טָעָה stray, כֵּף rock, מלך advise, סוֹף = קֵץ end, קִבֵּל = לָקַח take, רָעַע = רָצַץ break, שָׂגָא be many, שָׁלַט = מָלַךְ rule, תָּקֵף = אָמֵץ be strong.—Later meanings are, e.g. אָמַר (to say) to command; עָנָה (to answer) to begin speaking.—Orthographical and grammatical peculiarities are, the frequent scriptio plena of וֹ and ־ִי, e.g. דָּוִיד[1] (elsewhere דָּוִד), even קוֹדֶש for קֹדֶש, רוֹב for רֹב; the interchange of ־ָה and ־ָא final; the more frequent use of substantives in וֹן, ־ָן, וּת &c. Cf. Dav. Strauss, Sprachl. Studien zu d. hebr. Sirachfragmenten, Zürich, 1900, p. 19 ff.; for the Psalms Cheyne, Origin of the Psalter, p. 461 ff., and especially Giesebrecht in ZAW. 1881, p. 276 ff.; in general, Kautzsch, Die Aramaismen im A.T. (i, Lexikal. Teil), Halle, 1902.
But all the peculiarities of these later writers are not Aramaisms. Several do not occur in Aramaic and must have belonged at an earlier period to the Hebrew vernacular, especially it would seem in northern Palestine. There certain parts of Judges, amongst others, may have originated, as is indicated, e.g. by שֶּׁ, a common form in Phoenician (as well as אשׁ), for אֲשֶׁר (§ 36), which afterwards recurs in Jonah, Lamentations, the Song of Songs, the later Psalms, and Ecclesiastes.
[w] Rem. I. Of dialectical varieties in the old Hebrew language, only one express mention occurs in the O.T. (Ju 126), according to which the Ephraimites in certain cases pronounced the שׁ as ס. (Cf. Marquart in ZAW. 1888, p. 151 ff.) Whether in Neh 1324 by the speech of Ashdod a Hebrew, or a (wholly different) Philistine dialect is intended, cannot be determined. On the other hand, many peculiarities in the North Palestinian books (Judges and Hosea) are probably to be regarded as differences in dialect, and so also some anomalies in the Moabite inscription of Mêšaʿ (see above, d). On later developments see L. Metman, Die hebr. Sprache, ihre Geschichte u. lexikal. Enticickelung seit Abschluss des Kanons u. ihr Bau in d. Gegenwart, Jerusalem, 1906.
2. It is evident that, in the extant remains of old Hebrew literature,[2] the entire store of the ancient language is not preserved. The canonical books of the Old Testament formed certainly only a fraction of the whole Hebrew national literature.
Gesenius, Gesch. der hebr. Sprache, §§ 19-39; Oehler's article, 'Hebr. Sprache,' in Schmid's Encykl. des ges. Erziehungs- u. Unterrichtswesens, vol. iii. p. 346 ff. (in the 2nd ed. revised by Nestle, p. 314 ff.). Cf. also the literature cited above in the headings of §§ 1 and 2; also Böttcher, Lehrb. der hebr. Spr., i. Lpz. 1866, p. 30 ff.; L. Geiger, Das Studium der Hebr. Spr. in Deutschl. vom Ende des XV. bis zur Mitte des XVI. Jahrh., Breslau, 1870; B. Pick, 'The Study of the Hebrew Language among Jews and Christians,' in Bibliotheca Sacra, 1884, p. 450 ff., and 1885, p. 470 ff.; W. Bacher, article 'Grammar' in the Jew. Encyclopaedia, vol. vi, New York and London, 1904. Cf. also the note on d.
[a] 1. At the time when the old Hebrew language was gradually becoming extinct, and the formation of the O.T. canon was
- ↑ דָּוִיד in the Minor Prophets throughout (Ho 35, &c.) is due merely to a caprice of the Masoretes.
- ↑ According to the calculation of the Dutch scholar Leusden, the O.T. contains 5,642 different Hebrew and Aramaic words; according to rabbinical calculations, 79,856 altogether in the Pentateuch. Cf. also E. Nestle, ZAW, 1906, p. 283; H. Strack, ZAW. 1907, p. 69 ff.; Blau, 'Neue masoret. Studien,' in JQR. xvi. 357 ff., treats of the number of letters and words, and the ve se- division in the O.T.
