A GRAMMAR OFEGYPTIAN ARAMAIC

BY

TAKAMITSU MURAOKA

AND

BEZALEL PORTEN

BRILLLEIDEN • NEW YORK • KOLN

1998

CONTENTS

Preface XXIIntroduction XXIIIAbbreviations XXVIILiterature XXXII

PART I: PHONOLOGY

§ 1. Preliminary remarks 1§ 2. Consonants: 2

a.~i andt 3b. to 6c. Proto-Semitic/t/ 7d. p and a 8e. Proto-Semitic/?/ 9f. Proto-Semitic/g7 9g. Proto-Semitic /h/ and /h/ 10

§ 3. Consonantal changes 10a. Assimilation and non-assimilation of/n/ 10b. Assimilation of consonants other than /n/ 12c. Degeminating/n/ 13d. Phonetic reality of degeminating /n/ 14e. /tV > /tt/ 16f. Partial assimilation N > I\J 17g. / b / > / p / 17h. Progressive assimilation 17i. Dissimilation 18j . Spirantisation 19k. Possible weakening or elision of gutturals 201. Apocope of/V 21

m. Syncope of /Vi) V + N + C > VC 22

n. ii) C+/V + V>CV 23o. N > /y/ 24p. V + lyl + V > V + />/ + V 24q. Syncope of/h/ 25r. Metathesis 25

VIII CONTENTS

s. Fluctuation between Ival and /n/ 26t. Word-final cluster of two identical consonants' 26

§ 4. Vowels 26§ 5. Word-final vowels 27

a. Word-final Yod = i 27b. Word-final Yod = y 27c. Word-final Waw = u 28d. Word-final Waw = o 28e. Word-final He = a, e, or o 29f. Word-final Alef = a or e 30g. Multivalence of word-final matres lectionis .. 30h. Word-final long a graphically not visible? 31i. Spelling of unstressed word-final long a 31j . Pronouns in 'he' and TI 'she' 31k. Pleonastic word-final Alef following 32

§ 6. Word-medial vowels 32a. Yod = i 32b. Waw = u 32c. Waw = o 33d. Frequent defective spellings 33e. Contraction of diphthongs and word-medial

Yod or Waw 34f. Alef or He hardly used as word-medial mater

lectionis 34g. Yod or Waw = historically long i or u 34h. Consonantal Yod or Waw 35

§ 7. Vowel length 35§ 8. Contraction of diphthongs 36

a. /ay/ 36b. /aw/ 38

§ 9. Elision of short unstressed vowels 38§ 10. Sandhi 40

a. First word = preposition 40b. Second word = preposition 41c. Frequent in construct phrases 41d. First word = negator 41e. Second word = enclitic pronoun 41f. Sandhi and asyndeton 42g. Sandhi assimilation 42

CONTENTS ; IX

PART II: MORPHOLOGY

SECTION A: THE NOUN, ADJECTIVE AND PARTICLES

§ 11. Disjunctive personal pronouns 43a. 2ms. n» 43b. 2fs. TUK and ma 44c. 3fs. tfn (!) 45d. lpl. mmK vs. ]n%* 45e. 2mp. on» 45f. 3mp. "ran 45

§ 12. Conjunctive personal pronouns 46a.-b. General remarks 46c. lsg. '- 48d. 2ms. 1- 48e. 2fs. o - vs. "[- 49f. 3ms. n- vs. 'n- 50g. 3fs. n- vs. nn- or «n- 50h. lpl. ]-vs. «3- 52i. 2mp. nD-andp- 53j . 2fp.p- 53k. 3mp. an-, Din-, ]n-, and pn- 541. 3fp 54m. Object pronouns attached to the verb 55n. Disjunctive instead of conjunctive pronoun... 55

