Language and nature

496 Pages·2012·7.88 MB·English

http://oi.uchicago.edu/
Language and nature
http://oi.uchicago.edu/
John Huehnergard (photo by Christopher Rose)
http://oi.uchicago.edu/
Language and nature
papers presented to John huehnergard
on the occasion of his 60 Birthday
th
edited by
RebeCCa HasselbaCH
and
Naʿama pat-el
studies in ancient ORientaL civiLizatiOn • numbeR 67
tHe ORieNtal iNstitute Of tHe uNiveRsity Of CHiCagO
chicagO • iLLinOis
http://oi.uchicago.edu/
library of Congress Control Number: 2011933159
isbN-10: 1-885923-91-0
isbn-13: 978-1-885923-91-2
issn: 0081-7554
The Oriental Institute, Chicago
© 2012 by the university of chicago. all rights reserved.
Published 2012. Printed in the united states of america.
studies in ancient ORientaL civiLizatiOn • numbeR 67
tHe ORieNtal iNstitute Of tHe uNiveRsity Of CHiCagO
Series Editors
Leslie schramer
and
thomas g. urban
with
Rebecca cain and Zuhal Kuru
Series Editors’ Acknowledgments
Jessen O’brien and tate Paulette assisted in the production of this volume.
Cover prepared by Kristy Shuey of 2nd Street Design Lab, Austin, Texas
selection of ethiopic, ugaritic, akkadian, hebrew, and Old south arabian texts.
We thank the semitic museum, harvard university, Wayne t. Pitard, and John huehnergard for their use.
Printed by McNaughton & Gunn, Saline, Michigan
the paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ameri-
can national standard for information services — Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
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table of contents
Contributors and affiliations ................................................................................ vi
Preface. Rebecca Hasselbach and Naʿama Pat-El................................................................... vii
John as a teacher and mentor. Rebecca Hasselbach and Naʿama Pat-El ............................................... ix
students of John Huehnergard............................................................................... x
the Research of John huehnergard. Rebecca Hasselbach and Naʿama Pat-El .......................................... xi
Publications of John huehnergard............................................................................ xiii
a brief note on the Festschrift illustrations. X Bonnie Woods...................................................... xviii
Contributions
1. Functional values of iprus forms in Old babylonian šumma Protases. Eran Cohen...................................... 1
2. the hypotaxis-Parataxis dichotomy and elliptic conditional clauses in semitic. Lutz Edzard .......................... 13
3. t-stem verbs without metathesis in aramaic and hebrew documents from the Judean desert.
Steven E. Fassberg.............................................................................................. 27
4. People without town: the ʿapiru in the amarna evidence. Daniel E. Fleming.......................................... 39
5. denominal, Lexicalized hiphil verbs. W. Randall Garr............................................................... 51
6. the treatment of vowel Length in arabic grammar and its adaptation to hebrew. Gideon Goldenberg .................. 59
7. Wisdom in ugaritic. Edward L. Greenstein......................................................................... 69
8. Predicate nominals and Related constructions in neo-mandaic. Charles G. Häberl .................................... 91
9. Yaqtul and a ugaritic incantation text. Jo Ann Hackett ............................................................. 111
10. the verbal endings -u and -a: a note on their Functional derivation. Rebecca Hasselbach ............................. 119
11. ibn Khaldūn as a historical Linguist with an excursus on the Question of ancient gāf.
Wolfhart Heinrichs ............................................................................................. 137
12. a morphosyntactic explanation of tǝpôṣôtîkem (Jer 25:34). Jeremy M. Hutton.......................................... 151
13. canaano-akkadian: Linguistics and sociolinguistics. Shlomo Izre’el.................................................. 171
14. the evidential Function of the Perfect in north-eastern neo-aramaic dialects. Geoffrey Khan ......................... 219
15. Les noms de plantes akkadiens dans leur contexte sémitique. Leonid Kogan.......................................... 229
16. grammaticalization and the biblical hebrew Pseudo-cohortative. Paul Korchin ...................................... 269
17. the biblical hebrew verbal system in a nutshell. Dennis Pardee .................................................... 285
18. the syntax of ʾǎšer and šec — Yet again. Naʿama Pat-El ............................................................ 319
19. Late biblical hebrew in the book of haggai. Gary A. Rendsburg...................................................... 329
20. two modern south arabian etymologies. Aaron D. Rubin .......................................................... 345
21. “if Water had not been made to dry up, this earth Would have been drowned”: Pahlavi *āwās- ‘to dry.’
