I went down a language path for my own bit of curiosity since I know next to nothing about it.
Hebrew belongs to the Semitic language family alongside languages like Akkadian (attested from ~2500 BCE), Aramaic, Phoenician, and Ugaritic in Syria up until the Sea Peoples invaded, then it faded out. Hebrew's ancestor Proto-Semitic, dates back well before 3000 BCE, but Hebrew itself developed from Proto-Canaanite, that being Canaanite dialects spoken in the Levant. Nobody knows where exactly Proto-Semitic language originated. The closest language today to Proto-Semitic is Arabic.
Linguists and archaeologists place the emergence of Hebrew proper around the time Israelite tribes settled in Canaan (circa 1200–1000 BCE), where it differentiated from closely related Canaanite languages like Phoenician and Moabite. The language was likely spoken earlier in oral form, but far as I know we lack direct evidence for its very beginnings, as distinct languages evolve gradually (centuries to millennia) from dialects. Just as current English did.
Inscriptions from around the 10th century BCE, such as the Gezer Calendar (a limestone tablet listing agricultural seasons, discovered in Gezer and dated to circa 925–900 BCE during the time of King Solomon). It uses an early Paleo-Hebrew script (derived from Phoenician) and is widely regarded as one of the oldest clear examples of written Hebrew, though some debate whether its language is fully distinct from Phoenician yet.
"How long does it take, for a language to become a [distinct] language?"
If you ask that to 10 linguists you'll likely get 9 different answers according to my uncle, a retired linguist at the Pentagon.
So the question is really: How long until speakers of related varieties can no longer understand each other without special effort (mutual unintelligibility)? That is the conventional linguistic threshold for recognizing two varieties as separate languages rather than dialects.
Rough Time Scales from Historical Linguistics & Linguists observe wide variation depending on factors like population size, contact intensity, writing systems (which slow change), social pressures and war conquests.
Mutual unintelligibility often emerges in 500–1,000 years of separation/isolation for many language families. This is a common "lower bound" cited in historical linguistics:
* After ~500 years: Noticeable divergence, but partial understanding possible (like modern English speakers reading Shakespeare with effort).
* After ~800–1,000 years: Usually full mutual unintelligibility in spoken form.
Examples of real-world divergence timelines starting roughly 3,000 years ago to present:
Romance languages (from Vulgar Latin): Began diverging noticeably after the Western Roman Empire's fall (5th century CE). By the 8th–9th centuries CE (300–500 years later), regional varieties were distinct enough to be seen as separate (e.g., early Old French, Old Spanish, Old Italian). Full modern distinctions solidified over ~1,000–1,500 years total.
Germanic languages (from Proto-Germanic): Divergence started ~500 BCE–1 CE. By ~500–800 CE (roughly 1,000–1,500 years), branches like Old English, Old High German, and Old Norse were clearly separate and not mutually intelligible.
Slavic languages (from Proto-Slavic): Proto-Slavic existed until ~500–800 CE. Major branches (East, West, South Slavic) diverged over the next few centuries; by ~1,000–1,200 years ago, they were distinct languages, though many remain more mutually intelligible than Romance or Germanic ones due to later splits and less drastic changes.
Glottochronology (a debated but useful method using core vocabulary retention rates; I think most linguists frown upon it) estimates ~14–19% replacement per millennium in basic word lists, leading to ~74% retention after 1,000 years and ~40–55% after 2,000–3,000 years often correlating with unintelligibility around the 1,000-year mark in many families.
In short, over the past 3,000 years, the typical range for a new distinct language to emerge from divergence is several centuries to 1–2 millennia, most commonly landing in the 500–1,500 year window for full separation. There is no universal clock, change rates vary widely, but this range covers most natural, gradual cases in Indo-European and many other families.
Linguistics 001 - Language Change & Historical Reconstruction
How long does it take for language to diverge?
