THE HEBREW SOURCE OF NORTHERN TONGUES
[adapted from “The Tribes” by Yair Davidiy]
TERRY MARVIN BLODGETT in 1981(c) published a Ph.D. thesis (“Phonological Similarities in Germanic and Hebrew”, The University of Utah, 1981) in which he proved that the original tongue of the northern “Barbarians” who overran Europe was Hebrew. These peoples are commonly referred to as “Germanic” since some of them had sojourned at one stage in Germany and their language had been adopted by the German “natives”. The peoples in question however had little real connection to the present day inhabitants of the area of Germany. Blodgett, now Professor of Languages, Southern Utah University, Cedar City, Utah, USA, showed how it is academically accepted that approximately one-third of all “Germanic” vocabulary is of an unknown (non -Indo-European) origin. There were also other linguistic features that need explanation such as certain peculiarities in the rules of pronunciation:
“The Germanic sound shifts and gemination [i.e. double-sounding of consonants as found in Hebrew] are not to be explained on the basis of lndo-European linguistics”.
These foreign non-Indo-European elements are attributable (said Blodgett) to Hebrew incursions recognizable in the areas of phonology, morphology, and lexicology.
“English, Frisian, Dutch, Flemish, High and Low German, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and lcelandic, as well as the extinct languages of Gothic, Old Norse, Old Saxon, and others comprise one of the Indo-European groups of language commonly called Germanic. On a broader scale, the Germanic branch of languages shares many features in common with the Italic, Greek, Celtic, Slavonic, Indo-lranian and other Indo-European groups”.
Even so the Germanic branch of these languages has a non “lndo-European” component comprising approximately one-third of the total: It is this element that Blodgett identified as HEBREW!!! Blodgett proved his case using terminology and a great many examples of a technical nature. [That there was a non-lndo-European basis for the Germanic languages is generally accepted in academic circles. The nature of this basis has not been decided upon.] A crude but reliable enough notion of the overall tendency of Blodgett’s work is as follows:
At some early stage, there occurred a series of sound shifts in the Germanic language or languages, the lndo-European “bhrator” became : “brother”, “peter” became “father”, etc. “p” became “f”’, “t” became “th”, “w” became “ch”, b, d, and g also changed.
Opinions concerning the date of this Germanic Sound Shift give dates varying from 2000 BCE to 9 CE. On the one side, John T. Waterman (“A History of the German Language”, 1966) says “the general consensus of scholars is that the Germanic Sound Shift began probably not much before the fifth century B.C., and that it was essentially completed by the last pre-Christian century”, i.e. from ca. 400 BCE to 100 BCE. Waterman bases his case on the fact that words in Germanic borrowed from Greek in the 400s BCE also underwent the shift whereas words taken from Latin in the first century BCE did not.
“On the other hand, Heinz F. Wendt (“Sprachen”, 1977) believed that the shift had been essentially completed by 500 B.C.” Overall it is assumed (Blodgett quotes sources) that the sound shift occurred around 500 BCE give or take a century or two. All Germanic dialects took part in the shift so it is assumed that the change took place whilst the parent groups were still in the north, in Scandinavia and Northern Germany. The period of 500 BCE (for the said “Sound Change”) is the one most authoritative opinion seems to converge on. Whether it occurred before 500 BCE or in the following era the most important point for us is recognition of the fact that it did occur.
A lot of reasons have been proposed to explain this shift but the bottom line is that the cause is generally ascribed to ethnic factors implying racial mixture.
S. Feist thinks:
“that the northern peoples were originally non-Indo-European, who learnt their Indo-European from the broad-headed Alpine race….”
Waterman said:
“It is reasonable to assume that a non-Germanic substratum had some influence upon the language of those lndo-Europeans who migrated to the area in northern Europe which later became the Germanic homeland …“
Waterman appears to assume that “Indo-Europeans” moved to northern Germany where there already existed a non-Indo-European speaking element and that these influenced the “lndo-Europeans”. Our (Brit-Am) own studies show the opposite. We have evidence that peoples from the East, of Hebrew descent, via Scythia invaded Germany and influenced the “Indo-European” natives.
The newcomers from Scythia according to archaeology in east Scythia used Aramaic as their major language. There is some evidence that they also used Hebrew and that the Lost Ten Tribes prior to their exile had used both Hebrew and Aramaic. This knowledge is based on archaeological finds.
Some of the Israelites (e.g. those who were east of the Jordan according to inscriptions) before their exile spoke an Aramaic dialect similar to Hebrew. The Scythians in east Scythia must have used Hebrew as well as Aramaic. New work by Scandinavian scholars such as Dr. Dr. Kjell Artuns “Runer” (Oslo, Norway, 1994) and Orjan Svensson (of Blekinge in Sweden) have proven that the first Runic inscriptions in Scandinavia wore written in both Hebrew and Aramaic dialects. Orjan Svensson has shown that the language of some of these inscriptions is almost certainly Hebraic! In other cases it is Aramaic or in a Hebrew-type related tongue. Early Nordic dialects as well as early English ones still retained a large number of Hebrew words and Hebrew characteristics. Remnants of these are still to be found in the English language.
