Middle Hebrew

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Mishnic, or rabbinical Hebrew, is a level of the Hebrew language that evolved from Biblical Hebrew . Since the pioneering research of Eduard Kutscher , two language levels have been distinguished:

  1. Mishnic Hebrew I (or Tannaitic Hebrew ) as the language of the Mishnah , Tosefta and the halachic Midrashim (approx. 200 BC – 200 AD) and
  2. Mishnic Hebrew II (or Amorae Hebrew ) as the language of later Aggadic Midrashim, v. a. Bereschit Rabba (Genesis Rabba) and Wajjiqra Rabba (Leviticus Rabba) (approx. 200–500 AD).

The extent to which Tannaitic Hebrew was also a spoken language and not only served as a written language is still controversial.

Research into the Mishnic Hebrew turns out to be difficult not least because the manuscripts of the scriptures mentioned come from a later period and were often "corrected" in the sense of the Biblical Hebrew, thus eradicating the Mishnish forms.

phonetics

Excerpt from the most important Mishnah manuscript, the Codex Kaufmann: The excerpt gives Mishnah Avot 1,6f. (after counting by MS Kaufmann 1.6) again. At the end of line 4, note the typical mixed-Hebrew spelling “Adan” instead of “Adam”.

Rabbinic Hebrew has essentially the same phonetics as Biblical Hebrew in the Masoretic tradition. However, there are significant differences from the spoken Hebrew of biblical times. As the transcription of proper names in the Septuagint shows, the pharyngals Ajin and Chet were realized twice. In rabbinical times this double realization did not apply. Rather, the other gutturals Aleph and He were only pronounced weakly or were omitted in the intervowel position. For He this often occurs with the infinitive Nif'al : The biblical להכתב ( l e hikkatev ) becomes לכתב ( likkatev ). Aleph is regularly omitted in the Verba I aleph . Likewise, Verba III become aleph like weak verbs, i.e. H. treated according to the pattern of Verba III jod / waw .

Another change that can already be seen in the late writings of the Hebrew Bible concerns the final meme. This is often, but by no means regularly, replaced by the final well. Most cases concern the plural ending - im → - in . In the case of words that are biblically documented, however, the biblical spelling also predominates. The spelling adan for biblical adam (see picture) shows that this phenomenon is a phonetic change and not an Aramaism .

morphology

There is a change in the personal pronouns v. a. in the 1st person. The biblical singular form אנכי ( anochi ) takes a back seat in favor of the (also already biblical short form) אני ( a ni ). The usual form for the 1st person plural is אנו ( anu ). The feminine pronouns in the plural coincide orthographically with those of the masculine pronouns. However, this is more of a phonetic process. In fact, even in Biblical Hebrew, the tendency to disuse the female forms can be observed, so that one has to start with communis forms for the Mixed Hebrew .

A decline in internal passive forms can be observed in the verbal system. These appear almost exclusively in the participle. Instead, other conjugation stems or paraphrases are used. The infinitives of weak verbs are aligned with the future tense, e.g. B. לירד for biblical לרדת.

syntax

The increasing use of compound tenses and the elimination of the narrative are typical of the syntax of the Mishnish Hebrew .

The past tense is the same as in New Hebrew . Moses received (the) Torah from Sinai is called here (Proverbs of the Fathers 1: 1): "משה קיבל תורה מסיניי".

He used to say (Proverbs of the Fathers 1: 2) is "הוא היה אומר" in rabbinic Hebrew.

The present is expressed through the use of the participle , just as in New Hebrew , with an example from Proverbs of the Fathers 1: 2, Hebrew Pirkei Avoth "פרקי אבות": Simon the Righteous, used to say: The world rises on three things the Torah, on worship and on charity, is called here "על שלושה דברים העולם עומד, על תורה, ועל עבודה ועל גמילות חסדים".

The future tense is expressed through the future tense or the combination of עתיד + infinitive (Proverbs of the fathers 3: 1): "ולפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון".

Dictionary

Compared to the Biblical Hebrew, the mixed-niche Hebrew has numerous new words. In part, this may be due to the evidence or the thematic specifics of the vocabulary. But there are also numerous foreign words from Aramaic and Greek, less Latin. In addition, there are shifts in the meaning of classic Hebrew words. For example, B. the root לקח (biblical "take") means "buy".

literature

  • Azar, Moshe: The Syntax of Mishnaic Hebrew (= Sources and Studies. Vol. IV). Jerusalem 1995. [Hebr.]
  • Bar-Asher, Moshe: Mishnaic Hebrew: An Introductory Survey. In: Hebrew Studies 40 (1999), 115–151.
  • Kutscher, Eduard Yechezkel: A Short History of the Hebrew Language. Magnes Press, Jerusalem / E. J. Brill, Leiden 1982, pp. 115-146.
  • Moreshet, Menachem: A Lexicon of the New Verbs in Tannaitic Hebrew. 1980. [Hebr.]
  • Pérez Fernández, Miguel: An Introductory Grammar of Rabbinic Hebrew. Translated by John Elwolde. E. J. Brill, Leiden 1997.
  • Sáenz-Badillos, Angel: A History of the Hebrew Language. Translated by John Elwolde. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (England) 1993. ISBN 0-521-55634-1 .

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