The negative existential cycle in Ancient Hebrew

Evidence of diachronic change as opposed to synchronic variation in Ancient (Pre-Modern) Hebrew is currently disputed, as is the relationship of Biblical Hebrew to later varieties of Hebrew as found in Qumran Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew. Recent work in historical linguistics, particularly the study of cyclical change in individual constructions, has provided a means to use stages of synchronic variation within a diachronic trajectory for analyzing how languages change. Such a diachronic trajectory includes synchronic variation, transitional stages and overlapping constructions. One cycle which manifests synchronic variation within a diachronic trajectory is the Negative Existential Cycle as introduced by Croft (1991). This cycle is evident in the ancient varieties of Hebrew and adds evidence to the claim that diachronic change is discernible in Ancient Hebrew. One additional change that is observed is a shift in subject agreement from more synthetic to more analytic in certain constructions, which is consistent with the Subject Agreement Cycle in van Gelderen (2011)