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'AN ANNU<\L
PUBU5HED BY THE DEPARTMENT QF MIDDLE EA5TERN STUDIIlS
UNIVERSITY QF MELBOURNB
fIDlTED BY
T. MURAOKA
VOLUMB XXII
19SJS4


r;f. t

LElDEN
B.}. BRILL
'9
8
4

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CONTBNTS
It>crodueUon. . . . .
MeupborieaJJy Eang and Drinltiog tbe Body and Blood
13y J. !I<''''NAN . . . . . . . . . . . .
Eld Crom Sheikb Fu.g Tomb POI
By C. A. Hopn . . . . . . . . . . . .
El-QiIU: Fin, Setl500 of BxCOVlOOS, '98>S,
By W. CUlJCANt and T. L. McCl.IiLLAN .
VII
7
'9
H8
'19
.. J
." .Ii.:' .
,

ISBN,. ........ ,
c.P.Jri:bt T D1'T,.m _/ NiIJJk Wltr. SuJin.
VIIiNr1y .j MlI..",."" Atur,..)i4
Ali rig/JIJ N. }Hl'! '''is Hd: MIfJ ;, "p.r"_. If'
Ir.taltu_ i. "" /.,., " J1'ritII. jJJtN.,mI, Mit,.jiJ_it1'PjKIN
.,. -.I "in- .UIIU .,bHl .m/In J'nAlliJ..ti. In. tW ,.,i.,.

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l
Tbe Biblico! Ta' of the Commeollrie. of Eusebiu. and Jemme
on ll4iPJ
By R. G. JIlNKINS 64
The TeUFekberye Bilingual lnscription aod Barly Aromoie
By T. Mu""oKA. . . . . . . . . . . .. 79
Auguste Mariette: One Hundred Years Aftcr
. By R. T. RJDLBY. . .
Tbe Cunelform T.bl.. from e1.Qifir
By D. C. SNIlLL. . . .
Akk.clian "'PI-b-(Ii).. "defe.," and tbe Volue of PI a' Mari
By L. Snu.w:AN. . . . . . . . . . . . '7'
Rni,.,s
Sb. R. BauNsWlCK (ed.), Slwliu ;" J1Ii14iu JVu.ttilitll """ Is"'.ir4
p,.sn/tJID Dr 1..- N,"'il" his EitJlitlh BirlhMy (Ramal-Gan.
1981). - Revicwed by J. BOWl\IAN. . . . . . . . '77
D. l-l.Jao, l"idr Ihr MJdk buI (London 2nd Hentcy, '98.
- Revie",ed by J. SALT.' '79
List of Contributors l B1
Thesc cna are: fuuoo al: Eus. comm. Is. 4):9 (che addition i, mis.located in
?Ag ;'/., tuaott likcJy co be a sttondary itntoduttioo from tbc
m.rgm); Hl Is. 49:1).
., \Vhen.ll ninety or so Hc.x-apl:uic sdditiona ofla. 40---49 art calu:.l1 Into aount
tbc t,bit. or ftl.1lionshipl hai the foUowlng tOrm:
5yh'"
78
&Is./Hl
R.G. jENKINS
+ > ""ab
{:
'" ,./6
D
2.7/'4 4
1
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l0
B 16/11 E 6/'1 2.1./40
C 6/6 P 1.0/14 1.6/)0
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90/,.
THE TELL-FEKHERYE BILINGUAL INSCRIPTION
AND EARLY ARAMAIC
BY
TAKAMITSU MURAOKA
From tbc point of vicw of an Aramaic sdtolar the Assyrian.
Aromaie inscriptioo fowld accideotally in early '979 i. of eonsider-
ablc imponaoce for a numbet of .....,05.. Tbc: cdiron propose ro
darc it fa tbc mid-nioth eeowry. B.C.,' whicb .. mak.. ir tbc
oldest ALamaie writing kno"", so far.' Secoodly, tbc length of rbe
inseription is imprcos;vc witb twClltytIlIec: lin.. or I rotai or about
rwo bundrcd worda, a Iengtb tbu promi... ro tbrow a grelt dcal
or light on tbc 'anguage of tbc wdtct aod bis plod aod locale.
Tbirdly, tbc inscriptlon being bilingual, tbc Akkadian pan provideo
considcrablc bclp in tbc intcrpmatioo of tbc Aramaie rcxl. FounbJy, .
tbc insaiptioo originaI" from ao a",a wbicb bIS SO far produccd
very Iittlc liruary remains in Aramaie of tbi, pcriod tO eoablc ua tI>
..., rbc nalun: or Aramaic opn:ad Ibere aod tbc naw", of intctaaion
wilh Aklt.adian (Assyriao). Fifthly, unlikc maoy Otba cady Aromaie
nscriptions, tbis ODe ha. bccn pn:scrvcd almool inraa, wirh onIy I
fcw ..omo pmeoring somc cpigtaphical difticulry.
Glveo Ihese signi6caor f..,u,=, it is ro be cxpcetcd <bar a swdy of
Iho langulgc of thc nscription would help us beno< uodcnlaod Ibc
..dy phase of tbc hslory of Atamaie and linguistic problcms
1SS0ciatcd ",itb il. Obvioualy tbc insctiptioo muSI be slUdicd witb
oonstant reference to some ma;or jnscriptioos evidcnng,tbc perlod
of Old Aramaic.' Spccilica1ly I h,lvc in mind a group of r""" doalt
..,itb by Degm in Id. Imponanl analysis,' iocluding ,hc Sc6rc
inscriptioos,' aod tbc uniquc idiom ptesetvcd in tbo.Zeojirli inscrip-
tions, 5G<a1Icd Samalian.or ,Ya:dic.
'
ChronologicaJly tbq span a
pcriod or abour I ccntury aod I half (8'0-700).
Fim ,bc rat wltb ao accompaoyiog English rcaoslation.
..
(I) To Adod, (c...al-) inspeeror of hcaveo and e.rth, one wbo pau..
ou' (1) plen,y, one who.provides pasture and wateriog piace' (l) 'o
tbe people of alI ciriea, ooe ",ho provide! (4) income" and cereal
ofl"crings Cl) tO gods his brothen, (cacal-) inspecr.or of rivc.., (6) who
pro5pen tbc world. a men:iful god (7) 'l'ho deJights in pray..
(addressed to) him," ooe who dweUs io Guaao, (I) ,be grea,lord, his
lord, Ada<!it'i, rul.. ofGuzan-land, (9) $00 of Shamash-ouri, rulet or
Guzan-l.nd, ('0) for sustaioing" his life, prolonging bis daY',
(11) multiplying his years, protceting his household, bis olfspring
(n) and his people, for expelling iUness ('3) of his body, for
h.. to my pray.., (14) for granting my rcquest, be dedicated U
(Il) ...d preseoted (il). Wboooevcr shouJd (come) aftcr (me) may be
reoCW its disrepair, (16) put my name. Wboever lboukl remove H my
name ('7) md pu, bis name, (18) may Adod tbc watrior be bis
advenary. ('9) 11>e statue of Adadit';' ruler or Guunland. ('0) of
Sikan and ofZarao, (u) for dre lastiog" ofhis rule, tbc prolongotion
or NS govemmcoI, (u) SO as IO makc tbe word of his mouth
agrceablc tO gods wd mCD (,,) ,his ,mue, he m,de (il) bc<ter
(14) tban bcfore. Before Ada<!, (a,) one who dweUs in Sikac, lord of
Khabur (a6) be en:r:red bis SI.tue. Whoevcr should remove my oame
('7) from among the utensilI oftbe house of Ada<! my IOrd, (.8) may
Adod my lord nOI (a9) ac<:cpt &orn him bis food, bis water. M.y Shal,
my miStl..s (30) diI/o his food, his "'atcrl M.y hc plw, 16 Ca 6dd and)
nor (l') harv..tI M.y be sow t,OOO (measures .od) (,,) ge< ooc "'ti
Onc hundrcd ewes would not sad3te (3 3) a 111mb. One hundrc:d cows
would not satiate a calf. (H) One hr.mdred. morbers would DOt sadate
a child. (H) One hundred baking wcmen would 001 611 (16) .n o_en.
In a rubbsh-tip may collecrors (37) callea t May Dot thc: tlilI.-diseasc,
11
pestilenee (and) (II) insomnia Il be er.diclted from his land I
gl
TElJ,.I;'f.KHtil.Y.E INSCRlmC>N AND BAIU.Y AIlANAIC
bur1pu(UDU.NIM) I ml(ME) lltu(GU,.AB) la Ii-libo-a muori
rnl(ME) a)i-<d.-> ...e I. rnlra(DUMU)
I tnC(M1!) a-pi'He la. Ii- < mal > I.-a
liniir'(NlNDU) cli(UGu) lub-kina-te !.-qi-Ie
di 'u !ib;u
di- < li > ip-'c issu(T"') mimu(IWR'!U) Ii(NU)
ipparrasii(KUD.MsS)
Il
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(A) A""AOIAN T"xy
l
I gu-gal lam(AN") u mu-Io-..-
nin
l nubli(I;I!. NUN) N"'-DIN rii-ti u m-qlte
l ni!I(UN. MES) kal(DU) illni(URU. URU) n.-din
4 iI-qu u nin-d,-bt-e
, .... ill(DINGIR) (P"'B.NES-Su) gli-r1 niriti(ID.MES)
6 mU-la-bi-du kib-rari ilU(DlNG1R) reuxn(UD")
7 U lib(DG.G...) i1(UIU)gu..._ni
8 beli(llN) rabl(GM.) b6ilu (IlIHIi) l,dadiU)-ir-'i Sakin(G"'R)
miti(J<UR) il(URU) gu.%O.ni
9 ,pilC"') ldjam(UTU).nri(zALAG) lakin(G"'R) miti(KUR)
....ni_m.
.0 buUul(TI"') arii(GID.D"')

ti lrD-ud hnllilu(NU.NES-!Ii) luJlum(SIUM) bltitu(I'HIi)
zemu(NUI\IUN.MEWu)
IZ u oa'ib(Zl'l muqi(GlG)
'1 U 7.Umrilu(SU-Iu) ik-ri-bi. kmc-e.
14 qi-bil pi-il mlg.-ti ik-rum-m
, iqt!(NIG.llA) ma-nu ark(EGIR) an-!]u-.u lu-dH
16 !umrma(Mu-mI) lil-kun ma-ou U lu-mi
17 Iioakaru u lum!u(MUIJi) i-hk-ka-nu
.8 adad.<U) qar-du lu-o b6(EN) di-t-iU
'9 'a<!ad,('ul-it.'i bkin(G"'R) mlri(KUR) i1(UlUlgu_za_ni
'o lI(URU).ika_ni u
u ti.ri-i,iokussilu(G1S.GU.ZA-IIi) arlk(GID. O"') pa-lu(I)!,j
u ql-bit pTlu(KA-!Ii) eli(UGU) illni(DlNG1R.MES) u nill(UN.MES)
'l \U-ub-bi lua-,e cli(UGU) ma!]
14 re-< u-U-<cr ioa(AS) plni(lGI)
al .-Ifu il(URUlsi_ka_ni bOl(EN) nlo(lDl!)o_bur
16 salamlu(NU-!o) iz-qu-up m.ou !i lumi issu(T"') Jibbi
'7 oouce la dada<!(dISKUR) bcliya(EN-ys)
a8 i-paSi-,u-oi dadad(dI5KUR) be-Ii okaUu(NINDA-I,j)
'9 me!u (...lli) la imaborlu d!a-Ia be-si
IO akallu(NIND"'-{,j) melu("'-!,j) KI.MlN liril lu-u I.
l' Cole-dc I lim(lGI) li-ci! l siita(BAN) .
II li-il-ba, I me(ME) la!]ritu(U,> la u-U-ba-.
82 T. MURAO.... "
rnl.J.-FHt'HERYE INSCRlmuN AND IiARI.Y ARAMAJC
83
! J'
'-.
H) ARAMAIe
dmw" I .y I hdys'y : .y : 1m : qdm : hddskn
1. gwgl: : w'rq : mhnl)t : lsr : wntn : ry
l wm;qy: lalt : kln : wntn : l/h : w'dqwr
4 l'lhyn: 1..100 : 'h",h : gwgl : nh< : klm : m'dn
l m': klo : 'lh : rhmn : .y : "Iwtb : !bh : ysb
6 sko: mr' : rb : mr' : hdys'y : mlk : gwzo : br
1 ssnwry: mlk : gw%n : Ibyy : nb>h : wlm'rk : ywmwh
8 wlkbr: lnwh : wlllm : byth : wl$1m : %t'h: wlilm
9 'nlwh: wlmld : mrq : mnh : wlaUm' : t;lwth : wl
lO mlqh: 'ma: pmh : I<nn : wyhb : Ih : wmn : 'hr : kn
l I ybl: II<00h : hds : wimym : tim : bh : wz : y : yld : imy : mnh
U ",ylym: 1mb : hdd : gbr : Ihwy : qblh: ;Im : beiyo'y
lJ 0011..: gwm : w.y : slrn : wzy : 'zm : "rm wrd,: kn'h
14 wlm'rk: hywh : wlm'n : 'ma : proh : 'I : '/hn : w'l 'nia
Il Inb: dmwt' : z't : 'bd : " : 'y : qdm : hwtr : qdm hdd
.6 ysb: .kn : mr' : bb...r : ,1mb : 1m : mc : yld : lmy : ma : m'nr'
'1 zy: bt : hdd : mr'y : au'y : hdd : lbmb : ...mwh : 'I : : 10ft
II ydh: ....1 : mr',y : lbrnh : wmwh : '1 : : ma : ydh : wl
'9 %t': w'l : Yhtd : w'lp : l'Ifn : I:r' wpry. : l'l)z : moh
lO wtQ'h: .'wc : Ihynqn : 'mr: w'l yrwy " : wm'h : .wr : Ihynqn
Il 'gl: w'l : yrwy : ...m'h : mwn : /hrnqn : 'Iym : w'l : yrwy
Zl wtQ'h: nlwn : l'pa : btn...,: Ihm : .... ( : ym!'nh : wmn : qlqll' :
\I,!!w: 'nl...h : l'm: l'ldw
lJ ...mwtn; lbl : zy : nyrgl : 'I : ygtzr ma : mrh