How Fast Do Languages Evolve? - Dyirbal glottochronology 1 of 2 (Video)
Language evolution and human history: what a difference a date makes
Comparing Germanic, Romance and Slavic: Relationships among linguistic distances
Hebrew belongs to the Semitic language family alongside languages like Akkadian (attested from ~2500 BCE), Aramaic, Phoenician, and Ugaritic in Syria up until the Sea Peoples invaded, then it faded out. Hebrew's ancestor Proto-Semitic, dates back well before 3000 BCE, but Hebrew itself developed from Proto-Canaanite, that being Canaanite dialects spoken in the Levant. Nobody knows where exactly Proto-Semitic language originated. The closest language today to Proto-Semitic is Arabic.
Linguists and archaeologists place the emergence of Hebrew proper around the time Israelite tribes settled in Canaan (circa 1200–1000 BCE), where it differentiated from closely related Canaanite languages like Phoenician and Moabite. The language was likely spoken earlier in oral form, but far as I know we lack direct evidence for its very beginnings, as distinct languages evolve gradually (centuries to millennia) from dialects. Just as current English did.
Inscriptions from around the 10th century BCE, such as the Gezer Calendar (a limestone tablet listing agricultural seasons, discovered in Gezer and dated to circa 925–900 BCE during the time of King Solomon). It uses an early Paleo-Hebrew script (derived from Phoenician) and is widely regarded as one of the oldest clear examples of written Hebrew, though some debate whether its language is fully distinct from Phoenician yet.
"How long does it take, for a language to become a [distinct] language?"
If you ask that to 10 linguists you'll likely get 9 different answers according to my uncle, a retired linguist at the Pentagon.
So the question is really: How long until speakers of related varieties can no longer understand each other without special effort (mutual unintelligibility)? That is the conventional linguistic threshold for recognizing two varieties as separate languages rather than dialects.
Rough Time Scales from Historical Linguistics & Linguists observe wide variation depending on factors like population size, contact intensity, writing systems (which slow change), social pressures and war conquests.
Mutual unintelligibility often emerges in 500–1,000 years of separation/isolation for many language families. This is a common "lower bound" cited in historical linguistics:
* After ~500 years: Noticeable divergence, but partial understanding possible (like modern English speakers reading Shakespeare with effort).
* After ~800–1,000 years: Usually full mutual unintelligibility in spoken form.
Examples of real-world divergence timelines starting roughly 3,000 years ago to present:
Romance languages (from Vulgar Latin): Began diverging noticeably after the Western Roman Empire's fall (5th century CE). By the 8th–9th centuries CE (300–500 years later), regional varieties were distinct enough to be seen as separate (e.g., early Old French, Old Spanish, Old Italian). Full modern distinctions solidified over ~1,000–1,500 years total.
Germanic languages (from Proto-Germanic): Divergence started ~500 BCE–1 CE. By ~500–800 CE (roughly 1,000–1,500 years), branches like Old English, Old High German, and Old Norse were clearly separate and not mutually intelligible.
Slavic languages (from Proto-Slavic): Proto-Slavic existed until ~500–800 CE. Major branches (East, West, South Slavic) diverged over the next few centuries; by ~1,000–1,200 years ago, they were distinct languages, though many remain more mutually intelligible than Romance or Germanic ones due to later splits and less drastic changes.
Glottochronology (a debated but useful method using core vocabulary retention rates; I think most linguists frown upon it) estimates ~14–19% replacement per millennium in basic word lists, leading to ~74% retention after 1,000 years and ~40–55% after 2,000–3,000 years often correlating with unintelligibility around the 1,000-year mark in many families.
In short, over the past 3,000 years, the typical range for a new distinct language to emerge from divergence is several centuries to 1–2 millennia, most commonly landing in the 500–1,500 year window for full separation. There is no universal clock, change rates vary widely, but this range covers most natural, gradual cases in Indo-European and many other families.
Linguistics 001 - Language Change & Historical Reconstruction
How long does it take for language to diverge?
How Fast Do Languages Evolve? - Dyirbal glottochronology 1 of 2 (Video)
Language evolution and human history: what a difference a date makes
Comparing Germanic, Romance and Slavic: Relationships among linguistic distances
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