Description
The Samaritans preserve a consonantal text of the Pentateuch that resembles the Jewish text very closely (Schorch 2018–21), but their pronunciation tradition is radically different from the Jewish traditions. I shall present a synthesis of what can and what cannot be said about the relation between the written and oral Samaritan traditions, with examples of early and late (secondary) language features in both. In particular, I shall look into which parts of the pronunciation tradition could possibly have been inferred from the consonantal text and knowledge of Aramaic and Arabic. By utilizing the Samaritan tradition and the differences from the Jewish traditions as an Archimedean point, I shall also address some aspects of the relation between the written and oral traditions of Biblical Hebrew in general: Which factors could have motivated the choice of one consonantal text over others? What is the impact of corpus size on the oral tradition? Are there discernible differences in how the communities resolve discrepancies between their written and oral traditions?| Period | 9 Sep 2025 |
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| Event title | 35. Deutscher Orientalistentag |
| Event type | Conference |
| Conference number | 35 |
| Location | Erlangen, GermanyShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |