Holy Tongue or Conventional Language: The Concept and Status of the Hebrew Language among Medieval Karaite Jews

Abstract The article examines the concept and status of the Hebrew language among medieval Karaites exploring whether they embraced linguistic relativism (the idea of ‘the holy tongue’), which was characteristic of rabbinic Judaism. It goes on to delve into the complex issue of why medieval Karaites, after initially (in the 9th century) advocating for a return to Hebrew, eventually (in the 11th century) abandoned this idea in favour of Arabic. Through terminological, genealogical, and functional analyses of source texts (dating primarily from the 10th century, when the ‘language breakthrough’ occurred), it demonstrates that the Karaites did not desacralize Hebrew but rather perceived it as a special language of divine origin and sacred significance while at the same time considered it a conventional language, adapted to human needs and cognitive capacities. The paper argues that these central beliefs—regarding Hebrew as both holy and conventional—motivated the Karaites’ efforts to revive it, and contemplates why they eventually discarded this attempt. It postulates that this change occurred due to intellectual/cultural, pragmatic/linguistic and eschatological considerations.