My article on (1 manifestation of) nominal case (tanwīn) in Xian Arabic MSS is finally out in the latest volume of Arabica! It was the 1st article I wrote as part of my main project now, so it's long and unpolished. A brief recap (can't cover much of it)

academia.edu/105219527/2023… My journey really began when I was writing my diss. on the historical development of nom. case in Arabic. I kept seeing examples from early Xian manuscripts, like Sinai Arabic MS 75 (pic), which exhibit all kinds of non-ClAr usages of "tanwīn alif"

I've been working through the various translations/transcriptions of the names in Matthew's genealogy for Jesus in the Arabic translations of the Gospels and found several interesting things, one of which involves the name of Ruth. A thread... In Hebrew, the name of Ruth is spelled רות <RWT> (and vocalized /rūṯ/ in the Tiberian MT text). In Greek, it's transliterated as ρουθ (presumably either /rūtʰ/ or /rūṯ/). But in the Peshitta, multiple MSS spell it with an ʿayin: ܪܳܥܽܘܬ݂ <RʿWT> /raʿūṯ/...

Apparently the second half of my thread – where I preview the orthographic variation and offer some concluding thoughts – got cut off. SO here is the rest!

I tried to tackle the most variable of the aspects of the MSS, which is the orthographic (esp. spelling) variation in them

https://twitter.com/phillipwstokes/status/1625238781631557644

There is a great deal of spelling variation, and in the Christian corpus this spelling variation occurs within the same MS. This spelling variation is esp. common in certain words, like hāʾulāʾi "these", which in SAr. 76 is spelled هولاي \ هولآءِ \ هاولاي etc (IMAGES)

I have a new article out! In it I try one approach to sorting out the considerable variation – lexical, grammatical, and orthographic – in Arabic Gospel translations to determine whether/what patterns emerge. I argue that variation in each of domain is patterned and meaningful...

https://twitter.com/alusuralwusta/status/1625196070488735744

First, I review the state of the field. Most scholarship has focused on when the translations were first made; placing these translations in the intellectual context of the early Islamic period; and determining what Vorlage each manuscript is translated from...

I've been thinking about doing a short thread on the variation in the Christian basmala formulations found in Xian Arabic MSS, and this finding inspired me. While it's relatively short and formulaic, there's some interesting stuff to find! Let's take a look...

https://twitter.com/phillipwstokes/status/1594854111970996224

The phrase "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit" is first mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew 28:19, where, after the resurrection, Jesus tells his disciples to baptize the nations "In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit"

THREAD: I am currently reading back through Christian literature in Arabic from early Islamic Syria, Palestine, and the Sinai. Many of these texts were subject of J. Blau's detailed 3-vol. grammar (1966-7). Subsequent work has largely replicated his approach. Blau treats the texts as examples of 'Middle Arabic,' which at the time he argued to be a historical stage of Arabic, in which 'Old Arabic' (which for Blau = ClAr) was rapidly simplified by non-natives, affecting especially morpho-syntax (e.g., case and mood), and syntax.