(l) The stameof Hadad-yis'i. whleh he sct up Hadsd ofSiksn,

(l) (eu>al.) eonrrolle:t of tbc wvco aod tbe earth, onc who briDgs
down .....Itb sod providcs pastute u) snd watering-pla". to sii
uu(s) sod providcs a basket:ll snd so ....pll.....,ntainc< (4) ro alI
gods bis brotben. (euW.)controller of alI rive:t(s) (l) who cacicb.. all
land(s). a mw:iful god ...bo dclighl$ in prayer(add=scd to) bin>, one
who d...clIs in (6) Siksn, a grcat Ioni, (bis) lord, Hadad-yis'i, rulcr or
Go>:an, soo of (1) Su-nuri," ruler of Go..., far tbc sustaining of his
tife aod for tbc prolonging of bis days (5) for ,bc muWpiying or
bio y..n and for the of bis houschold and far tbe
.,..
protcction of his offspring sod for ,bc protection of (9) bis mca
for tbe averting of illncss from h.m and far tbe hearkenmg to hlS
praye< sod for (lO) tbe iaking of tbe wordo of his mou,h he
....blisbed (it) and dediea,ed (i') ro him, and whoever (l l) sbould
obift 22 (it) hercafter," let bim establiob il aoew and put my name
thercupon aod whoc:vcr should removc my Dame then::Crom (l%.) and
put bis name (in..ead). may Hadad tbe warrior be his advenarr
The statue of Hadad-yis'j. ('l) tuler of Go.an and of Sikan and of
A,ran ? ? ? his throne (14) and for thc prolonging of bis life and in
order ehat the words or his mouth may be accepeable tO gOd5 and to
meo (Il) be hu made thio ..a.ue (and) he ha> improved OD what wa>
bcfore. Before Hadad, (16) one who dwells in Sikan.lord of Habor.
he prcscnted his SUNC. Whoever removcs my n.me: from the vessels
(17) of the housc or Hadad my lord, may my lord Hadad not accepl
his bread aod hls wlter from (18) bis hand. And may Shala
Z4
my
mistrcss not accep' bis bread and bis water from bis band. And even if
('9) be should sow (sccds), may he not huve... Even ifbc should oow
a tbollSand measures.
2S
may be gel balf(u much) thcrefrom. ('0) And
..ca if a bundrcd cwcs sboutd sucltle a lamb, may it not h< satiated.
Evco if a buodrcd cowo sbould suekle (11) a cale, may it not h<
oatiated. Aod evcn if a hundrcd ...amen ohould suclde a bah<, may h<
not h< oatiated. (11) And evco if a huodrcd women should bake bread
in an ovco, IMY they no' 611 il. And from tbc tubbish-tip may bis
pcople c:ollcet b:uley snd ca, (thereol), aod may a plaguc and .&Iictioo
of Nergal 00l h< eradicated from bis land.
On tbc foilowing pageo "'e sball makc an attcrnpt lO bigblight
some important poin" of gramalat of the Aumaic of thc inscripon.
Whilst tbc tJjJi. priIft'PI doca deal with te"ain linguistie aspcets,"
obviously it was not tbe editors" intention tO prescnt a complete
pietore or attempt a full discusoion.
t. Us, of mat... lectioois
In thcir joior work published in '91', Cross sod Frccdman
conduded. iItJ". II/MI thal tbc use in of vowd Imeni
II' and" in parcicular, to indicate word.medial/O/ and /II rcspcctivdy,
rcptCSClltx:d so extcnsioo of tbe same orthographic praetice at word-
final positioos.%711Jcy did not think tbat tbe medal usc or tbe _tr.,
IHti..u had bcc:ome a regular featute of the texl$ studied by them.
secking cvidcnce fur such in tbe Samalian However.
tbc 5ubscquent publicarion of new Aramaic texn and further
investiganoo ha.ve rended to point to the need of some revision of this
posi,joo. .. summe<! up by Fitullyer: "Thc: tbesis ... io stili valid, evOll
though mese authors had glossed Qver some problematic instances 0'0
and would now bave lO admit morc cxocpt.ions ... tbc anly problem
wj,b i, originally was tbeir reluctance lO admit tbc inccptive use of
mediai in some Old Aramllic teJets. for which the
evidencc is no'" clearn.Z'J
.... Alif
ABM (p. hold ,ba, ,he letle' is solely use<! as an indieation of
tbc consonane. Evcn ,he ato1Ung pronoun :c'1 ('1) io so in,erpreted.
,he only thrcc Scmitic language'" tblt all"ord ics parallel do
noI appcar to conrain a mediai gloltal Stop: Heb. t.il (spelled t'I)
A'ab. til aod Gccz til/i." 11>e fint is gcncraJJy con,idere<! to be I
derivative of a less common demoostrative, ti. spellcd either th or tw.
witb no traee ofthc Alif.J2 Joon holds ,ba' tbc" Alifin tbc Heb. t'I i,
not C'tymotogial, but pu.rely a Ma/W /ulioniJ." Js it pos5ible tu say thc
same of this new Aramaic proooun? But see below, S7,
.... Hth
ABM (pp. f.) scc an indicaon of Iii and ll respcctivcly in tbe
Hth cf 1Jum6 () Ind Il1J but ICe bcIw 5" (p. 91) and n.0.
Otherwise me letter is either oonsonantal or a likdy indicaoon of
6nal/l /
'.j. Yotl
ABM (p. 40) hnld tba" apan from I conSOllantll/yl and l wotd
final rrI. tbc letter.J also indicarcs.bc dipbtbong layl in cithcr word
mediai or final posions: e.g il.Jlb () and 16"!1 (n).1''''' ('0, IIbia).
A. a mltter oHlct tbc final.J is I moor que,tion ..,here it rcp....,,"
tbc fina! sound of <be .Jfli of .."'" ItrI;". ""IIIIJotl. A. regard, OA,
who has e5rablished an importane distinction +ybll1J
(bis "Langimpcrfekt") aod '"Jb'!J ("Kun.impcrfekl"). 'hc.J in lbe
latter is .&id 'o indicate lay/as against h for /f/.>< Ho docs no< ..y why
it cannot m:lrk any otner vowcJ in thcse cascs. In contrast, Dian
maintains [bat tbe letter stands for fil. as fte a.s *.1J",.1 in Samalian is
concemed,Js He adduces [wo arguments. Firstly. givcn tbe faa tbar
tbc Peal infinitive of tbe mot 1>-11-) is spclled t..,ice 6R' (bUI once bI?1).
Usi nos.J'itl s'etaient eux llussi termins par *.4.) un. stade la
ss
1'EI.....FJ:I,KHBRYB INSCRJP'TION AND tiARI.Y ARA"'AIC
diphtongue finale accer:uu6c aurait d .voir le m.me 50ft qu'l
l'infittiuv, et les textes autlicot, au moins sporadjquemeot, dea
.orthographes.tels quc au Iieu dc)"/} etc." (p. 120), thelatter
<ypc whicb, as bc justly emphaW:cs (p. 119), appclrs in Simalian
where thc w:ritCI' oC tbe Sdire inscriptions wuuld use: -b. A valid
argumcrir, .. long as one agtccs with him on tbc question of tbe
positioo of tbe accento One wonders however how Dian would
cnvisage the gcoC5is of tbc 11/. Secondly, he ,cf"" 'o Ibe .11causave
6rp.J, for ..,bicb tbc value IY is assurcd by I:liblicall\r.maic, Syriac etc.
But 1 fail to see why this should suppon his solution tO the question in
hand. For surely /II is ooly ono of tbc possible valUC5 tbal one CIO
assign IO Ihe final.J. For some rcason bis work, which io generaJJy I
most meticuJous .nd exhaustive analysis of Samalian. does nOI: make
i, sufficicndy clear that tbc final.J CIO liso mark laYI, as i, evideo, in
elSa like b1!J umy $Ons" &Od J''''Y H my daysu. To my mind the
dearcst evideoce chat tbe.J in question in OA docs nor indicate tbe
diphtbong is Idduced by Zakkur A Il 1I7'"'!J "and he an,wcrcd mc".
11>e form is correctly analyscd by Degcn (56.) IS a "Kunzimpf.",
.nd is quote<! .. lO czccpona! eumple of tbc original/ay/ not being
prese.rved (i 19). As he postul.tcs [la"l/mi] < ')or'Rl7-lri, his countce
argumcn, would be tbat thi, applies only lO ..,.iNl Imiti. Y"", l
dubious ad hoc argumcot, .inee oowherc in his analy.i. of _iNl I"'u.,
mp11ftil' the lubdivision of this group ofweak verbs is madc lO play I
tolc, ar least no, rigorou.ly and consisreody.J6
Far moi:< ,ignificant and strilng i, tbc use of mediai Yotl to mark
fil: '11J.lR (4).J!l'- (..), r'.}R,pr;pJ1 ('9). One migh, .dd '''!1- (lt) with
a possible cnclltic MI.. With these contra" tbrcc instlncca of
defecve spclling: 1IJR, iI1. (14) and ,.... (n). ABM spclk of
inconsistencies Cinconsequentts") not unique lO ODe inscriptioo (pp.
40 f.). Inconsistcocics Ihey ccrrainJy a,e, but one nccds to cvaluare
tbcir signilicancc from the point of view of tbe his,ory ofNorth Wcst
Semic orrhography. Scc 1.1 bcIow.
"4. W.",
In addin to tbc con.onanraJ Iwl md wordfinal //, possibly tbc
diphtongal/aw/ JI and undoubtedly a word-mediai lui, // o' l{ are
indicated in our inscriplioD with rhe Jetter .... E.g.; II1fJ11 I/'rq (1),
Ih"!J (IZ): IIqllll, 1'ItJ.. (1l):p",,,,6 (7), ,"",6 (8); 'dq",r (,). gwgl (.).
tlmll' , ('. 'l). SInlll'.} (7), IRlllr(..), fR",/" g""{' (6. 7,
(16). Herc thete js no C1se of inconsjstency.
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.' .
"
T. NUJ.AOKA 84
ABM daim that 'Jpr. glllg/, and SSnlvry have long vowds in thc:ir
originai fonn (p. 41)) but js thete any hard evidence far that o.cept in
thc: case of the lut?40
As regards tbc: two geographical names, ABM are of tbe opinion
that P,olemy's r".x;.....,"'" and X"f3OJI"'_ io hi. C"gTQPhy is tOO late a
witness (sc:cond cento AD) to be re1iable. But il indicatcs at Icast that
th<: indigenous pronunciation mo" probably did not have lui ot liil as
in the Assytian soutCes,g"Z."" and IJabm-, but rather /61 of the Hebrew
traditico, /Jibr.
41
Thc: cuoeiform is of coune not capablc: of
indicating thc: voweJ o.
S',1: Fllrlbtr ,.""Qr!u fn y """ W QS ",tJilsl ",Qlm 1t<li.nis.
Degeo's poSitiOD on this quescion is extttmely-somc: wauJd say,
excessive!y-cautiousj he admits mediai l1161ru ltrt;ollis Claur in
einigen, a,T. unklaren FiUen" (p. 37). Even for tbose few C2SU, he
'Rrtnarcs an alternative: interpretanoo orODe sort or anomer including
a most unlilt1y and fun:cd suggesti"" sueh .. y_ ryaroiiwatl,
"naeh dem MUSler der akkadisehen Form ipttrras gebildet ... mit 11/ als
Gleidaut ... 1" (p. aB)."
FilZmyer, in contrasto more readily admits tbc usc of tbes<: two
letters for mediai vowel indicarion iD OA in generai and in Se/irc in
particular.o lt i! qui h<:y""d me bow [)egeo con pcmibly dismi.. a
case llke 'iIIIr as "wohl keine Matres lectionis", simply the ground
tbat it ili a nonAramaic plae:e-name (p. 17).
- As (or Samalian, Dion concludes tbat .. wordmedilll WalV CUI
be a vowcl marker, tbougb the possibiliry is DOt exduded that it
indicat.. a dipbtbong," and tblt a YfJ undoubtedly con be a ",al"
Ia<trPtis fur /TI.
ABM, who have prcscnted mo.. oftbe evidences menrion! above,
stili wav,er, in respeet of /II, and entertain th<: possibility of i'ts being an
indiearion or lawl (p. 41). Th<:y invoke tbe erymology, whieh is far
from assurcd, for SS1l1ll':J, tlUW, J1It1ll", md Tbe 6nt being a
personal name, its erymology is perbaps not of mueh relevance lo
th<: 11Ie three naro..-s_ry, g"'t", ;inw-and the ",o
Akkadian 1000 wo.rds-g"'l.l, \Iqaor-clineh the whole matrer. Whilst
a serih<: would h<: bound by time-honouretl speUing convenrions
when writing his own language, be couJd be: more ad,vcnturous and
eaperimenlal in speUing foreign words or naro.. and writing tbem
phoncrcaJly. Indccd, forcign words and names moy haveserved .. a
major eatalyst for tbe dcvelopma>t of Iru Ia<Ii.ms, whether mediaJ
or 6n.aJ.
86 T. MURhOKA
"
,.
.. ,
-,
"
,r

"'
ttLl..FHKHKRYEi JNSCRIPTION ANO EARLY hRAMA1C 81
It caanor lx cmphasizcd too strongly that in Qut inscdption the.use
of word-mcdiai mairts I/i(}";1 i.s tbe norm f1Ither than the eK:ctptlon.
In ,he light or lhis, modified version of the .originai
CrossJFreeclrnan thesis i46 scems to be in of modificauon.
As far as OU! inscription is cooccmed, the use of mecl12.l VQwellettetS
io it is 'vc[J' muro faaber advancc:d than ,cincepuve'''; it is indeed
almo't fully devcloped,
In the Iighl of this abundant evidcnce now adduced by ou<
oew inscription, l am tempted lO haza.rd a suggcstJon as to
origin of thc use of malTe! /ec/iOnii in generai, not ln
word-mediai positions. This significant depanure from tbe
purely consonantal nature of the. Phocnician ,orthography, tO whlch
Phoenicians tenaciously held 00 tUl very late. lS usuaUy assumed tO h<:
aD Aramaie innovarlon." Cross/Freedman Boatcci tbc poslibiliry of
histoncal speUing al an origin for tbis deve1opmcnt.' l subroit th.t
tbis spelling mDovacion carne about as a result of contaets between
Atamak and AssyrillO scribcs.
49
In paniculllr. scribcs wbo were
employed to tran.late AssyriaD tex.. cannOl have failed.'o
nature or the beterogeneous wriling systcm of Akkad,lO lO wbleh
vowe1s were fuUy represented and long vowels wcre &om time IO
time represented by tbeir own .pecial symbols, DOt in combinaUoD
with a cansananl or ClOnsooants (CV, Ve, cvq. Tbc ostenl oftbe use
of ..ms Itianis in tbe Tcll Fekhcrye Aramaie inscription' secm. to
indicate that thi! proctsS h.d betn underway for qui some time.
lt also atands to reason th,t sucb a. contaCI: initially took pba: in
Mesopoumil and subsequently spread Syril tbe
Steady wcstward apansion or tbe Assynon and
influenet'. A rca>tlSttuetion sucb as tbis wouId expl1lJt1 tbc tentatlve
n.ture of thc usc made of tbe vowclletters in Nortbem STria in tbe
murse of tbe following NO centuries. 11Iis assumption oroua does
not bave lO preclude any other possible aplanation suth .. the
aforemcntioned one advanced by Cross/freedman, but I would
eonsider the Akkadian influenee as a ratbe< .igni6.cant factor in <bis
orrbographie devclopment.
.. C..IrI;..,./ Jipblblngs
.. layl
In contraSt tO the uDClOmpromising posirion indic.retI by Crossi
freOdman,50 Fitzmyer justly holds that tbere i. some of
sporadie monopbthongintion of Ilyl tO l/- in OA," whlllt Degen
S,bfrp
ABM (p. 4) are righ, io .aying <ba. <be substilUtion of b for p in
aut inscription is confined tO the word IIpl. This v.ciant spelliog of
tbc noun i.s 1c.nown from OA, and Samalian.
61
Moreover, tM:
pbcnomenon i.s nOI confined co Aramaic, for it i.s also 2ttested in
wou1d oet eDten&O .uch a possibiUty." Our inscriptioo provicles
Mether incomes,"ble pie.. of evidence. unles. one invokes I .eribll
error: "I bJd (17). The 6..t word. onr shou1d oote. is in the con.truet
stl" IOd is tu be complced with '!:JI" (8) "hi. hou....... Furthcnoore.
the contrletcd vowc! i. fouod in ,bc 6011 (only) .ylllblc of the word
fOno. 00 tbc ba.i. or dm pai:, il would probably be fair lO ... 'be
clipb<boog .tiI1 mainuiocd in tbe foUowing DOQ6nal.fs: 11l!J. (a).
!lI" (Il). l.I!J"fI' (.obil, 11). '!J. (st. IbI. 21)." I wonde: if ,hi. II"
example CAJ1 be coostsucd Il l'llym'l with ,he importlO' impliCition
<bI' 6nal sbort 90wels were .tiII retaincd a< this suge." Likewise
1"'('0)."
Sa.a. 1,91/
Whete the diachronic Aramaic gramm.. would leld one 'o expcet
/IW/. our inscription olwlYs sho..,. " 'Pt" (.).1"...." (7), l",," (8),
'd'" (9. ),!?J"'" (t.), ."" (t7, t8)-.1I ex.mpl.. of tbc )rd m. Ig.
pron. wi.h m: pl. ooun -lOd""Ir (Il), 1M" (ao, Il. abl.)." h is no<
elSY tu decide whetber ,."t'(1. Il) and 1,1,,1" (',9) allO belnog bere
or not.
Biblical Aram:a.ic: jo its Tibcrlan uadidoo attesa ro a gcneNJ
moooph<bongizl'ioD Df law/ 'o l/. whesea. aalsical Syriac displays
no in <bis ....pect berw... layl 'Dd l'w/,''
Segert m&Otains <ba< the mooophthoogira.ion of se< in
alrcady in Offidal Aramaic on tbc blSis Df speUings .uch u y y.....
buI, al Dion hu coDvinciogly argucd." thi. is the very word which
docs DO!: lend itself (O unequivOCll inecrprerltion in vie.w of a fonn
lucb u Heb.Ji.I.. .
AU we can statc with conJidcoce is then rbar our inscription lacks I
de&r<u' example Iike "I (=/btf). ,ha<. IS we have uicd lO .how
above in rcspetl of ,be place-Damcs l""C.. &Dd #11'1', the letrer " most
likely markcd thc vowel u weU. ami 60aUy <ha< <be specd of
monoph'hongizatioo probably dilfered from lay/ to /awl. suggesting
<be possibilily of ali our ampi.. standing for /0/.
88 T. NUR.AU){A
.;... :.t
.....
",.

'.'

