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eBook A Grammar of Samaritan Hebrew
Author:  
Publisher:  Varda Books
Original Publisher:  Magnes Press
Published:  2009
Language:  English
Pages:   514


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ISBN: 1-59045-916-4

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About the Book -- A Grammar of Samaritan Hebrew

The Hebrew language comes down to us in several versions, each ethnic community having its own unique tradition of pronunciation. Even though these traditions are subject to the various vernaculars and sometimes differ markedly from each other, their common basis is evident. All, that is, but the pronunciation of the Samaritans, whose tradition stands apart from the others, unique and surprising. One who hears the Samaritan recitation of the Torah or any of their Hebrew prayers would think he is listening to some distant, foreign tongue.

Only here and there would his ear discern a Hebrew word. The Samaritan community's distinctness in matters of belief and law, its devotion to its ancestral ways, and its continual preservation of its ancient ritual practices am so well how as to require no proof. This raises the following question: does the Samaritans' tendency to adhere closely to their religious heritage apply also to their unique linguistic tradition? In other words, did the Samaritans carefully maintain their linguistic heritage, as they did their observance of tradition, preserving it from the time when they spoke Hebrew?

The author's answer -- based on a detailed analysis of all the available data -- is presented in this volume.

This English translation contains emendations and clarifications making it accessible for the non-Hebrew speaking public while remaining faithful to the original Hebrew in terms of content and conclusions.

About the Book

Contents

New Page 3

CONTENTS

 

Preface to the English Edition

English Preface to the Original Hebrew Edition

 

INTRODUCTION 1

 

0.4 The Samaritan Pentateuch and Its Linguistic Character 3

0.5 Can a Hebrew Grammar be Compiled Solely on the Basis of an Unvocalized Text? 4

0.6 Samaritan Pointing System 5

0.10 Recording a Spoken Language for Grammatical Investigation

0.13 Material for the Grammar 13

0.15 Classification of Linguistic Phenomena in Tiberian and Samaritan Hebrew 17

0.18 Arrangement of the Book 21

0.20 Samaritan Script 23

0.20.3 Alphabet Table 25

 

PHONOLOGY 29

 

1.0 Preliminaries 29

1.1 Consonants 30

1.1.2 Table of Consonants 31

1.1.4 32

1.1.4.1 Three Points of Articulation of Waw 33

1.1.5 -pa 34

1.1.6 35

1.1.7 γ ≫ 37

1.1.8 ynrw 38

1.2 Vowels 43

1.2.0 Vowel System 43

1.2.1 Vowel Quantity 44

1.2.4 Vowel Quality 48

1.2.6 a, a 49

1.2.7 Samaritan Tradition as Compared with that of the Jews

1.3 Shewa and Auxiliary Vowels 53

1.3.0 Parallels to the Shewa in Samaritan Hebrew 53

1.3.2 Previous Stages of the Shewa 55

1.3.3 Shewa > Vowel of Any Quality 56

1.3.4 Auxiliary Vowels 57

1.3.6 Fatah Furtivum 60

1.4 Syllabic Structure and Stress 60

1.4.1 Syllabic Rules 61

1.4.2 Diphthongs and Syllable Splitting 62

1.4.3 Ascending Diphthong 63

1.4.4 Descending Diphthong 63

1.4.5 Syllabic Splitting 67

1.4.6 Stress 68

1.4.8 Development of Stress in Tiberian Hebrew 71

1.4.10 Auxiliary Stress 74

1.5 Sound Changes 74

1.5.1 Interchanges in the Vowel System 75

1.5.1.1 i/e/e 76

1.5.1.2 ila(a) 76

1.5.1.3 a/a 77

1.5.2 Diachronic Study 78

1.5.2.1 i 78

1.5.2.2 a 80

1.5.2.3 u 81

1.5.2.4 i, ü 83

1.5.2.5 ä>ö 83

1.5.3 Changes Due to Proximity 86

1.5.3.1 Assimilation 87

1.5.3.2 Dissimilation 90

1.5.3.3 Gemination 90

1.5.3.4 Syncope 92

1.5.3.5 Metathesis 94

1.5.3.6 Neutralization 94

 

MORPHOLOGY 96

 

