Studies In Hebrew And Aramaic Orthography

This book introduces the student to the textual study of the Hebrew Bible--to help such a student "perceive the work of the numberless and nameless scribes torn between tradition and fashion in their restrained attempts to update the orthography of Scripture." Sixteen essays serve as the bridge from older methods for the study of orthography to newer ones, using the computer to analyze large bodies of text.

This book is the first wide-ranging study of the grammar of the Babylonian Aramaic used in the Talmud and post-Talmudic Babylonian literature to be published in English in a century.

A unique study of the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls In Qumran Hebrew, Reymond examines the orthography, phonology, and morphology of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Short sections treat specific linguistic phenomena and present a synopsis and critique of previous research. Reymond’s approach emphasizes problems posed by scribal errors and argues that guttural letters had not all “weakened” but instead were “weak” in specific linguistic environments, texts, or dialects. Reymond illustrates that certain phonetic shifts (such as the shift of yodh > aleph and the opposite shift of aleph > yodh) occur in discernible linguistic contexts that suggest this was a real phonetic phenomenon. Features: Summary and critique of previous research Discussion of the most recently published scrolls Examination of scribal errors, guttural letters, and phonetic shifts

This volume brings together papers relating to the pronunciation of Semitic languages and the representation of their pronunciation in written form. The papers focus on sources representative of a period that stretches from late antiquity until the Middle Ages. A large proportion of them concern reading traditions of Biblical Hebrew, especially the vocalisation notation systems used to represent them. Also discussed are orthography and the written representation of prosody. Beyond Biblical Hebrew, there are studies concerning Punic, Biblical Aramaic, Syriac, and Arabic, as well as post-biblical traditions of Hebrew such as piyyuṭ and medieval Hebrew poetry. There were many parallels and interactions between these various language traditions and the volume demonstrates that important insights can be gained from such a wide range of perspectives across different historical periods.

A collection of essays on syntactical questions in the field of Hebrew and Aramaic, dealing with the nominal sentence, the particle 'et, clause types, word order and concord within sentences, the status and use of particles and verbal forms. In addition to Biblical Hebrew, other language forms discussed in some of the essays are Mishnaic and Modern Hebrew, Imperial Aramaic, Middle Aramaic and Classical Syriac.

This is the first up-to-date, and complete grammar of Egyptian Aramaic as presented in texts of Egyptian provenance dating from the middle of the first millennium B.C.E. and as edited by B. Porten and A. Yardeni in their Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt (Jerusalem, 1986-). The grammar covers not only the phonology and morphology, but contains a substantial section on morphosyntax and syntax. It is a descriptive grammar enriched with the expert knowledge and familiarity of one of the co-authors with the contents and background of the texts in question. It is meant to replace P. Leander's Laut- und Formenlehre des Ägyptisch-Aramäischen (1928), but also supplements it substantially, because it had no syntax. Due to the utmost importance and interest of these ancient texts, this grammar is a vade mecum for every Aramaist, Semitist and Historian in the field.

In this study of Hosea Loren Bliese documents his current research into how the poetics of the Hebrew Bible were enhanced by arranging the counts of words and structures in order to beautify the message. The two words "good" and "covenant" are the only words that come once each in the five parts of the book. They point to a structural theme of the book, that God's covenant is good in contrast to idolatrous relationships that lead to disaster. Hosea's symbolic numbers are derived from both twenty-two of the Hebrew letters, and from twenty-six, the value of the divine name YHWH along with other numbers related to the name. Plays on the word "repent" or "return" have a build-up of repetitions to the end where the plea "Return, Israel, to the LORD your God" is prominent. Each of these words is marked by numeric significance. The book is a discourse analysis of Hosea's whole text, focusing on features of prominence, including symbolic numbers. The study analyzes thirty of the forty-five poems in Hosea with the form of metrical chiasmus pointing to a central peak. Bliese has developed this in previous writings. Abundant chi-square probability calculations support his analysis.