Aramaic (The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia)

37 Pages·2016·0.35 MB·Russian

by  Creason S.

chapter 6
Aramaic
stuart creason
1. HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS
1.1 Overview
AramaicisamemberoftheSemiticlanguagefamilyandformsoneofthetwomainbranches
oftheNorthwestSemiticgroupwithinthatfamily,theotherbeingCanaanite(comprising
Hebrew,Phoenician,Moabite,etc.).ThelanguagemostcloselyrelatedtoAramaicisHebrew.
MoredistantlyrelatedlanguagesincludeAkkadianandArabic.OfalltheSemiticlanguages,
Aramaic is one of the most extensively attested, in both geographic and temporal terms.
Aramaic has been continuously spoken for approximately 3,500 years (c. 1500 BC to the
present)andisattestedthroughouttheNearEastandtheMediterraneanworld.
AramaicwasoriginallyspokenbyArameantribeswhosettledinportionsofwhatisnow
Syria,Lebanon,Jordan,Turkey,andIraq,aregionboundedroughlybyDamascusandits
environsonthesouth,Mt.AmanusonthenorthwestandtheregionbetweentheBalikhand
theKhaburriversonthenortheast.TheArameanswereaSemiticpeople,liketheirneigh-
bors the Hebrews, the Phoenicians, and the Assyrians; and unlike the Hittites, Hurrians,
and Urartians. Their economy was largely agricultural and pastoral, though villages and
towns as well as larger urban centers, such as Aleppo and Damascus, also existed. These
urban centers were usually independent political units, ruled by a king (Aramaic mlk),
whichexertedpoweroverthesurroundingagriculturalandgrazingregionsandthenearby
townsandvillages.Inlatertimes,thelanguageitselfwasspokenandusedasalinguafranca
throughout the Near East by both Arameans and non-Arameans until it was eclipsed by
Arabic beginning in the seventh century AD. Aramaic is still spoken today in communi-
ties of eastern Syria, northern Iraq, and southeastern Turkey, though these dialects have
been heavily influenced by Arabic and/or Kurdish. These communities became increas-
ingly smaller during the twentieth century and may cease to exist within the next few
generations.
1.2 Historical stages and dialects of Aramaic
The division of the extant materials into distinct Aramaic dialects is problematic due in
parttothenatureofthewritingsystem(see§2)andinparttothenumber,thekinds,and
thegeographicextentoftheextantmaterials.Possibledialectaldifferencescannotalways
bedetectedintheextanttexts,and,whendifferencescanbedetected,itisnotalwaysclear
whetherthedifferencesreflectsynchronicordiachronicdistinctions.Withthesecaveatsin
mind, the extant Aramaic texts can be divided into five historical stages to which a sixth
108
aramaic 109
stagemaybeadded:Proto-Aramaic,areconstructedstageofthelanguagepriortoanyextant
texts.
1.2.1 OldAramaic(950–600BC)
ThoughAramaicwasspokenduringthesecondmillenniumBC,thefirstextanttextsappear
at the beginning of the first millennium. These texts are nearly all inscriptions on stone,
usuallyroyalinscriptionsconnectedwithvariousArameancity-states.Thecorpusoftexts
is quite small, but minor dialect differences can be detected, corresponding roughly to
geographic regions. So, one dialect is attested in the core Aramean territory of Aleppo
andDamascus,anotherinthenorthwesternborderregionaroundtheArameancity-state
of Sam(cid:2)al and a third in the northeastern region around Tel Fekheriye. There are a few
other Aramaic texts, found outside these regions, most of which attest Aramaic dialects
mixed with features from other Semitic languages, for example, the texts found at Deir
(cid:3)
Alla.
1.2.2 ImperialorOfficialAramaic(600–200BC)
This period begins with the adoption of Aramaic as a lingua franca by the Babylonian
Empire.However,fewtextsareattesteduntilc.500BCwhenthePersiansestablishedtheir
empireintheNearEast.Thetextsfromthisperiodshowafairlyuniformdialectwhichis
similartothe“Aleppo–Damascus”dialectofOldAramaic.However,thisuniformityisdue
largelytothenatureoftheextanttexts.Nearlyallofthetextsareofficialdocumentsofthe
PersianEmpireoritssubjectkingdoms,andnearlyallofthetextsarefromEgypt.Itislikely
thatnumerouslocaldialectsofAramaicexisted,butrarelyarethesedialectsreflectedinthe
texts,onepossibleexceptionbeingtheHermopolispapyri(seeKutscher1971).
