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Fritz,<br><br>Your question is very interesting one and probably of generic nature. I mean<br>that similar questions can be asked about lexical and phraseology contribution <br>to any language. For example the less known for Western linguists Russian language received an enormous contribution at the end of the 18th century and the first part of 19th century not only from German and French languages (lexical borrowing, but also from particular writers. Probably Nikolai Karamzin (1766-1826), a historian and a writer, contributed a greatest number of Russian neologisms and coinages, while Denis Fonvizin (von Wisien, 1744-1792) and especially A.S. Griboedov (1795-1829) contributed a greatest number of locutions, phrases, etc. I would say that in the case of the last two the reason was that they had sharp mind (i.e. they were quick-witted people) and their formulations were les mots d'esprit (witticisms). Their witticisms came to Russian
language mostly from the comedies.<br><br>Following this observation and going back to Shakespeare, it is interesting to learn what percentage of Shakespeare's coinages is coming from his comedies and what portion from the tragedies. I doubt that any of them are coming from his poetry. Do Russian examples work for Shakespeare in this case?<br><br>As to similar analysis for Hebrew language, there is no doubt that the greatest amount of new use is coming from the Bible, but in the Inter-testamental and Rabbinic periods there were great contributions in Mishna, Talmud and other Rabbinic writing. <br>In the modern period the major contributor of new words was Eliezer Ben-Yehudah (Perelman, 1858-1922), Hebrew writer and lexicographer, while some lexemes and many phrases were contributed by Hayim Nahman Bialik <br>(1873-1934), greatest modern Hebrew poet. However the nature of Hebrew neologisms differs significantly from the cases of English and Russian.
Hebrew<br>contributions served revival of Hebrew from the dead, while both English and Russian were spoken languages.<br><br>Hayim Y. Sheynin<br> <br><b><i>Fritz Goerling <Fritz_Goerling@sil.org></i></b> wrote:<blockquote class="replbq" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> <!-- Network content --> <div id="ygrp-text"> <div> <!-- Network content --> </div><div class="Section1"> <div class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black;">Just a rhetorical question: Why have so many of Shakespeare’s sayings, expressions and phrases entered the English language?<o></o></span></font></div> <div
class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black;"><o> </o></span></font></div> <div class="MsoNormal"><font color="black" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black;">Fritz Goerling<o></o></span></font></div> <div class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br> I truly would like to see uncovered an expression from a local-<br> yokel with the cogency, efficiency, and elegance of "Friends, Romans, <br> countrymen, lend me your ears." I would like to read that person's <br> autobiography. <br> <br> Scott Nelson<br> <br> <br> <o></o></span></font></div> </div> <!--End group email --><div></div> </div> <!--End group email --> </blockquote><br><p>
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