The Germanic Sound Shift can best be explained by the mass presence of former Hebrew-speakers. The same changes that occurred in “Germanic” languages occur in Hebrew according to fixed grammatical and phonetic rules. Blodgett points out that people who from birth made the said changes would naturally have tended to speak as if the changes also held in a foreign language that they may have been forced to use at short notice.
Even technical sophisticated details concerning rules of the Sound Shift in Hebrew were continued into Germanic. The Sound Shift is not the only factor demonstrating this same principle which seems to hold throughout all possible examples.: e.g. Hebrew rijchah ‘sense of smell’ and verb form rijach [pronounced “ray- ach”] ‘to smell’ compare with German riechen ‘to smell’.
“..The {sh} of Hebrew was usually represented, sometimes by {s}, and occasionally by {st} in Germanic. This is not only true of Biblical names such as Shaul – Saul, but also of ancient words such as Hebrew shaphah ‘to scrape, form, shape, create’. Two words appear in Germanic similar in form and meaning to the Hebrew “shaphah”: the first is Old Norse skrap and English scrape; the second is Old Norse skap and Old Saxon scapan, which eventually developed into High German shoepfen and English shape”. In Ancient Hebrew there were also changes, “shiboleth” became “siboleth” between one Tribe and another (Judges 12;6). Blodgett gives tens of examples to back each of his claims up and he goes through and explains each one of them. The total number of examples reach into the hundreds, and each example is a good one!!
“Gemination, or the doubling of consonants [e.g. apple pronounced as “ap-ple”, “middle” is pronounced as “mid-dle” ]… while seen sporadically throughout all Germanic dialects in general, is far more developed in the West Germanic areas. This phenomenon of gemination has an amazingly close parallel in Hebrew… ” In West Germanic dialects (e.g. Frisian, Anglo-Saxon) there are a sizeable number of words showing gemination which are similar in form and meaning to words in Hebrew.
In Hebrew you have “kabal” meaning “to complain, cry out, oppose, get ahead of someone”. “Kabal” in Hebrew is pronounced as “Kab=bal” with a gemination or doubling of the “b” consonant. KABAL gave rise to the English “squabble” = to quarrel noisily, and “quibble” meaning “to argue in an attempt to receive the largest portion”. In this as in very many others you have a word that sounds the same, follows the same grammatical rules and means the same in both languages! Geminations are found in Gothic, Old Norse, and Old English. There are other parallels between Hebrew and the Old Germanic tongues that are of a technical nature. The parallels include much vocabulary. Professor Blodgett presents a list containing hundreds of detailed examples.
There are several sources that provide additional examples of similarities between “Germanic” tongues and Hebrew in vocabulary. The one that most impressed me was “The Origin of Modern Culture Languages and their Derivation from the Hebraica,” by Professor Karl Rodosi, 1891. This work also adequately proves that the so-called Germanic tongues must have been formed by peoples who originally spoke Hebrew. The implications of these studies regarding ancestry are applicable to West Europeans but do not encompass most of the modern Germans. The case is similar to that of the present inhabitants of the USA who now nearly all speak English though only a portion of their ancestors came from Britain.
A few examples culled at random from Rodosi include:
English “BEAR”: bore or bare-borne: from Hebrew “OBER” pass over. The “v” and “b” are interchangeable in Hebrew.
English “BEAT” from Hebrew “BAT” trample, kick.
English “BECOME” from Hebrew “KOM” come into appearance, arise.
English “BLOW” from Hebrew “BLOW” swallow.
English “BURN” from Hebrew “BAER”.
English “BURST” from Hebrew “PRATS”.
English “BUY” from Hebrew “BUY” request.
English “CHOSE” from Hebrew “CHIZEH” search out, chose (Exodus 18:21).
English “CLOTHE” from Hebrew “CHELATZ”.
English “DARE” from Hebrew “ADIR” might.
English “DIG” From Hebrew “DACHA” ditch.
English “DO” from Hebrew “ADAH” cause.
English “DRIVE” from Hebrew “DARBEN” urge forward, drive on.
English “EAT” from Hebrew “CHIUT” give life to.
English “FEEL” from Hebrew “FElL” effect.
English “HEAR” from Hebrew “HEIR” arouse, awaken.
English “LIGHT” from Hebrew “LAHAT” flame, illuminate.
English “MAKE” from Hebrew “MAKIN” prepare.
English ‘WEAN” from Hebrew “MANAH” answer.
English “RIDE” from Hebrew “RIDEH” rule, subjugate.
English “SET” from Hebrew “SIT” to place.
English “SHALL” from Hebrew “SHAL” request, require.
English “TEACH” from Hebrew “TOKEACH” admonish.
English “WILL” from Hebrew “WEYAL” will.