1.2.3 MiddleAramaic(200BC–AD200)
ThisperiodismarkedbytheemergenceoflocalAramaicdialectswithinthetextualrecord,
mostnotablyPalmyrene,Hatran,Nabatean,andthedialectoftheAramaictextsfoundin
thecavesnearQumran(theDeadSeaScrolls).However,manytextsstillattestadialectvery
similartoImperialAramaic,butwithsomenotabledifferences(sometimescalledStandard
LiteraryAramaic;seeGreenfield1978).
1.2.4 LateAramaic(AD200–700)
It is from this period that the overwhelming majority of Aramaic texts are attested, and,
becauseoftheabundanceoftexts,clearanddistinctdialectscanbeisolated.Thesedialects
canbedividedintoawesterngroupandaneasterngroup.Majordialectsinthewestinclude
SamaritanAramaic,JewishPalestinianAramaic(alsocalledGalileanAramaic)andChristian
PalestinianAramaic.MajordialectsintheeastincludeSyriac,JewishBabylonianAramaic,
andMandaic.ThisperiodendsshortlyaftertheArabconquest,butliteraryactivityinsome
ofthesedialectscontinuesuntilthethirteenthcenturyAD.
1.2.5 ModernAramaic(AD700tothepresent)
ThisperiodischaracterizedbythegradualdeclineofAramaicduetotheincreaseduseof
ArabicintheNearEast.Numerouslocaldialects,suchasT.uroyoinsoutheasternTurkeyand
110 TheAncientLanguagesofSyria-PalestineandArabia
(cid:2)
Ma lulaninSyria,wereattestedinthenineteenthcentury,butbytheendofthetwentieth
centurymanyofthesedialectshadceasedtoexist.
2. WRITING SYSTEM
2.1 The alphabet
Aramaic is written in an alphabet which was originally borrowed from the Phoenicians
(c. 1100 BC). This alphabet represents consonantal phonemes only, though four of the
letterswerealsosometimesusedtorepresentcertainvowelphonemes(see§2.2.1).Also,be-
causetheAramaicinventoryofconsonantalphonemesdidnotexactlymatchthePhoenician
inventory, some of the letters originally represented two (or more) phonemes (see §3.2).
DuringthelonghistoryofAramaic,theselettersunderwentvariouschangesinforminclud-
ingthedevelopmentofalternatemedialandfinalformsofsomeletters(seeNaveh1982).
BytheLateAramaicperiod,anumberofdistinct,thoughrelated,scriptsareattested.Below
arerepresentedtwoofthemostcommonscriptsfromthisperiod,theAramaicsquarescript
(which was also used to write Hebrew) and the Syriac Estrangelo script, along with the
standardtransliterationofeachletter.Finalformsarelistedtotherightofmedialforms.
InChristianPalestinianAramaicanadditionalletterwasdevelopedtorepresenttheGreek
Table6.1 Aramaicconsonantalscripts
Squarescript Estrangelo Transliteration
a (cid:2)
b b
g g
d d
h h
w w
z z
j h.
f t.
y y
k k
K
l l
m! m
n@ n
s s
[ (cid:2)
p# p
x$ s.
q q(ork.)
r r
` sˇ
t t
aramaic 111
Table6.2 Aramaicvoweldiacritics
Tiberian Transliteration Jacobite Transliteration
b oryb biorbˆı or b¯ıorbˆı
. .
=ory= be¯orbeˆ be
: be
9 ba ba
; ba¯orbo ba¯
or/b bo¯orboˆ
?orWb buorbuˆ or bu¯orbuˆ
letter(cid:2)inGreekloanwords.IthadthesameformastheletterpoftheEstrangeloscript,but
waswrittenbackwards.