,
t
I-
v
r
[
.
'-
11:l.I.l.. lNSCRtmON AJIlO BARLY A1AMA1C 89
Phoenici.n (Zenjitli) IOd Hebrcw of some Ar.d inscription.
62
The .
Ar.d inscripr;on no. 14, ",hicb thc cdro: wou1d a..igo 'o <he period
60'-191 Be, h.. nOI only obl (t8: ""IJ:.). bol al.o lJItfJJ- (14f.).
which is highJy instruaivc. Aharoni is certainly righI io ha view thn
the phcoomenoo i. oot speci6caUy Anmaic, bu. ra<ber general_"
80th Degen IIld Dion are iOClpable of oll'ering lO expllOltion fO' <be
phcnomen"!'." Fricdtich tbough, <ha< tbc .upposed anapryptic vowd
WIS rcsponsib1e... but <he hypothesis would be helpless ",itb ca...
such IS ""11tM of tbc Arad inscription or .bI" etc. of Se6re. Grobbc
declarcs that ....II.uch examples follo", weU-known rules". a1'hough
ooe wisbcs ()Qe knew ..,blt tbe ruJe:s are." Gamini', hypor)""il. or
Anatolian ioRuence ls rcndeced unlikcly by <be !trad inscriptioo.
67
In contradisrincon tO Friedtich, Haais artribo.es the change 'o an
inRuen.. of the preceding 90Wel," and Aharoni .... in the instana:
ftom ,hc !trad inseriprion cvideoce or tbc .pirlOtiration or <he stops."
Pending I romprchensive tevicw of ali relevant da,..lO I wou1d
.ugga' tmlarively <ha< tbc shift wu conditioned by ,be prcsence of
a prca:ding vowcl" aDd following consonlO,aI c1us,a.
n
AlI
exampl.. of .bI. not ooly of Atamaic, and lJINttl- or tbc Arad
inscription Sltisfy rhcsc: CODditions. & far al OUE inscription is
cona:rned, il does not appeat <ba< i, con,ains IOY othcr wordfono
wi<b a; <ba' would lltisfy <hese conditioos. If <bis hypotbesis were
couect, il would imply amoog other things <har 00 lOapryxls had
raken piace Yel in Samalian (abl 'F [*"'11(.): Fricdtich).
S4 Sml11
!t. WIS rlghdy rec:ognized by ABM (p.!). il i. in thc norwoo of
sibil.ants tbat tbe ne:w inscriptioo provides a m_jot surprise. It
ratlically dopam ftom OA and SamalilO, which agr.. in this reganl,
in <ba< .he .ouod <ba, wou1d corr..pond tu <he Prolo-Semitic 161 is
spdled censilrcndy wj,h the letter I: /;Hb (Il),"" (h t6), l''''' ('0),
l'''' (.0). 'sr (a). To <bis Us, one may add hdys), if .he second
eompoaent is to be derived Cromj!- ',73 The foUowing ta.ble sbows tbe
situation io "ariou.s phase5 or Aramaic.
Proto-Scrnitic Fekherye OA+Samalian OfA LA
Itl
" " "
III
1
5
/
III
" "
D
/O/
D III n n
/si
D D D D
As regards OA, Degen convincingly argued again.. the thesis put
forward by S,iehl tbat the grapheme J in OA w.. phonetically
univaleot, Le. =(i)." The priociple of polyphony must be postulated.
How would one otherwise unde.rstand 2 convoluted phonetic evolu-
cioo sucb as /61 > Isl > IiI > Itl?
Confronted by this suikjng orthography of oue inscription. ABM
speak of "une tt disparu du dialeete local" or "une
habitude paniculire au scribe" (p. 60). le scems co mc howcvcr thac
this valuabte piece of evidence could be lookcd al in a more positive
Iight. If ooe is to follow Degcn, who believcs the leet I in OA also
stands for the i,nemental /fl/. chere is 00 real impedimeo' in
pOSlulating the same for tbe longuage represctlted by tbe Fekhetye
insctiptioa. 1e difFerenee in orthography betweeo the (WO idioms
cao be accoun,ed for by uswning tha, ooe is dealiog witb <wo
geographically di,tioct aliognpbs to notate ODe phoneme."
lo this coo,!exioo I wou1d address myse1f tO tnO,her rela,ed issue
of M,orica! Aramaic phonology. I assume ,har me phooologica!
evolurion Iying behiod ilS gnpbie oOlarion JD/rl- n is a Iioear one. lo
other ...ords, tbe pho_ic value notated by n eao be as.umed to have
direaly evolved &om thar not2.ted by IlOr O. Uoder tbi< a..umption I
would submit that tbe IIR of tbe grapheme n in eA was inrrodueed
about the S&me dme as tbc process of spiranti2:ation, induding [hat oC
l'l'o (,] and (8], set in. Po, i, dilferendy, mi, graphemic.lft in OfA i.
001 evidence of a phooemi<: .hift /61 'o It/.let alone Iii to 181. The use
of T_ for the dcn,al-frlcative ..... appareotly promp,ed by the
devdopmeo, under which tbe pbooeme /ti came 'o be realized as [8]
uodet me wdl-known cooditioo. oamely afret a vowe!. Thus in ,be
euly 'l'hase of OCA, a ...ord sucb as '/8a1181 was presumably stili
pronouneed with 181 in .",b positioos. Only when tule of
spiraoti2atioo hecame firmly established, f8aJ.iel or f8li8/ ..... made to
conforro tO ,he rule, mus producing Itllel .. lo tbe known reading
ttaditions of Jater Aramaic. In other om: must noc: posrolatc a
devdoptneot aueh as filalie/l- Italit/- Italill/. 'Ibis hypothesis ean
be heId ,o apply to another Proto-Sernitic dental-mcarive /al with irs
ootation by' \Dd subsequendy ,.
Thus, whilst I would 001 entcaaio the possibility of a "merging of
,be Proro-Semiric: d, t, and I wim their spirantiud couoterpans ;, !.
and J (V" (Kaufnun. hfl-.s, p. 117), the evolurioo o! ,be ""O
.. outlined ahove ti.. in ...ith Kaufman'. asaumprioo
thal tbc spirantizaon mwt ba"e Sd: in about che same mc as tbc
90 T. MURAOf\.A
I .
1- .
I
.I.
.
..
TEI.I.[:EI'HF.RYR INSCKIPTION ANI) fit\Rl.Y "RAMAIe; 91
merger of the two seES of phonc:mes. which he dales tO a period
be,ween ,be end of DA aod eady Elephantinc A,amaic (ib.)."
l. Assinti!4Ji.. of III and Inl
In OA aod Samaliao ,he JIJ of me imperfecr of ,he Pcal verb Iqb
shows regressivc assimilation ,with the cxcc:ption of in
Sdire: I B J Jbis ylql; in contraSt tO Y'lb io thc same InscrlptlOO
(Hoe l]). Degcn's vicw "Ob einc
muss off'en bleiben
H
n is ltighty questlonable. OUt snscnpuon IS qulte
unambiguous witb ali three ocrurrenccs of tbc verb having presetVed
('7). t'i; (.8), I.1f9 (to). Egyprian Aramaic. io bich moo'
examples do sho... the ..similation, h.. ODe ""eeptlan: eo ley 67:'8
...hicb Leaodu dismisses .. a scribal error.'" 1e aestallOO
of .. many as tluee examples io ao early tex< .. out inscriprioo leads
UI to cooclude thar tbc uslmilllioo of 111 of tbe yub did no'
consis,cntly talte piace. It would eenaioly be ill-advised to dismiss ali
,bc tbree examples of the Fekherye inscriprioo .. scribal ettOrs. ABM
(p. Il. n.) mentioo ,he possibiliry of an Akltadian inBucnce, for tbe
fii ofU9l is nevet assimilared, a suggestioo whicb souod more
likely if .he Akkadiao reat had use<! me verb IO tbe m...e eases
concerned.
1e fate of me Aramaic o..al Inl bas been a aubjecr of far more
intense debate over thc p..' Cew deeades. The generai course or
development tba< Ius emaged f,om tbc debare c:ao be summarized ..
follo..... lo OA noo-initial/nl 00' immedi.teIy followed by a vowd
w regularly usimllatcd to tbe immediately (oUowlog consonant.
resuiring io tbc la"et'. geminarioo, wbi!!t in OfA thete devdoped.
presumably undet ao Akk.dian (Babylooian, be. mo...
inllueoce, a process of degemtOa"oo, the hJStoncal Inl hcing
reiOStlted, and this phenomcnoo .pread by anaJ.ogy to otbu cases or
geminarion wbich had oothiog tU do ...i,h tbc originai of
tbc: llua1. However, 8rouod the 6tSt ee.ntury AD. onc notica a SWlOg
back to ,he si,uation wbicll p,evailed io OA, assimilared fonns
becomiog more aod more ptomioent, except in tbe E... (as in
Ma.odaic).19 Howcvcr, this ntber neat piaurc hu boc.n known to be
far &om satisf.et0'l'. Especialiy as reglrds tbc OrA period, tbc
HermopoIis papyri ha.e maoAged 'o muddy the pieture quite a bit,
wlth neu-total absence ofCXIlD.ples of degem.ioation.
aJ
This, bI/tr_Iu.
led KUlSeher 'o conclude mar me Aramaic of tbe Ietters wa. or a
Wesrem rype!11
Once 8gaio our insaiplion compeJs us lO retbink the issue.
Alchough che onJy relevanl e.ample is .""61 (a), it il ,lgni6canl thO!
che na..1is not assimUaud, and that evcn in this eady periodo I< does
not 21ppear to me that me evidenees curreotly avallabJe 6t into a neat
scherne of dcvelopmcn, whether conceived along chronologicii or
geographicol/dialectal lin... An that cUI be ,>.id witb conlidence i,
ch.. chere can be di,cemcd I .oogh ouUine of developrncn. witb ,cope
far oc:casiond or individllal fluauation.
Our new evidcnce muSI also compel Klufman to rethink hi.
position: ..... it [i.e. degemlnation] is a salient fearure of che
Oabylonian dialeet of Akkadjlo ... Tbe origin of thl, feature is
unknowo ... it may weU be I phooetie featu.e cammoo to a glOup of
languaga around OabyJonia inc1uding Amorite lod .he euly soutb-
eastem dialects of Aramaic" (laj1".",,,, p. 120).
For a ofDegen's view
12
tbat .. case $uc:h a5"r fhe rais.c:s
t
does nat prove assimilation or ". 5CC Dian. p. 4Z,h n. 1-
Purthennore, ondcr sueb lO.amption oDe wauld h.ve tO deal wich
lexemes con,lioing an e,ymological IDI sepatately from thooe which
do nor, likej" ",jtb lyidda'l and lymda'l, and,chere does OOt ..ero to
be sufliciem: justffi.cation for sach an approach. The Aramaic
word .'*'''' "cnt.ance" lo AliadianIl would also go some way
towds demoostrating tbc phonetic reaJity of the degemlnating In/.
As regard. tbe Ihl of tbe causative and so-<:aUed rellexive-pas'ive
conjugations. che relevant extmples from OUt inscripon are:
.ha91 (.), 1".1"q- (10,11), andY&l;:r ('l).
In contrut to Samalia.n. our Ih.J"'I1I is nou:worthy, for me formcr
idiom atr.... to che regular syncope of }hl in .bc cau,"tive Impufect,
a1tbough Ihj. is no. a pla.in imperfcc. and it mvolv.. more than
a syncupe of /hl, bUI liso .bal of IYI. OA, onder tbe .ame
circumstan';", doa not syncopate Ihl. ei,ber."1n OCA inc1udlog OA,
however, both syncopated and non-syncopa,ed fonns Itrestod. It
is quitc obvious that OA, as represc.otcd in Senre, for inStance. (annot
be said. al )east in thi! eegard, tO have cvolvcd from IO idiom IUch as
SamaUan; typologically the latrer i. innov.tory. if the synoope io no.
lO be thought of a. Canuniom.
& regard. tbe Hlfcl participi.. no eXlmpJe is available rom OA
or Samalian, but here aga.in it io OfA that IUa" lO both types like
Do ...l and ib. 6." NJiI:l.
No example of I reftexive p"rticiple or imperfcct with /hl io atrated
anywhere,
Dion (p, 107) justly voices che doubt as to whether Ihl WIO truly
part oftbc I-conjugation. Tbe onIy example from OA and Samalian i.
hl.'b", (Barrakib, 14) and III otbe... imperfcets wichout /hl. juSt
like our)8l;:r.
92 T. MUltAOKA
, ..
'...
,
11ilJATF.to:HEa.V8 INSCl,PTJON I\ND Et\RI.Y ARAMI\IC 93

6.' of _-W,itli /hl

We note three ..ampi.. of a non-mitial /hl ayncoplted: 'li!Ja.l:l",
"ali goda" (4), .hr.l:l", "ali rver(a)" (4) and ., A1JI "IU land(s)" (l),
atte expccts -Jdh. and fl.JdJm respectively.lt.i:s cunoU5 however
rhal io tbc lattcr two cascs tbc DOUO is in tbc singulu. Hebrew, which
u.ually .yncoplta tbe /hl of tbc jrd pl. suSi. ptODOUo, hl' p<eserved
it lo some odd cases: .5m 'j.6 .Kg 7-)7 E6'1l
and, of course, etc. l'erhaps the pronominai
suffixes -inmml-itmin wlh a verb characleristic of some Atamaic
dialect5 belolJg here, unless one derives them with Banh from
m-bin.
M
Unfortuna.te1y aut inscription does DOt provide any othc:r exa.mplc
of tbe 3cd pl. pronominal suffix, which prevents U5 from determioing
whether tbe syncope was lexiCilly conditioncd, namely, confined IO
tbc combination with thc word JeJ.
.'
. .. ..
,-

7. V..rmslralin p_Z'l
As mcntioned above ( I ...), OUr Insetiption h.. tumed up Imo"
striklng form, a f..g. demoDa.rative proooun. 8o1h OA md
5amalian attest tO Do the other hand, the antiquity of tbe /ti
demecu scems w be assured by its 2ttestluion io Hebre.w, Ugaotic
('I), amicai Arlbie, Epigraphic Soutb Arabi.... and Geez. Oaah
even ma.in,"ioa tblt origloally .he eJemcnt was of che form Ilil as is
stiIJ the case in Geez, and tbe feoe-Corm demonstrative Il in CJassica.l
Arabic,86 so thar this /t/ was distinct from thc feminine nouo
morphc:me of the same 50und.
87
This accords weU witb the faet that in
OA and Samalian, aod even m BA, the plOnoun is regulady spelled
with aD AId. and only after tbc classical discinetioo bctween the
word-final 1-'1 aod Ibl began lO collap.., wc begin to find ,he
spelJing tilJ as in Hermopolis papyri. This scems tO suggest that, likc
thc 1'1 of lhe Stalu' determinatu. mo,!,beme,sa the letter Alef in i.
not a #ID/er JliORis.
89
And ii Barth be righe, che samc: must said of
our would tbeo a1so be possible lo assume tbal'{'t anledal's '{'
C"to'/i> '(p't > to' > ta, lhe III has droppe<! as a result of false
analogy of che feminlne noun morpheme.
"
.,
. _. i
95 fBl.lrFF.KHRRYB INSCRIPTIoN AND eARl.Y ARAMAlC
k/II (,),l'II!yn k/"m (4), IIhr kflll (4). In every case thete is kf following,.
which makes ODe suspeet tbat oDe might be de:ing with some
syntaaic pcculiarity.
Even under the generally accepted assumption chat thc definite
:article is a. celativdy lare pheoomenon "ne remontant gure au-dcl dc
la 6n du deuxii:mc mil1naite" (Dion, Y,,'lidi, p. 'l8), the frc:sh
ancstarioo of 'thc morpheme in Fekheryan readers thc isolatcd
position of Samalian ever more uniquc, which. along with sorne orher
peculiarities of thc idiomi calls for. some sort of cxplanation, lingul'itlc
or olherwise.
1 I. ]"'J;"s/pr.ti",
Like io OA," our inscription attests tO tbe disrinction colled by
Degeo Langimpett'ekt aod Kurzimperfekt."
il will be recalle<! tblt, io OA, tbe morphological disrinetion
manifeste<! itself io tbc and .od ,"d m.p!. eodiogs (-II vs. -..) 00 tbe
ooe hand, and in lhe ooosullixe<! petsoos of on/M MlIi",.. i.fir",.. (-h
vs. -.J). In tbc case of OA, furthermote, the ide.ui6catioo of such
distinctiOB wu conteuually basetl, namdYt formi idcnti6ed a.s shon
imperfea hove beeo .howo .0 be possessed witb a volitive (iussi_e)
foree. la contrasl, our n5cription has fu..m.J.shed more tangiblc1
morphosyntactic clues, whieh are a ptecative ptoclitic 1- aod the
prohlbitive 'l,'" The followiog are re1evanl e,,"mples: 11., (ti) as
agaia..-'!l'III (u), a conUut which reminds one of Biblical Hehrew
HIII VI .Jifilll. Tbe remalou.g example. nf tbe preutive 1- are
incooclusivc: J/uuI/J (Il), IV' (.8, '9), l'h. ('9), UrI"'!" (10 bis, .. :
J f.p!'), 1'pIt (u: J f.p!.).
Of tbe above-quoted cases, J"",:! (u), together with 'I J"'!J ('0,
ubis},'oe seam to fil Degen's scheme. bUI me faa must be notcd that
our inscriptioo, Ihough pcchaps by pure accident, d'oros no eumple
of an impett'ecr vetb ending in -b. Ali examples of t"li", YorI verb., il
so happeos, are prea:ded by eitbet I or 'I. Hence, whatever phooetic
_alue tbe 60al -.J may represent, one must a1low fur the possihility
IO. l11Jixrd H'Ifj"l."lion
Barring the po.sibility of a scribal errot, Jgtzr (13) is the 6tst ever
aample or ao inaxect l.-conjugation in Aramaic.
ts
As is wc.ll kaown,
Akkadian, Amonl" Barly Phoeniciao, Ugarilic, and Moohile beloog
. to tbc iofixing type, whereas Arllbic: to prefixation as wdl.
90
,"

,

.fi

" .
"
,
T. MURAOKA 94
S, Third ma",dill' Jing.ku prOIlG.1I J.JJix
This morpheme attached to a m.p!. 0000 appears a number of
limes in our lext: '!J.,h (4), 'lJfwh (9, 22), l!J.,h ('4), JUlm",h (7),
m",h (17, (8),III",h (8). The form agrecs wilh whal we lind in OA, .nd
for tbat mattu in ali Aramaic idioms exeept io SamaJian and thc Uruk
ioantatioo ll:xt, .. fu as tbe vowel preoeding Ihl i. concerne<!,
SamaIian presenta a fotm .uch "bis days" and tbe
1lC2ll1ation Wtt, which is beli<:ved tO date from the eatly Seleucid
period, h.. preserved an example such U JOtibrzJi "those ",ho siI
Il: lt [= the gate)", Iksplte tbc oototious dillicullY .. to how the
assume<! l-a""'l came into being, tbe ptlmilive nature or Iay-I is in no
doubt, As tbe latlet appea.. 1l tbe Uruk text, tbere is DO abrolule
a:Raiaty <haI tbe same diphlhong io Samallan is a Canaaoism.
00 the othel hand, tbe evideoee of Pekberyao underrnioes Dion's
chuaetcrization of tbc fcnn as unique to ElStem A,ra.maic.9J
S9 Thr phtlli< stili' o/ lItNf1U
T\1e teta! ab!ena: of Ihe SI. emph. 1l Samaliao hu long beeo
.. a most strilog and puzzliog ttaluse of Ibis idlom.
These ",bo prefer to se<: this idiom as esseotially Aumaic propose to
regard lbe fealure u an .iodicatico of lbe atehaic oature of tbe
idiom.
91
Dian, who pRSCOtS an c:xce.Ucnt survcy of tbc past discussion
and h..is own aoalysis or me phenomenon io Samalian.fZ. is awlUC or
spandic .ttestadon or tbc morphcme in cOQtemporaneoU5 or eveo
pooslbly eulier Aramaic !ex!S," ",hich compds him ro conclude
ML1.bsenc:e' de IlftUemphaque en yaoudien est done un sigMcerrain
du retatd de cetle langue sur J'aram=, OU sU! Ics dialea.. cananl!em
du premier milllnaire
U

