work in diplomacy and probably were included. One of the qualities that Egyptians prized most was rhetoric (eloquence in speech and argumentation). Literary works such as The Eloquent Peasant show how impressed they were with someone who could speak well. Though Moses would have been trained in rhetoric, he did not consider himself skilled in this area (4:10–12)." [BBC]

"For some, the whole notion of Moses being reared in the Egyptian court seems like a legendary feature. But a closer look at the royal court in the New Kingdom suggests otherwise. Thutmose III (1457 - 1425 B.c.) initiated the practice of bringing the princes of subject kings of western Asia to Egypt to be trained in Egyptian ways so as to prepare them to replace their fathers upon their death. This policy is laid out in the following text which deals with the tribute from Retenu (Syria-Palestine): "Now the children of the chieftains and their brothers are brought in order to be hostages of Egypt. Now if anyone of these chieftains die, then his majesty will have his son go to assume his throne." References to the presence of the sons of Syro-Canaanite kings in Pharaoh's court and possible allusions to the inauguration of the practice by Thutmose III are found in some of the Amarna letters. Aziru of Amurru, in order to show his loyalty to Egypt says, "I herewith give [my] sons as 2 att[endants] and they are to do what the k[ing, my lord] orders" (EA, 156:9 - 14). Meanwhile, Arasha of Kumidu claimed: "Truly I send my own son to the king, my lord" (EA, 199.15 - 21). Jerusalem's king, Abdu-Heba, maintains that his legitimacy as king was due to his appointment by Pharaoh, stating "neither my father nor my mother put me in this place, but the strong arm of the king brought me into my father's house (EA, 286.10 - 5)." From this statement it might be inferred that Abdu-Heba had been a prince schooled in Egypt before his appointment to the kingship of Jerusalem.

"Perhaps in the absence of a son, or one old enough to be sent to Egypt, a king's brother might be sent to Egypt instead, as Biryawaza of Damascus reports: "[I] herewith [s]end [m]y brother [t]o you" (EA 194.28-32). In addition, the Amarna Letters, and other New Kingdom documents, abound with references to daughters of kings from the Levant, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia going to Egypt to marry the pharaohs to seal a diplomatic marriage.

"Thus, foreign princes and princesses were no strangers to the Egyptian court of New Kingdom. Among the titles of Akhenaten's vizier, the Semitic-named Aper-el, recorded in his recently discovered tomb at Saqqara is hrd n k3p, "child of the nursery" The k3p seems to have been connected to the palaces of Egypt and appears to have had an educational component to them, the mnc or mnct being the tutor. Little is known about this institution in the Middle Kingdom, but it flourished in the New Kingdom and was open to foreigners, Nubians and Semites alike. In a study of the children of the nursery during the Eighteenth Dynasty, Betsy Bryan observes that among them "were also children of foreign rulers who were sent or taken as hostages to Egypt to be 'civilized' and then returned to rule as vassals." She also points out that some of the children of the nursery went on to be court officials, with a few attaining high positions in the government. Aper-el was an alumnus of the k3p, a foreigner, too, who reached the highest administrative post in the land after he or his father came to Egypt as part of the Egyptian program for maintaining its Asian empire.

"According to Bryan, nurseries were located "throughout the country" wherever there were royal residences, and thus the hrdw "were raised in the confines of palaces within Egypt," and they "obviously had advantages not available to many." The picture of Moses in Exodus 2 being taken to the court by a princess where he was reared and educated is quite consistent with the emerging information about the k3p in the New Kingdom, the only period for which there is evidence of foreigners being included in this royal institution." [OT:IIE:142f]

"How Could Brickfield Slaves Produce International-Format Documents? The particular and special form of covenant evidenced by Exodus-Leviticus and in Deuteronomy (and mirrored in Josh. 24) could not possibly have been reinvented even in the fourteenth/thirteenth centuries by a runaway rabble of brick-making slaves under some uncouth leader no more educated than themselves. The formal agreeing, formatting, and issuing of treaty documents belongs to governments and (in antiquity) to royal courts. Private citizens h