2 Verb 96

2.0 Preliminaries 96

2.0.1 Root 96

2.0.2 Base 97

2.0.3 Formative 98

2.0.4 Inflection and Derivation 98

2.0.7 Grammatical Classification in Tiberian Hebrew 100

2.0.8 Stem 101

2.0.9 Class 101

2.0.10 Tense in Samaritan Hebrew 102

2.0.13 Table of Perfect Afformatives 103

2.0.14 Table of Imperfect Preformatives 104

2.1 Strong Verb 105

2.1.1 Qal 105

2.1.1.7 Qal Β Imperfect 109

2.1.2 Hif'il 110

2.1.3 Pi'el 112

2.1.3.1 With Geminated Second Radical 112

2.1.3.5 With Simple Second Radical (Pi'el B) 113

2.1.4 Nif'al

2.1.4.1 With Simple Second Radical 115

2.1.4.6 With Geminated Second Radical (Nifal B) 117

2.1.5 Hitpa'el 119

2.1.5.1 With Geminated Second Radical 119

2.1.5.3 With Simple Second Radical (Hitpa'el B) 119

2.2 Verbs with ?"ππκ Radical 120

2.2.1 I-Guttural (ynnn) 120

2.2.1.1 Qal 120

2.2.1.2 Hifil 123

2.2.1.3 Piel 124

2.2.1.3.1 With Geminated Second Radical 124

2.2.1.3.3 With Simple Second Radical (Piel B) 125

2.2.1.4 Nifal 125

2.2.1.5 Hitpa'el 125

2.2.1.5.2 With Geminated Second Radical 126

2.2.1.5.3 With Simple Second Radical (Hitpa'el B) 126

2.2.2 II-Guttural 127

2.2.2.1 Qal 127

2.2.2.2 Hifil 128

2.2.2.3 Piel 130

2.2.2.4 Nifal 130

2.2.2.5 Hitpa'el 131

2.2.3 Ill-Guttural 131

2.2.3.1 Qal 132

2.2.3.2 Hifil 133

2.2.3.3 Piel 134

2.2.3.3.1 With Geminated Second Radical 134

2.2.3.3.4 With Simple Second Radical (Piel B) 134

2.2.3.4 Nifal 135

2.2.3.5 Hitpa'el 136

2.3 Verbs I-Aleph ( r s ) 136

2.4 Verbs I-Yod (, MD) 138

2.5 Verbs Ι-Nun (rs) 144

2.5.2 Suppletion of the Qal and Stems 144

2.5.5 Change of Nifal of y"y and V'D to r s 145

2.5.11 pu 146

2.5.12-14 itM, opj, Πϋ3, T T J 146

2.6 Verbs II-Waw/Yod V?) 147

2.6.13 Gemination of First Radical in Imperfect 152

2.6.15 Converted Imperfect 152

2.7 Geminate Verbs (y"y) 153

2.7.2 Five Types in Tiberian Hebrew 154

2.7.3 Types in Samaritan Hebrew 155

2.7.7 Vocalization of Preformatives 157

2.8 Verbs III-Heh (n»V) 158

2.8.18 rrn, rrn 166

2.8.21 7m 168

2.9 Tenses and Moods 169

2.9.1 Tiberian Hebrew 169

2.9.3 Samaritan Hebrew 170

2.9.6 Converted Imperfect 171

2.9.9 Shortened Imperfect (Jussive) 173

2.9.10 Lengthened Imperfect (Cohortative) 174

2.10 Passive Voice 176

2.10.2 Disappearance of Internal Passive and Its Substitutes 177

2.10.5 Remains of Internal Passive 179

2.10.6 Qal Perfect 179

2.10.7 Qal and Hifil Imperfect 180

2.10.8 Hifil Perfect 181

2.10.9 Piel 182

2.11 Imperative 183

2.11.3 Vocalization of Second Radical 184

2.11.6 Special Features of Different Verb Classes 185

2.12 Active Participle 187

2.12.4 Participles of Qal 189

2.12.8 Participle of Piel and Hitpa'el 192

2.12.9 Participle of Piel without Mem 192

2.12.10 Participles of Nifal 193

2.12.11 Special Features of Different Verb Classes 194

2.13 Passive Participle 198

2.13.2 Three Forms of Qal Participle 199

2.13.6 Special Features of Different Verb Classes 201

2.14 Infinitive 202

2.14.2 Absolute and Construct Infinitives in Tiberian Hebrew 203

2.14.4 Infinitive in Samaritan Hebrew 205

2.14.6 Forms of the Qal Infinitive 207

2.14.11 Infinitive Forms of Other Stems 211

2.14.13 Special Features of Different Verb Classes 213

2.15 Mixture of Classes and Alternation of Stems 218

2.15.2 Motivations for the Alternation 219

2.15.5 Qal>Pi'el 222

2.15.6 Nifal with Simple Second Radical > Nif'al with Geminated

Second Radical 223

2.15.7 Qal Intransitive > Nif'al 223

 

