Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
LANGUAGE
REVIEW
edited by
Matthias Kappler, Werner Arnold and Till Stellino
19 (2012)
Book Reviews
Scott N. Callaham
Modality and the Biblical Hebrew Infinitive Absolute
(Christian Stadel) ....................................................................................................... 117
Gianluca Frenguelli & Laura Melosi (eds.)
Lingua e cultura dell’Italia coloniale
(Francesco Bianco) .................................................................................................... 121
Jared Greenblatt
The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Amәdiya
(Steven E. Fassberg) ................................................................................................. 131
Annette Herkenrath
Wh-Konstruktionen im Türkischen
(Jaklin Kornfilt) ......................................................................................................... 134
Veronika Ritt-Benmimoun
Texte im arabischen Beduinendialekt der Region Douz (Südtunesien)
(Judith Rosenhouse) ................................................................................................... 146
Hebrew and Aramaic Substrata
in Spoken Palestinian Arabic
Ibrahim Bassal (Beit-Berl College & Arab College, Haifa)
1 Introduction
(1) The Palestinian dialects include layers of ancient languages that belong to the
earliest historical periods of culture of Palestine indigenous tongues: Canaanite,
classical Hebrew (Biblical Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew), Aramaic (particularly
Western Aramaic), Persian, Greek and Latin. Moreover, from the new era, it con-
tains components of the Turkish and European languages, mainly English, French,
German and Italian. Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, there has
been a significant influence of Hebrew on the Palestinian Arab dialect as a result of
the immediate contact between the Palestinian population and the Jewish population
in Israel.1
Former peoples and cultures found in Palestine in past centuries had an impact,
directly or indirectly, on the linguistic profile of Palestine. One of the earliest ele-
ments making a significant mark on Palestinian Arab dialects is the Aramaic layer.
(2) Aramaic predominated as the spoken and written language in Syria, Babylonia,
and Palestine for over fifteen hundred years, from the 7th and 6th centuries B.C.E. to
the 9th and 10th centuries C.E.2 From the mid-seventh century B.C.E. officials in the
Assyrian kingdom began to use the Aramaic language for writing official docu-
ments. During the period of the Assyrian empire, Aramaic spread across the whole
area including Palestine. In the Bible, 2 Kings 18:26, we find evidence of the use of
Aramaic for diplomatic exchanges at this time rather than for daily use. During the
time of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, around the year 500 B.C.E., King Darius I
(522–486 B.C.E.) used the Aramaic language as the official language for admini-
stration. This choice increased the prestige of the Aramaic language. As the official
language of the state, it was in use from western Iran to the Mediterranean, and
down to the southern part of Egypt. However, with the rise of Islam in the 7th cen-
tury, this situation changed, and Aramaic was supplanted by the Arabic of the con-
querors which became the spoken and written language. Late Aramaic had been at
its peak and dominated the entire region, both orally and in writing, among Jews,
1 For a detailed discussion on the foreign strata in Palestinian Arabic, see Bassal (2010).
2 About the language of Palestine from 200 B.C.E–200 C.E., see Greenfield (1978); and about
Hebrew and Aramaic in the Persian period, see Greenfield & Naveh (1999); on diglosia in
Palestine in ancient times, see Spolsky (1983).
86 Ibrahim Bassal
Christians, Mandaeans, Samaritans, and pagans. Simon Hopkins writes that Arab
conquest changed this linguistic situation rapidly and decisively. In most areas,
people stopped speaking Aramaic, and the literary activity was interrupted com-
pletely or was reduced to very minor proportions, Ancient Aramaic languages were
preserved for ritual cult and tradition. In the course of time, indigenous people un-
derstood them less and less. Linguistically and religiously, the area became a Mus-
lim Arab region, and in the new era, Aramaic survived only among Christian mi-
norities, Jews and Mandaeans.3 Later Aramaic4 was in direct contact with Arabic
and its dialects, and we still find residues of it in dialects spoken in Palestine and
Israel. Such residues have been naturalized, and it is quite hard to identify them.
They belong to different fields of everyday life such as seasonal agriculture, house-
keeping, tools and utensils, alongside Christian religious terms. However, within
these major macro groups in Palestinian dialects which are spoken in Israel and
Palestine, the degree of influence varies from one region inside Israel to another.
There are the North (Galilee dialects),5 the Centre (the Triangle-Muṯallaṯ dialect),6
the South (the Bedouin dialect),7 the West Bank dialects. Also, the Jewish, Christian
and Samaritan dialects of Aramaic that were spoken in Palestine each left its own
mark.
Therefore, it is reasonable that the substrata from Late Aramaic dialects that
were spoken in Palestine on the eve of the Arab expansion were pushed back gradu-
ally, and Arabic became the dominant language in the Levant, supplanting Aramaic
as the language of spoken communication. But Aramaic traces remained in Arabic in
the regions that were formerly dominated by Aramaic, especially in rural areas.8 Our
discussion of residues concerns itself with Late Western Aramaic with the sub-dia-
lects: Jewish Aramaic, Christian Aramaic, and Samaritan Aramaic.9 These came in
direct contact with Arabic and Arab dialects, and it is only natural that through this
contact, they would affect the existing linguistic profile of Palestine.10
(3) Palestinian Arabic is a Levantine Arabic dialect subgroup spoken by Palestini-
ans. It falls into three groups: urban Palestinian, rural Palestinian and Bedouin. Of
these, the urban dialect is the closest to northern Levantine Arabic (such as Syrian
and Lebanese), while the Bedouin dialect is nearer to the dialects of Arabia itself.