2.2 Vowel representation
2.2.1 Matreslectionis
PriortotheseventhoreightcenturyAD,vowelswerenotfullyrepresentedinthewriting
ofAramaic.Instead,somevowelswererepresentedmoreorlesssystematicallybythefour
letters(cid:3),h,w,andy,thematreslectionis(“mothersofreading”).Thefirsttwo,(cid:3)andh,were
onlyusedtorepresentword-finalvowels.Thelasttwo,wandy,wereusedtorepresentboth
medialandfinalvowels.Theletterwwasusedtorepresent/u:/and/o:/.Theletterywasused
torepresent/e:/and/i:/.Theletter(cid:3)wasusedtorepresent/a:/and/e:/,althoughitsusefor
/a:/wasinitiallyrestrictedtocertainmorphemesanditsusefor/e:/didnotdevelopuntilthe
MiddleorLateAramaicperiod.Theletterhwasalsousedtorepresent/a:/and/e:/.Theuse
ofhtorepresent/e:/wasrestrictedtocertainmorphemesandeventuallyhwasalmostcom-
pletelysupersededbyyinthetextsofsomedialectsorby(cid:3)inothers.Theuseofhtorepresent
/a:/wasretainedthroughoutallperiods,butwasgraduallydecreased,andeliminatedentirely
inthetextsofsomedialects,bytheincreaseduseof(cid:3)torepresent/a:/.Originally,matreslec-
tioniswereusedtorepresentlongvowelsonly.IntheMiddleAramaicperiod,matreslectionis
begantobeusedtorepresentshortvowelsandthisuseincreasedduringtheLateAramaic
period,suggestingthatvowelquantitywasnolongerphonemic(see§3.3.2and§3.3.3).
2.2.2 Systemsofdiacritics
DuringtheseventhtoninthcenturiesAD,atleastfourdistinctsystemsofdiacriticswere
developed to represent vowels. These four systems were developed independently of one
anotheranddifferwithrespecttothenumberofdiacriticsused,theformofthediacritics,
andtheplacementofthediacriticsrelativetotheconsonant.Twosystemsweredeveloped
by Syriac Christians: the Nestorian in the east and the Jacobite in the west. Two systems
weredevelopedbyJewishcommunities:theTiberianinthewestandtheBabylonianinthe
east. The symbols from two of these systems, as they would appear with the letter b, are
representedinTable6.2alongwiththeirstandardtransliteration.
TheTiberiansystemalsocontainsfouradditionalsymbolsforvowels,allofwhichrepre-
sent“half-vowels.”Thephonemicstatusofthesevowelsisuncertain(see§3.3.3.1)andone
ofthesymbolscanalsobeusedtoindicatetheabsenceofavowel:
112 TheAncientLanguagesofSyria-PalestineandArabia
(1) Symbol Transliteration
əornovowel
e˘
a˘
o˘
2.3 Other diacritics
The Tiberian system and the two Syriac systems contain a variety of other diacritics in
additiontothoseusedtoindicatevowels.TheTiberiansystemmarkstwodistinctpronun-
ciationsoftheletterˇs byadoteithertotheupperleftortotheupperrightoftheletter,andit
indicatesthatafinalhisnotamaterlectionisbyadot(mappiq)inthecenteroftheletter.The
Syriacsystemsindicatethataletterisnottobepronouncedbyaline(lineaoccultans)above
thatletter.BoththeTiberianandtheSyriacsystemsalsocontaindiacriticsthatindicatethe
alternatepronunciationsofthelettersb,g,d,k,p,andt(see§3.2.3).Thepronunciationof
theselettersasstopsisindicatedintheTiberiansystembyadot(daghesh)inthecenterof
theletter,andintheSyriacsystembyadot(quˇsˇsa¯ya¯)abovetheletter.Thepronunciationof
theselettersasfricativesisindicatedintheTiberiansystemeitherbyaline(raphe)abovethe
letterorbytheabsenceofanydiacritic,andintheSyriacsystembyadot(rukka¯ka¯)below
theletter(seealsoMorag1962andSegal1953).
