Jewish Palestinian Aramaic

Jewish Palestinian Aramaic was a Western Aramaic language spoken by the Jews in Roman and Byzantine Palestine in the early first millennium. A dialect of this language was spoken by Jesus (see Language of Jesus).^[2]

There were some differences in dialect between Judaea and Galilee, and most surviving texts are in the Galilean dialect: Michael Sokoloff has published separate dictionaries of the two dialects.

Overview

After the defeat of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 AD, the center of Jewish learning in the land of Israel moved to Galilee. With the Arab conquest of the country in the 7th century, Arabic gradually replaced this language.

The most notable text in this dialect's corpus is the Jerusalem Talmud, which is still studied in Jewish religious schools and academically, although not as widely as the Babylonian Talmud, most of which is written in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. There are some older texts in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, notably the Megillat Taanit: the Babylonian Talmud contains occasional quotations from these.

Many extant manuscripts in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic have been corrupted over the years of their transmission by Eastern Aramaic-speaking scribes freely correcting "errors" they came across (these "errors" actually being genuine Jewish Palestinian Aramaic features). To date, all formal grammars of the dialect fall victim to these corruptions, and there is still no published syntax.

Grammar

Verbal patterns

There are six major verb stems or verbal patterns (binyanim) in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic. The form pe‘al (פְּעַל) “to do”, the form Aph'el (אַפְעֵל) “let do”, and the form Pa'el (פַּעֵל) “like to do”, are all in the active voice. But the form Itpe'el (אִתְפְּעֵל), the form Itaph'al (אִתַפְעַל) and the form Itpa'al (אִתְפַּעַל) are essentially reflexive and have usually function in a passive sense.

Past tense

Present tense

Future tense

See also

• Galilean dialect
• Jewish Babylonian Aramaic

References

Bibliography

• Gustaf Dalman: Grammatik des jüdisch-palästinischen Aramäisch, 2nd ed. Leipzig 1905
• Sokoloff, Michael, A Dictionary of Judean Aramaic: Bar Ilan 2003 ISBN 9652262617
• Sokoloff, Michael, A Dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic of the Byzantine Period, 2nd ed.: Johns Hopkins 2002/3 and Ramat Gan 2002 ISBN 0801872340
• Caspar Levias (1986). A Grammar of Galilean Aramaic. The Jewish Theological Seminary of America. ISBN 0-87334-030-2.