Within each of these groups there are of course geographical, ethnic and religious
variations: Palestinian Arabic is spoken by Muslims, Druze, Jews, Samaritans and
various denominations of Christians.11 The varieties are reflected in the pronouncia-
tion of some phonemes which differ from one area to another or from one village to
another, in morphophonemic changes and in lexical items. There are some villages
that exhibit a remarkable number of conservative features and they preserve the
classical pronunciation. Others, however, exhibit deviation of some phonemes from
the classical pronunciation.
Researchers studying the vocabulary of spoken Arabic in Palestine and who are
familiar with Aramaic dialects find substrata of Aramaic: nouns, verbs, grammatical
forms that are alien to classical Arabic, and are typical of the Arabic spoken in the
region of Aramaic influence – especially in the vernacular Arabic of Syria and
Palestine.12
8 For the subject of supplanting Aramaic by Arabic in Syria and Palestine, see Ben-David 1967:
153–165; Cambridge (1999); on the replacement, in speech and writing, of Samaritan Aramaic
by Arabic, see Shehadeh (1983).
9 Greenfield (2001: 369) notes that the elements that are common to these Aramaic dialects are
more numerous than are those that distinguish them from each other. Three different scripts
were used – the Jewish for Jewish Aramaic; a development of the paleo-Hebrew for Samaritan;
and a modification of the Syriac script for Christian Palestinian Aramaic; Greenfield (1978:
150) notes that the New Testament as well as Talmudic sources of a later period observe that
the Galilean dialect of Aramaic was different from that of Judah. There are some slight
differences between these Aramaic dialects as compiled by Gluska 1999: 48–51.
10 See Tal (1980) for some notes and clarifications regarding demonstrative pronouns and their
use in the Aramaic of Palestine [in Hebrew].
11 For a profound and comprehensive description of the Palestinian Arabic see Hopkins 2012: 51.
12 Good studies have been made on this subject: Behnstedt & Arnold 1993; Behnstedt 1997.
88 Ibrahim Bassal
2 Research overview
Siegmund Fraenkel’s (1866) study of Aramaic loans in classical Arabic is known,
but it lacks vocabulary employed in written Christian Arabic literature.13 There are
some studies on the Lebanese dialect, the most prominent being that of Feghali. On
Syrian Arabic we have Seidel (1988) and Arnold & Behnstedt (1993: 47–92).
In fact, there is no methodical and comprehensive research on the topic that inte-
grates the post-classical Hebrew and Aramaic elements existing in both literary and
spoken languages, especially in Palestine.
In this paper I intend to deal with some grammatical characteristics that can be
plausibly ascribed to Aramaic and will go on to focus principally on the lexicon. I
will discuss the elements of early Aramaic and post-classical Hebrew in the spoken
Arabic of Israel and Palestine, both in its grammar and vocabulary. For the latter, I
will focus particularly on two domains: household and vineyard.
3 Morphology
(a) The shift of the pronominal suffix -kum > -kon; -hum > -hon
In literary Arabic, the suffix for possessive pronoun 2nd pers. plur. masc. is -kum
e.g. ( أخو ُكمyour brother) and for 3nd pers. plur. masc. is -hum.; ( أخوھُمtheir brother);
13 For a detailed discussion on Aramaic words in Christian Arabic Bible translations, see Bassal
2004.
Hebrew and Aramaic Substrata 89
while in Syriac, the pronominal suffix is -kon for 2nd pers. plur. masc.; -hon for 3rd
pers. plur. masc.14 It is remarkable that in the Arabic spoken in Northern Galilee –
especially in the Northern villages close to Lebanon, such as Miʕilia, Fassūṭṭa,
Tarshīḥa, al-Rāmi, Bqēʕa, Ǧišš, Ḥorfeesh, Kufr-smeeʕ, and Druze villages on the
Karmel: Dāliat al-Karmel and ʕisifya – the shift of -kum > -kon; -hum > -hon has
taken place. ( أخوكنyour brother), in classical Arabic (( أضربھن ;)أخو ُكمI will hit
them), in classical Arabic ()أضربھم.
Indeed, it is a morphological isogloss that typifies the Arab villages close to
Lebanon and Syria and distinguishes them from the rest of the southern Arab vil-
lages located on the outskirts of the cities Acre and Haifa and in other parts of the
country. The form as used in spoken Arabic is consistent with the form as it exists in
Syriac. It may be noted that Feghali mentioned this shift in the Lebanese Arabic.15
There is no doubt that this is an Aramaic influence that has remained in the ver-
nacular Arabic in this area.