3. PHONOLOGY
3.1 Overview
The reconstruction of the phonology of Aramaic at its various stages is complicated by
the paucity of direct evidence for the phonological system and by the ambiguous nature
oftheevidencethatdoesexist.Thewritingsystemitselfprovideslittleinformationabout
the vowels, and its representation of some of the consonantal phonemes is ambiguous.
Transcriptions of Aramaic words in other writing systems (such as Akkadian, Greek, or
Demotic) exist, but this evidence is relatively fragmentary and difficult to interpret. The
phonologyofthelanguageofthetranscriptionsisnotalwaysfullyunderstoodandsothe
effect of the transcriber’s phonological system on the transcription cannot be accurately
determined.Furthermore,nosystematicgrammaticaldescriptionofAramaicexistsprior
to the beginning of the Modern Aramaic period. So, the presentation in this section is
basedupon(i)changesinthespellingofAramaicwordsoverthecourseoftime;(ii)the
informationprovidedbythegrammaticalwritingsandthevocalizedtextsfromtheseventh
toninthcenturyAD;(iii)thestandardreconstructionofthephonologyofProto-Aramaic;
and(iv)thegenerallyacceptedreconstructionofthechangesthattookplacebetweenProto-
AramaicandtheLateAramaicdialects.
3.2 Consonants
The relationship of Aramaic consonantal phonemes to Aramaic letters is a complex one
sincethephonemicinventoryunderwentanumberofchangesinthehistoryofAramaic.
SomeofthesechangestookplaceaftertheadoptionofthealphabetbytheArameansand
producedsystematicchangesinthespellingofcertainAramaicwords.
aramaic 113
Table6.3 OldAramaicconsonantalphonemes
Placeofarticulation
Mannerof Dental/ Palato-
articulation Bilabial Inter-dental Alveolar alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
Stop
Voiceless p t k ʔ((cid:3))
Voiced b d g
Emphatic t’(t.) k’(q)
Fricative
Voiceless θ(sˇ) s sˇ (cid:5)(h.) h
Voiced ð(z) z ʕ((cid:2))
Emphatic θ’(s.) s’(s.)
Trill r(r)
Lateralcont.
Voiceless (cid:8) (sˇ)
Voiced l
Emphatic (cid:8)’(q)
Nasal m n
Glide w y
3.2.1 OldAramaicconsonantalphonemes
Table 6.3 presents the consonantal phonemes of Old Aramaic with the transliteration of
their corresponding symbols in the writing system (see Table 6.1). Only one symbol is
listed in those cases in which the transliteration of the written symbol is identical to the
symbolusedtorepresentthephoneme.Inallothercases,thetransliterationofthewritten
symbolisplacedinparentheses.Phonemeslistedas“Emphatic”aregenerallyconsidered
tobepharyngealized.Notethatthreeletters(z,.sandq)eachrepresentedtwophonemes
andthatoneletter(ˇs)representedthreephonemes,althoughinoneOldAramaictext(Tel
Fekheriye) the /θ/ phoneme was represented by s rather thanˇs each of which, therefore,
represented two phonemes. That the letterˇs has /(cid:8)/as one of its values and q has /(cid:8)’/ as
oneofitsvaluesislikely(seeSteiner1977),butnotcertain.Analternativeforqis/ð’/.No
satisfactoryalternativehasbeenproposedforˇs.
In texts of the Sam(cid:2)al dialect of Old Aramaic and in the Sefire texts found near
Aleppo, the word npˇs is also spelled nbˇs. The occasional spelling of words with b
rather than p also occurs in Canaanite dialects and Ugaritic and suggests that voic-
ing may not have distinguished labial stops in some of the dialects of Northwest
Semitic.
3.2.2 ImperialAramaicconsonantalphonemes
BytheImperialAramaicperiod,threechangeshadtakenplaceamongthedentalconsonants:
(i)/(cid:8)/hadbecome/s/;(ii)/(cid:8)’/hadbecome/ʕ/;and(iii)/ð/,/θ/,and/θ’/hadbecome/d/,
/t/,and/t’/,respectively.Thesechangesreducedthephonemicinventoryofdentalstothe
following:
114 TheAncientLanguagesofSyria-PalestineandArabia
(2) Stop Fricative Lateralcontinuant Nasal
Voiceless t s
Voiced d z l n
Emphatic t’(t.) s’(s.)
