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''This is a part of Hebrew literature'' This article is concerned with Hebrew-language texts written in the period from the beginning of Hebrew writing to the Middle Ages. Hebrew, classified as a Canaanite language along with Phoenician, began developing as an independent language around 1050 BCE,〔.〕 though there are earlier attested mentions of Israel in text. The earliest known inscription in Hebrew is the Khirbet Qeiyafa Inscription (11th — 10th century BCE), if it can indeed be considered Hebrew at that early a stage. By far the most varied, extensive and historically significant body of literature written in Ancient Hebrew is the canon of the Hebrew Bible (commonly referred to as the "Tanakh" by Jews, the "Old Testament" by Christians), but certain other works have survived as well. It is not unusual for ancient narratives, poetry and rules to have been transmitted orally for several generations before being committed to writing. ==Hebrew dialects== The language variety in which the Masoretic biblical text is written, is known as Biblical Hebrew. Varieties of Hebrew were spoken not only by the ancient Israelites but also in adjacent kingdoms east and south of the Jordan River, where distinct non-Israelite dialects existed, now extinct: Ammonite, Moabite and Edomite. After the inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom of Israel had been deported from their homeland following the Assyrian conquest in approximately 721 BC, an equivalent linguistic shift occurred. In the Second Temple period since the Babylonian exile, beginning in the 5th century BCE, the two known remnants of the twelve Israelite tribes came to be referred to as Jews and Samaritans (see Samaritan Hebrew). Unlike Samaritan and Biblical Hebrew, the other varieties are poorly studied due to insufficient data. It may be argued that they are independent languages, as the distinction between language and dialect is ambiguous. They are known only from very small corpora, coming from seals, ostraca, transliterations of names in foreign texts and, in particular, the following inscriptions: *Mesha Stele (9th century BCE), the longest Moabite text known;〔Geoffrey W. Bromiley, ''The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia'', Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007, p. 395 under 'Moab' ()〕 *El-Kerak Stela (9th century BCE), 3 lines of Moabite writing; *Amman Citadel Inscription〔(Amman Citadel Inscription )〕 (9th century BCE), 8 lines of Ammonite writing. Hebrew and Phoenician are classified as Canaanite languages, which, along with Aramaic constitute the Northwest Semitic (Levantine) language family. Extra-biblical Canaanite inscriptions are gathered along with Aramaic inscriptions in editions of the book "Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften", from which they may be referenced as KAI ''n'' (for a number ''n''); for example, the Mesha Stele is "KAI 181". The Deir Alla Inscription (c. 840–760 BCE), which is written in a peculiar Northwest Semitic dialect, has provoked much debate among scholars and had a strong impact on the study of Hebrew language history.〔()〕〔B. Halpern, "Dialect Distribution in Canaan and the Deir Alla Inscriptions", in D.M. Golomb, ed., ''"Working With No Data": Semitic and Egyptian Studies Presented to Thomas O. Lambdin'' (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1987), pp. 119-39, in particular p. 139.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ancient Hebrew writings」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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