Prods Oktor Skjærvø............................................................................................ 353
22. vowel syncope and syllable Repair Processes in Proto-semitic construct Forms: a new
Reconstruction based on the Law of diminishing conditioning. Richard C. Steiner .................................... 365
23. Reconciling some morphological eccentricities of the semitic genitive case marker. David Testen...................... 391
24. mixed Linguistic Features in a Judeo-arabic text from algeria: the šarḥ to the hafṭarot from
constantine. Ofra Tirosh-Becker ................................................................................. 407
25. alternierende metrik in der akkadischen Poesie. Josef Tropper...................................................... 433
26. On Personal names ending in -āyu in the amarna Letters and in texts from canaan. Wilfred van Soldt .................. 443
27. Jumping spiders (araneae: salticidae) of the concord area, middlesex county, massachusetts. Richard K. Walton......... 451
28. verbal endings in the afroasiatic Prefix conjugations. Andrzej Zaborski ................................................... 459
29. Prepositional Phrases as subjects in several semitic Languages. Tamar Zewi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
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contributors and affiliations
eran cohen, department of Linguistics, the hebrew university of Jerusalem
Lutz edzard, department of culture studies and Oriental Languages, university of Oslo
steven e. fassberg, department of hebrew Language, the hebrew university of Jerusalem
daniel e. fleming, department of hebrew and Judaic studies, new York university
W. randall garr, department of Religious studies, university of california, santa barbara
gideon goldenberg, department of Linguistics, the hebrew university of Jerusalem
edward L. greenstein, department of bible, bar ilan university
charles g. häberl, the center for middle eastern studies, Rutgers university
Jo ann hackett, department of middle eastern studies, the university of texas at austin
rebecca hasselbach, department of near eastern Languages and civilizations, university of chicago
Wolfhart heinrichs, department of near eastern Languages and civilizations, harvard university
Jeremy M. hutton, department of hebrew and semitic studies, university of Wisconsin–madison
shlomo izre’el, department of hebrew culture, section of semitic Linguistics, tel aviv university
geoffrey Khan, hebrew and semitic studies, university of cambridge
Leonid Kogan, institute of Oriental and classical studies, Russian state university for the humanities
paul Korchin, Religion Program, university of alaska Fairbanks
dennis pardee, department of near eastern Languages and civilizations, university of chicago
naʿama pat-el, department of middle eastern studies, the university of texas at austin
gary a. rendsburg, department of Jewish studies, Rutgers university
aaron d. rubin, classics and ancient mediterranean studies, Penn state university
prods oktor skjærvø, department of near eastern Languages and civilizations, harvard university
richard c. steiner, bernard Revel graduate school, Yeshiva university
david testen
ofra tirosh-Becker, department of hebrew Language, the hebrew university of Jerusalem
Josef tropper, theologische Fakultät, humboldt-universität, berlin
Wilfred van soldt, institute for area studies, Leiden university
richard K. Walton, author and videographer
X Bonnie Woods, artist and designer
andrzej Zaborski, afroasiatic Linguistics, Jagellonian university, Krakow
tamar Zewi, department of hebrew Language, haifa university
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preface
this volume includes thirty contributions — twenty-nine papers and one artistic contribution — by John’s col-
leagues, former students, and friends, on a variety of topics, representing John’s versatility and many interests:
eran cohen reviews and discusses the functional value of akkadian iprus in conditional clauses in epistolary and
legal texts. cohen points to the syntactic environment and the genre as conditioning factors.
Lutz edzard discusses the akkadian injunctive šumma, used in oath formulae, where it expresses positive state-
ment when it is followed by a negation particle. edzard examines whether this pattern should be considered
an elliptical conditional.
steven e. Fassberg deals with verbal t-forms that do not exhibit the expected metathesis in hebrew and aramaic of
the dead sea scrolls. Fassberg suggests an explanation on the basis of diachronic evidence as well as compara-
tive evidence from other aramaic dialects.
daniel F. Fleming asks who were the ʿapiru people mentioned in egyptian texts in the Late bronze age and what
was their social standing as is reflected in the amarna letters.
Randall garr studies one class of denominal hiphil verbs and asks why these verbs are assigned to the causative
stem despite their non-causative semantic content.
gideon goldenberg discusses the concept of vocalic length and the status of yā, waw, and ʾalif in arabic grammati-
cal tradition and in the medieval hebrew tradition that was its product.
ed greenstein suggests that the roots of biblical wisdom can be located in second-millennium canaanite literature
by identifying wisdom sayings and themes in the ugaritic corpus. this is a part of the author’s ongoing re-
search into this genre.
charles häberl looks into predicates of verbless sentences in semitic and particularly in neo-mandaic, which ex-
hibits syntactic subtleties not found in the classical semitic languages.