Pe1theryan ha. three clear caICS of tbe st. emph.: '_l' (t, l,h
... 't!r' (I6); flf/l'(u)," Tbe onlf cua WhelC OA might have used the
st,. emph. are: ",'" (.). These ,,",o DOUD', how.ever. appear 00 o
OhOR of OA nouns which appear in st. abs. "ab generell
t1etl:rminit:R oder 015 'durch sieh selbst determinierteo EignDameo'"
(Degeo, AAG, p. S,). Add tbe foUowing u doubtfu1 cases: 11111
IZ. Pra.';';'! pr.dili< fI-1
As is righlly e:mphasized by Dion, therc wctc in Semitic three
variatioos of tbe pre:cative proclitic 1-: li, li, laY" He postulates li far
Samalian al'hough be holds ,ha, /i l. equally plausible"'" ne ,hird
variao, .J.- is excluded by him OD accoun' of (jl!eb (H .l).... nere is
no internai evidence whueby onc can derennine what vowd possibly
followed I in our inscription. .
TF.1.I ...ftiKHMRyg IN5a.IPTION ANO EAl.r.Y Akl\MAIC
ABM (p. 19) rightly underline a sigoificao, contributioo made by
aut inscripon lO thc long.staDdlng discussion oa thc orlgin of thc
partide aod.ila ,ubsequen, hislory In Aramaic. ne new documeol
bas Cumishe:d u rt\2l1y as Neive instances of tbc morphcmc, as
quotcd .bave S' 1. This abundanl 2ttCSIl.tion is an unequlvoal
coafirm.tion of the suppo5ition made by Dian: unol,ls pouvons
e:ntrcvoir que le "'III'; prc.atif. s"1 paralt (aire en uam&:n de
Syrie, pouvait cepeodanl plus '<pandu du ro,t oneo,aI qu'on ne
devinecail par les seules doootes de l'onomastique" (Y...u. p. '7
0
).
In view of the funetion of ,his /. and its suppooed alIomorph . in
II'" ph.... of Aramaic, especially in tbe easlom braoch n( Lare
Aramaic, i, is important 'o stress thal ali e><ampl.. in our in'cription
are: genuindy precative. Furthermore. io contrast to SamtHan. where
tbc use of /. to eapress a vofuion is optional,Wl thelaogu.ge of our
inscription appea... 'o m.ke ilS use compulsory.
As regards the origin ofthis morphetne, ABM (p. 19) opine: "Cene
c.sraaUistique tait, bieo enteDdu, p1rtic integrante dc l'an.mcn de
mais aU$Si aL1 dans te royaume de
Samal .. On est maintenl.Ot SU! UO lerra.in plus solide et la ligoc: de
dkdoppemeot paralt daire au sein mbne del'aramfa1 sans qu'il soit
ncesu.ire dc rccberchcr une infIuence akk..diennc", I have: some
resetVation, OD ,bi. assessment. When one remembers .) th'l
SamaUao i. <be ooly mo,e or I... contemporary (DA) Aramaic idJom
used in tbc west mal has prcscrvcd tbis ustge. 1) [haI its use is nOI
obliga,ory in thar idiom. I) that hacdly aoy ua"" of ,bis usage can be
(ound lo la..r ph.... of Aroma!c in the wesl.'" aod 4) tha, the
language displayed lo ,be Sdire ,eats o( eonsiderable amouo' and age
oo1y slighdy younger than SamaUao pr..eolS a di.tioetly differeoc
pitture with 00 precative /. and i.. oea' binary morphology of long
and ,hort imperfeet','" ooe begins lo woode< If this morpbeme wa.
ret.lIy IO integrai part of Mcsopotamian Aramaic, and 1101 a foreign
also whethcr tbc phcnomenon in Samalian is really t
manife:sution of it in tbc weSI. If tbis were thc case. how could
accounl for tbc lOlal discontinuity in Ihis rcspca betwcen Samaliao
aod Sefire (or DA in generai)? From a dlachrooic, comparative-
Semitic point of vlcw. tbc: proclicic in ali its historical and geo--
graphical manifesllltions would no doubl u1timate1y go back to the
urne origino But as a purcly Atamaic phenomenon. its manifest2tions
in the Tdl Fekherye inscriplDn 00 ,he ooe haod aod ,hase lo
Sam2lian on the other do Dot seem to mc [O be a homogeneous eotity
'

i'
'-0


T. NURAOKA 96
mal, jUst as in SamaHan,'Ot mc Aramaic of our inscriptioD did nOl
distingui,h between the long and ,hon imperfceu .. far .. wrlJ"
,,/Ii.... i.jir... are concerned. Equally uncert&n are ,he two c.... of
the ending ., 9ft'" (n) and IV. (n). for once again ,here are
lacking ..ampi.. wi,h ,be con"asting cnding ' .'" nerefore 'he
si,ua,ion C2I1 be analogous 'o ,he ono which prevails in Samalian ,.,ith
thc signilicant ditre.talcc. bowevcf, that whilsl Sa.malian bas ., fonns
with and wjthouc tbc proclitic /- with no scmantic: distinetion, all
cxamples in our inscriptiOtl, though ooly 'wo in number. are preli,ed
with I with an unmistakably volitive farce.
Tbere is or course no ,dling whether , fonn ,ud> u in ./J/#
(17) was phonetically any dilferen, from the "indicative"J!#. The
same goes for ('9)''''
To sum up. the language of our in,criptioo probably did dis,in-
guisb betwcen the two imperkcrs in _1M .w 1Y"'lytJtI. buI the
cvidencc at ou.r disponI does ooc allow us to detcrminc wbethet the
distinction w universally ,rue of any inOeetiooal da.. of verb aad
there I. no absnlute ....on to tbinIt tha, i, musI bave been universal.
'" regard, verba .tJi ;"ji, Dion (p. 118) appears lO ,hink ,hat
(onm such .. Il. (w) (Peal) and "7'1. (Hafd) in SamaUan coot&n an
internai Iii. Should the grapbic con".... however, betwcenJ[y. and
.JI. (in Iyl.) in our inscriptiOD correspoad tO a con"asl betwcen a
long /II and a shon Iii or lei. ,be SamaUao fonns might bejn,erpreted
differently, and indeed the usumption o( a .hon internai vo..el
would lally ..ith the generai thrust of Dion', thesi> that SamaUan
kn... ooly the ,hort imperfetto
ne isolated inStlnce o( ,be "piene" spelllng in OA,y.w' (Sf. m
16), tomost IikeJy nothing more chln I graphic variant of.1.', as can
be judged (rom (nrms JikeJrlP, ['g], "., allloog imperfects. Tbeo
ooe musI conclude tha, in Olt. tbe morphological dis,inetion o( long
and aban did nOI 6nd a graphic distinetioo u we assume il
did in the: latlguage.of oue inscription.
s.,. 111fillili..
, , . P",l i1lfioilw
Tbtriking prewlCC of <be p'efix .- in tb. PesI inlirtiv. is justly
und.dined by ABM (p. Il): t.'rlt (7, '4); 111I'" <9); 1.1.,' (9); I.,!fb
(9 f.). 10... faut insrances compd Il> to bave a fresh Iook at th.
hisrory of tbc Atomaic in/in.itiv.. Prior to <be discov.ry of ou'
inscription. OA, induding Samalian, kn"", of no infinitiv. other tban
tb.. ,.,ithOUt <be prdix ."1 Foe tbis Rasan, some ",ctm sa,., in tbis
fe2ture an in8uence of some Canaanite substratum.."2 and indcccl
when oDe looks al jt in ilS tou.1 ll"locphOSYOt2CtlC context in each ofthe
two idioms, as outlined abovc. Civ!!o the persistence of che proditic
in tbc: east, ABM al'C, in my view, right in seeing in il a feature
integrai to Mesopot2mian Aramaic, but I faH to see how tbis
rcrogoicioo should pttclude [he possibiliey of Akkadian infIuence.
A number of considuations. 00 the contC2ty, seem to speak for
precisely such aD in8uencc as bcing ralhet Jikcly: tbc faCl thar aUt
inscription is a transJation (rom Akkadian, a fair numbcr of Akkadian
laan-words lhcrein, [he ocady rotaI alnc:ncc of the /- in
thc wc:st (except of (ourse SamaJjao). The syncope or thc tense
ptefo,mlltiv. Iyl and th. consequential crui. of its vow.1 and ch..
followiog 111 se.m lo be analogou,ly modclled 00 tha< of lhc
A1tksidian phenommon. FutUre discov.ry of oew ,n" may even
bring to light c.... of thc precativ. proclitic witb tbe lirst and .ccond
per$oo verb forms to compl.l. th. Akkadiao analogy. If tb. proclitic
bel00ged to "genius" of Aramaic, ooc would be hard pul to
account for ilS a.bse:oce in Sc:6rc and in the west in gcneral
00 the oth., band, the abov. coosidention of oun ..rongl,
sugg.... that the Smalian /- .hould not be put on a par with its
Mcsopotamiao count.rpart. Rather it seems to me tO go back to th.
pao-Semitic 1- via its Canaaoire manifes.atioo. The pheoomenon
oughl to be scen in tams of the nan". of Sama1ian, i.. degre. of
...Aramaicncss". and ics reluion to othe-r A..ram.a.ic idioms.
Tbc feature under conside.rltion of aur ncw inscription must also
lead to some modi6cation of th. perceptioo of "Mesopotamian
Aramaic" u put forward by Green6dd: "1Ois dialea (as usod, fo,
inslana; in th. Bu-lUkib inscriptions (ICAI 116-18)], whieh may best
be called 'Mesopotamian Aramaic', em.rge<! in th. area of Aram-
Nabraim along th. banks of <be Habur and Balkh rivers ..."."0
99 TEI.I... FEKt-IERYl!. INSC:RIPTION ANO HARI.Y I\RAMAlC
SI l-' 1oJtilm'l t/triHtl tllfjMg4lwlU
Althougb in tbeir ,kereh of ollr inscriptioo (pp. 4
6
-')
ABM mak. no mentioo of th. infinitiv. of d.rived conjugations. it
seems to mc that some luth instances lte jdeotiliable in a seria of
.xp....ioo. prelixed with thc ptepo,itlon Lamed wb.re lhcy hav.
couectly soiated roue Peol iolirtivc. (_ abov.. S.,.. ): 1!trI dlh
wl., 'rl<J'JIIWb (7) ./kirlJIJIIb ""'I. b.Jlh .11I., {r'h ",III., (8) 'olwh ",I.,'"
"rq.JI1J ",/.1.,' 1,I.'h ",I (9) '.TI p.,b (lO). I .ubmit that ono con
rec:ognize Pad infinitiv.. in W. kbr. and Il. (uco). OD. Dugbt tO
remark that <be Assyriao vc..wo also p...eors a seri.. of infinitiv..
ber.: _ ""IM orti/< ... ('0) "'''''''' ... MIo. '" (11) ... - """'9(Il)
. .. _h_('l) _ On <be orbee blJJd, I am a,.,are tbat
tbe m.e.aniog ""tO proteet" is not so far actcsted in An.maic for
. Howevu, the "stlutavit. valcdillit" of Syriac 14JI11II \17 would
.uggest tb. possibility of devClopment of a factitiv. or denominative
Fitzmyer stili thinks that this is a Canaanitisrn.
'u
In contrasto Dion
hold. that th. pubIication of th. S.lite nscriptioos c1inched thc whol.
matter, resulting in a confirmation of the earlier suggcstion by Miiller
that tbe fonn IItllJJ4J is a la.te in Aramaic.
114
lt is no'"
obvious (hat the Tc.ll Fekhcryc inscription rendent thi5 lauer view
tot1\l1y untenablc. Here wc have: onc of tbe cadiest. if not thc earliest.
Aramaic documc:rus currcntly in our possession using solcly the form
with me pre:fix. Funbennorc:. a foreigo influence. say. Akkadian, let
alone Cana:anite, is ntQer a remote possibility in this regard. This
must 00"" be consid.crcd 2 genuine, native featu1;c of Aramaic. whilst
tbc: non-pre6xa1 farm may have come: about under a forcign. moSt
Iik.ly Canunit.. influenc., although Samalian exampl.. Ib..,
do p...ent a dillicu1IY in that cont.mporary Co.noaoit. sbow. o
sufformative But if thCIe be rc.mains of the primitive inf. abs., no
.ueh diBicu1ry would .cis. A few ,poradie occurteoces of thc la".r in
OfA .hould DOt atfect this generai conc!u.ioo. Or altematively
<be cvidencc of our in.cription indicat.. possibl. dialectal spIir io
A,amaic al this es,ly ..age, <be .- Pesi infinitiv. being aD iooovation
in nMespotamian Acamaic". ao innovacion whicb would 5Ubse-
quen, bccome a univ.rsal Aramaic fcatutC "and be extended to tb.
dcrived coojugations.
1I5
The noo-ptelixed formo lhen. would bave to
be considercd an c:qually iDdigenous. genwne md more primitive
Aramaic formo
. .
. .
.'
1... 01.
T. MURAOKA 98
o
., ... -..
sensc fur the lexeme concemed. The possibility of aD Assyriln calque
,hould not be precJudtd, etber.
Our proposa. lO c1assify 1aJ, 1tJ1" and Il. a. Pael infinitiv..
one morphologiCllI problem. nameJy tbc absence of rhe final vowcl
Iii, whJeh would be grapbically represen.ed by an b. Indeed .bi, w",
ao argumeol brough. agaion Dupont-Sommel'. inlerprelation of 19b
(Sf. I B }.)", Pael."a For rhe .ame re.,oo Degeo 6nds bs/l:r (Sf. 111 z)
strlking, a forro whicb he undoubled1y corzectly onaly,es as Hafel
infinitive.
1t9
This argumeot would no doubt Icnd suppon to Fitz-
myer'. analysi. of anorhcr Sdire erua, IhJb (Sf. I A t}) a, Paei
infinitive,." Dupont-Sommer. who .. lewed il as Peal infinitive with
a femin ine eoding,l2O an analogical formation based OD Ihc iofioitive
of the derlved conjugltions. Yet. rcvicwing ali exomples in DA 12. of
rhe infinitive in derioed coniugotion" one i, .truclt by the faet rhar,
.oviog the afore-meotioned hs/l:r aod ;Oh, thoy are ali in the n. cstr.,
eoding lo./-tl and followed hy In obj.... nominai or pronominll. Thil
militate, agllos. Fltzmyu'. analysls of fiub, which il followed by
'& br t.':Jb "'0 gue upon the t<caty of BirCa'yab". It is tbeo
probobl.y eirher a fcroinioe Peal infinitive or Peal infinitive wilh
proleptie pronoun_ Tbc other excepon, bs/l:r in bs/l:r Ibs.rll", "you
mu.. band thcm over" ha. prohably sometbing '0 do wirh the fa",
that the iofinitive is uscd io tbc mannet or me Hcbrcw inflaitive
absolute, Ind rhu. i" morphological plnern mlY be dlstioa from tblt
of ita inlinitive COIUt.ruet.
l}.} Hillory o/ Aro_i< i.fioili..
Indeed Dian Irgues quite plau.ibly rh.. ali Pul ioIinltives in
iamalian ought to be lO be of tbe type 'l'''ii/.''' A. nooe of
tbc aaual e:r.ampJes is used in tbe manner or tlu: int. abs. as distincl
from Ihe inf. at., be app"reotly tbink. of 'l"lil "' prorotype
infinitive 12J that il subsequendy fO split. in some idiomI. UItO twO
'ypes, abso and al. His lhesis j, bosed on lhe orthography of one of
the e:.rampies, oarneJy. bO. o.nd his reconstruetion of in phonecc
pte:history: -bo""fl' > "borIay > ?'bo''!J > 'bo";. Whilsl tbe weak link
in this chain of evolution indicatcd by Dian with thc question mark.
namcly the ine...'plicablc shonening of tbc vowel. migbt be Iccounted
for by .he ,bonness of tbc slem vowd, of lhe impeneet and the
syntactic affinity bctwecn thar tensc and lbe inFioilivc. tbc strong
attestatioo in our luely discovered inscription makes it rither
unJikcly to grcatcr antiquity (O the Pcal infi.nitive without the .
prefonoarive/m/.''' Pu. it dill"'enrly," we argued above ( t).1), "'
14. zy allJi lbe lOll1lrwl tbain
In our inscription we find five insunces of V linking two noun
phrases. where a classica.! Semitic languagc would havc a direct.
symhetic. and not analytical linkage:
I. tI",,,,,''O ht!Jsy (.)
. + l .,IA-. g"'Z' IV'{) su 111'0 'Z" (Il)
4 ""/f1''O b, bJd (16)
l lb!'O "J"gl ('l)
101
TEJ.I... INSCRIP1'IUN ANO 6AIU.Y ARAMA1C
far .. laually attested form, go, both pAllems are equally old. Sueh
being tbe cue. thdr reladve age becomes Jargdy a m,ana of
theoreUclll. teconstmetiOtt. NcvertheJe$S. Dioo'l obsenration tbllt
m.oy dialects of Late Aramaic ,ho... Iii after tbe .econd radical in
their in6nitives io tbc dcrivcd conjuglltions is AD cxuemcly valid
point.
m
lesome allin.il)' can be poslulated betwcen the/il of Aramaic
infinitives on the ono hand and Heb. filOi "q"il), Akko !"'risa and
tbe like OD the other. il ...ould 001 be far-Cetehed .0 as.ume Ihlt Ihe
bs/l:r io Sefire, perhap' lO be glos,ed as Ihaskir/. is a primitive
Anmaic infinitive. sytlCficall)' specialized. alongside a secondary
developmeot 126 witb ,ulI'ormave Iii or ltl also syn.letCJIUy
specillized but far a dilfelUlI function.'
27
A. regards the morphology
of the infinirivc in our inscription. one. would hllVC to usumc that (be
..ggested Pael infinitives represent suge earlier .han th.. reBeeted
in Sefi,., a stlge in which rh.re exisled ooly one infinitive foltO with
. 00 syo(actic spec:ialization and also thtt lhe primitive Pel inlinitivc in
Aramalc had preformlve Imi. Thete: j, no compelliog ...ason to
assume tblt the primitWe Aromaic inlinitive uniformly lacked .uch
prd"orma.tive. Jts prcscnce in tbe infinltive oEtbe coojugacions
u welJ in Lite Aram.ic can be cui1y oplained Il analogica)
developmeolo
But if rhe Peal in/initive witb 1m-I he I dialectal incOVOlioo and.
by implicarlo", the bue fono .. a"ested in Samalian and DA did
not result erom some foreigo rheo ODe would ha". to
. think thar tbc Mesoporamiao innoo..ion subsequeotly .ucceeded io
replacing the more primitive fono withoUl sueh o pre6a and futther
led Iller to Inalogica! pre6xatioo of rhe inlinitive in the derived
ooojugatiooso The 0011 difficulry with rhj, recoosuuction io tbe speed
witb which Ibis panicular innovacion coole roots in Alamate in tbe
....... nearly two ceoturiesl Was Zenjirli or Sdire pretty much CUI oli'
over thIs long perind?
T. WURAOJ.;A 100
102 T.\fURM)}{t\
T61.1...FBKHBRYB INSCRIPnON AND EARlY ARAMAJC 103
Il. Word.....u,
Kutschet not.d some f.ltutU of word-order in tbc ...bal dluse u
traito chlract.ristic cf Eutem OlIicial Aramaic: tbc objea often
preceding 1Minfiniti.e, tbc objcct oft.o plCC.ding tbc Mit. verb, aod
th. subjea often tbc .erb.
U
' In brief. I leoden.cy lO push
therb lO 1M end, ",hJch hl' been plausibly IttribUled lO Akkadian
in8ueocc. On tb. othet hand, the Ibsenee cf this lendenc:y or ilS
",'rem. ratilY has been ooted in OA and hu beeo mld. by Kutsehet
I hillmatk or Weslern Aramaic.'"
A. OUt Aramaic ,.... i. lO be Issumed lO hl.e been tran.llled
from tbc Akkadiln,'J7 dillions of tb. fotmet ftom tbc lattet merlI
special comidetatioo.'" Il musI be alosidered highly .ignilicanl lod
insttueti thal ali .uch CUCI thoso of .etl>-ftontlng.
ist". Dcgen's rule was formulated 00 tbc basis of oo1y one more or
less sure examplc and aJ'lother in which ani}' thc "Ultll rIIIM is partly
pn:scevcd. Funhe.rmore il is noi quite clear to me wby a case like
Id-/1;7 "pd"ali tb. king. of Atpad" sbould 001 be con.ideted lo han
a determinated "l!IIS.
tJZ
1. Leaving aside thosc casa in which the first eomponcnt is a
participle, UJ wc find e1cven exampJcs 1.)4 of tbe syothetic struaule.
The rario of aoatytical co synthetic. I t. must be. consjdered prctty
high. Th. conlta.. between rim ht/.J1) (u) and d_t' '" ht/.J1J (,) i.
most striking io that thc frmer has no Assyrian cquivaJent, whereas
tbc latter parallcls the synthetic nrueturc: in iu originaI. pttldtuJ-itl.
This .xampl. of tbc periphnstie muSI bear wiln... lo tb.
Aramaic translltor'. familiari'y ",ith it.
l, Ono CID hlrdly ... ho", tbc choie. between th. t"'O sttucruteS is
CIOl\ditioo.ed. Ali tbal ooe CIO "y is lbal the sec:ood almpooellt is
proper DOUO or cootaim 000. BUI thll this cannOl be lbe .ufJicienl and
n....sary conditioo for tbc uso of th. periphras.il is PIOVell by
cumples .uch .. 11t/l:t;r(. (6,7. Il), M" (.6), bt htIJ (17), aod
ind-l tb. lbo-menonec! ,I_ hr/y1) (u).
Whilst the analytical strueture is totally foreign tO SamaJian, it is
apparcntly attested at lcas"t once in DA,IZI bue quite commeo in OfA
and subscquently.'29
As for the origin of tbe: analytical eonstruetioD, an Akkadian
influencc has long been suspeeted, lJO 2nd with tbe added cvidc:nce
comiog from aue inseription. ABM hold that Hj) faut dire quc
l'inRucnce akkadicnnc a pu fa\'oriser san usagc" (p. n). The faet
that ooly in one aut of tbe fivc 131 cases io our inscription the
corrcsponding Akkadian usc:s /11 seems to lend some support to
their assumption that ..... et dans celte hypothsc eette inRuC11cc se
suait cxen:c. antl!rieu.rement A la r6iactioD dc l'inscrlption dc Tcll
Fckb.ry. Si C.It. doil ltt. du mili.u du 9' .iI.,
l'ung. gtnitival d. '" tta]t alot. dq bi.o II langu.... I 1m
not lure that by thc time oue inscription was composed tbc (etture
lo queslioo hld be<:ome al home in Aramlk "' .,IH/t. They lhen go
00 tO menti9D [WC cases in Sdire of mc: samc strueture ideotlhed by
Degen, .Ilhough in tbc end tboy reject 000 of tIu:m. n. evidence
or our text muSI be -., in I ",idet CIOl\lcxt. il is tO be
a) thal tbc fellure i. lotally Ibsenl in Samalioo ood so poody altesled
io olber OA ,."" .nd b) tb.. 1M newly disco.eted rexl .irtually
..and. alone lO lestify IO !be form of Aram2i... il W1U _d in
Mesopcxami. in thi...dy periodo To me il seems lhll tbc uso of tbc
analytical '" h.d irs origin in tbph.re of Akkadioo inlluenee.
oamely in tbc RaSI, al a faidy eldy period - how ..dy one annoI
'"Y- and tbal illODk some rim. far il lO esublish irseIf .. IO integrai
pan of the syottetic struetUre of Aramaic.., as is weU documc:nted. in
orA or vlrious prov.Dienees. Hen... wc ne<:<! mmpl.,dy lo ...assCIS
th.1:hesis PUI forwlld by Dioo in ord.. to Iccounl far tbc absen... of
tbc consltucrioQ in Samalian, whieh lO biro "pouttail f.dlcm.nr
n'tre qu'acr:identel.. (p. '16). His tbesi. is: "Il s. poUtnil ... qu'ou
huit.i:me sik.le et dans l'aire le pronom dte.rminatif n'.it
anploy qu. rarement conune '1fWIl'Jlin', SOil qu. oet unge,
jodis r<!pandu, ft Ilors san dkJJn, soit qu'il o'ait janais
l6el1emeDt en voguc auparavant" (p. Il}).
Apan from tb... generai mues arising from tbc ideoces
fumJshed by our imcription, ",e also I;k. tO QOC. some pointa or lbe
.aual unge of lh. SltuCtUte.
I. D.p (AAG, S65) h.. formulaled tbc tul.: "Dio Umschm-
bung des GenJ.. mit '" ",itd oOOg, wcnn d.. Regens 'determiniett
,
.'
I) Objea - Verb (A..yrioo)
L (t 6) _ '" ht11ti rnul:Ntnt
ittrlllIr iftrJdu
b. (a6) _l4fiiISM
Iu.; lII1i _ ipUli/itli
=Verb - Objcct (Aramaic)
(li) 'Oy/J fIftY lIIOb
(u) .,!J11tf11tb
(16) "",y/J fMY "" ...

