Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics
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Subject: Language And Linguistics
Edited by: Geoffrey Khan
Associate editors: Shmuel Bolozky, Steven Fassberg, Gary A. Rendsburg, Aaron D. Rubin, Ora R. Schwarzwald, Tamar Zewi
The Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online offers a systematic and comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the history and study of the Hebrew language from its earliest attested form to the present day.
The Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online features advanced search options, as well as extensive cross-references and full-text search functionality using the Hebrew character set. With over 850 entries and approximately 400 contributing scholars, the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online is the authoritative reference work for students and researchers in the fields of Hebrew linguistics, general linguistics, Biblical studies, Hebrew and Jewish literature, and related fields.
Subscriptions: Brill.com
Associate editors: Shmuel Bolozky, Steven Fassberg, Gary A. Rendsburg, Aaron D. Rubin, Ora R. Schwarzwald, Tamar Zewi
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The Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online offers a systematic and comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the history and study of the Hebrew language from its earliest attested form to the present day.
The Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online features advanced search options, as well as extensive cross-references and full-text search functionality using the Hebrew character set. With over 850 entries and approximately 400 contributing scholars, the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online is the authoritative reference work for students and researchers in the fields of Hebrew linguistics, general linguistics, Biblical studies, Hebrew and Jewish literature, and related fields.
Subscriptions: Brill.com
Romanian, Hebrew Loanwords in
(592 words)
Although Jews have lived in Romania since at least the 14th century, to the best of our knowledge they at no time evolved a distinct Judeo-Romanian dialect or language, even after the creation of Romania as a political entity in 1859. Before this date, Romanian was an ethnic rather than national language; this explains why the Jews, who were one component of the region’s ethnic mosaic, did not identify with this language. Moreover, in the sovereign state of Romania Jews were granted citizenship …
Romanization of Hebrew Script
(800 words)
Romanization describes a specific form of writing reform whereby a Roman-based alphabet is provided for a speech community, which has traditionally employed either a non-alphabetic script or a non-Roman alphabet. The Hebrew alphabet, or the so-called square script, is a non-Roman alphabet and has been the traditional writing system for Jewish communities since the 6th century B.C.E. Romanization of the Hebrew script entails replacing the characters of the square alphabet with Roman characters an…
Root: Medieval Karaite Notions
(2,447 words)
According to the medieval Karaite grammarians the base of the process of the derivation of a word was not an abstract root, but rather a concrete structural form consisting of both consonants and vowels. Such a theory of derivational morphology was developed in the early Karaite tradition of grammatical thought in the 10th century, the main extant source for which is the grammatical work of ʾAbū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf ibn Nūḥ known as the דקדוק
Diqduq. According to Ibn Nūḥ the forms that serve as bases of derivation belong to various linguistic categories. The imperative form i…
Root: Medieval Rabbanite Notions
(3,295 words)
The medieval Rabbanite grammarians of Hebrew refer to the ‘root’ by the Arabic term
ʾaṣl. Like most other Arabic technical terms, this has its origins in Arabic grammar, both as a term and as a concept. An examination of the writings of a number of the medieval Rabbanite grammarians, mainly Judah Ḥayyūj and Jonah ibn Janāḥ, reveals that the term
ʾaṣl as a morphological concept is used with the following denotations (not necessarily in order of frequency): (1) the ‘root’ of a word, or ‘radical’, that is, one of the consonants of a root; (2) a hypothetical…
Root: Modern Notions
(2,194 words)
A root in Hebrew, as in all Semitic languages, is a lexical derivational morpheme made up of a non-continuous sequence of radicals, which, in combination with derivational morphological patterns made up of vowels and, possibly, additional prefixes and suffixes, creates words. Hebrew roots, like all Semitic roots, are prevalently triradical, namely they contain three radicals, which are mostly consonantal, but can also be semi-vowels or vowels that are products of weakening of laryngeals. Unlike …
Rotwelsch, Hebrew Loanwords in
(2,068 words)
Rotwelsch (or
Gaunersprache, i.e., German for ‘language of swindlers’) is the term used for the argot employed by crooks, thieves, and vagabonds in the German-speaking portions of central Europe, with its home in southwestern Germany especially. The latter portion of the term,
Welsch, suggests any foreign and unintelligible speech (as a comparison, note Yiddish
Wellisch ‘Italian’); while the former portion of the term,
Rot derives either from Rotwelsch
Rot ‘beggar’ (perhaps ultimately from German
rot ‘red’ > ‘false, faithless’), German
Rotte ‘gang, band’, or Middle Dutch
rot ‘fou…
R (r (resh) - Rylands Haggadah)
(4,707 words)
r (resh) Guttural Consonants: Pre-Masoretic, Guttural Consonants: Masoretic Hebrew apical, use of Modern Hebrew: Language Varieties in Babylonian tradition Vocalization, Babylonian Masoretic treatises on Masoretic Treatises pronunciation of Italy, Pronunciation Traditions, Morocco, Pronunciation Traditions, Phonology: Biblical Hebrew, Resh: Pre-Modern Hebrew, Resh: Modern Hebrew, Tiberian Reading Tradition and syllable structure Syllable Structure: Biblical Hebrew, Tiberian Reading Tradition Rabad of Posquieres Education: Medieval Period Raban, Ze’ev …
Russia
(5,217 words)
This entry treats Jewish and Christian use of Hebrew in areas of Eurasia loosely and sometimes anachronistically termed ‘Russian’ due to the modern expansion of political boundaries. As throughout the world, Jews in Russia utilized Hebrew for prayer, study, and correspondence, while also adopting local languages. Medieval translations from Hebrew to Slavic influenced Russian Orthodox Christians and arguably the heretical ‘Judaizers’. Monks compiled Hebrew-Russian glossaries. In modern times, the renaissance of Hebrew emanated largely from within the Russian Empire. 1. From…
Russian, Hebrew Loanwords in
(1,258 words)
The majority of Hebrew words that have been borrowed into standard Russian have come either from Biblicisms that entered, mainly via Greek, into Old Church Slavonic, or from contact with Yiddish. There are also Hebrew loanwords in the argot of Russian thieves, and these have also been borrowed indirectly, mainly through Yiddish. One of the major sources of Hebrew borrowings into Russian is the Bible. Words with a Hebrew origin entered Russian via translations of the Bible, mainly into Greek (Podolsky 1997). Some example are
messiya ‘Messiah’ (< מְשִׁיחַ
məšīaḥ),
satana ‘devil’ (< שָׂטָן
śå…