3 PRONOUNS 225

 

3.1 Personal Pronouns 225

3.2 Pronominal Suffixes 227

3.2.7 Reconstructed Forms in Stage of Hebrew Common to Samaritan and

Tiberian Hebrew 234

3.2.8 Table of Possessive Suffixes 234

3.2.9 Table of Object Suffixes 236

3.3 Other Pronouns 236

3.3.1 Demonstratives 236

3.3.2 Definite Article -n 238

3.3.3 Interrogative, Indefinite, and Relative Pronouns 238

 

4 NOUNS 240

 

4.0 Preliminaries

4.0.2 Difference Between Pattern and Appearance 240

4.0.4 Method Applied to Samaritan Hebrew 242

4.1 Simple Noun Patterns 245

4.1.1 Forms with One Consonant 245

4.1.2 Forms with Two Consonants 245

4.1.3 Forms with Three Consonants 250

4.1.4 Forms with Four or More Consonants 260

4.1.4.0 Forms with Geminated Second Radical and Similar Forms 260

4.1.4.11 Quadriradicals 265

4.1.4.12 Quinqueradicals 265

4.1.4.13 Compounds 266

4.1.5 Feminine Patterns 266

4.2 Prefixed Patterns 273

4.2.1 With-x 273

4.2.2 With-' 275

4.2.3 With-ö 276

4.2.4 With-η 279

4.3 Suffixed Patterns and Nouns with Suffixes 280

4.3.2 ι 281

4.3.3 e 282

4.3.4 a/a 282

4.3.5 u 283

4.3.6 im/em, en 283

4.3.7 it/et 283

4.3.8 ä y , a y / ä ' i , a ' i 284

4.3.9 am/am ('am), om 285

4.3.10 än/'an, on/'un 285

4.3.12 Suffixes with Geminated Nun 287

4.3.13 Suffix I- not Preceded by Vowel 288

4.3.14 at - o t 288

4.4 Ultimately-Stressed Nominal Forms 290

4.5 Gender and Number 294

4.5.1 Masculine and Feminine Gender 294

4.5.5 Singular, Dual, and Plural Number 295

4.6 Construct State and Pronominal State 298

4.6.2.1 Four Types of Declension 300

 

5 NUMERALS 305

 

5.0 Cardinal Numbers 305

5.1 From 1 to 10 305

5.2 From 11 to 20 308

5.3 Remaining Cardinal Numbers 308

5.4 Ordinal Numbers 309

5.5 Fractions 310

5.6 Multiplicatives 312

 

6 PARTICLES 313

 

6.0 Classification of Particles 313

6.3 Particles with Special Characteristics in Samaritan Hebrew 316

 

7 SOME POINTS OF SYNTAX 323

 

7.0 General Remarks 323

7.1 Determination 324

7.2 He Locale 326

7.3 m 327

7.4 In the Realm of Sentence Structure 328

7.5 Sentence Types (Verbal/Nominal) 330

 

8 EPILOGUE 333

 

8.2 Samaritan Hebrew and Theories of the Samaritan Grammarians 333

8.4 Samaritan Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew 335

8.8 Samaritan Hebrew and Aramaic 340

 

User's Guide to the Inventory of Forms 345

Inventory of Forms 353

Addenda and Corrigenda 465

Abbreviations and Bibliographical References 467

Index of Passages 474


An Excerpt from the Book -- A Grammar of Samaritan Hebrew

It is well known that there are thousands of differences between the Jewish and Samaritan Pentateuchs. Scholars have counted more than 6000 variants, tallied according to various systems.

For our purposes, we may make do with two categories: (a) intentional variants, whether motivated by considerations of belief and law or literary-editorial considerations (i.e., designed to produce a "smoother" text or one in harmony with a Pentateuchal parallel), and (b) unintentional variants, whether such variants as defective/full spelling and guttural letter substitutions or variants in morphology, both sorts of unintentional variants reflecting a linguistic tradition different in pronunciation, word formation, and sometimes even syntax from that represented by the Jewish Pentateuch (and the Masoretic Bible as a whole).

Given that the spiritual center of the Samaritans was throughout the generations in the hill country of Ephraim, in Nablus, and around Mt. Gerizim, we are tempted to attribute the particular features of the language of SP to differences of dialect between the Hebrew in use in Ephraim and that current in Judah in general and the Jerusalem area in particular. However, sustained and careful attention to the differences in orthography and word formation reveals that many of the features of SH are the same as those evident in non-Biblical Hebrew literature among the Jews, such as rabbinic literature.

An Excerpt from the Book


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