105
TBt.I.... PEJ.aUilyE lNSClJPTKlN ftND EAJlLY A.AMAte
.6, e-r.'''_liotu
Our cxamulltion of some scIcet problems uising !rom <be Aramaie
of Tell Pekhctyc imcription hlS shown. wc hopc, whl' .igni6can.
tlOOwbu,ions <bis ncwly discovcrcd te.. can mallc .owarda possibIc
ducidWon or some ou.nandiog issues of Aramaic Iioguistics. Wc
. hlvc aIso tricd '0 rdlte cvidcncea furnishcd by our lnsaiption 'o
what is tO be founcl in morc or lea.s eontcmporary A.ra.ma.ic or
allegcdly Arlllllaie tClltS, va. a rugc of 'na whieh hlS bccn covcrcd
by Dcgcn in bis OA grammlr 011 thc ODC hand and SllIIIllian on tbc
otber. This wc bavc dooc .pcciJic:l1ly wi,h t vicw '0 dacrmining how
thesc VlliOIlS idioms CIO possibly be rda.cd lO ono 1Il0thcr front I
chronological. gcognphical or dillcetologicil poio' of vcw.
In vicw oC thc doubt CIS' by a numbcr or scholars on tbc Aramaic
ntturc of Samalian. j, mus< be .,alcd here ca'egoricaUy thl' tbe
languagc of our lnsaiption is Aramaie.
Tbue ate howcvu some iodieatiool of Ak.kadian inIluence: in
fekheryan. whl' is na.urally to be expca<d. Tbis infIuencc sho,"
itsclf in such OlAtters u mc anaJ)'tic;a11inkagc of twa (or more) nouo
phrasca by mcans of tl' Ind straightforwud IcxicaJ borrowings (P1.1.
l/gM'). al.hougb the numbcr of .ueh Icxical loan. !rom Akkadlan
in nor .ex. Is IUrprisingly amaIJ. Wc havc abo pointcd ou' an
unmistakablc atIalogy in thc use of thc precativc 1- io Aram2.c and
Akkadian. Emphasis h.as wo bccn l:lid 00 che cunc:iform wtiting
systc:m as probably triggcring thc: process whercby some Jetlers bcgan
to be employed to reprc:sc:nt vowds incspective of their position
within a word. It is striking, though DOt surprisiag. that Ak.kadian
inAuence of tbis inteosity is evidcnced at this very cady stage, for so
fu it has beco believcd tbat such inAuence began to becomc I
significano fnrce ooly in .hc perlod of OfA. Tbus the word-ordor of
l

\
\
f
!
;

.t.'.
.-,. '.
r
" .
{f-
l
,
't.!i 9) Advcrb - Objcet - Vcrb
,,: ,.:. n. 'IN//t'fil.hwlr
\;..:: One may conclude by saying tbl.t tbc lransl.alor did atte:mpt on
ioo 'I! free hinucJf fmai the foreign inliucncc of 'bc langulge of
bis origizal. a1tbough jUSl Il oftcn hc ehase 'o copy .bc sccmiogly
fon:ign word-ordcr paltCM or thc Assyriln.'J9 Ipparenly onnfidcn.
that il wu not too roreign to lead to breakdown in rornmunication.
Compare cspccialIy with (9), and (.) witb (7).
T. MUItAOKA
104
I) Subjea - Vcrb (A"yrian) _ Vcrb - Subjca (Aramaie)
Co (1
6
) tli /IIb},i1t1li1t "'fi'; lil""l; (Il)." f/fl" "f/" 'aI1I'!J rr.
}) Subjea - Adv, - Vcrb (Anyr.) = Subjcet - Vcrb - Adv. (Aram.)
d. (l7) tli. lib,. llilip" n ('}) ...'.!bl ti' '!!'lI 'IJt./t
r
.,,;'/It li ipp.",ui _ .,b
Note a1so the inrrociucrlon. whicb is Wlnting in Auyrian
originAI :
V- Adv.
Co (.) [......,. t' b4]J) t'I f .. fil. btJJs.U1."llIMJ ...
I, mus, be admi"cd howcver ,ha< .be Cllpandcd subjca wouJd Icad
to In cxtmdy tOp-be:.vy scntt:ncc: jf tM: ttverse word-ordcr wcre
ehoscn.
Abo wcrcsring In: .hc following .wo eascs of dcpartUn: from thc
Assyrian oliginal in ",bich the in6nitivc follows its objca:
I) Objca - lnIinitivo (A..yr.) _ ln6nirivc - Objcct (Arlm.)
f. (I}) iJ:rib!J4 _ h.1 (9) I.f.. '11..lb
g. fibilp!J4 ...'!.iri ..I (lO) .1# ..rt p.t>
lr il no. appucn, why ,bc luthor of thc Assyrian 'Cll' dccidcd lO
Ilter thc word-ordcr in this long scrcs of inlinitiv.Q, whilst ,bc
uanslaror m&intained the Sll.JDe "ScmitiC' order.
Over against me abave casa of deviltton. thc.re tU Cor SUte
nlmples in which me Anm.aic venion foUows the non.Se.mjtic
p.ncm of the originai:
6) Subj. - Adv. - Predica.e
h. fu) 'l"iI pif..lii/l" llili IMbbi - ''''Ip.h Y'/htt ..'1 'ah tJlb
7) Objca - Vcrb
i. (.6) INllli",. lilJum = (II) l'''Y''' Iflll
j. (.6) ,.J.",f. *t'l"J> = (16) II_h f",
k. (Il) l li. lirif = ('9) 'Ip !'ry.lzr'
1. (II) l siI. l/b., = (19) P'Y l'h ...h
8) Subjca - Objca - Vcrb
n (aB) AJktl/H1i -.uiIN li iNJorfN = (17) _) htIJ Ih_h ..l1rwh
'1JI# ."ytI1J
l

thc type Subjcet-Object-Ve.rb is uid by Kaufman la be Cl a charac-

lerinica!ly Achllemenid fe.tu" (I.jlNtI/W, p. '18). In .ttempting lO
rcconstruct a history of thc Af'2mak. iofiniuvc wc notcd thc gre.at
significance to be attached to tbc carly attcstation in out insa:iption or
thc 1tI- prefixed Peal infinirivc.
How is thc idiom of our inscription rdated to thc omcr rougbly
eontanpora.ry manifcstatiOl1s of Aumaic? This is surely anorhcr
major question that must be faced. Some of thc issucs treated abovc
poin. lO .ignificonl poin", of differente between lhe Fekherye idiom
and Samalian on .be one band and OA OD .be ocber. Admittedly,
some or those dill'ercnces an: oot lUndamen.aI, but differences of
degree, U is <be cue witb the use of ",.lns UcfiflS, wbil'l Ibe use oC
<be precativc /- is optional in Samalian, prob.b1y obligatory In
Fckhcryan, bu. uolmowo in OA. Bu. the use of V io an onalylicol
noun pblllSe is totally Coreign tn Sam.lian, exttemdy nore in OA,
bUI quite at bome in Fckhcryan. Thc distioction bctwcco "KUlZ'
impent" and "Langimperfckt" is meticulously mAin.ainl!d in OA
.od most liltdy in Fekberyao oIso, but Samalian dOC$ nOI know oC.be
I.tter. Sama!jan nand. ou. ",itb some bighly uniquc Cetlura, .uch ..
Ibc .bs<:noc oC tbe delinke article or SlalUS ernpb.ticu. and the long
vowds 101 and fII fur m.p!. nominative and oblique rcspettively.
A non-iDioal c.u..rive morpheme l-bJ bAI been .yncopale<! in
Samalia.n, but not in the cxher two idioms. Samalian. is diuinct (rom
lbe otbcr ""O in ""ainirtg tbe ma.. primitive :]b (='!Jbtt?) ...g.in'l
-1l1J (-=: 6whll or iJJN?) of the latte.r 1.$ sutfix for uhis" with a m.p!.
noun or ita congencr, whereu Fekhetyln with irs t"luthis" sraods aut
from tbc olben.
Sbould wc .ubmil tn tbe edilors' vi... tb.1 our inscriptioo i$ older
.han both Ihe Zenjirli insctiption. and <be .ex" .",died by Dcgeo io
bis grammar,'40 il ",ould obviou.ly be 100 .implistic lO .ay tbar
FckbCfJan is typologica!ly and io every rcspeet 0100 .han ci.her of
the ""O W"lcm m2lf....tioo. of Eady Aramaic, a <besis ",rucb is
R.rly conltadictl!d by Ceatur.. sucb AI the use of tbe definite article,
tbe rd.tive V. <be nominai .... endings ll and fII, and tbc syncope
of tbe cau..tive /bI. In Otber word., i. is .Otally un.ccepuble lO
envi.age a aimple linear evolutioo from rckberyan Ihrougb Sunalian
lO OA. I. ;., oommonplace in bis<orical lingwstics tb aD arcb";c
CeaNte is fuund .ltesll!d in a ",rinen or .polr.co manif....tion wbicb is
rcl.li'fdy rcocnl in terms of .bsoJulC cbrooology. such a pesceprion
of cUacbronic Iinguistics ",ould be te.diJy cmbraol!d by wti.etS who
clailO tO 6nd Samalian archaic or archai'Zing.
141
Writen such as
Ginsbe.g, Kutsch.., Grceo6dd and Dioo are agtecd tbal Samaliao is
buically IO "",haie loca! dia!"l oC Aramaic.'" Howevcr, in tbc ligbl
of evideoc.. lUrn;"hl!d by tbe Fckberyc inscription il i. cvidm. Ibal
SlJJ\ali.n is no. wholly and .ypologically more archaic or primitive
lhan Fekhetyan. One aoly necds to con5ider tbe dcmonstntive -t
,he .upposcd diStinction betwcen .wo typ.. of tbc impenCC:I, tbc
VlIY the prccative /- is u.sed in Fekhc.ryan. Features of Saroahan 5a1d
be: charaaer.istic or Aramaic. but nct aue:stcd clsewhcrc m
Aramaic and now not in Pekbcryan eiehcc, include tbc preservation or
tbe m.p!. oocn./ob. case distioction.,o tbc .otal absencc of tbe ddinirc
artidc. tbc proooun ""'a}. lhe patticle:_. Tbc oonjunction Pis liso
.ncsted .proadically elsewherc.'" So is tbc f.pl..bo. ending -I instad
of .hc .tantI.rd ... (_ -.ilo),'0 altbougb bere .gaio Pckhe<yan .lt....
lO the "seconday developmen. peculiar Acamaie" (Kutscb..,
uAramaic-'. p. 510). Those who sceSamalian al pure .rch.aic Aramaic
bave tO raolvc dilIicul. bis.otical qucstioo. Thc ClUSlcncc oC tbc
Kilamu",a inscrip.ion (KAI 14), ",bicb ;., composl!d in standard
Canunite (Pbocnician), .bows tbar .be olIicia! language oC tbe
Samalian IUngdom io the mid-nintb cenNry B.C. "'AI Can.. and
aocording .0 tbe ",e1IknoWD Ginsberg's reconstrUctioo Ataml'c "'..
broughllo tbe locolity by the late-<:omers d..ignarcd in tbe Kilamu....
ioacriplion u rr_. Wbete di<! tbis group come Crom, be.ren oC an
idiom some or ",hooe .rchaisms said to be Cound in tbeir mid-eigblb
ceolUry ilUCriplion. an: mlssiog in. tex. praumably a ccnNry old..?
Altemativcly, is il conceivablc thllt it VIU eanaanittfPhoenlcian thac
lupplanted Aramlc whicb bad bocn Ibe vem.cuIar DCection oC tbe
loc.1 popul.doo Cor a long time? Would .ucb a teconstNetlOn
",itb lbc known political hislory oC tbe .tea and ;., Ibere any
oonvioclg ellplanalion Cortbcoming why tbi. local Aam.i< idiom
bad beld l.. ground 60 loog, immune .0 cbanga and devcJopmen..
",bicb mOlI bave bocn Iting plaoc cJ....berc, U is now amply
C'fideool!d by Ibe Fekberye inscription? '46 In my vi... tbm: is 00
absolute reason ",hy onc sbould in.is. on tbe Iinguis'ic putiry of
Samaliao.!41 Si1\ce th.c ean.anitc pte&d\ce in Sarn'al is an iocontcst..
able Caet oChis.ory, il is ped'cctly legitimale lO scdt IO .ccoun' Cor pan
oC the .bove-menoncd alIeged arcbaism. in lcrms oC C.nnitism,
UDtiI lome evidcooc tn tbc CODlrary turns up. IC tbis po.ition be
concedr:d, il is obvioUl tbar moli of tbase archaisms !Udily 1end
lbemsclves lO IUcb an """Ian.tino.
107 ThI.I..F".IlJ\.Hf\RVE. tNSCRIPTlUN AND E.ARI.Y ARAM"lC
.'