(b) The form for nisba -ānī
In Arabic, nisba is made by a morphophonological change in the pattern of the
word. But there is another frequently occurring way to mark nisba in Spoken Arabic
by adding the form -ānī as a suffix. For example: barrānī (external); ǧūwwānī (in-
ternal); maġlawānī (over charging); haqqānī (honest); tabarānī (Tiberian). Blau
noted that this is an Aramaic influence since its use in classical Arabic is restricted.16
(c) The Syriac form of diminution: -ōn/-ūn; -ōs/-ūs
The diminutive form in Arabic is expressed by a morphophonological change of the
word pattern, e.g. kalb (dog) > kulayb (puppy); walad (boy) > wulayd (youngster).
Of interest to us is that some Arabic words and other words borrowed from Syriac
are used with the diminutive suffix -ōn/-ūn جملونǧamalōn / ǧamlōn: (ridged roof)
known in Iraqi, Syrian and Palestinian colloquial Arabic.17 It should be observed
that the word is not mentioned in classical Arabic dictionaries, and Fraenkel notes
that the basis of the word is Gamla with the addition of the Syriac diminutive mor-
pheme -ōn. Other examples of this form of diminution are: كرعونةkarʕūne (small
leg); َس ﱡنونsannūn (small tooth); قلحونqalḥūn (small twig) in the Druze dialect of
the residents of Dāliat al-Karmel village; قرعونqarʕūn (small almonds). This last
term is familiar in the Druze spoken language of the Golan, (and, I have been told,
among the Christians in al-Rāmi).
It is of interest that in colloquial Arabic in Israel we also find words with the
Syriac diminutive suffix -ōn/-ūn. Some of these words are not found in the classical
Arab dictionaries18 but are found in Aramaic or Syriac, and in the Arabic dialects of
Syria and Lebanon. An example is the word ṭarbūn (the soft part of the leaf). This
word is used in the Arab dialect in the north of Israel in two variants: ṭarbūn /ṭarnūb
(metathesis). The word is not known in the Mutallat dialect. Even al-Barghouthi, in
his dictionary of the Palestinian Arab dialect, does not mention the word, whereas it
is mentioned in regard to Syria and Lebanon, Hobeika ascribed it to Syriac and
noted the shift of p>b in the Arabic form. Furthermore, Frayḥa added a morphologi-
cal explanation: that the word is composed of the root plus the suffix diminutive
morpheme. In the Syrian Arab dialect, this word is used as noted by Mubaraka, who
added that in the spoken Arabic of Syria, there are two variants: ṭarnūfa / ṭarbūna.
The word taraf, a basis of these variants, exists in Mishnaic Hebrew and in the Ara-
maic translations of the Bible: Onkelos and Peshitta, in Genesis 8:11. Indeed, the
word exists in the former region of Aramaic influence, and it exists in Mishnaic
Hebrew. Lieberman19 noted that the form מטרבת, which appears in a Midrash frag-
ment, is a doublet of the form ''מטרפת, ""מוציאה טרפין, produces leaves, blossoms. It is
also found in another passage of the Midrash fragment which reads: "והטריבו העצים
( "ועשו פירותthey blossomed and produced). Sokoloff, in his dictionary of the Jewish
Palestinian Aramaic, gives two forms in the entry of ''טרף, ''טרב.20
About words with the suffix -ūs/-ōs: there is one word in colloquial Arabic in
Galilee with this suffix: ṭalmūsi (small round cake of bread). The word is known in
the vernacular Arabic of Syria and Lebanon. Hobeika and Abed-Alraḥīm21 state that
this word is a Syriac residue in colloquial Lebanese and Syrian.
(d) šaf ʕal form
In classical Arabic the form šaf ʕala is very rare. The dictionary Lisān al-ʕArab gives
two verbs in this form: šabraqa (to tear, to cut) from the stem brq, and šašqala from
the stem šql (to weigh).22 However, in the spoken Arabic of Syria and Palestine, this
form is very productive, as noted by Feghali.23 The classical form parallel with
šaf ʕala is saf ʕala, and this form – in colloquial Arabic – is borrowed from Aramaic.
In colloquial Arabic in Palestinian dialects, especially in the north of Israel, there is
a frequency of verbs in the form šaf ʕal: šalhab (reddened); šartaḥ (make poor, to
18 In the Arabic lexicon there are some words that terminate with -us, e.g ʕamrūs (a lamb). Arabic
grammarians treat them as foreign words, and some of the Arab philologists attribute them to
Greek, or they express their lack of knowledge by the statement: ‘God knows!’
19 Lieberman 1946: 318–319.
20 Sokoloff 1990: 231–232; about the shift between voiced and unvoiced in the case of consonants
with closed articulation in Mishnaic Hebrew, e.g p turned into b: see נברשת-הבקר ;נפרשת-
הבקיע ;הפקר- הפקיע, Epstein 1948: II, 1220.
21 Abed-al-Raḥīm 2003: III, 989.
22 About Šaf ʕala forms, see Nöldeke 1970: 179; Brockelmann 1908–13: I, 525 notes that
causative verbs with prefix ša entered the Aramaic dialects from Akkadian; Attalla (2000) in
his discussion about quadrilateral verbs; about Šaf ʕala in Iraqi Judaeo-Arabic, see Avishur
2009: 166–170.
