Second person suffix conjugation endings with 'k' on tertiae y verbs in Samaritan Aramaic

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Western Late Aramaic language used by the Samaritan community in the Byzantine and early Muslim periods has peculiar 2nd person suffix conjugation endings on tertiae y verbs which are spelled with 'k' instead of the usual 't' known from all other Aramaic dialects. The present paper clarifies three aspects of these forms: (1) An examination of all attestations of 2nd person forms from the texts accessible in reliable editions allows us to determine the extent of the phenomenon: The 'k'-forms are the regular forms in Samaritan Aramaic, not late by-forms, as suggested by some. (2) Ben-Hayyim, Macuch, and Yahalom have proposed different explanations of how these forms developed, all of which rely on a succession of analogies. A critique of their proposals leads to the conclusion that they are highly hypothetical and not convincing. (3) We propose an alternative, phonetic explanation, which assumes that the preceding high-front vowel triggered palatalization of the original t of the endings. This palatalization led to a change in orthography.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)127-156
Number of pages30
JournalMuseon
Volume128
Issue number1-2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2015

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • History
  • Religious studies
  • Linguistics and Language
  • Literature and Literary Theory

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Second person suffix conjugation endings with 'k' on tertiae y verbs in Samaritan Aramaic'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this