§ 13. Disjunctive possessive pronouns 55§ 14. Demonstrative pronouns 56

a. Near deixis 56b. Examples 56c. Far deixis 57d. Examples 58e. Phonetic differentiation between m. ~[t and f. ~[i 58

f. 3rd person disj. pronouns used asdemonstratives 58

g. DDT andODi 58§ )5. Relative pronoun 59§ 16. Interrogative words 59§ 17. Indefinite pronouns 59§ 18. THE NOUN 60

a. Declensional endings 60b. m.abs.sg., du., pi 61c. m.cst.sg » 62d. m.cst.du .". 63

CONTENTS

e. m.cst.pl 63f. rn.det.sg 63g. m.det.du 63h. rn.det.pl 63i. Dual as distinct from plural 64j . f.abs.sg 65k. f.abs.du 661. f.abs.pl 66m. f.cst.sg 66n. f.cst.du 670. f.cst.pl 67p. f.det.sg 67q. f.det.pl 68r. Nouns with Yod or Waw as last radical 68s. Loss of or original final Taw of nouns with

Yod or Waw as last radical 71t. Derivation of st.det. from st.cst 71u. Difference between nouns and adjectives 72

v. Mismatch between form and grammaticalgender 72

w. Base expanded in plural forms 74x. Suppletion 75y. Irregular nouns 75z. Adverbial vto 75

19. Formal patterns of nouns and adjectives 76a. Biconsonantal roots 76b. Triconsonantal roots 77c. Roots or compound words with more than

three radicals 81d. With suffix"- 81e. With suffix^- 82f. With suffix]- 82g. With suffix p - 82h. With suffix v 821. With prefix-K 82j . With prefix-a 82k. With prefix -n 831. Words of obscure origin 83m. Loan-words 83

20. Prepositions 85a. Use of conjunctive pronouns 86b. Proclitic prepositions 86c. Extra final Yod before conjunctive pronouns 86

CONTENTS XI

d. Compound prepositions 87e. Prepositions + nouns = pseudo-prepositions 87

21. Numerals 87a. Cardinals 87

b. "Tens," higher numerals, compositenumerals 89

c. "Eleven" to "Nineteen" 90d. "Hundreds" 90e. "Thousands" 91f. Ordinals 91g. Fractions 92h. Multiplicatives 92

22. Other word-classes 92a. Adverbs 92

b. Status absolutus of the adjective usedadverbially 93

c. Adverbial /-a:/ 93d. Conjunctions 94e. Interjectiions 94f. Miscellaneous 95

PART II: MORPHOLOGY

SECTION B: VERB

§ 23. The inventory of conjugational morphemes 97§ 24. Examples and discussion 98

a. Perfect 98b. Spelling of the lsg, 2sg suffixes 98c. Vowelless lsg. suffix 99d. 2mp 100e. 2fp 101f. lpl 101g. 3fp 101h. Imperfect 102i. 2mp and 3mp spelled plene with Waw 102j . 2fp and 3fp suffixes 102k. Jussive 1041. Energic 106m. Function of the energic 106n. Imperative " 107o. Participle 107

XII CONTENTS

p. Infinitive 108§ 25. Binyanim 110§ 26. BinyanG 112§ 27. BinyanD 112§ 28. BinyanHorA 113§ 29. -rBinyan 116§ 30. The passive voice 119§ 31. Pe- Yod verbs 120§ 32. Pe-Alefverbs 124§ 33. Pe-Nun verbs 125§ 34. Lamed-Alef verbs 126§ 35. Ayin-Waw/Yod verbs 129§ 36. Ayin-Ayin verbs 133§ 37. Lamed-Yod verbs 134§ 38. The verb with suffixal pronouns 142

a. Perfect 144b. Imperfect with Energic Nun 145c. Imperfect without Energic Nun 146d. Imperative 147e. Infinitive 147f. Observations 148

PART III: MORPHOSYNTAX

SECTION A: THE PRONOUN

§ 39. Personal pronouns 155a. First and second persons 155b. Thrid person pronouns 155c. in with extraposing function 156d. nn / ion as object marker 156e. Disjunctive personal pronouns with a finite verb

i) Contrast or opposition 157ii) Assertiveness 157iii) Self-centredness 159iv) Coordinate subjects 159v) Authoritarian 159vi-viii) A disjunctive resuming a conjunctive

pronoun 160f. Impersonal second person pronoun 161g. Solecism ;. 161h. 2723 as reflexive pronoun 161