23 Feghali 1919: 83, §c.
Hebrew and Aramaic Substrata 91
live a life of poverty, but in Syriac there is an opposite meaning – to make rich, to
live a life of abundance); šargal (to let slide); šaḥtaf (to rub); šaqbaʕ (to fall);
šalwaḥ (expose him to cold wind); šanhaq (bray of an ass); šaḥbar (to scribble).
Thus, we can conclude that vernacular Arabic borrowed the form šaf ʕal from
Aramaic and built new Arabic verbs in this pattern.
(e) la as an object marker
We may conclude that the presence of Aramaic remnants in several new Arab dia-
lects spoken today, in areas that were previously dominated by Aramaic, is probably
not coincidental. As an example we can note the use of la as an object marker. In his
comprehensive article about la and its occurrence as an object marker, Levin24
summarizes that the occurrence in the Arabic dialects is usually attributed to an
Aramaic substratum. e.g. Smiʕtu la-axūk? (did you hear your brother?). In Aramaic
the use of la is limited to definite objects.25 There is evidence of la as an object
marker in texts that are rendered from Aramaic, especially in Christian Arabic texts
from the south of Palestine. Blau also notes that in Christian Arabic texts rendered
from the Syriac we can discern this use of la as an object marker.26 Furthermore I
have cited some samples of la as an object marker in the Arabic Bible translations
from Syriac.27
4 Lexicon
Notwithstanding the grammatical influence of Aramaic in Arabic, the bulk of the
substrata is found in vocabulary. In general, Aramaic loan words underwent mor-
phophonemic adaptation when they entered vernacular Arabic. In the course of time,
it has become difficult to identify them. Some of these words have become produc-
tive and have given rise to verbal derivations.
Here I will present a collection of words from everyday life in two fields: agri-
culture and the household, which may demonstrate the Aramaic generating sedi-
ments that were used in the territory of Palestine. In fact these words do not exist in
classical Arabic, and some of them are not mentioned in al-Barghouthi’s dictionary
of the colloquial Arabic of Palestine.
In the Geniza texts the word is found, and Avizur mentions that in the 19th
century, the word was known in Palestine. The word is, however, not documented in
the classical Arabic dictionaries, but in contrast, Dozy and the Judaeo-Arabic
dictionaries have recorded it. And they attribute the word to Aramaic as did
Fraenkel.39
To sum up, it emerges from our discussion above that according to the evidence
of the popular literature and Jewish Arabic dictionaries, the word was used in
spoken Arabic in Palestine. The word sifil has been discussed exhaustively by
Simon Hopkins, who deals with its appearance in Aramaic and sub-dialects and in
Judaeo-Arabic and vernaculars. In his searching discussion of this word, he deals
with the possibility that the word is a Canaanite/Hebrew substrate that has been
preserved, via Aramaic, in Arabic.40
korkiyye ( – ُكركيّةsmall jar for liquid)
jarra zġīri min fuxār nicmal fīha mazahir (small evaporation vessel of ceramic for
making neroli water)
The word is not documented in the classical Arabic dictionaries, but it is mentioned
in some of the vernacular dictionaries. Hobeika notes its connection with the Syriac
word ܰܟܪܟܐwhich means rounded. Frayḥa mentions the word karky which means
evaporation vessel; he attributes the word to the root krk which means: to go around,
to encircle. Abed al-Raḥīm included it in the spoken Arabic of Syria and attributed it
to Syriac Karko.41
qurṭalle / ʔurṭalle ( – قُرطلّةwicker-basket)
In classical Arabic the word qirṭalla-tun / qirṭālla-tun means pack-saddle. What is
interesting for our discussion is that in Syria and Palestine the sense of the word is
‘wicker-basket’, e.g. qurṭallit Ɉinab; qurṭallit tīn. In the Palestinian dialect, it
explicitly denotes a basket made of olive wickers. The word is known in Syria and
Lebanon. It is attested in Eastern Aramaic and in Western Aramaic as a basket:42
""חד קרטל דתאנין. Sokoloff noted that it is borrowed into Arabic from Aramaic. The
glossary of Bar-Bahlūl lists the word and describes the material of the basket: ܙܒܝܐܠ
(ܓܕܝܐܠ ܕܡܢ ܫܒܘܩܐa basket made of wickers). Epstein43 gives the word in the
Geonim literature, "( "וכפישא פ' כמין קרטליתא שנותנין בו ענבים כשבוצרין בו את הכרםa
vessel, like a basket in which grapes are put when gathering from the vineyard). In
Aramaic the first syllable is with the vowel a, like the Greek χαρταλλος, but in
vernacular Arabic, the first syllable is pronounced with the vowel u: qurṭalle.
44 Bustani 1983: 699; Hava 1964: 572; Hobeika 1939: 359; Frayḥa 1973: 134.
45 In Arabic, the word is written in two variants: الف ّكارin Bar-Ali, II, p. 261 and الفخارin Bar-
Bahlūl, p. 1561.