Jo ann hackett takes another look at ugaritic yaqtul and argues for the existence of a preterite yaqtul, contra sev-
eral recent studies.
Rebecca hasselbach tackles the evasive origin of the semitic verbal endings -u and -a and explains their develop-
ment in the various branches.
Wolfhart heinrichs’s contribution is a study of a passage from ibn Khaldūn’s muqaddima on the pronunciation of
arabic qāf. this study shows that ibn Khaldūn held innovative views of language and its evolution.
Jeremy hutton sheds more light on tg forms in biblical hebrew, through an analysis of the anomalous form
təpôṣôtîkem. this study further uses comparative evidence to suggest a better understanding of this, and simi-
lar forms.
shlomo izre’el offers a revised and improved version of his important study of the language of the amarna letters,
so far available only as an unpublished manuscript.
geoffrey Khan discusses the functional differences between the preterite and the perfect in nena. Khan suggests
that one of the functions of the perfect is marking a speaker’s attitude toward the event.
Leonid Kogan offers a comparative etymological study of botanical terminology in akkadian.
Paul Korchin argues that occurrences of the cohortative in biblical hebrew that do not conform to the normative
volitive function, the so-called pseudo-cohortatives, represent instances of a “centrifugal” directive affix ex-
pressing motion away from the speaker/main event.
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viii Preface
dennis Pardee provides a detailed description and explanation of his understanding of the hebrew verbal system
as primarily expressing aspect, tense only secondarily.
naʿama Pat-el continues the discussion of the origin of the hebrew relative particle šeC- from a syntactic perspec-
tive. she argues that, based on its syntactic distributions, the origin of the particle from the relative particle
’ăšer as proposed by John huehnergard is more likely than a recent suggestion that the two particles are unre-
lated.
gary a. Rendsburg argues in favor of Late biblical hebrew features in the book of haggai against Young, Rezetko,
and ehrensvärd, who denied the presence of such features in the text. Rendsburg argues that Late biblical
hebrew features are found in various layers of grammar and style throughout the book.
aaron d. Rubin provides semitic etymologies of two modern south arabian words, lxm ‘shark,’ and mehri nǝxāli
‘under.’
Prods Oktor skjærvø elucidates a passage from the Pahlavi Rivāyat and discusses the Pahlavi verb *āwās ‘to dry.’
Richard c. steiner discusses a universal that governs the evolution of phonological rules and applies it to the recon-
struction of Proto-semitic. he proposes a new vowel syncope rule for Proto-semitic construct forms that accounts
for many alternations and biforms throughout the semitic languages, and for phonological enigmas such as hebrew
štey ‘two of (fem.),’ mǝ˘läḵäṯ ‘queen of,’ lǝ˘ḇän ‘white of,’ aramaic tartey ‘two of (fem.),’ arabic (i)smu ‘name of,’ mehri bǝrt
‘daughter of,’ and akkadian ašti ‘wife of (gen.).’
david testen argues that the traditionally reconstructed case system is a secondary development and that the
original system should be reconstructed with a contrast of nominative *-u- and a genitive with two allo-
morphs, *-i- and *-ay-.
Ofra tirosh-becker discusses the language of a Judeo-arabic translation of portions of the books of Prophets and
argues that the language is characterized by a mixture of conservative and colloquial linguistic elements.
Josef tropper argues that akkadian poetry, as well as northwest semitic poetry, are based on certain metric prin-
ciples, based on stressed and unstressed syllables.
Wilfred van soldt lists and discusses personal names ending in -āyu from amarna. this contribution is a continua-
tion of his recent work studying the orthography of personal names in this language.
Richard K. Walton, a naturalist with a special interest in concord, massachusetts, contributes a paper about the
jumping spiders (araneae: salticidae) of the region. his short paper is accompanied by a series of videos show-
ing these spiders in their natural habitats.
andrzej zaborski, in the sole afroasiatic contribution, suggests that berber and cushitic preserve archaic features
that have been lost for the most part in the semitic languages. One such example, which is discussed at length,
is the verbal suffixes of the prefix conjugation.
tamar zewi offers a comparative study that purports to show that prepositional phrases function as subjects in a
variety of semitic languages. zewi provides a constructive discussion and suggests a number of explanations
to this phenomenon.
We started working on this volume in early 2009 without John’s knowledge and with the help of his wife and our
teacher, Jo ann hackett. We wish to thank all the contributors to this Festschrift for their participation and for
their help and patience. special thanks go to Jo ann hackett, who was always ready to answer our questions and
offer invaluable advice. Finally, we wish to thank the Oriental institute and thomas urban, Leslie schramer, and
Rebecca cain for their help with the publication.
