Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics

Back formation is the derivation of a new lexeme from an existing word by the treatment of an affix not according to the normative ‘historically-correct’ rules. Back formation is motivated by the natural tendency for simplification that results from word leveling (Bloomfield 1933:412–416). In most cases Hebrew back formations are created on the basis of inflected forms by the omission of the inflectional morpheme. Thus, for example, the Modern Hebrew word עיירה ʿayara ‘small town’…

1. Historical background Baghdad became the central Jewish city of contemporary Iraq after the Abbasid caliphs turned it into their capital in 762 C.E. During the 9th and 10th centuries, the famous Babylonian academies, Sura and Pumbedita, moved into the city, retaining their traditional names. The community flourished until the end of the 12th century, when a great decline took place. After the Mongolian conquest in 1393, there were no Jews in the city for one-hundred years. Thereafter the community recovered gradually until 1948, when most of its members emigrated to Israel. The pronunciation of the traditional Hebrew texts (Bible and Mishna) by the Jewish community of Baghdad in modern times is different from that which is reflected by the medieval Babylonian vocalization, which has been preserved only in Yemen. The introduction of the Tiberian system of vocalization signs is likely to be related to Saʿadia Gaʾon’s leadership in the 10th century. The modern pronunciation tradition system is close to the so-called Palestinian-Sepharadic vocalization (the evolution of this tradition is discussed below). A description of this tradition has been made on the basis of recordings of the late Rav Yaʿaqob Zamir and the late Rav Suliman Ḥugi ʿAbudi, made at “The Language Traditions Unit” at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (cf. Morag 1987).…

The Bar Kokhba documents were discovered in the Judean Desert (Wadi Murabbaʿat, Naḥal Ḥever, and other sites), mostly in the 1950s and 1960s (Eshel 1998; Yadin et al. 2002:2–4). They consist of military letters, legal documents, and lists, written at or around the time of the Bar Kokhba (Bar Kosiba) Revolt (132–135 C.E), in Hebrew, Jewish Aramaic, Nabatean, and…

The Barth-Ginsberg law is a phonological rule stating that the prefix vowel of the prefix or imperfect(ive) conjugation in the base (i.e., G) stem is dependent on the theme vowel of the respective verbal base. When the theme vowel is /i/ or /u/, the prefix vowel is /a/, while when the theme vowel is /a/, the prefix vowel is /i/, resulting in the following paradigm: ya-ktub yi-ktab ya-ktib The evidence for this distinction in Hebrew and Aramaic was first compiled by Jakob Barth (1894:5–6), who noted that Hebrew has different prefix vowels depending on theme vowel in initial guttural, ע״ו/י (mi…

b (bet)  in Hebrew-to-Arabic transcription Transcription into Arabic Script: Modern Period  pronunciation of Italy, Pronunciation Traditions, Kurdistan, Pronunciation Tradition, Tiberian Reading Tradition ba ˓aḇūr (in order that) Result Clause: Biblical Hebrew ba˓al, as element in personal names Names of People: Biblical Hebrew Baal Shem Tov, Yisrael Hasidism Babad, Elisha Y. Names of People: Modern Hebrew: Philosophical and Sociological Aspects babbling stage Child Language Babel, Isaak Russia babies, language acquisition stages of Child Language Babylonia see …

1. The Book and Its Versions The book of Ben Sira, also known by the names Sirach and Ecclesiasticus, is a work consisting of fifty-one chapters that was composed in the 2nd century B.C.E. by a sage named Ben Sira. The greater part of the book consists of proverbs and maxims, but it also contains prayers (36 [33].1–22; chapter 51), descriptions of nature (42.15–43.33), a concise history of the people of Israel (chapters 44–49), and a depiction of the High Priest as he officiates in the Temple (chapter…

Biblical Hebrew stops (other than ק q, the emphatic ט ṭ and the glottal א ʾ) were spirantized postvocalically. In Modern Hebrew spirantization (= fricativization) is much more restricted; it is limited to the consonant pairs b-v (ב), k-x (כ), and p-f (פ), and even among those there are so many counter-examples that the fricative members of these pairs can no longer be deemed allophones, but must be considered independent phonemes. The counter-examples, ‘violations’ of the rules of normative grammar, arise mostly when forms become opaque…