46 Payne-Smith 1879–1901: III, 3129; Payne-Smith 1998: 445.
47 Dalman 1964: II, 159.
Hebrew and Aramaic Substrata 97
to olive: ǧarǧar az-zatūn (shriveled and fell to the ground). In the spoken Arabic of
Palestine, the word is known by the peasants as shriveled olive: nōkil ʔil-ǧarǧīr maʕ
xubiz (we eat the il-ǧarǧīr with bread). This word was not recorded in dictionaries of
literary Arabic, but it is mentioned in later dictionaries of the Arabic of Syria,
Lebanon and Palestine.48
In biblical Hebrew the word is known to have a meaning of (berry) grain (single
berries remaining on the topmost branches), Isaiah 17:6:
-אַר ָבּעָה חֲמִ שָּׁה ְס ִעפֶי ָה פּ ִֹריּ ָה נְ ֻאם
ְ שֹׁלשָׁה גּ ְַרגּ ְִרים בְּר ֹאשׁ אָמִיר
ְ שׁנַי ִם
ְ בּוֹ עוֹלֵֹלת כְּנ ֹ ֶקף זַי ִת-ְונִשְׁאַר
שׂ ָראֵל
ְ ִ י ְהוָה אֱֹלהֵי י
(Yet some gleanings will remain, as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two
or three olives on the topmost branches, four or five on the fruitful boughs,
declares the Lord, the God of Israel).
In Judaeo-Arabic49 the word is known to mean berry as rendered by Saadia Gaon
who translates ' 'גורגוריןmeaning berry, grain and also in the Judaeo-Arabic
translation of the Prophets.50 However, the meaning ‘shriveled olive’ is unique to the
vernacular Arabic in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine.
Furthermore, in the Mishnaic Hebrew, there are both meanings: one is a single
small olive, while the second is ‘shriveled olive’, and the verb ‘grgr’ which means
to let the olive shrivel on the tree or in the sun on the roof.51 This second meaning is
consistent with the existing meaning in the spoken Arabic in Palestine. In light of
this, we can consider the sense of the word in the spoken Arabic as a residue from
the Mishnaic Hebrew and Talmudim, and it remains in the spoken language as a
substrate from Mishnaic Hebrew.
qurmīyye / ʔurmīyye ( – قرﻣيةtrunk of tree)
qurmīyye meaning trunk of the tree is employed in vernacular Arabic in Iraq, Syria,
Lebanon and Palestine.52 What is relevant to our discussion is the occurrence of the
word in Palestinian spoken Arabic: qurmīyyit šaǧarit ɔiz-zatūn (trunk of olive tree).
The word is not documented in the classical dictionaries, whereas it is found in
Judaeo-Arabic53 and in the new dictionaries. In Iraq, Al-Mawsilī noted that it is used
in the spoken Arabic of Mosul and is attributed to Aramaic.
Syrian dictionaries document this word as ܩܘܪܡـــــــــــܐ.54 It originated from the
Greek word κορµός which entered Syriac and via Syriac penetrated to the spoken
48 Bustani 1983: 99; Dozy 1967: II, 169; Barthélmy 1935–55: I, 107; Frayḥa 1973: 25–26.
Compare with Hebrew and Aramaic; Barghouthi 2001: 264.
49 Shy 2005: 111–113; Blau 2006: 83.
50 Avishur 1998: 61.
51 Jastrow 1903: 264–265.
52 Bustani 1983: 730–731; Dozy 1967: II, 337; Frayḥa 1973: 139; Barghouthi 2001: 997; al-
Mawsilī 1935: 70.
53 Blau 2006: 541.
54 Paine-Smith 1879–1901: III, 3566; Sokoloff 2009: 1344.
98 Ibrahim Bassal
Arabic. Furthermore, Kosover documents the word among the Arabic elements in
Palestinian Yiddish,55 with the meaning: a large block of charcoal, a piece of wood.
ǧift ( – جفتresidue of olive ‘turf’)
In the spoken Arabic of Syria and Palestine, the residue of olives after pressing is
called جفتǧifit.56 ʔil-ǧifit mnistácimlu fī waɔid in-nār lal-xabīz (we use the residue
of olive ‘turf’ to burn in the oven). This word is not mentioned in classical Arabic
dictionaries, but it is mentioned in the new dictionaries, and they add that it is a
vernacular word. The word is known in Jewish Aramaic as ' 'גיפתהand in Mishnaic
Hebrew ( ֶגּפֶתShabbat III: 1).57 In the Geonim commentary to Taharot it is mentioned
as جفث – גופת.58 In addition, the Judaeo-Arabic Tanḥūm states that in Hebrew it is
called gefet and in Arabic, gift.59 We can sum up that the word borrowed in Spoken
Arabic from Jewish Aramaic or Mishnaic Hebrew.
qlūḥ / ʔlūḥ قلحpl. ( – قلوحsoft branch)
This is a special word known and used in the northern villages of the Galilee and in
Lebanon. The word is not known in the Muṯallaṯ dialect in central Israel, but it is
known in Aramaic as קוּ ְלחָא/ קי ְלחָאmeaning ‘stem, stalk’ and in Mishnaic Hebrew as
‘ ֶקלַחtube’, ‘stem’, ‘stalk’.60 The al-Munjid dictionary attributes the word to Syriac
and notes that it occurs with the diminutive form -ūn قلحون.61 Thus, in spoken
Arabic, the word is borrowed from the Syriac with the diminutive form.