ThesechangesinthephonemicinventoryproducedchangesinthespellingofAramaic
words.Forexample,wordscontainingthephoneme/ð/andspelledwiththeletterzbecame
spelledwiththeletterdbecausethephoneme/ð/hadbecome/d/.Similarspellingchanges
took place in words spelled with the lettersˇs, .s and q. For some time, both spellings are
attestedinAramaictexts,butthechangeiscompletebytheLateAramaicperiod,exceptin
JewishAramaicdialectsinwhichthelettersˇisretainedforthephoneme/s/inafewwords,
perhapsundertheinfluenceofHebrewwhichunderwentthesamesoundchangebutwhich
consistentlyretainedtheolderspelling.
3.2.3 Stopallophony
Atsometimepriortothelossofshortvowels(see§3.3.2),thesixlettersb,g,d,k, p,and
t each came to represent a pair of sounds, one a stop, the other a fricative. For example,
b represented[b]and[v](or,possibly,/β/); p represented[p]and[f](or,possibly,/(cid:3)/);
and so forth. At this stage, the alternation between the stop and fricative articulations
was entirely predictable from the phonetic environment. The stop articulation occurred
whentheconsonantwasgeminated(lengthened)orwasprecededbyanotherconsonant.
The fricative articulation occurred when the consonant was not geminated and was also
precededbyavowel.Thisalternationwaspurelyphoneticinthecaseofthefourpairsof
sounds represented by b, p, g, and k. In the case of the two pairs of sounds represented
byd andt thealternationwaseitherphoneticormorphophonemic.Ifthedevelopmentof
thisalternationoccurredpriortotheshiftof/ð/to/d/and/θ/to/t/(see§3.2.2),thenthe
presenceofthesetwophonemeswouldhavemadethealternationmorphophonemic.Ifit
occurredafterthisshift,thenthealternationwasphonetic.AtalaterstageofAramaic,short
vowelswerelostincertainenvironmentsand,asaresult,theenvironmentwhichconditioned
thealternationwaseliminatedinsomewords.Thefricativearticulation,however,wasnot
eliminatedandsothealternationbetweenthetwoarticulationsbecamephonemicinallsix
cases.
3.3 Vowels
The inventory of Aramaic vowel phonemes is more difficult to specify than that of con-
sonantalphonemes,sincevowelsarenotfullyrepresentedinthewritingsystemuntilthe
beginningoftheModernAramaicperiod.Priortothattime,thematreslectionis(see§2.2.1)
weretheonlymeansbywhichvowelswererepresented.IntheOldandImperialAramaic
periods, the matres lectionis were only used to indicate long vowels. During the Middle
Aramaicperiodtheybegantobeusedtoindicateshortvowelsaswell,andthisexpansion
oftheirusecontinuedintotheLateAramaicperiod.Thischangeintheuseofthematres
lectionissuggeststhatvowelquantitywasnotphonemicbytheMiddleAramaicperiodand
thatvowelqualitywastheonlyrelevantfactorintheiruse.Giventhisevidenceandthedata
providedbythefoursystemsofvoweldiacriticsthatweredevelopedatthebeginningofthe
ModernAramaicperiod,threedistinctstagesofthephonologyofAramaicvowelscanbe
distinguished:Proto-Aramaic,MiddleAramaic,andLateAramaic.
aramaic 115
3.3.1 Proto-Aramaic
ThereconstructedProto-Aramaicinventoryofvowelphonemesisequivalenttotherecon-
structedProto-Semiticinventoryofvowelphonemes:
(3) Front Central Back
High /i/and/i:/ /u/and/u:/
Low /a/and/a:/
Inaddition,when/a/wasfollowedby/w/or/y/,thediphthongs/au/and/ai/wereformed.
3.3.2 MiddleAramaic
AnumberofvowelchangestookplacebetweentheProto-AramaicandtheMiddleAramaic
periods;providingarelativechronology,muchlessanabsolutechronology,ofthesechanges
is problematic.Questions of chronology aside, these changes can be divided into three
groups:
1.Changeswhichdidnotaffectthesystemofvowelphonemes,suchastheshiftof/a/to/i/
(“attenuation”)insomeclosedsyllables.