"'01

"'i_ ...
....
:-
T. MURtlO"'''' 106
NOTES
I The NllUI pritlUpS was produccd by an intero.donal tetJD of Ali
Piene Bordralil. and Alao R. MUJard. in their u Jlllfa th Ttll JOIf
i"reripli. biJUwtr tII!JNHU'mmt. .tucb; Ass,riologiqun (Pari$: dil:ions Rhercbe
IUt!es civilisatioJ'\s, 1912.). thcit: preliminary rcport "CommWlte:ll.tioo", in eRAI,
1981, pp. 640-U' I 'lillil'l,h [O record bere my 8Ulitude ro Mr MiIl.rd {or making
n.il.ble photocopics of some rcccot public.tions. whteh would not normaliy have
reached mc in time {or mc: lO bene6t from them. I aro rd'cuing tO his own Itticle.
Wtthout Venturing into the necesuril)' obscul'e domain of Praco-
Ar.maic 2nd a periad when Pro,oNorthwcst Semi,ic supposcdly
split into Canaanite and Anmaic., lhe following brid' oudine m2y
perhaps bt viewed u a farly pllt1Sible reconstruetion of the evolution
of Aram,aic io il! early phues.
Old Arrunac
t
which presumably had ils c.arliesr home n Easrcrn
Syria.,'''' to malte &telldy advancc:s northwards and westwards
during 'hc last centuries of ,he second mmennium B.C. A prolonged
symbiosis and coexistencc, whether peacd'ul or warlike., with vl.tious
hercrogcneous ethnicJlinguistic groups wu bound 'o have in drects
00 their hnguage.
1
," Tbe earliest textS now at our disposal testiCy lO
tbe ..istence of such local variations u early ... tbe ninrh.eightb
cenrurics B.C. wirh Fekheryan srrongly coloured by Akkadian but
aJso with internaI innov&tions oC Its own (thc Pc.1 inlinitive with
ror instance) 00 the ODe hand and Sam.Han showing some Cto.unite
infIuence no thc arber. Thus alre.dy al ,hjs earliesl !tage: of
Aromaic one may legitimately speak of Basrern Old Aramaic or
Mesopotamian and 51rian Old Aram.ic. lnsrcad of rcJegaling
Samalian tO the posidon of a Ioc'" or provincial deviant (rom
"Common 'Aramllic"9 as Ginsberg does. l :un inclined lO piace tbc
NO varieries on In equal footing. Wherher .bere ..isted a form of
Old Aramai< which transeended these local varierics, "Common Old
Arama.ic", is dH6cu1t to s.y, tbc di16culry arising from tbc nature and
amount of materi:s cu.m:ody ava.iIable.
GreenlicJd's proponi to sce in 5amalian a precursor of Late
Western Aramaic Ot Aramaic scems lO me WOM
pursuing Nrther.
1lO
5hould he prove righr, Fekheryan could be seen
aoatogously as a lorerunoer of Late Eastcm Aramaic aod Imperia1
A.camalc.
15l
Truc; nOI In futula which chuaetcrizc Late: Western
&Od Eutero Acamale are to be found in Somalian aod Fekberyan
respectively. But il is Ukely that tbosc mis!ing (caturel developcd
st1bsequeot1y in tbeir respcclive localites.
"Auyri&nl Ind Aramuns'" !,." 4' (t9's). 101-01 Md J.c. GrccnJield Ilnd
A. Sh.tfcr. "Notes on tbc Akkldi.n-Anmlic Bilingutl Statue {rom Tdl Felthaye',
ib. Ind, R. Zadok., "R.e:r:nll'U on the lnsedption of HDYS'Y from Ttll
fakhrtya". Ttl Arh. 9 (ltta), 117-a9.....hldl aU rnd\cd mc alter compledon of a
dnIc 01 thc presmc Itudy. -
Note tbc {oUowiog abbre.ittions.
ABM - tbc /f'-'1S cf che iNCfiption. Scc .bave.
AH. - W. von Sodcn, AJ:hJixlJu Hdt/Wltrwd. Wiabtldc:o.
BA _ BiblictJ Aramaic.
Blucr/l.kandcr, C,... _ H. BluerI P. Lcander. Gr"JiJ, Ju Bi;Il."A,.M.iiJdII.
Halle. 1'''7.
CAD - Gk<p AupW DiltiMn:J. ChCOJo, '9,6..
"CommuniaClon" _ 'P. Bordreuil, A. R. MiO_cd. A. Abou Asut, "Communica
don. La al.tue de TclJ La pn::mibt: iNaiptioo bilingue
ar.m6ennc:". C'.pltl RftM'1U. rAJl.i, MI ltUlriJiliMf, J911, pp. 6.4o-J f.
CrossfFrccdman. l:!.HO - F. M. ClOni D. N. Frecdman. &rIJ Ht6rt..
S",,:!.jl# E,;,.,1Ii< &itHMt. New Ha , '91'.
Cegen. AAC - R. Desea. C,. tiA '" ItfldJrif. tW IO."'. J. .
Or. Wiesbaden, '969.
Dion. Y"Mi - P.-E. Dion, u !.4f.v- tIt Durri}/iM ti tMm.,., tlt I..irtt
jMrkr Jt Znt:irll tWu I, uJrr 4u '".-.1 N.,;/ifIHI '" ..rJ-..sI. W.tc:rLoo, J 974.
Ftttmyt:r. Sifn-r - J. A. FitzmJCf. r.. A,.1Uk Illmipt*l 'I SIf1rt. Rome, 1967'
-. "Pbucs" _ Phuct oltht Aramaic 1.anau-ae'" io J. A. Frtzmye:r, A W_-ri,r
A,........ Ctlkr,*, A,..... EtNrp (MWDula, 1979), pp. ,7"....
Gibr.oct, Tntl" - J.c.L. Gibsoa, TtxllwJ!.'l S"" S,.iN ItlJtJifilitItu. Vol. a,
Anmaic loxriptions ladudlng Jnscripdooa in. tbc Di.1t: ol Zcnlirli. Oxford.
'91)
Grec:nfidd. "DbJext Tr.o"... J. C. Grunfidd, "Dia!ecl Traiti in Barly A.unak",
l.'" :. J2. (1961), .
GteenIie\d/Sha.fer. "NOla-" - J.C. Gn:eotictd I A. Sha.lF'er. "Noceaon thc Ak1tlkii.n.
Aramaic 8lUo&ual St..tue {rom TdJ Felthe-ryc:"./Nf 4' (191.). 109"16.
1011 - H. Don4er/W. ]tOltig, lWaJ,;i#w ,.} ,,,,";iK. llUtj,ijlttt. J vok.
Wicsbtdc:n, 21"',69.
KauflYU.Q. ltfJMuas - S. A. Kau&nao.. rArt A,....k. Chica&o,
1
974-
KutICiltt, "Ara.maic",. E. Y. KuudlCt. "Aflmak', in T.A. SC'beok (cd.),
;. S..,j Wct .AM"NH" Af'w (Carnol Tt'Cftds in Ungustia, 6
(The H"I"'/Pul.. 19)0). pp. ,.,.....
-. "H.cI'lDOpOlia" 'Tbc. Hermopoli$ Plpyri", 0rftI_1 SIIItiiu 1 (1911),
'0'-1'.
-. T"""". _A H.klOry ot Anmak. Part l (In Heb.). Je:rusILem. 19n.
LA = Lale: AtlImaic.
N6fdc:lte, S.11". erri",. "'" Th. Noldeke, Krruif4H/t f]riJl- C;'tUItIltlJJiJr.. 2"98.
OA = Old Arsmaic.
OfA es O&icial Aramaic;.
Scgeft, AAG = S. Segc:n. AllnlltMitDr C'/IlIIJilt .i! 8ibfi.tJvapbft, Chnl!fJ11IDtbir
lIItII CkuJII'. Lcipzi.e
1 ABM. pp. u, u. 60. 97. I u. Stt :lIso "Communicacion", pp. 64'(" Ind
A. R.. Millard, "AuytiU\$ and At1O'IC'atlS", Irtlf/ .. , (19tJ), pp. 104 f.
j With che po$.ible e:zception of [he Tt:1I Ht.!a( inscrip1ion. aod another from
Anlan Tash .nd short i.nscription Tram E.in Gev. The fim is date:d by many tO thc.
Icnth or carly ninch tUllU'J' B.e.: e.g., Navch, Tbt t( Ihc Seript
UCfUsalem, 1970), p. 7, J.Ild Gibson, Trx/1HJl1r.. VoI. t., p. ,6. But d. CrOl$JFreedtn2n.
109
TBl.I .... !KHERVE INSCRIPTlON AND EARty A.AMAle
..
,
,

,.
,
.... :
,.

,"

. ,.
,
f
T. MURA,OKA 108
: . '.
EHO. p. 1), a. 16. seeond is gc.neraUy assigned to t'he nlorh cemury B.C.: SCI:!
KAl. Bd. U. p. 1.12, and Nllveh, p. 7. 80th imcriptiocil shorl and tuo
poody preservcd IO be of much U8C for grammatka1scudies. Tbc lut probably dalcs
(rom che oinch eentury.
<4 OR thl: pcriodiulion of the hinory ai Al"lImaic.. I rollo,"" J. A. Fiumyer. "'rhe
Phases ofme Aramai< Laoguage". in his cullcction of ,I IPdJJ'dtr: "l,.",o,/HIUf:
Ar."",K Es1t!1S (Miuoula, 1979). pp. 51,84
5 AAG(rS)69)' Cf. :lIso Sc:gc:rt, AAG (1971)' In ,hi" artic:le we shlll1 mCI tO mc
idiom analyst by 25 old Aramaic (OA), ltnd wc follo"" Dion in uslng H
(D: H:1Idad) IInd P (= Panammu) to mc::r to the (WO inseripltons n:prcscnting
S::amalan.
6 00 the Sc::fire imcdptions. sce .150 FiT7.m)'cr', detailed commcntflry (r,<i7).
l Wc sh.allluvc man)'.n octasion lO rt=fcr [O Oioo's penetT1tmg analysi5 (1974) uf
Samali.n.
n.c Alladiao tUt is bucd on ABM'I rcading, whkh hu becn c:omparcd wllh
Gfecnfidd and Shalfer'. vcnioa. 1M tranllation I entircly mine. n.e Atamaic un
di&Cf'I only .1 onc: point from ABN'. IUding: KlC brio,.,. The tr'l\$luic:K\
tltc:l'tlpb tO rdIea my own interptttuion.
t PiIit, ABM, p. l' "tcftl.U lnosh". a. AH., s.v. And CAD, I.V.
fO A8M, p. '1: "pani". et. AIV, 5 and CAD, '.v.
Il ASM, R' 17: ".uqud il Ql ben d'ldreuc.r SI pri.re".
II: A8M', p. '1: "pour la vie deaon Ime". NOlC hnwne.r duJ: this i. the firat of I
acria of' infinltivtl phnscs coucbcd in lime formulI, induding perbaps A8M'.
h/Jt. (SIUM) (line n), which coWd be n:ad /MD CD infinilivc conKtucl). "Ihc
proteaion (01 his houleho1d)", an ;nlerptttatiun cvnlideted by Mt Millard plulwibk:
(ptivlte communicttioo). IMe aow thlt GrunficldIShaB'U. "Notes". aJao niet dte
lame intClpretatloo.
U ABM, p. 17' ..... Scc al., thc.ir discuWon on pp. ., f. But hrilNl h.tdly
mcaDS "IO eft'Ct, $Ct up". Scc AH_, I.V., md CAD, S.\'.
.. ABM, p. 17: "endommagen'.
., A1SM, p. 17: "II Whttbcc tl.W u Ihc G infiititive o( urWpt or
theCOlUlNCt or It'rpt, thc noon ofprospuity il nchcrunlikd,. 1'hc buie meaning of
lItWpt 1:1 "IO .uttch, enend", a.nd tbc an.I08' of Heb. iW/d "IO dr,.... d,.. ... out,
proIong, conrinuc" indicatcs something .imil". Howncr, lhe Akhdlan verb docs
noi: ICCm lO be uted with JI tempoflJ manio8, ehough che nouns It,.,. .nei .'111 do
.ttal to.ucb in phrua ,udt u hM1Wti ".e tbe rime o{" sncl /ti N'1i../;.. '.'I CU:.,
al) tnuning "u me dmc: or'. Su AIV, t h'IJI, J b, and .,.,.. B. eenainly t.bc
ptl"lllcJiun ,.,ith thc toIlo_inl cmi4 Itrotlgl,. suppons our Une of inlerpfttttion.
The cohapoudlol Aftmaic phruc: la 1'J.thc:r obtcuCCj sec below. Aa altcmatlve
interpretltion, "(or CSlIbU.bing1a Ihrone", il oI'c.n:d b,. Greeo6cldfSha&Cr. BUI
doa, one ercct ud dedicate aatJlNC Forthc purposeoCClttblishiDg ooc'. cnm thn:me?
In ",il. of tI1c InlemUag philoJocN:a1 paraUda collo=! "" GTecoIidd/ShaJrc,.
tomethng likc ou.r wetprentioa tcems tO 'wc better che gcnual conm:c: Ind tbc
p.nJlctism (...ith ",hlt follo..).
Il P.c. ABM (p, n), ..ho write ul'usyrien se:: l I. C\lltucc.. landil que
1'..n.t'06en l_Rh itl: J(T1 pricilc qo'il "'alt dc "",Ima'o. triIbo mca.na: "to .ced
u

cc. CAD, I.V. mbl B. Note lIrif lo the rotJo'#og Imc, which Al)M rmd.cr o'qu'lJ
"'''(p. II).
,1' Ac::cording co A 11., 174', Jl. lignUiel lOme 1clnel or hcadllChc or hc,drdatcd
d8c1K. Cf.. ano CAD, a.v.: ... gravcdiseasc da.r.eteriud b, a hetdac.he .. sc.r.ious
tnd often epidemie. discuc. TbI.1 it: wu malui. is plausibl,. sugga:tc!d by ]C11Wl ... ".
A. lima the word OC(uN lA eonjunaion _ith Iii,.. -*-, .od 'i/il/11 u bere.
" "BN, p1: '"pelle", bue tbe JU,e Ji... il !non specifi.
110 T. MURAQKr\
,
t
I
!
l