fārūḥ ( – فاروحthin chaff which flies in the wind)
This is a word uniquely connected to the threshing floor. The soft straw that flies in
the wind is called farūḥ / fārūḥ, and people in Palestinian areas call it muṣṣ. The
word is known in Palestinian Arabic in some areas, and Encyclopedia of Palestinan
Folklore notes that this material is used for pottery.62 In a paper describing the craft
of pottery, Ḥasan mentions the word farūḥ.63 Furthermore, Arrāf records this word as
a thin chaff which flies in the wind. The word is not known in classical Arabic, but it
is known in Aramaic. The verb ‘praḥ’ in Aramaic and Hebrew is to fly. In Syriac the
form farūḥa means flying. It is an Aramaic word borrowed by spoken Arabic.
64 This word appears in different forms in vernacular Arabic. It is listed under different entries in
the dictionaries: e.g under d-f-r in Dozy 1967: I, 448 -dayfūr; and under d-ṯ-r - dayṯūr; also he
gives dīfāl/dīqāl, p. 481. He relies on Ibn al-ʕAwām’s book, al-Filāḥah that gives two forms: tīn
dīqāl and tīn dīfāl.
65 Dalman 1964: I, 379.
66 Dozy 1967: I, 448; Bustani (1983) gives the word under d-ṯ-r dayṯūr, and under d-f-r dayfūr.
The two forms are loans in Arabic and reflect differing vernacular pronounciations. Also
Frayḥa (1973: 60) gives the form dayṯūra and notes that in some villages they say dayfūr,
meaning figs before ripening.
67 Barthélmy 1935–55: I, 242.
68 For details, see Aruch 1928: III, 45–46, under דיופרא.
69 Aruch 1928: III, 45: δίφορος (bearing fruit twice a year); Levy 1963: I, 394. In vernacular
Arabic in the Jenīn area, dafūr refers to a special variety of fig trees that bear fruit twice a year.
100 Ibrahim Bassal
5 Conclusion
This paper has examined some Hebrew and Aramaic residues (grammatical and
lexical items from agriculture and the household) in Spoken Palestinian Arabic.
There is considerable value in gathering such material and in preserving this tra-
dition, otherwise it will be lost. The rapid changes in society cause far-reaching
permutations in the life style and the words that were used in everyday life but have
disappeared or changed with the times. Those words which cease to be used are
being forgotten, especially among the younger generation, and tend to fade away.
Furthermore, most informants have grown old and it is our duty to cherish and pre-
serve that linguistic tradition while it is still possible.
70 For details, see Levy 1963: I, 394; Jastrow 1903: 304; Kraus 1899: II, 201–202.
71 Aloni 1986: 185.
Hebrew and Aramaic Substrata 101
This paper also notes the distinctive qualities of the layer of Spoken Palestinian
Arabic dialects in the Holy Land compared with other Arabic dialects, and it clari-
fies the linkage between this layer and the languages that were spoken in Palestine
such as Hebrew and Aramaic. Study of the Hebrew and the Aramaic components in
these layers contributes to the definition of the unique linguistic atlas of the Spoken
Palestinian dialects and to the completion of the spoken Arabic and Palestinian dic-
tionary.
References
Abed-al-Raḥīm, Y. 2003. Mawsūat al-ʕāmmiyya al-suriyya – dirāsah luġawiyyah naqdiyya fi
al-tafsīḥ wa-al-taʔsīl wa-al-muwallad wa-al-daxīl. 4 vol. Damascus.
Al-Bakri, H. 1972. Derāsāt fi al-alfāẓ al-ʕāmiyya al-mūsiliyya wa muqāranatiha maʕ al-alfāẓ
al-ʕāmiyya fi al-aqṭār al-ʕarabiyya. Baghdad.
Al-Munjid fi al-luġah. Beirut 1986.
Al-Mawsilī, D. 1935. al-ʔāṯār al-ʔarāmiyya fī luġat al-mawsil al-ʕammiyya. Mosul.
Aloni, N. 1986. Meḥkare Lašōn we-Sifrūt. I. Jerusalem.
Arnold, W. & Behnstedt, P. 1993. Arabisch-Aramäische Sprachbeziehungen im Qalamūn
(Syrien). (Semitica Viva. 8.) Wiesbaden.
Aruch. Aruch Complementum. Ed. A. Kohut. Vienna 1928.
Avishur, Y. 1998. A Medieval Translation of the Later Prophets into Iraqi and Syrian
Judaeo-Arabic, Isaiah and Jeremiah. The text of Bodleian Manuscript Hunt. 206 with in-
troduction and notes. Jerusalem.
—. 2001. The Ancient Aramaic elements in the Iraqi Judaeo-Arabic. In: Hebrew Elements in
Judaeo-Arabic. Studies in Iraqian, Syrian and Egyptian New Judaeo-Arabic. Tel Aviv-
Jaffa: 235–287. [In Hebrew.]