2.ChangeswhichoccurredineverydialectofAramaic:
(i) Stressed/i/and/u/werelowered,andperhapslengthened,to/e/or/e:/and/o/or/o:/.
(ii) Inalldialects,butdifferingfromdialecttodialectastothenumberandthespecification
ofenvironments,/ai/became/e:/(orpossibly/ei/)and/au/became/o:/(orpossibly
/ou/).
(iii) Inthefirstopensyllablepriortothestressedsyllableandinalternatingsyllablesprior
tothat,shortvowelswerelost.Inpositionswherethecompletelossofthevowelwould
haveproducedanunacceptableconsonantcluster,thevowelreducedtotheneutral
mid-vowel[ə].Becausethepresenceofthisvowelisentirelypredictablefromsyllable
structure,itisnotanalyzedasphonemic.
(iv) Quantityceasedtobephonemic.
3.Changeswhichapparentlyoccurredinsomedialects,butnotothers:
(i) Thelowvowel/a:/wasroundedandraisedto/ɔ/.
(ii) Unstressed/u/wasloweredto/ɔ/insomeenvironments.
(iii) Unstressed/i/wasloweredto/ε/insomeenvironments.
(iv) Unstressed/a/wasraisedto/ε/insomeenvironments.
A dialect in which all of these changes occurred would have the vowel system of (4),
alongwiththediphthongs/ai/(or/ei/)and/au/(or/ou/),iftheyhadbeenretainedinany
environments:
(4) Front Central Back
High /i/ /u/
Mid /e/ /o/
/ε/ /ɔ/
Low /a/
Adialectinwhichonlythefirsttwosetsofchangesoccurredwouldhavethesamesystem
butwithoutthevowels/ε/and/ɔ/.
116 TheAncientLanguagesofSyria-PalestineandArabia
3.3.3 LateAramaic
AtthebeginningoftheModernAramaicperiod,foursetsofdiacriticswereindependently
developedtorepresentAramaicvowelsfully.Thesesetsofdiacriticsrepresentthephonemic
distinctionsrelevanttofourdialectsofLateAramaic.Thedistinctionsindicatedbythese
systemsarequalitative,notquantitative,indicatingthatvowelquantitywasnotphonemicby
thistime.Inallofthesesystems,thepronunciationofthelowvowel(s)is/areuncertainand
sotwooptionsareusuallygiven.Alsoindicatedin(5)–(8)arethestandardtransliteration
equivalentsinthewritingsystem.
3.3.3.1 TheTiberiansystem
(5) Front Central Back
High /i/=<i>and<ˆı> /u/=<u>and<uˆ>
Mid /e/=<e¯>and<eˆ> /o/=<o¯>and<oˆ>
/ε/=<e> /ɔ/=<o>and<a¯>
Low /æ/or/a/=<a>
Thephonemicstatusofthe/ε/vowelisuncertain,becauseitsalternationwithothervowels
inthesystemisnearlyalwayspredictable.If/ε/isnotaphoneme,thenthissystemwould
beequivalenttotheBabyloniansystem(see§3.3.3.2).
TheTiberiansystemalsocontainsfouradditionalsymbolsforvowels(see§2.2.2),allof
which represent vowels of very brief duration: the neutral mid vowel /ə/, and very brief
pronunciationsof/ε/,/ɔ/,and/a/.Diachronically,thesevowelsaretheremnantsofshort
vowelswhichwerereducedincertainsyllables(see§3.3.2).Theyareonlyretainedinpositions
wherethecompletelossofthevowelwouldproduceanunacceptableconsonantclusterand
sotheyrepresentacontext-dependentphonetic(ratherthanaphonemic)phenomenon.