Rebecca Hasselbach
Naʿama Pat-El
http://oi.uchicago.edu/
John as a teacher and Mentor
being one of John’s students has been a great honor and, at the same time, a bit of a challenge. it is hard not to
become too exuberant when describing our time at harvard–neLc, and we know that many of his students feel the
same.
given the size of the field in semitic linguistics, John does not admit many students, and we all remember the
moment when, sitting in his office as a prospective student, he advised us to seriously consider a minor field in
addition to semitic philology to enhance our later prospects, “just in case.” most of us did not take his advice, not
because we did not appreciate it, but because it was hard enough to live up to his expectations in semitic linguis-
tics, let alone take on another field of study. John himself regularly audits classes in other departments, showing
us that education does not have an end point.
as for his life outside academia, John is a very private man. We all read his papers and knew his opinions about
everything semitic, but most of us knew little of how he spends his free time and what are his hobbies and non-
linguistic interests. it took quite a bit of inquiry to discover that he is a passionate bird watcher and naturalist and
even co-authored articles on nature. visiting his carlisle home for his annual bbQ for students, we learned of his
passion for darwin (both man and dog) and his love for art and photography. Only after he went through knee sur-
gery did we know of his habit to run marathons. how he finds time for all this is still a mystery.
as a teacher and mentor, he treated us all equally with professional respect. he might not have discussed
many issues concerning his life outside academia, but once we raised a linguistic issue, a wealth of information
would pour out uninterrupted: the history of the debate, major breakthroughs, empirical data, and references.
if he did not remember something, out came a 3-by-5-inch index card from his front pocket, on which he would
quickly scribble the request with a fancy pen to attend to it later. many of us still seek his advice and opinion even
as we hold our own teaching positions.
his enthusiasm to share his knowledge does not set him apart from other great teachers; what does, however,
is his willingness to share his own ideas and even unpublished research without limit. On many occasions, once
learning of a student’s interest in a certain topic, he would hand over his notes and data he had collected for years.
he never limited his gift, never asked not to use it and never demanded to be mentioned in the paper: on the con-
trary. (We secretly refer to it as “John’s Freedom of information act.”) this character trait shows his unequaled
prioritization of scholarship and dissemination of knowledge over personal fame. the obvious result is seen in the
many papers he co-authored with his students.
indeed, John treats his students as peers and expects them to be mature scholars while in graduate school. his
famous “turbo-hebrew” class is a classic example. in this class students are requested to research the text and its
linguistic pitfalls before coming to class, not merely read it and sit sheepishly in the room while he untangles the
difficulties for them. this attitude and his subtle pressure on all his students to conform to the highest academic
levels produced and instilled confidence in us.
his teaching does not end with supplying us with knowledge and understanding our limits; one of the major
things he exemplifies is respect, toward both peers and adversaries. he takes everyone seriously, no matter how
wrong he thinks the person’s ideas might be. he does not speak ill of those with whom he disagrees, and he teach-
es his students to learn from everything and everyone. his criticism of others is always professional, deferential,
and gracious, and he asks his students to behave similarly, in person as well as publicly.
While each of us carries many personal anecdotes about John and our time as his students, we all share rever-
ence for him as a mentor and advisor, and we see him as a paragon of excellence in scholarship and intellect.
Rebecca Hasselbach
Naʿama Pat-El
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students of John huehnergard
1996 edwina m. Wright† studies in semitic historical semantics: Words for “man” and “Woman”
1996 Joshua t. Fox noun Patterns in the semitic Languages
1997 Paul v. mankowski akkadian and trans-akkadian Loanwords in biblical hebrew
1998 eugen J. Pentiuc studies in emar Lexicon
1999 allan c. emery Weapons of the israelite monarchy: a catalogue with its Linguistic and cross-
cultural implications
2001 Paul d. Korchin markedness and semitic morphology
2001 Chulhyun bae comparative studies of King darius’s bisitun inscription
2004 Rebecca hasselbach a historical and comparative study of sargonic akkadian
2004 aaron d. Rubin studies in semitic grammaticalization
2005 mark arnold categorization of the hitpa’el of classical hebrew
2005 david elias tigre of habab: short grammar and texts from the Rigbat People
2006 charles g. häberl the neo-mandaic dialect of Khorramshahr
2008 naʿama Pat-el studies in the historical syntax of aramaic
2009 elitzur bar-asher a theory of argument Realization and its application to Features of the semitic
languages
2012 ahmad al-Jallad ancient Levantine arabic: a Reconstruction based on the earliest sources and the
modern dialects
x