—. 2009. A Dictionary of the New Judeo-Arabic Written and Spoken in Iraq (1600–2000). Tel
Aviv-Jaffa.
Bar Bahlūl 1886. Hassano bar Bahlūl. Lexicon Syriacum. Ed. R. Duval. Paris.
Bar Ali 1874. Syrisch-Arabische Glossen, von Alaf bis Mim. Kiel.
—. 1908. The Syriac-Arabic Glosses of Isho Bar Ali. Part 2: nun-tav. Ed. R. J. H. Gottheil.
Roma.
Barghouthi, A. 2001. Dictionary of Colloquial Arabic Dialect. Ramalleh-Bireh.
Barthélemy, A. 1935–1955. Dictionnaire Arabe-Français. Dialectes de Syrie: Alep, Damas,
Liban, Jérusalem. Paris.
Bassal, I. 2004. Hebrew and Aramaic Elements in the Vernacular Christian Arabic in Israel
and in the Written Christian Arabic in the Holy Land, Syria and Lebanon. Diss., Haifa
University. [In Hebrew.]
—. 2007. Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic Words of Agriculture Remaining in Spoken Galilean
Arabic. In: Haivrit We-aḥyōtēha – Studies in Hebrew Language and its Contact with
Semitic Languages and Jewish. Vol. 6–7. Haifa: 89–114. [In Hebrew.]
—. 2008. Kufur-Yasīf Dialect: A Morphophonemic Description. In: Lingua-Culture
Contextual Studies in Ethnic Conflicts of the World. 8. Osaka: 85–99.
—. 2010. Strata of Foreign Languages in Palestinian Spoken Arabic in Israel. In: The Arabic
Language and the Palestinian Folklore in Daily Life. Lingua-Culture Contextual Studies
in Ethnic Conflicts of the World. 15. Osaka: 3–18.
102 Ibrahim Bassal
Behnstedt, P. 1991. Noch einmal zum Problem der Personalpronomina hənne (3.pl.), -kon
(2.pl.) und -hon (3.pl.) in den Syrisch-libanesischen Dialekten. Zeitschrift der Deutschen
Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 141: 235–252.
—. 1997. Sprachatlas von Syrien. (Semitica Viva. 17.) Wiesbaden.
Ben-David, A. 1967. Biblical Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew. Tel Aviv.
Bergsträsser, G. 1915. Sprachatlas von Syrien und Palästina. Leipzig.
Beyer, K. 1984. The Aramaic Language. Its Distribution and Subdivisions. Göttingen.
Blanc, H. 1953. Studies in North Palestinian Arabic. Linguistic Inquiries among the Druzes of
Western Galilee and Mt. Carmel. Jerusalem.
—. 1970. The Arabic Dialect of the Negev Bedouins. In: Proceedings of the Israeli Academy
of Sciences and Humanities. Jerusalem: 112–150.
Blau, J. 1966–1967. A Grammar of Christian Arabic, Based Mainly on South-Palestinian
Texts from the First Millennium. (Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Oriantalium. 3.)
Louvain.
—. 2006. A Dictionary of Mediaeval Judaeo-Arabic Texts. Jerusalem.
Brockelmann, C. 1908–1913. Grundriß der vergleichenden Grammatik der semitischen
Sprachen. Vol. 1. 2. Berlin.
Bustani, B.1983. Muhīṭ al-Muhīṭ Qāmūs Muṭawwal li-luġah al-ʕarabiyya. Beirut.
Cambridge 1999. Art. Hebrew and Aramaic in the Persian Period. In: The Cambridge History
of Judaism. Ed. W. D. Davies, L. Finkelstein. Vol. I. Cambridge: 115–129.
Dalman, G. 1964. Arbeit und Sitte in Palästina. 7 vols. Hildesheim.
Diem, W. (1972). Zum Problem der Personalpronomina hənne (3. pl.), -kon (2. pl.) und -hon
(3. pl.) in den Syrisch-libanesischen Dialekten. In: Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlän-
dischen Gesellschaft 121: 223–230.
Dozy, P. A. 1967. Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes. 1. 2. Leiden-Paris.
Encyclopaedia of the Palestinian Folklore. Ed. N. Serḥan. Ammān 1989.
Epstein, J. N. 1948. Introduction to the Mishna Text. Jerusalem. [In Hebrew.]
—. (ed.) 1982. The Gaonic Commentary on the Order Toharot Attributed to Rav Hai Gaon.
Jerusalem-Tel Aviv.
Feghali, M. 1919. Le parler de Kfar ‘Abida (liban-syrie) – Essai linguistique sur la phoné-
tique et la morphologie d’un parler moderne. Paris.
Fraenkel, S. 1886. Die aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen. Leiden.
Frayḥa, A. 1973. A Dictionary of Non-classical Vocables in the Spoken Arabic of Lebanon.
Beirut.
Geva-Kleinberger, A. 2004. Die arabischen Stadtdialekte von Haifa in der ersten Hälfte des
zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts. (Semitica Viva. 29.) Wiesbaden.
—. 2009. Autochthonous Texts in the Arabic Dialect of the Jews of Tiberias. (Semitica Viva.