;
I
,
I"
t.
,

. -.
l
TELL-FEKHERYE lNSCRIl'1'ION .... NO EAR.I.Y AR.... MAI(: III
11 ABM readJm, thc ol!ly pl:l1tt where my re:ading differs (rom chcirs, bue Ihe)'
propose lo emend Il toYi"l!:' (p. 4']).
J) ASM, p. 14: "tranquiUin!:", wbich don not pair eom(nttably with /Hl", Ihcdr
rcndc:ring of 'Jqll'r, the possibility or tm: tNlra12cOf faiJing ili undcrstRod a
common wurd such., iftptil;praetic:lJly nil:md ?hiO bcxause far some Ot ocher
hc chose to borro.... IIn Akkadian word signifying :li container to huld eulttl; ofrerings,
lo render an eq\.lally cummun Akkadian word, "lritJfui. it stands tu tta5t1n
ch:u Db dcnOles somc contain!:c f(lr an o(fcring. m05[ probably a non-liquid j(cm, (or
d611l"- b used te afrcr in it milk, bct:r, the likc. Hencc 1 am inellnetl to conn
word ""jlh Heb./Anm, Slfl and I\cab. la/bt. Akk, 1(lIINls;/II1. aH meaning 'basket'.
In vil:."" onhog,aphy poclltilU lO 1)"1 ilUCription (to be discusscd bell}W), une i.s
compcUc:d (O postulatc Pmto-Scmitic ialh" whkh 15huuld appeat in Akkadian
J.lbt, buc J. Aro writtl: "dicscs i dcc aJtbabylonischeo Zdt 6el n,d'li mehr mit J
&USlUnOlCn. tondem (naeh ckr allb.byionilchcn Zcit) mie l" rOriMh/_, N.S. d
('919). ".).
11 Por. phonedc n:aUty t,.ing bc:hind the of chis nunc, Ke. dscuuioo by
Gm:nfield/Sha"er, "Notes". p. l' .
U Note tha. the nrb, in 0" and Samalllln, Itill used in Pelli, not In
Hafel/AId as in BA .nd Late Aram,ic:. GrcenficldJShafferderiYe.,rUfmm ""'(-
tnd t'fSl1Il.tt: "ii' it (stu". But lhc subjm of the vecb Il ItUl ti.,,', a feminine
oou.n, thuugh il is replsad latu (u) b,. a ')'C1UO)'f'l'lUUS ""', Anorhcr dlliaalt)' ",,1th
their rndinS is Ih.t Fclr.he..,an most likdy dld nut ...imilate Nuo'., on whida sc:e
bc!o.. l. .
U ABM are tiJht in ...,i"K Ih.t che phn.e ';r hl J not ,rtelful la OA but ti
Jalt:r(e.g. Ahiqar) by ... 8uI DOle the juXtapositie.Jn ln Kracling 4-171',"
'/g' .nd ... al ..
,. I (ollow tbc emencbc.ion pmpolCd b1 Grccnl1ddlShaffi:r. "Nola", p I ,.
1:1 Pr ABM, "orsc". are c:ettainJy tlght in mcir reodc:tmg or
"'?-.
.. ADM. pp. ""0. ".(,g.
" EHO. pp. l'.,..
lbid.. p. S,. See DioD, Y"',,Ji, p. 61.
" "Ph&SCI'" pp. 64 r.
JD One could add ESA P and Lste Phuc:niciu t,./, Il. Set: M. H66tet, .1/Ui/
.rW1iK. C,....,iJc (Lc.ipzig, I94J). p. J9; A, f.l- BuIton, A Duri";,,, Gr,,'f/
S,.tb ,1...... (Landoo. 1'J6.). p.7; J. Friedrich. Pb6Aitif>.p.ittlN
C..._i.i (RolJlC, 19p). pp.7-49
.)1 MOK:Iu (cd.) considcfI Ihis fonn al Jeaultin, from tegtaSive: alllmiladOll,
namdy {illli > bue lhe demonlln.-c clcrncn.1 ti- appcan lO me unUkdy.
Su: S. MClK&t.1 (c.d,), A.l.,,*,-';" lo ,. C."'/Uf'.,M Gr. _/IM S,.,irit-
P'-"II "'" (Weobad<n. -9'4). S, Hl, S.ppooiaa th.. tbc &em;n... JrI
of tndit.ionll1 pronunuioa i.t ptim.i.tlve, how woutd ooc ICCOlltlt {or Itl
JI: Whethu ooe Sta mIti tbe: fetninjne cndlaa or .. demonstratl..-c clancnt. ne
bUet mlnodty ftWli bcld by. lO.. cxlmp1e, J. 8a.rth in hil D' iM"
....... (LeIpxlg. '911). S'ld.
.u P. jouon, C,..lNiN J.t fWllmt biblifptt (Rome., '947). ft 7 b, ,6..
... AAC, pp. 16, 11 f., J9' Fit&m7cr, whom lhe diSlncdon h.d acapcd, took bnth
.. indiating /q ft\ Sefi"tt:: JeC $,1'''' pp. 41 (. ,.
p. &.,lO.
,. Wha. bull il Ihere, Cor in.su.nce., whcn hc wrilCS In c:rillclsm Df Scgcrt IDeI in
rapcct of [l')" "you come" mat "mw.s hier I......) ala Lawuog tngmommen
wen:litn, daln dic Badung da S,rilcheo, [...1. Irann nur aWl dcm
DiphthonS +,. cntstudcn sein, nic:ht aus .. +." p. 17. n. ,Il?
112 T. NURI\UKA ttl.I... FRKHRRYR INSCRIPTION ANO BARI.Y AlANAle 113
J1 On PfJJ. cf. Klufman. "/III.m. p. n. IS4.
.. Sor below p. Il. S.I. ....
" On '1/11 c= "Sele. Mi/i8). d. KlurmJJ1. I"jllnlw. p. ,.'
c Fur I prDbabJt uamplC' of r mlrlc.ing I shurt II In Sam.aJi.n, KC' O;on, y,'ltfli.
p. -,6.
4' The Peshinl b\.ll
Q 11lC odamuion m.rk is t.lqtn'$.
4J StJin, p. I.'.
oM Su )',,'lH!i, pp. 6'-80. His suggcsfion th:u "I. dlphtougue lOir pr\anf dans Ics
forma i .Itri/Ii' Mf.l. dltHnC:mCS" (p. 76) souods lO me I Iinlc (UfclChcd.
" To suggest In,"'} for /07 Ales in thc facc of aety 11ICSlCd ,radicM>n ur rnding
IVlilable. a. Kau(mUl. ],tlli'lr.s, p. 101_ Un 1M: lur IWO nouna. KC P. dc: L_Slrde.
U,bn-m1Jf Ftbu d;, i.lrwllliiJIbrlf, ,,1,1J1W.1III IbI;,., 8I1J1IIII. Jt,. N.hw
(G&.lingm, IIl,), pp. 14''0.
.... ..... the ooly pmblem wilh il orlKln&l1y ...." lheir, reluctance tO .dmit th,C'
inccprive u", or mediai vowd)etu:n In 1Ome: Old Anmale textJ 0.0 BUI chU usc: 11
ICIJceI,. SI .bundlnt or wklesprad u me evidc:noe in flvor cf thcir origioll posJtioo.
In I aenle,tbc cvidcnce. luch u it it. merd, confinns tbc b.kIhruu oflhe1ruriglnll
contendon" ("Phues". p. 6,).
41 "11tc fint imponlnt modi6catJoo k1lhc Phomk.iu onhugrlphk wu
madc, applten,tly b)' thc Amnlnns, abortir after Ihc:r borm....uI the &lphabci
(CL nth-loth a:nc."leI 8.C:)" (CrosafFreedman, SHO. p. ,I); .... d'inspitltion
Inm6enoe" (Dion, y.'u, p. $11).
... UllOlatrd cnmplct ofhinorieaJ spdUnl C.S., > .#1 > r' (op. dt. p. 19).
1 now nolc chlt Zadolt and l are in acneral t,AfCUl)(11C in rhia qarei: Zaduk,
"Rcmarks".I.lI.
i) EHO, p. 24 unda no. 4: "There is no evidcnce '(or the COOCftctian. nf lhe
diphthonp. *J snd l", in Old ANImale undtt Inr circUINlaRCa".
'1 Ftzmyer hu bccn kd lO mocUf, tbc: leneral thc::lis oi Croa Frftdman'"
which be .dll cunslders valid. in tM Iight of MW cvktcn fOu('d in lhe
iosc:ripdons :Il.Ich u b9 "1mOflg$1.o bclWccn"; S,ptw, p. 1-46.
sa On Ibc Scfire cumplc mcnr.ioncd io che preccdl.ag foor.norc. Oegu 'Mrhes:
"Vidlcic:ht Iit:gt im Aa. c.iru: andcrc Nominalfonn vor" (p. 6&, n. s9').
Tbc Tiberlan uadition of Biblictl Arlm.c hlll prCKtVed both flIn;111nc1 "n,
thougb che I.ner i. con.idC'red by Saucr/Lnndc:r Il probablr Hebrai.lM: C,.....IiA;.
p.I.)Ia.
ti'" Giblon vol. 2, P' 90) quotcS che pair t8P#Sr ili nidc:ocl:
or che monophthongindon., bue Il.In::ty tbc twnC or AUYfi2ln klng did Roe
Ori&inaUy conu.in 1')'/' Cf. A. R. N'iII:ud, "Allyri2In _oyaJ Names io BibJica.l
Hcbn::w", JSS al (1976), 1-14. esp, 1
U Dioo (ytllllii, pp. 101 f.) lisa. seria of p1ausiblc. uswocnm 8S.iNI Ihc:
presenc:e in S.malilln of shon finiI "o....eb.
56 Ponibty Icrib ettOf far llllr{y)/f IIccordiag to Gteeoficld/Sh,,6'er,
(n. 6,). J13.
i' h lhol.lld be nou:d that Classical Syrisc, IglmSI tbe generai tcndcncy, hu III
cxceptional CllSe in I,rli', tne word which occurs in our ioscription u JW'r (IO).
SI See N61ddle, 5.1" CrAIII. 49.
5Jt AAC. 3.8.,.1.,.
60 Ya'lIlIi. pp. 7vr6. Stt .150 Stent, op. cit., ,.8.,.1..
61 Degcn, AAG, S9; OMm. y.'Jtdj, pp. sar.
ea: Y. Aharoni. ArdlA'UTipli""Ucruulem, 1911), p."I.
Thus ttlc interchllnaC- ClonOl be.,.id to be", rcgion2It $ogloss'" as Gr.bbc sa"
ca p. j IlOr his 'ltdclc.. 1.. L. Grabbc., "Hebn:w piiJJUgaritte B'L IInd the Suppaud
" ..
l

,
.
..

(
..
. l
BIP lnten::h.nge: in.Scmiric". U,-rit FUlt:IJ""",. Il (1979),307.14. }te loc:J un co ..y:.
"it is ItilIllkcl, tMt thc fonn hen: (ADIi .tbJl has nOlhing in common wjeh thc rorm
wl in nonhcm S,tia bue rather n:pt'eKnes an cnn::ly dUf'ermt linguildc phcno-
met!fN\" (p. 311). bUI he: docs MC what (hl, di!fcrcnt phenomcnon t..
.. Oq,eo, A ....fe. ,; Di()ft, Y.'JIlii, p. '9'
.. J. Fricdrich, C,..",..,II: (Rumc. t91 I), p. jJ. n. I.
a Grlbbc, ttrl. di. (n. 6]), )1).
ti1 G. Carbial.lI s,.ilk,/,"'''''1 (Napull. '960). p. l'. Scc allo SeXen, .'AG.
SJ7a.+I
.. Z. Hln'ls. DnW'JI.d fj ,IN C.tItNI/filt Oltllttls (Ne'W H.ven. 193'), p. 71.
'" Op. C'iL. il>., and n. 16.
'IQ One m., fiod mnrc. enmples or ehe Illeged ,/b.hin In M. Wdrre:n. hngl. rr.
1. S"II,..,II'./ l''' Isrwlil, "".$ i. P.lul" (London, 1971). pp .,640. Weippefl.
lIpeIIlts of ".n MrHI.t;'. o( che t.bl.l plDlive bcfore Ihc foUnwing voi.ecJes
COO50n.nl". TM m ..jor diillc:uJcy 1 f\nd W'ith his uutmCIU il thal he il detling wich
thC$C twu IOUnds li toO( consritumts. 1 t;nn1y bclleve Ihlt ti bit Initidly pne nccd
tu look If K'fual ....ords in their pknncr.ic c:oates.r. le k nf coursc (X*UJe tht, a
pbcnor:nenon which wu In:itialty coofincd and rpccifk tO I panicular pbonot.cc:
cootcxt could be lelCicaU1Cd or even "ndicalized".
fl Noce:: '.p d.llcgc:n bldbt im 05 1_ Os.tsyrJsc:hcnl mc.t alMI.. uod w;ro nur
$dten im Silbcnlosltut %U ! f'CllItWert mit emttn IO' o abgdcmc:n a.lb--
krcis)" (C. Broclcdnunn. S)"". Gr. (Lcipzig1962). p. '1). Xc 1110 N6k1c.ke,
C",. , s7'
n Ihis h.l .n,mmc lO do with sp'ntntludon, u Ahmo.l daims (.ICe
&bave), loCt1lU tI' mc anothc.r malcet. Stc allO Kat1rman, lItJl.,.u. p. 116. n_ a.
However 1 (,U to follow che lanc.r's argumc:nt (p. 111, n. 6) cblt spiramiulion could
nor bave ourred in 01d ArunJ.k, m,in my vlew thc:.re is no \'CISOn tu bc:1ieve tbat
che UK tu OA of che kttcr J tO IUark tbc Ptoc:O"Scrnitk dtntal frkal:iyc 181 necand1y
mpIa eha. rbc kacr wu IO ptoaouna:d In OA.
"I) Thc Akkadi.o venK>a bu MfM.il'i. ABM (p. '0) lte of che opinion ehat the
n.rnc Anlmaean, a.nd addu.et. (p. 19) (rom Allyrlan sourccs more namea "'legtdJy
concamiell che .IatnC sccood c:lemcnl A1J ,pdJed. wich l. As tM 'Proto-Sctnic J8I
..,pun in Akkldian u /tI, whicb .bifta in Noe>Au,rian IO !'I. thc: onhQ&uphy
temltnbk, lOla)' tbc lcut.ls it pouibl)' In .ttempt IO rdJecr an Aranuac lntc..rdent'"
fOJ? 011 tbeOlher hand. some Auyriologisu oplne that is some eviclc:ncc of me
spirtnli2ed /tl (-18D in AkkadillD spdJed .. ah I; aee. C.I" W. .-00 SodcD md
W. R611ig. v",s .iJ:M1," (Rome, .)1976), pp. xix-n and W. vOC1 SodCfl.
Erg_t.l,'VUt11 t .... G,dtblu J:J:.diu4,," G'I1...ti_ (Rome:. 19691. pp. "."(. FOI'
JoOIM implkarions or suc:h "W:w for Aram..lc linguiStia. I Kaufman, III/Jfttu.
pp. U6-I" ISI f. wbCft: be temb. to Dnianixc tbc otmt o( spirtluindon in
Ak1c.adiln: "at presmc Ibere: 11 ooJy l.mallamouDt of evick.na: fDla mini.ouJ IJDOUnt
or insignificant v:iItiuion, diffc:ring in 'Ach of tbe \'Ilrious dialec:t$" (p. t I a. n. 1 J).
H Dt=gcn. AA"". , pp. H f.
15 Note a Palc:stinianAtt.bic form (or Ihe Hcbrew placcMmC:
mcntiuntd by E. Y. Kuticiler in ]SS IO (t96,). 18. "lr1l. 'his farm(?)' in an
ins.c:ription f'lublished by CaquOl" ll.nd dllltcd on palaeognphics.l grounds lO tM:
5Cventh antury B.C......ould not betong here ir ir i5 a 10an from CDntemporary
Assyrian tnrWII (= ,,,ililll in a.bylooian) or some' sIJch tc:lllted form. Sce
A. Caqum, "Une tn5Cription d'q,oquc aSlyricnoc", A. CaquOt and
M. l'hiloncnko (e<b.), HO/.u"tI!P4 JI. DltpoJlt
4
S.,,"HT (Paris, 197'). pp. Cf. also
KauEman, lJfjlMntnl, p. "9, fot a pfOposai to d.le the ios.cciption later (Nw
Babylonian), &CC Grcmfield, "Anmaic Sludies and thc: Biblc:", p. 116 in J. EmenoA
(c:d.). CMA"SJ VkllJfa "ltI ISVT J:') (Lciden, '981) aod the literature dIcci
thcre.
,'HJ.l.fHKI-IIiItVg INSCRU'TION AND Hftltl.Y AR,\MAIC t 15
;o .oegcn, .1.'1G, n049'"'O. ftxm)'er (.\4ir". pp_ ... f . WlIlll nut aware ur rhi,
gnmC'nt distinetiun,
4 00 the l in vlrious Semiti<: langulgeJ, ste I diacuuion in
"':QUI: rorthcoming f;.pJJ.lir F.,., .JNl CWUlnKl;f1l1s il, Biblir"J Hlb,.,.., Ch, 1, (i). and
... '-(.1';000 Y.'.Ji, pp. 1(,1']0.
.... -..w: " IIOD As indiatl!'d .be,lYC- (n. \9), this L' lIur prcrcrrc:d ruding un 1.0 u :tIgAinst
';;.\BML.J"I''b.
"" Dtnn, )'tI'''';, pp, 119(,
. .. r: IO! Dinn (p. H!.) makcs A bold sUUCSlion ,h'l the ,ullix 'II is m:ni"e1l' I.te
;. -;" and also contendi th.t che-re is n() cc:rt:linty char Samali.n never had rurm
. ..,.lm 5uch Juffix. Thi$ 1... )'XJiot, howcvc:r. ts kfc undanonstUled.
. '. ":: 10.\ II il {O thesc casc:s cha\ A8M is rc:krrioJ' k'I (hdr pu:a:ling sr:atenu:nt "rul.ltcfois
ce tate la c:ocxincnce l.cil. of $oort irnperfts (trt:hud whh ',I a\'ec des
, .tottDCI impc:.f"ativn norm.lcs pa,..it ma.nifotd' t molnt qu'11
,.' ... ,'aaiuc: d'un lmenc ,yntactiquc menre ob6cur' (pp. Si f.)? ':( /0.." il a
w'l"'. .. tu dM: Hadad hucriptOtl uf V.'di tl\entinned i" thc prct'Cdfl8 ICflte:Occ..
..... ':".'ihdr Connulltioa ios ku than accuratt, (or Oiun'l conteruioo 11 th.t thc cvidmcr
.: the ablcnce in t!w Jdom or unormaJ" (te bili impuka.
!".... Otoo, p. 16,. He a.sumcs In ultim.td,. axnmon origin oftlle
tod :t.IlnO'teivcJanphalC' ptOditk: l, (.idy pI.ustbk u.wmption.
ID "' .. mais .'; (enil rQut 'USli bien l'.W.lre'' (p. ILf).
.. Gibaon tads Jt Il fIIhJ: Ttxl"-M. vol . .I, p. 61 .... ith discua;nn oa p. 74.
.. S Dioa. )'4'''', pp. ,0t"OJ,
..t "j 101 Sec Kaufm.tn. J.'lIttIf'U, p. las .nd n.. 46 the. On dte (.mcd lW in Biblica)
'" , AnrnUc, aee n. Y. Kl.lUdcr, Ln.... aJ (1,60/'6t), p. 14'
.(' ,1'" ... ADM are I.'re uI this: "Ek (i.e., 'cctte C'll"ICU!risdquc' of thc precedin"
':" .. quntel dwinguc l'aram6tn de Samal dc odui dc S,ric o seui l'impcrfcc:ti(
.', ...::.: coprimc le ,........ 1'.bsaKc dc m""" l I" (p. ,,).
1M JNES 11 (191'), 9"
III h lCC:mI \bu therc is somc unc:crtainry abuuc MI/I(Sc:fiR! J B H), whkh Dqcn
<ad>pli.
na The hiaml'J or lhe diacuuion "Iuedoctly aummlrillCCi by Dton, Y.'., p. 19S.
m "Phucs'" pp. 61 f.
'''' pp. u.a f, In D. H. MOllet, "Oie .hacmitilchcn lnlchrirrcn VOlI Sancbehirll",
rzr.M 1 ("9t), H-70. Il '.40 .
u. Grcenfic1d (Lt.... 'l (1"1), J6.t) would no", o( CO\U'IC t:eYK bis poaitlon
'. Chll'.'" in the plOv('1'bf or Ahiqar is I rrak ol Western Aram.lc s&.fost l'."..
.... -.l "'.__ "t See n. Il lOO"e. TI1c UK of O Uli"", to "pfOCt. prc:sc:rve
o
i. -eli IUated.
'. YOn Sodc:n, AU.., .. (p. l '4C b).
. . \. ti? C. Brocltelm.nn, u;),'kN $.",........ (HaJle, "911), p,
, . Ila Scc F"aamyer, S#jItY. p. 6,. Dcgen (AAC, p. 6,. n. u) cancun.
'" Dqen, AAG', p. 70, n. 60.
:1 ;!.;.. .. Fimnyer, Stflf'r, p. 400 Fitzm:yc:r', l$$Crdon (lb.) chSI b no nKtcnc:e
ti: -t;.: ..clsnfherc in Aramalc fot inC.... ith (cm. encIing nuds lO be sli.bd,.
:)DOduatcd in tODe io"n cl Unlle incanutioo tU>t.nd 8la J.19
l:: . ROIUlthal's vie- thtt the Isttft' is t rarm wRh the dctctmincd It.tlt mding Is
...;; , .00,," unliltdy. Thc .-iew thll this is fcminine (orm il hdd by BaIJC1'fLe-al'Kler
-:. (CIV. p. 'IGt) a.od Sqert, AAC, i 1.7.'.J.1.
U1 Pac:l: Wl; H.rd: '.11, MI!I, Wl. Por rclermco. s Ocgen, AAC,
_ :- 'S n, 61. No rc1c.,.ot cxamplc il to be round in Simalim\.
so' III Doo, y.'",p, p.,..
w Oion il appatultly 1It1,Wln: that tJw: U-.IM cbes wu puc iorw.ta:I by
c.lk<>ckdmann in hia C""",", Jtr "'11, C.... Jtr "';,. S_/n I (Ilcdin,
114
-

