The term elative is derived from the Latin efferre ‘to bring or carry out’. In Semitic linguistics it refers to the comparative and superlative degrees of adjectives. Arabic has a special elative form, with the pattern aCC aC in the masculine. For example, the positive adjective kabīr ‘big, great’ has the elative form ʾákbar ‘bigger/biggest’. Hebrew lacks this sort of morphological elative form. Biblical Hebrew uses several different syntactical constructions to express the notion of ‘more’ or ‘most’: The comparative. When there is no noun serving as the standard of compar…

m (mem)  final Mimation, Morphology: Biblical Hebrew  pronunciation of Italy, Pronunciation Traditions ma (what) Affixation: Pre-Modern Hebrew, Clitics: Pre-Modern Hebrew, Comparative Clause: Rabbinic Hebrew, Interrogative: Biblical Hebrew, Interrogative: Rabbinic Hebrew, Interrogative Particles and Adverbs in Hebrew, Interrogative Sentences, Negation: Pre-Modern Hebrew, Relative Clause: Rabbinic Hebrew, Relative Clause: Modern Hebrew ma˒amar be-mahut han-nefeš (Treatise of the Essence of the Soul) Glosses in Medieval Hebrew Philosophical Texts Ma˓arive (news…

The term ‘intensifier’ is used in more than one meaning in scholarly literature. In the broadest sense it denotes an adverbial element (degree word) with an intensifying role that is either positive or negative (Adverb; Adverbial; Pro-Adverbs). The positive intensifiers are then called ‘amplifiers’ or ‘boosters’, the negative ones ‘downtoners’. Examples from both ends of the scale are: ‘completely’ and ‘hardly’ (Summer Institute of Linguistics 2010; see also Matthews 2007). In a somewhat stricter sense the term is applied to adverbial elements indicating a high de…

The term ‘intensifier’ is used in more than one meaning in scholarly literature. In the broadest sense it denotes an adverbial element (degree word) with an intensifying role that is either positive or negative (Adverb; Adverbial; Pro-Adverbs). The positive intensifiers are then called ‘amplifiers’ or ‘boosters’, the negative ones ‘downtoners’. Examples from both ends of the scale are: ‘completely’ and ‘hardly’ (Summer Institute of Linguistics 2010; see also Matthews 2007). In a somewhat stricter sense the term is applied to adverbial elements indicating a high de…

Hebrew and Arabic are sister languages, descended from common Semitic stock, and therefore share many characteristics in vocabulary and grammar. However, they also differ in quite a number of features, due to the historical separation between speakers of Hebrew and Arabic, which gave rise to independent developments in each. 1. Arabic Works Available to Hebrew Grammarians The earliest Arab writings on their language date back to the first days of Islam, in the second half of the 7th century C.E. The first Arab grammarian, according to a number of sou…

-a/-ah suffix Mnemonic: Medieval Period, Morphology: Rabbinic Hebrew Aaron ben Elijah of Nicomedia Byzantium, Karaite Hebrew Aaron ben Joseph Byzantium, Grammatical Thought, Medieval Byzantium Aaz apprehendens (Langton) Christian Hebraists: Medieval Period Ab Isda of Tyre Samaritan Hebrew: Late Ab Sakwa ibn As˓ad Grammarians: Samaritan Ab Sikuwwa Addinfi Samaritan Hebrew: Late Abadi, Adina Apposition. Medieval Grammatical Tradition, Discourse Analysis: Modern Hebrew, Discourse Anaphora: Modern Hebrew, Grounding: Modern Hebrew, Text Linguistics: Modern Hebrew abbrev…

