Aramaic grammer

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  • #2031742
    HaLeiVi
    Participant

    After several years of learning Gemara we pick up a reasonable enough understating of Aramaic. However, that’s only good enough to understand it. When it comes to writing you find that you aren’t really proficient at all.

    What is the plural suffix, yud or vav? There are examples of both. In fact, there’s also a vav inserted before the last letter. What are the rules?

    How would you say, “I said”? Is it אמרית or אמרי? I believe you find both.

    Rashi in Eiruvin 93 uses פליגי to mean ‘I argue’. The Bach changes it to פליגנא. But that is really a fancy version. It is akin to ‘we argue’. But, I don’t recall any פלגית or פלגאי, but perhaps פליגי is just fine and ‘they argue’ is pronounced פליגֵי while ‘I argue’ is פליגִי.

    #2031844
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    Look at Rabbenu Bachaya Devarim (33,25) on the word davecha targum conjugated like Hebrew.

    #2031870
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    Even in Hebrew the female version can be, to provide mesapka or masapekes.

    #2031874
    ujm
    Participant

    About 100 years ago someone reported finding one of the lost Mesechtas of Shas. A Mesechta that hadn’t been seen in many many hundreds of years. People, including Talmidei Chachomim, believed and accepted it initially. But after a few months people started noticing subtle errors that proved it was a forgery, albeit written by someone who was very well acquainted with Gemorah and Aramaic to fool people for quite a bit.

    #2031879
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    Grammar is the correct spelling.

    #2031909
    Benephraim
    Participant

    The Yerushalmi on Kodshim was found a while back. The Rambam says that we must believe that the whole Torah is with us from Moshe Rabenu. No new finds.

    #2031917
    akuperma
    Participant

    One should remember that Aramaic (still a living language) has been around, based on literary records, for at least 3000 years, and the texts Yidden are likely to encounter cover a period well over 1000 years – AND LIVING LANAGUAGES EVOLVE OVER TIME. Compared to English over the millenia, Aramaic is relatively consistent. While Daniel could probably chat with the Amoraim, they would have sound very strange to each other. Do not be shocked in one encounters greater variety in Aramaic than is the case of Lashon Kodesh, since the importance of Tanach tended to slow down the natural tendency of languages to evolve over time.

    #2032038
    HaLeiVi
    Participant

    Reb Eliezer, what exactly are you trying to show with that Rabbeinu Bachya in Devarim?

    #2032050
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    The Rabbenu Bachaya says that המלה בלולה משתי לשונות, it is a mix of Hebrew and Aramaic like arseinu a bed.

    #2032017
    AviraDeArah
    Participant

    Jews spoke a judaicized aramaic, similar to yiddish. I don’t think they had to adhere to very strict dikduk rules like lashon kodesh

    #2032089
    AviraDeArah
    Participant

    Eres is hebrew too; it’s in tehilim, the kapitel we say by nefilas apayin

    #2032096
    n0mesorah
    Participant

    What Akuperma pointed out is very relevant.

    I would like to add that the Talmudim and the Targum were spoken and intended for recital. The nuances of speech is very different than rules of grammar. And a third point. The classical Semites had less grammar than the classical Greeks. As they wrote in verse, they had much more flexibility than had they ascribed to logically dictated structures.

    #2032321

    > LIVING LANAGUAGES EVOLVE OVER TIME

    it was also spoken over multiple countries leading to geographic differences.

    #2032371
    HaLeiVi
    Participant

    It should be very evident that the are multiple dialects. Targum is different than Yerushalmi/Medrash, and those as different from Bavli. Bavli is (most masechtos) consistent. Nobody speaks a wishy-washy language.

    English also changed. Does that mean we don’t follow rules? Of course there’s a certain grammar system. There might be multiple dialects within Bavel, too, with smaller differences.

    There are some Sefarim which codify the different Aramaic systems, but I don’t have any. I can’t imagine reading through one, either. Dry Dikduk is very hard to plunge through.

    If קאי means to stand, and the present tense is קאים, what about ‘going’? Is that זילם? Er, no. That would perhaps be מיזל, אזיל. So, is that because קאי ends with a vowel? Or maybe the real word is קאים but the מי”ם gets dropped in its usage.

    Does Aramaic have all 7 בנינים?

    #2032408
    HaLeiVi
    Participant

    Just want to point out that the Torah use the word but doesn’t actually speak Aramaic. This is akin to the way we borrow Yiddish words but with English grammar, and how we use Hebrew words in Yiddish, such as שחט’ען, הרג’נען, מורא’דיג, תורה’דיג, בא’כבודיק…

    #2032422
    n0mesorah
    Participant

    Dear Haleivei,

    I was just explaining why Semitic grammar is harder to pick up, than the grammar of European languages. To do so from merely studying the gemara, takes a genius.

    #2032487
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    We can learn much from the targum on chumash.

    #2032522
    HaLeiVi
    Participant

    We can learn much from the targum on chumash.

    Share what you’ve got. Unless you’re starting out now.

    #2032696
    huju
    Participant

    I thought an Aramaic grammer was someone who sends a telegram in Aramaic.

    #2032751

    > sends a telegram in Aramaic.

    might be shorter than English when paying per letter. But Chinese is even better.

    #2032814
    HaLeiVi
    Participant

    Chinese is more bytes per character

    #2032812
    ujm
    Participant

    AAQ: Telegrams charge per word, not per letter

    Hence all the creative ways of making “one word” inclusive of multiple words.

    #2032832
    Reb Eliezer
    Participant

    Maybe one who sings in Aramaic about an individual is a grammer in yiddish.

    #2033088

    ujm, sorry for the confusion, did not send a telegram for a long time.

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