Sct liso P, RusenthQI .-1 (;Tilll', ti! 8;W. ,,1,....... (Wiabadc:n. 191$1), SIJ'
"an Ar.maic de.doptMnt whic.h, io 'AH Iikclihuod, W25 ul1dcr w.y in the 5iltcb -', '"'
century B.C." f'utschcr sccms lO sce Ho Y. Io::utxbcr. p. J14
Un heanng IIn orl.I nE th;., piper un lO Aug. 191" a cutleaguc of mine:
Dr A. Mul'tnnt'Tl, hp klOdly drawn my altcntion tu his Itud,. "Thc Sentiti!:
SihilnlS".jSX Il (1lj66), "'-fo,esP' 14if.
" .-1.IG. SlO (p. 40).
" J4111': lIItJ r.r.rnlJJn Ju ivpt'-Kkn.i;Kbt" (GiKcborg. 1911), SJ p.
" Cf. Kuudu:r, "l\f'lIlm.k", pp. 314(,; td., "Humopolis", p. 106; id., 1fMt'OIb
pp. 11,71. Scc also Rtau, O. iII S,_Sr.ilir '411f,*X" Ucrusalan:
1970), pp. l16-d; pp. 1-l0(.; Sq.,ocn .rI.-'(;, pp. tU-14.
IID 1'hc: unly et.rtlJn CQC is IIIM'.:n against thricr .ttested M'''. Sa:: Kutsd'ltt
"Hmop<Jlis", p. 1004. '
Il Ib.. p. 106. es. _ha my dKUSSlotl or. mixtd pitture in thls rq;.rd lI$ Prcsc:nttd
bl' olle Qum... tarzwn ol Job, pp. .,6L olln Inicie "Tbc AllltrlIi< ol tbc (lld
TTm al Job C.n.XI",]JS IJ (114). pp. 41'''',
The Y1tW IndatM by KJufman (/.J.-u, p. 1al, n. IJ) U. pos.Iibilit}.
Il MC'r'trioncd by Kut:schcr. HAram_ic", p, 111.
.. Rartb, SII b. I """,Id wbmit. inddem.uy, th"t tbc
deuchrnmt of rhe: obpea pronoun ..thcm" ftom the wrb io diaJecb 5Uth u BibtiaJ
S,riae. repracnh _ MlC'ODd.ary dcvdopmmt. rhe dirca anachmcnr
m Tarawnte A.......ic (Onli:dot/Jonarhan), Mandak .00 8.b,1on.ian Talmudic
having pracTVcd tbt arate., a.nd (hlt tbc. dctachmaK hu JOfl\ahina.
ti) witb che "'et (hM .the tlnrd plural morphcmc: is the: anly eattgory io
which ooc can uau.mc Ja mao)' SanltlC tbc: idcmu)' bccwccn f'ft
morphanc .nei bound morphemc.
Il l>cg<n1.IG, SlI with n. 46.hm.
Far a penetf'lltin,g diacuWon o( Arsbk dcmoostrati\IC Itt
H. AciK:h, L'"" tl#ss": E.stftUsa ; .. SfrWtIllY IIf&1IInf"t ;961),
pp.I,,.J1.
: J. Buth. 0." P_",i..l1IiJJMot. ... (n. ,,). S41 d. . .
On d'lls pOtnt I De&eA, A.-1G, p. l'' n. anel me lutlture mcd thcte.
Under thit aDl.lmprion U&r, tll, ESA i', .od. a, Art. ;il. ca.nnut' be eue:t
parafldsofour t'I and Heb. -{."JT, .. (W, u the auumcd conIOflAntai l'I tlconcemcd.
Mark howe.ver tbat the Atabic: pronouo il not apdJed with I " ..ni(4.
tO Dian. Y.'Mii, pp. l,.t with a, J. J mUJt tdmil my lOtti faihuc tO c:omprehend
hk whale argu.D'\Cf\1 lO che c6ccI thac: me Ihl hetc: ts '1nc:opated.nei thc..derivC$ (rom
The sufiz I oi c:he Sab,lonisn TaJmud a.nd Mandale (aau'lU, Ilf) il tOtIU,
mdcvanl, f'or tbcre tbe morphcmc wlth a. lingulsr noun has rq>Iactd that tO be usc:d
with I m.p!. 000",
" For aamp1e, Kl.ltsehc:r, "ArtmaiC, p. HO; Gree.ntidd, '-[)(alea. Trlin",
p. ,61.
ft Y,"'.i, pp, t n-,'.
.. 1lfJ' (Ein Gcv, 9'b C<rlL) and (D.....,.tI
.. NttdJc::sa lO M', .,.' C'biI. 16) ios not in 1MJt.cmph.
tl ABN: (p. '7) ue imptttise in "1ina: that: an 1M.xcd l-eoo;ucarkm hacl alrud,
btcn io Sdire.. for cxc:qxins c:uc al the wel)..lmowtl metathcsls the
mnauuoi examplcs a"est lO prc:fiudon u in Jlh. Nor do i (ollow dteif
prac::ntationofOion'a allllymof"'.,.. ....un Clthpe'alltnperfutifou
....Clt .. (ib.)
.. et Moscad. 1.ttwJ.tiwt, S16.tl,
Ip fu il cmphutud by Dion., Y.'IItIi, pp. t'.I'. Samalian k.oows al ..be shon
lmpcnoct 001" wblcb I aUo uS<d wbett GOC CllpC<U lhc ioni imp<dca.
J:6JB... Aaimila, puine wu malie by thc praml \Vriter. tnd4:PCf'Idt"ndy ofDion, in
his paper l''C'ld in 1910 t.t the stennd inltrnational conference or Aramaic INdies,.
papa ro be pubU.hed in 1M proceallnga o( me conferemc.
S our diKUI&'on .buv.:, SI ,.1.
I..... I add here that TI'1umlc Aramaic:: in I t..-dltintl prescrnd with che!
l\.lpDline., vlXllbuhm .)'srcrn hu. dininC't Pcallnfini1J"t'c panem, II/tIflil. 'J'1Ie f"CI
chac il I. IIWId)' -' (or sn cxcqniun. SC'e Tra Jon. l.. <$G.ll emploJed
whc:n: tbc: Hebl"t'w tt:'llt hu che: inrba. ahould noc l'1C'CId.Saril, .ignl(y (hac Ihis Is an
ani6ci.1 cruliun. Sce G. Dalmln, CM. (I...ripai,;.
2'901), p. J1', NolI: ,hai Sabylnnian ANimaic in the "lcmenitc uadltlon hu prescrved
dle lamc di, ncclon quite indcpc:ndcnc1y or BibJkaJ Hd>rcw grammi'. Il .ho.....n by
Sh. MUf.g; fCC PHtitlittt 7 (1961.), S1.lIU. Syritc. whkh aku hp. limitar uslgt.,
tbuuh not mcehlnklUy cnslavC'd tu tbc Hebre..... lltnlCCurc. UKS thc form Mf"IM'IIIlth
hort la/. althougb clnse.r looll. al mtn\lSCtiplJ mlght add more c:x.mples thtn che
OI1ly onc wlh long 11/ mentioned by NlWc:lce. .'fl. Cr., p. 104. Q. t.
la, ScSClt (.I.'IC, 1.6.9.1.') secs m.tl&: of sccoad.'1 future or thcM:
IUfI'ormativcs In their v.riay. but DO t.hc buiJ or tM .....lI.bIe. evidcncc: in Bibltnl
Anmaic, .Ibeh mngre. lbC'fC Ilc:C:mS lO be: tbc fUllowint:; ft.irly ncal morphosyntacdc:
dimibutoa: luI) whh ptoOomil\tl objCCla aod 'atl ..ith nomlnaJ objtl. In E.zr 7.16
X!'p 1m indincd ro see an inftnhivc compktc:ly sub5tlndval charaae:r.
Sa:: UUr cnmmc:nt un tbe unge: in IIQtgJub in JJj' '1 (l91.), S7....6.1 .nel on thac in
IQGeaAp ifl tttMt *QII""';II, nn. a9 (1971.), l'. See .Iso aur p.per mentloncd
lbave (n. II.J). "On thc: MorphoJ,ntu o( rhc Infini(vc: in TIl'Jumic Anm.i" Ind
un tbe infinhivc in Targumic Anmaie In galcral. A. TaJ, "Thc inlinicivc anel irs
VlrtctiCll in Pa)Qlinian jc:wtth Aramaic" lin He:brrwJ. an c:llp.ndc:d
venm or a fI'per IlIO prcs.cntcd at lbc nrne con(c:fUl ln. I&J abevel00 nO\v in
M. &r-A,hc:r et al. Fsc.hr. Z. Bcn-Hlyyim. Alt9g" J.lM. UCTUulcm. 191).
pp. aOI-t'.
ll7 It would then be: pouiblc IU consldcr tbc lbove-mmtioned II) o( Sc6rc al
Vcttise: or dM: more primirive: Paci infiniUve:, Ibnugh DO( UICd .blSoJurtly.
ut Sec Oe:gcn'1."1(; 61. Kau(man', thar lo Sdire 111 7r: J:J _IAg' V J/w!)
".u the: kings ot my vicinit," thc p.niclc: Nnaions Il I relativc nceds lO
.. il ptqJ01Jrionat in (orCC" tikc: 5yr. U1r Ind Hcb. Degen's aecond e:xamp1c
involvlna 1Utorltlon ofthc: te:llt hu bcen r1ahl1y tc;ceced by ABN (p. 11).
12't Cf. M.Z. Kaddlri, "CoonNCf Stlte Ind DIPhr'5cs In 1mpc.ri.1 fUlmlllic:",
Pnnw/iJlzl ./ Ibll"urw/;'NI C.fimKr _ S,.iIM $11IIlitt HtIJ i" jtrJlUk_.
IIIJo{Jcrosak:m, 1969), pp. 10"-".
UIl Sce rc:nrly, Kutscher, 7...., pp. lo.c-.6; Klu(mln, /1f}IItMU, pp. 'IG-}.I.
Hl No..., far whkb tbe Au,ria.o veflion b.. '/1." No. t ha notNng in
thc Auyri.n to COfTQpond lO.
UI Kaddar (Irt. cit,. p. 1011op) ucribcs lO BabylonJan iDAue:nc:c cUCi .....hcrc the
serond component is de:lcnnin.red. Bul (rom poim (,) belo..... il i5 clcu that Akkldian
canno[ be held di'19 responsible for aJl thc ';vc cxample:" in ol.lr inscription.
t.u 'lr (1); "Ilt r) "1II1fJ (a); ,UII JJlt 11''4'" (}) .'dII.' J:/JIt (4);,.11. JI::1I (h 16).
In ali these euCl. includios .MII.;itht h!Jrili (6) witb 11 "hanging vowd /II". thf:
ASSY'llln p.niciplc is in the construet state rollowed by a genitive or ooliquc case:.
1,)01 l1lJl' 'II:,. ""i} (.I); lWl' dr (4); ",/J.: lWt" (6, 7. I l); Il, JSI'/IIry (6); '."I,III/J (IO,
14h ,/-lMI.Js) (u);., /Jb." (16); bi 1JJJ (17).
"Aramaic", p. J6a.; ToItJJJflJ, pp. IISC.
U, Ser, rcr cxample. KuuchCf', lne. cit. Dion, Y.'thi. p. dI; Dcg.cn. SIt.
tJ' In Idditino to the intrinsM: Iikclihood o( Auch ISsumption arAing (rom
historical coIlJidcntions. note also thu che: Akkadian tcxt ls engravcd on rhe front
aod tbat "1h<: Akkldiao was e:xe:cutcd fim, leavios insuffieienr space: for thc Aramaic
116 T.
f

'.
"
!-

,
f
t
"
,,
t
..
.'
'. ,
[: .
Ttil,I .. FHlrnBKY6 JNSC8IPTIUN AND U"J:I.Y AIlAMAIC 111
wcc wbich thcn un aver DO lO tbc hcm ofthe eatmenc" (GrceoficldjSh.Wcr, "Nou:s",
p. '''9). '
u, To ...y merely "U f:nn lussi 11grWef dan, ICI phl'UC5 longua. le ";cr d\l vClbe:
c:n fin de: phnsc: dans 5equd on poumUl voir Ur)f: influCDtt au)'ricnnc
to
(OICommtlllia_
t.ion." p. 6S l) d &hiing unl'i part o,f rhc picture. Sec .lln a rc:m.rk by A. C:.quot in a
simUI' vcin: "Comml.lnicadnn" pp. (.
u, Meno: nne should nOl, U does. regard rhmc futun:s by him
., inAucnccd by Pl:nian u .cli as Altkadi.n: ace l{utJChc:t, ItAramaic". p. )Gl. It"
uf coursc cclOoeiv.b1c lhat in Ihc Achleme:oid pcriod the Pc:ftian lanBuale teinfnrccd
sum a dcydupmcnt. Kaufrnln _bn spe:aks o( "Iraniln urigi"" o( cbe ch.ractc:tU:lie
In St:ancbrd Imperia] A",m_ic (1N/lIHNtl, p. IGo).
l. Mr MiU.rd tdts mc.(Privlte: communic:lflnn or ... Sqn. 19'a) thlt some
cpigraphisca: Are te. SUUelt I fare.flier d:l1c: CI! tM ll:Ic:vcnth callury B.C. Sc:c:
alto j. N.veh, &r!1 HiJf,? -.J,IN "1/pJNflrl Qerusalcm. 19h), p. '9, n. 1&
l<tl Sec. e:.g" CrOMfPrcedman. W-IO, p. 64:" ... Ihc Itng\llse oFPaoamnul t and 11
is arch.ixing Anmaic''. in conlndistinclinn to thc (lOIftion hcld by GCnsbe:rg, wbu
l11&inUli.... thtt thc I.nsu.se of thc inKripti()nl .... as lbc: loc.l spoken dlalca o( Sunll
(n_ &-. thete). Dionll summuy presenlltion of hli thetti ti tIfO cntltW
LanguIgc 5pok.cn in Ancictlt Sam'aJ'" ]NES )1 (197')' Il,ll.
l'l H.I.. Ginsbe:rg, '0 (19U); kl. "Nmthwetl 5cmitlc tanguIga", Jn
B. Mn (cd.). T. W"M UiJ"".J et 1M ],.iJb P"pk, II/z. P.ni.rchs (l970),
pp. 101a t aomc ume in thl: third quancr of the: 8th c:mlury B.C..e. 1oc:al
Yemaeullr, S.mlli.n..... (u "'pwvincial" dl.1C'Ct) supcnedoJ, (or purposes or
nS'll c:pi8'n1phs, hy Common Aramaic" <1'. "9): KutKher. "Ar:alDllIle". pp. )tol.;
G=nr.dd, JNill17 ('91"). 94; Dian. JNl!S 11 ('9,1), "',
IU KtltaCoo ("Araauc", p. )Jo) fc.1t it ncttSUf)' co invoke Pnxo-Scmidc. Dion
ri&h.tJy COIUkkrs tbc: 1m1 eX tbc nunldon u innovlrinn: JNFS J7 (1911). 111
,... Sc:e Fittmye::r, St/l". p. "g.
MS Sce Kut5f;hcr. "Aramaic". H'.
l" Dian il ......te o( thc diffic:uhy: "J.c dtj" crcutl: par ccruiNi d&aceurds
impanama .., ne pouvait quc .aal'Jir le tempt.ll communicltion ye:rb.alc
dwnn plus dilf;cile lbut whylJ. L'iJolement roa"phique qui multi de
t'installlon dffinitiye del hommcs de Gabbar i Zendrli dut c:onNa'C:r l'autonomie:
de Ieu' dlJ1ecl' (l'bJi, pp. 111 f.),
141 Gre:en6ckl is opm.andcd on this questlon, mendoalrts the ponibilhy o(
"an carly Canatnite- Ot some ot:h.cr- lubn",(um" UN6S n ll,,8). ,..).
l'' Cf. W.P. A1bri&ht io t.as. Edwarda et: al (w.). C.III6,y Hh1I1t:J'
11/1 (Cambridge. .1
15m
), pp. Ja9-J6; J. A. Brinltmln, A PoIi,k.1H.JH;J '.I PUI-1WJirr
"".,,, B.C. '96'), pp. -n-l,-
149 See A.R. Mm.rd, "Auyrilns and Aramelns'" 1,.. 41 (l'')). 101-01.
H. Tadmor, "Tbc. An.cnaiution of ANy,ia: Aspttts of WQtt:m lmplet". in
H.-). Nis.scn / J. Rcnge:r (eels.), MmpMurrit. ttNI uiN NIJb",. ..
WKlm!lHtbM.!.'. i", A/n. V,rdtus;rlf "M ,. bis I. )ahrIHmld.l1. Cbr. IXXV.
kencontrf: Auyriolosique InlerRluionale Bedin, J. 7, juli 1971), Teil 2.
(Berlin. 1981.). pp. 449-Jo., j.C. Grttn6cld. "Babyloniln-Au.m.ak Rdationships",
ib., pp. 47'1&.
ISO "Dialecc TraitS". p.
ISI Il cscapes me on Wh2t groundJ Groc:oficld can mainlain thlt Fekheryan "is
clou: (.C) Samt.lian from tbc morphological point of vie...... ; sce J.A. Emenon (ed.),
VIJ/,,/fft: VitfWl' 191tJ (SVT }Z' (tcidcn., 19'1)' p. 1Il.