CONTENTS XIII

§ 40. Disjunctive posessive pronouns 162a. Synthetic and analytical 162b. State of N, 163c. Statistics of *?'T forms 163d. Predominantly in the Arsames letters 163e. Substantially used 163f. Inanimate referent 163h. Functional opposition 163

§ 41. Demonstrative pronouns 165a. Deixis: anaphoric and cataphoric 165b. Added to a personal name 166c. n]T as against ~|T 166d. Demonstrative ending with "D- 166e. H:T as a general deictic 167f. Substantival use 167

§ 42. Relative pronoun 167a. As an integral clause constituent 168

b. Conjunctive pronoun referring to theantecedent 168

c. State of the antecedent 169d. Independent relative clause 169e-f. Preposition + 'T p 170g. Asyndetic relative clause 171h. Non-restrictive relative clause 171

§ 43. Interrogative pronouns 172§ 44. Indefinite pronouns 172

a-e. DJno/Dirm 172f. er» 173g-h. 2?3« 173i. -oa 174j . n̂ Q 174

SECTION B: THE NOUN AND THE ADJECTIVE

§ 45. Gender 175a-b. Grammatical gender and natural sex 175c. Grammatical significance 176d. Name of a land or country 176e. "it"—feminine 176f. Gender of substantially used adjectives 176

§ 46. State 177a-h. Absolute state » 177b. With cardinal numerals." 177

XIV CONTENTS

c. Numeral for "one" as equivalent of an in-definite article 177

d. ta + sg. st.abs 177e. Distributive 178f. Predicative adjective 178fa. Classifying noun predicate 178fb. Generic 179g-ga. Determined for absolute state 179h. Fern. sg. adj. with n- used adverbially 180

i-n. Determined state 180i. Anaphoric 180j . Noun phrase modified by a dem. pron 181k. Contextually determined 1811. Representative member of a class 181m-n. Difficult cases 182

o. Orthographic ambiguities 183p. Loan-words 183q. Construct phrase 184

§ 47. Number 184a. Three numbers 184b. Dual 184c.]v: 184d. Plural of majesty 185e. Pluralia tantum 185f. Collective nouns 185

§ 48. Adjective 186a-b. Substantivised 186c. Lexicalised 187d. Comparative and superlative 187e. Further expanded 187

SECTION C: THE VERB

§ 49. Binyanim 189a. General introduction 189b-d. Difficulty in defining functions 190e. Factitive D 190f. Causative H or A 191g. -t binyanim 191

§ 50. Tenses „ 192§ 51. Perfect or suffix conjugation^ 193

CONTENTS XV

a. Only one simple preterital tense 193b. Performative perfect 193c. Verbs of mental attitude 194d. Gnomic perfect 194e. No optative perfect 195

§ 52. Imperfect or prefix conjugation 195a. Three varieties of prefix conjugaiton 195c. In apodosis 195d. In generic statements 196e. Peculiarities of legalese 196f.'O + Impf. to indicate a purpose 197g. Complementing an auxiliary verb 197

§ 53. Jussive and energic 198a-f. Jussive 198

a-b. Its functions 198c. With prohibitive"» 199d. Not always clause-initial 199e. Parallel with an imperative 199f. Opposition with indicative breaking down... 199

g. Energic 200§ 54. Passive voice 201

a. Resultative 201b. Active-passive transformaiton 201c. Syntagm [Passive ptc. +1?] 202d. Marking of agent 202

§ 55. Participle 203a. Actual present 203b. Attributive 203c. Substantivised 203d. Historic present 203e. Parallel with an imperfect 204f. Qualifying a predicate 204g. Periphrastic tense 205

§ 56. Infinitive 208a-b. Used to complement verbs like ta\ "•us 208c. Final 208d. Implicit subject 208e. Used to modifying a noun 209f. Epexegetical 209i. Subject of a nominal clause 210