3.3.3.2 TheBabyloniansystem
(6) Front Central Back
High /i/=<i>and<ˆı> /u/=<u>and<uˆ>
Mid /e/=<e¯>and<eˆ> /o/=<o¯>and<oˆ>
Low /æ/(or/a/)=<a> /a/(or/ɔ/)=<a¯>
ThissystemisessentiallyequivalenttotheTiberiansystem,butwithout/ε/.Itisprobablethat
/ε/isabsentinthisdialectbecauseitneverdevelopedfrom/i/and/a/,ratherthanbecause
itfirstdevelopedandthenwassubsequentlylost.Thissystemalsocontainsasymbolforthe
neutralmidvowel/ə/but,unliketheTiberiansystem,thediacriticisnotambiguous(i.e.,it
doesnotalsorepresenttheabsenceofavowel;see§2.2.2).
3.3.3.3 TheNestoriansystem
(7) Front Central Back
High /i/=<i>and<ˆı> /u/=<u>and<uˆ>
Mid /e/=<e¯>and<eˆ> /o/=<o¯>and<oˆ>
/ε/=<e> /ɔ/=<a¯>
Low /æ/or/a/=<a>
ThissystemisessentiallythesameastheTiberianandtheMiddleAramaicsystem,though
the/ε/vowelismuchmorecommonandiscertainlyaphonemeinthissystem.
aramaic 117
3.3.3.4 TheJacobitesystem
(8) Front Central Back
High /i/=<¯ı>and<ˆı> /u/=<u¯>and<uˆ>
Mid /e/=<e> /o/=<a¯>
Low /a/=<a>
ThissystemhasthesmallestofallinventoriesandisaresultoftwochangesfromtheMiddle
Aramaic(= Nestorian)system:(i)theraisingof/e/and/o/to/i/and/u/respectively;and
(ii)theraisingof/ε/and/ɔ/to/e/and/o/respectively.
3.4 Syllable structure
Aramaichasbothclosed(CVC)andopen(CV)syllables.Duringthetimethatvowelquantity
wasphonemicinAramaic,aclosedsyllablecouldnotcontainalongvowel,whereasanopen
syllable could contain either a long or a short vowel. After vowel quantity was no longer
phonemic, such restrictions were no longer relevant to the phonemic system, although
vowelsinclosedandopensyllablesverylikelydifferedphoneticallyinquantity.
TheonlyapparentrestrictiononvowelqualityinAramaicsyllablesoccursinconnection
withtheconsonants/ʔ/,/ʕ/,/(cid:5)/,/h/,and/r/.AtanearlystageinAramaic,ashorthighvowel
precedingtheseconsonantsbecame/a/.Aprecedinglonghighvowelretaineditsquality,
but,insomedialects,/a/wasinsertedbetweenthehighvowelandtheconsonant.
3.5 Stress
ThereisoneprimarystressedsyllableineachAramaicword(withtheexceptionofsome
particles;see§§4.6,4.7.4,and4.8.1).InProto-Aramaic,wordshavingafinalclosedsyllable
were stressed on that syllable; and words having a final open syllable were stressed on
the penultimate syllable, regardless of the length of the word-final vowel. At a very early
stage, word-final short vowels were either lost or lengthened and so the stressed, open
penultimate syllable of words with a final short vowel became the final stressed, closed
syllable. Stress remained on this syllable and the rules regarding stress were not altered.
TheserulesremainunalteredthroughoutmostofthehistoryofAramaic,thoughinsome
dialectsofLateAramaic,stressshiftedfromthefinalsyllabletothepenultimatesyllablein
someorallwordswhichhadaclosedfinalsyllable.
3.6 Phonological processes
3.6.1 Sibilantmetathesis
Inverbformsinwhicha/t/isprefixed(see§4.4.1)toarootwhichbeginswithasibilant,
thesibilantandthe/t/undergometathesis:forexample,/ts/→/st/and/tsˇ/→/sˇt/.Ifthe
sibilantisvoiced/z/orpharyngealized/s’/,/t/alsoundergoespartialassimilation:/tz/→
/zd/and/ts’/→/s’t’/.
3.6.2 Assimilationof/t/
Inverbformsinwhicha/t/isprefixed(see§4.4.1)toarootwhichbeginswith/d/or/t’/,
the/t/completelyassimilatestothisconsonant.Thisassimilationalsotakesplaceinafew
rootswhosefirstconsonantisalabial–/b/,/p/,and/m/–orthedental/alveolar/n/.