Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #Aramaic
Most recents (9)
Some thoughts on the Proto-#Semitic word for 'woman, wife' on this #InternationalWomensDay.
The broad outlines of the reconstruction are clear, since many different languages have pretty similar forms. The stem must be something like *ʔV(n)θ-(a)t-. 1/11
The broad outlines of the reconstruction are clear, since many different languages have pretty similar forms. The stem must be something like *ʔV(n)θ-(a)t-. 1/11
This *-(a)t- is the feminine suffix. From the same consonantal root, we also find some other words: #Arabic ʔunθā 'feminine', #Amorite(!) /taʔnīθ-um/, predictably bizarre Modern South Arabian forms like #Jibbali teθ, etc. (for Ancient South Arabian, see below). 2/11
Reconstructing the main word runs into three problems. From right to left:
1) *-at- or *-t- in the suffix?
2) *n or no *n?
3) *a or *i in the first syllable? 3/11
1) *-at- or *-t- in the suffix?
2) *n or no *n?
3) *a or *i in the first syllable? 3/11
More of an article outline than a thread, but tweeting about an idea is more fun than looking up which 19th-century German already published it. So: a thread about the h in ʔĕlōhīm/allåhå/ʔilāh- etc. ‘god’, and why the #Hebrew word is morphologically plural. 1/20
Night 15 of #TurkeyJewishRoadtrip:
Adıyaman
I usually share a day post, but meeting with Metropolitan Gregorios Melki ÜREK of Adıyaman and conversing with him in Aramaic, deserves a special thread...
Adıyaman
I usually share a day post, but meeting with Metropolitan Gregorios Melki ÜREK of Adıyaman and conversing with him in Aramaic, deserves a special thread...
Metropolitan Gregorios looks over a small, dwindling community in the Adıyaman area - a community that is native to this region, as he explains "We are Arameans, we are from this region, so we speak, write and read in Aramaic. This is our home".
The Metropolitan and I walked around the streets of Adıyaman, he wearing his usual bright red clerical clothing, me wearing my Kipah, and it seems that everyone knows him "we love the people" he says, and they sure reciprocate in kind...
For Aramaic (Sureth), follow the mass in (although here also Arabic and Aramaic (and Italian) are mixed #PopeInIraq #Aramaic
Apologies - most of the #Aramaic so far is in the form of Classical Syriac, not the modern spoken language (Sureth)
And the three readings from the Bible (OT, Epistles, Gospel) are in Arabic - obviously the language best understood by the majority of those present
THE SECOND COMING:
“And you will hear reports from some, saying, ‘Look, he has returned,’ ‘The Messiah is over here,’ or ‘The Messiah is over there!’ Don’t believe it.
“And you will hear reports from some, saying, ‘Look, he has returned,’ ‘The Messiah is over here,’ or ‘The Messiah is over there!’ Don’t believe it.
For there will be imposters falsely claiming to be God’s ‘Anointed One,’ and false prophets will arise to perform miracle signs to lead astray, if possible, those God has chosen to be His. Remember this, for I prophesy it will happen!
Short? thread on III-y verbs in #Aramaic:
Based on #Hebrew and #Arabic, we reconstruct a slightly irregular paradigm for the prefix conjugation for Pr-Cntrl-#Semitic, where the 3rd radical is lost word-finally:
imperfect *ta-bniy-u 'you build'; but
imperative *bni 'build!' 1/7
Based on #Hebrew and #Arabic, we reconstruct a slightly irregular paradigm for the prefix conjugation for Pr-Cntrl-#Semitic, where the 3rd radical is lost word-finally:
imperfect *ta-bniy-u 'you build'; but
imperative *bni 'build!' 1/7
In Arabic, the *-iyu of the imperfect contracts to -ī, while the imperative adds i- before the cluster:
imperfect *ta-bniy-u > tabnī
imperative *bni > ibni
Cf. @PhDniX's article on triphthong contraction in Arabic: 2/7 academia.edu/32715681/The_d…
imperfect *ta-bniy-u > tabnī
imperative *bni > ibni
Cf. @PhDniX's article on triphthong contraction in Arabic: 2/7 academia.edu/32715681/The_d…
In Hebrew, *-iyu contracts to -ɛ̄, while the short *-i is lowered to *-e and then lengthened:
imperfect *ta-bniy-u > tiḇnɛ̄
imperative *bni > bnē
Cf. my article on these verbs here: 3/7 academia.edu/37673891/A_tri…
imperfect *ta-bniy-u > tiḇnɛ̄
imperative *bni > bnē
Cf. my article on these verbs here: 3/7 academia.edu/37673891/A_tri…
In their zeal to preserve EVERY detail of the biblical text accurately, the #Masoretes sometimes make up little ditties, in #Aramaic, to help remember some textual feature or another. I've just come across one I'd not seen before, & which has instantly become my favourite. (1/5)
Remember #Ezekiel 18? The righteous man and the unrighteous man. The righteous man does not eat on the mountains (i.e. at the idol shrines), but the unrighteous man does eat on the mountains
In both cases, the verb 'eat' happens to be marked w/ Zaqef. Zaqef is quite a strong disjunctive accent. S/times it causes the word it marks to be written as a pausal form (ie vowel change), s/times not. Here: 'does not eat' is pausal, but 'does eat' is written non-pausally.
The #Hebrew and #Aramaic vocalization sign shwa is sometimes read as a reduced vowel (hence the phonetic term schwa). Other times, it indicates the absence of any vowel. The rules are pretty clear, but there's some disagreement over words ending in 2 consonants with shwa. 1/6
For example, should Biblical Aramaic אַנְתְּה 'you (m.sg.)' be read as Ɂant or Ɂantə? (Yes, there's an extra ה at the end and yes, the Masoretes read shwa as a full vowel, not [ə]; that's all not relevant right now, you know what I mean.) 2/6
We can actually tell that no vowel was read in these cases from the lack of spirantization of following consonants. In #Daniel 4:15, for example, the vocalization has וְאַ֨נְתְּה בֵּלְטְשַׁאצַּ֜ר wə-Ɂant bēlṭəšaṣṣar and וְאַ֣נְתְּה כָּהֵ֔ל wə-Ɂant kāhēl. 3/6
I thought it would be fun to share my own #MICAH13 presentation with you all via Twitter – @PhDniX's excellent Twitter recaps of his talks were a major factor behind me getting on here too. This was a 20-minute talk, so: LONG thread.
This talk is about #Biblical #Aramaic, attested in the books of #Ezra and #Daniel. Scholars have long debated the linguistic background of these texts, nearly always focusing on the consonantal text. But in the case of Biblical Aramaic, that only tells you half the story.
In the Masoretic Text, differences between the consonantal text and the reading tradition are indicated by so-called qere notes. Here, 'what is written' (Aramaic: ketiv) does not match 'what is read' (Aramaic: qere). The different qere forms thus reflect the reading tradition.
