I found many words that are the same in English as they are in Hebrew. I’ve found 341 so far. ‘Gimel’ ‘Resh’ ‘Nun’ is THROAT and in English its GROAN. ‘Kuf’ ‘Lamed’ for VOICE and CALL in English. ‘Tav’ ‘Lamed’ to HANG and in English its TAIL.I hope you agree but you might not. Thank you
Very interesting. There is no question that certain words in English bear more than a passing similarity to English words. As I am not a philologist nor a linguist, I can’t really comment on the accuracy of your particular examples, but they certainly appear worthy of consideration.
Nonetheless, it is noteworthy that Rashi comments (Genesis 2:23) that the world was created with the Holy Tongue (i.e. Hebrew). That comment certainly implies that Hebrew was the very first language. As such, it would seem all other languages are in some way derived from Hebrew.
Rashi’s comments on the tower of Babel would also seem to suggest such a progression (namely that everyone spoke Hebrew at the outset and only after building the tower, did everyone being to speak other languages). I am not sure what linguists would have to say about this hypothesis, but however one is to understand these comments of Rashi,
it is clear that Hebrew is the backbone of the universe.
The Rabbis also note in a number of places that the words in Hebrew have meaning. What I mean to say is that in English, a table is called a table, not because the word table (or the letters) intrinsically means a table, but rather it is an agreed upon convention. A table could just as easily be called a olloka (or any other sound you like),
and as long as we all agreed the thing with four legs was called an olloka, nothing would be lost and the word table would cease to have any meaning. In Hebrew, however, the word for table, shulchan, is not merely an agreed upon convention, but rather, the letters of the word Shulchan when put together in essence mean a table. The word itself
indicates a table. If we were to change what we called a table in Hebrew to olloka, we would understand what we were talking about, but that would not change the fact that shulchan still means table, by its very essence. Certainly this is part of the meaning of Rashi’s comment that the world was created with Hebrew.
Sorry I cannot be of more assistance, but I am impressed and encouraged by your devotion to the Holy Tongue.
Be well,
Rabbi Yoel Spotts