[Avodah] Transition From Aramaic To Hebrew

[Jay F Shachter]

Akiva Miller <kennethgmiller at juno.com> wrote on Mon, 16 Apr 2012 01:37:25 GMT:

>
> Could you be more specific about these words? You seem to be using a
> very different text than me.
>
> I am looking at three different siddurim (Otzar Hatefilos,
> ArtScroll, and Sacks/Koren/OU) and they are virtually identical,
> except for some vowelling changes.  In all three of them, the "vadai
> Aramaic" stops six words from the end, not five, and in all three
> siddurim, those words are: "lanu ul'chol yisrael hadarim ba'ir
> hazos".
>

I have "... lana ulkh(ol/al) yisrael haddarim ba`ir hazzoth".  In my
text, the sixth word from the end is "lana", which is unquestionably
Aramaic.  The last two words are unquestionably Hebrew (in the
original posting, I stated that the last three words were Hebrew, but
you have suggested that "haddarim" could be Aramaic).  That leaves two
(or, according to you, three) words that could be either Hebrew or
Aramaic.  Thus, in my text, there is a region which is unquestionably
Aramaic, followed by a 2- or 3-word region of indeterminate language,
and ending with a region which is unquestionably Hebrew.  The question
was: where, in this indeterminate region, does the text transition
from Aramaic to Hebrew?  The practical significance of the question
involves the correct pronunciation of the word which follows "lana"
and which precedes "yisrael".  If that word is Hebrew, the qamatz
underneath the khaf is a qamatz qatan, and the word should rhyme with
"tall".  If it is Aramaic, there is no qamatz qatan in Aramaic, and
the word should rhyme with "Mikhail Tal".

In contrast, in your texts, the sixth word from the end is "lanu", not
"lana".  If your texts are correct, then (barring the unlikely
possibility that the text moves from Aramaic to Hebrew to Aramaic to
Hebrew), the transition from Aramaic to Hebrew occurs prior to the
word in question, which should therefore unquestionably be pronounced
with a qamatz qatan, because it is unquestionably Hebrew.  But if the
sixth word from the end is "lana", not "lanu", then the question
remains open.


			Jay F. ("Yaakov") Shachter
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