46.) Wiesbaden.
Gluska, I. 1999. Hebrew and Aramaic in Contact During the Tannaitic Period: A Sociolin-
guistic Approach. Tel Aviv. [In Hebrew.]
Greenfield, J. C. 1978. The Language of Palestine 200 B.C.E–200 C.E. In: H. H. Paper (ed.),
Jewish Languages: Theme and Variation. Cambridge: 143–154. (Also in: Sh. M. Paul,
M. E. Stone & A. Pinnick [ed.], ʕal Kanfei Yonah. Collected Studies of Jonas C. Green-
field on Semitic Philology. Vol. I. Jerusalem [etc.] 2001: 376–387.)
—. 2001. Aramaic and its dialects. In: Sh. M. Paul, M. E. Stone & A. Pinnick [ed.], ʕal Kanfei
Yonah. Collected Studies of Jonas C. Greenfield on Semitic Philology. Vol. I. Jerusalem
[etc.] 2001: 361–375.
Hebrew and Aramaic Substrata 103
Greenfield, J. C. & Naveh, J. 1999. Hebrew and Aramaic in the Persian Period. In: The Cam-
bridge History of Judaism. Ed. W. D. Davies, L. Finkelstein. Vol. I. Cambridge: 115–129.
(Also in: Sh. M. Paul, M. E. Stone & A. Pinnick [ed.], ʕal Kanfei Yonah. Collected
Studies of Jonas C. Greenfield on Semitic Philology. Vol. I. Jerusalem [etc.] 2001: 232–
246).
Ḥasan, O. A. 1980. Min al-ḥiraf al-Šaʕbiyyah al-Filisṭīniyyah al-zabādy (On the popoular
Palestinian Handicraf-Pottery). al-Turāth wa-al-Mujtamaʕ-Jamʕiyyat ʔinʕāš al-ʔusrah,
lajnat al-abḥāṯ al-šaʕbiyy al-filisṭīni 13: 43–56.
Hava, J. G. 1964. “AL-FARAID” Arabic-English Dictionary. Beirut.
Havelova, A. 2000. Arabic Dialects of Nazareth: A Dialectological and Sociolinguistic De-
scription. Diss., Haifa University.
Henkin, R. 2010. Negev Arabic. Dialectal, Sociolinguistic, and Stylistic Variation. (Semitica
Viva. 48.) Wiesbaden.
Hopkins, S. 1995. Ṣarār “pebbles” – A Canaanite Substrate Word in Palestinian Arabic. Zeit-
schrift für Arabische Linguistik 30: 37–49.
—. 2000. Early Evidence of New Aramaic in a Judeo-Arabic Source. In: J. Blau & D. Doron
(ed.), Heritage and Innovation in Medieval Judaeo-Arabic Culture. Ramat-Gan.
—. 2012. Notes on the History of the Arabic Language in Palestine. In: Lingua-Culture
Contextual Studies in Ethnic Conflicts of the World. 20. Osaka: 50–73.
Hobeika, J. 1939. al-dawāṯir al-siryāniyya fī lubnān wa sūriyya. Al-Machriq 37: 289–412.
Jastrow, M. 1903. A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the
Midrashic Literature. New-York.
Jastrow, O. 2004. The Arabic Dialects of the Muṯallaṯ (Central Israel). Jerusalem Studies in
Arabic and Islam 29: 166–175.
Kosover, M. 1966. Arabic Elements in Palestinian Yiddish: The Old Ashkenazic Jewish Com-
munity in Palestine, its History and its Language. Jerusalem.
Kraus, S. 1899. Griechische und lateinische Lehnwörter im Talmud, Midrash und Targum.
Berlin.
Kutscher, Y. 1961. Aramaic. In: The Hebrew Encyclopedia, vol. 5: 959–969.
Levin, A. 1987. The Particle “LA” as an Object Marker in Some Dialects of the Galilee. Zeit-
schrift für Arabische Linguistik 16: 31–40.
—. 1995. A Grammar of the Arabic Dialect of Jerusalem. Jerusalem.
Levy J. 1963. Wörterbuch über die Talmudim und Midraschim. Darmstadt.
Lieberman, S. 1946. Torah Shelemah (Complete Torah). Jewish Quarterly Review. New
Series 36/3: 317–324.
Loewinstamm, A. 1976. Zalaʕ – Ancient Renewed Stem in Hebrew. Lĕšonénu 40/2–3: 259–
262.
Mubaraka, F. M. 1999. The Aramaic Influence in the Vernacular of Sadad. Edited and pub-
lished with an introduction by Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, Metropolitan of Aleppo.
Aleppo.
Nöldeke, Th. 1970. Compendious Syriac Grammar. (Translated from German by J. A. Crich-
ton.) London.
Palva, H. 1965. Lower Galilean Arabic: An Analysis of its Anaptyctic and Prothetic Vowels
with Sample Texts. Helsinki.
—. 1984. A General Classification for the Arabic Dialects Spoken in Palestine and
Transjordan. Studia Orientalia 55: 359–376.
Payne-Smith, R. 1879–1901. Thesaurus Syriacus. Oxford.
104 Ibrahim Bassal