˒e (negative particle) Negation: Pre-Modern Hebrew e-ey fluctuation Graphophonemic Assignment e-i fluctuation Graphophonemic Assignment E–language Generative Grammar and Hebrew early grammatical stage Child Language Eastern Ashkenazi Hebrew Ashkenazi Pronunciation Tradition: Modern Eastern European Jews  Ashkenazization of Judeo-Slavic, Hebrew Component in  Bible chanting tradition Biblical Accents: Musical Dimension  Hebrew printing by Printing  Karaites Karaim, Hebrew Component in, Karaite Pronunciation Traditions: Modern  and revival of Hebrew French …

t  infixes Affixation: Pre-Modern Hebrew, Sibilant Consonants  prefix Affixation: Pre-Modern Hebrew, Epigraphic Hebrew: Roman and Byzantine Period   taw   accentuation sign Biblical Accents: Babylonian, Exceptive Construction, Tiberian Reading Tradition   pronunciation of Italy, Pronunciation Traditions   ṭet   accentuation sign Biblical Accents: Babylonian, Exceptive Construction   pronunciation of Italy, Pronunciation Traditions, Kurdistan, Pronunciation Tradition, Tiberian Reading Tradition   spelling in foreign words Orthography: Modern Hebrew ṭa˓ame …

Cain, as personal name Names of People: Biblical Hebrew Cain, Horst Polynesian Languages, Hebrew Loanwords in Cairo Codex of the Prophets Masora, Tiberian Cairo Damascus (CD) see Damuscus Document Cairo Genizah  Arabic vocabulary lists in Arabic Bible Translations  Bible fragments in Manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible in the Middle Ages   in Arabic Arabic Bible Translations   with Babylonian accentuation Exceptive Construction, Vocalization, Babylonian   transcription into Arabic Transcription into Arabic Script: Medieval Muslim Sources  Book of Ben Sira manuscripts in…

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 …

s phonemes  pronunciation of Bne Hes and Bne Ḵes, Graphophonemic Assignment, Morocco, Pronunciation Traditions, Phonology: Biblical Hebrew   in German/Yiddish Ashkenazi Pronunciation Tradition: Medieval   in Samaritan Hebrew Samaritan Hebrew: Biblical  writing of   in Biblical Hebrew Orthography: Biblical Hebrew   in Epigraphic Hebrew Orthography: Biblical Hebrew   in Modern Hebrew Orthography: Modern Hebrew   see also samekh ; śin/šin Sa˓adia Gaon Grammatical Thought in Medieval Jewish Exegesis in Europe, Hebraisms in Arabic Versions of the Hebrew…

The majority of Jews who lived during the period corresponding to the European Middle Ages dwelt within the Islamic Empire and spoke Arabic as their mother-tongue. The influence of Arabic upon the Hebrew written by Arabic-speaking Jews during this period is very noticeable indeed. Information on phonology is, in the nature of things, rather limited, but, for example, the realization of גּ [ g] as ج [ j], mentioned for Iraq already by al-Qirqisāni in the 10th century and current today in Yemenite tradition, suggests that Arabic influence on medieval Hebrew pronun…

1. General Introduction The English term ‘adjective’ is derived from the Latin adiectivum, a translation of the Greek epitheton meaning ‘that which is added’. Morphologically, the Hebrew adjective is a part of speech inflected for number (§3.1), gender (§3.1), and definiteness (§3.3); syntactically, it has attributive (§4.1), predicative (§4.2), and adverbial functions (§4.3); it is also used to denote degrees of comparison (§4.4). In Hebrew a שם תואר šem toʾar ‘adjective’ is not marked as such by any unequivocally distinctive morphological markers, so that this …

1. General Introduction The English term ‘adjective’ is derived from the Latin adiectivum, a translation of the Greek epitheton meaning ‘that which is added’. Morphologically, the Hebrew adjective is a part of speech inflected for number (§3.1), gender (§3.1), and definiteness (§3.3); syntactically, it has attributive (§4.1), predicative (§4.2), and adverbial functions (§4.3); it is also used to denote degrees of comparison (§4.4). In Hebrew a שם תואר šem toʾar ‘adjective’ is not marked as such by any unequivocally distinctive morphological markers, so that this …