§ 57. Imperative 210

XVffl CONTENTS

SECTION B: VERB PHRASE EXPANDED

§ 72. Verb expansion 255§ 73. Asyndesis 255

ito/to 255b. Actions in immediate succession 257c. Expansion through an infinitive 259

§ 74. Expansion by noun phrases or pronouns 260a. Preliminary remarks 260b. Direct government 261c. Indirect government 261d. b of twofold function 261e. Nature of object suffixes 263f. Indirect object marked by prepositions 266

other than"?g. Double objects 266h. on/ion 267i. Verbs of physical movement 268j . b prefixed to a complement of a participle 271k. Object complement 271

1-m. Verbs of intellectual perception orcommunication 272

n. Cognate object 272o. Object ellipsis 273p. Centripetal ^ 273q. b marking dativus commodi vel incommodi 274r. Prolepsis of object 274s. Infinitive and its object marking 274t. Subject complement of a verbal clause 274u. Accusative of limitation or specification 275

§ 75. Expansion by adverbials 275

SECTION C: OTHER SYNTACTIC ISSUES

§ 76. Agreement and disagreement 277a. Preliminary remarks 277b. Disagreement in gender 278c. Disagreement in number 279

ca. Dual 279cb. Partially transformed passive 279cc. Long sentences' 280ce. Collective nouns 280

CONTENTS XIX

cf. Plurale tantum 281eg. Multiple subjects 281ch. Scribal errors 282ci. vex 283ck. D̂ to as predicate 283cm. Cataphoric ruT/nn followed by a pi. NP ... 284

d. Disagreement in state 284§ 77. Word order: nominal clause 285

a. Preliminary remarks 285b. Bipartite nominal clause 285

bb. 'T + NP or adverbial 286be. P mostly indeterminate 286bd. S(pers.pron.) - P 287be. Dem.pron. - NP 287bf. S.NP - Pprep 288bg. Subject elision 288bh. an - NP 289bi. Existential nominal clause with TPR 291bk. mn 291bl. S.NP - P.NP 291bm. Padj. - S.NP 292bo. Pptc. - Spers.pron 292bp. Spers.pron. - Pptc 293bq. Pptc 293br. Circumstantial clause: S - P 294

c. Tripartite nominal clause 294ca. Enclitic pronoun in third slot 295

§ 78. Word order: verbal clause 296a. Preliminary remarks 296b. Verb in clause-initial position 296bb. Pronoun enclisis 296be. Imperative in initial slot 298c. Verb following subject or object or both 299cc. O- V , 301cd. Categorical negation 302ce. Generalising relative clause 303ch. A case study of the Bisitun inscription 305cj. S0VorS... V 307cl. Infinitive and its object 308cm. Double objects 308en. Double pronominal objects 309co. Adverbials ." 309

§§§§§§§§§

79.80.81.82.83.84.85.86.87.

XX CONTENTS

cp. Clause-initial adverbs 310cq. Sentence adverbials 311cs. Adverbial cluase in relation to main clause 313

Extraposition 313Impersonal constructions 315Coordination 316Circumstantial clauses 321Negation 323Conditional statementss 323Direct speech 327Vocative and interjection 328Prepositions 330

a. Beth essentiae 330b. p 'between' 330c. i:3 330d. vfrv 330e. Preposition elided in conjunction with -D 331f. Kaf veritatis 331

§ 88. 't clauses 331c. Prepositions combined with'T 332d. -to and'T iu 333e. Interrogative combined with'T 334

c f. Final force of n plus the imperfect 334§ 89. Conjunctions other than'T and 'T compounds 334

a. IK 'or' 334c. -1 'and' 334

§ 90. Some particles 336a. *)« 336b. DSK 337c. DK 338d. o , 338e. zb 339

APPENDICES

I. Index of passages 341II. Index of subjects 360

III. Tables of loan-words 370III. Concordance of principal editions 384IV. Individual scribes and dates 386V. List of technical terms .", 390