[MR] Re: Fw: [MK-SCRIBES] hebrew (fwd)

[Michael Houghton]

Howdy!

On Mon, Sep 27, 2004 at 09:44:44AM -0500, Craig Levin wrote:
[snip]
> For what it's worth, an AOA is a public document, written by
> royal command for all of the realm to see. It's a bad idea to put
> it in a language that most of the populace doesn't understand,
> IMO.

Perhaps, but it is principally a document from the crown to the
recipient, so I'm inclined to disagree here. There are plenty of
examples of award scrolls rendered in something other than english,
and not necessarily using the roman alphabet either.
> 
> Also, from the end of Judaean independence until the rise of the
> modern state, Hebrew was reserved for sacred use. Even ketubot
> are actually not in Hebrew, but Aramaic-the common language of
> the Near East in the days of the Roman Empire. For documents of a
> secular nature, Jews around the world usually preferred to use a
> vernacular languge or a close derivative (Ladino for Castilian &
> Portuguese, for instance).
> 
Now this is a better argument for not doing it in Hebrew. 

yours,
Herveus
-- 
Michael and MJ Houghton   | Herveus d'Ormonde and Megan O'Donnelly
herveus at radix.net         | White Wolf and the Phoenix
Bowie, MD, USA            | Tablet and Inkle bands, and other stuff
                          | http://www.radix.net/~herveus/