[Avodah] Is it Hebrew or is it Aramaic?

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Feb 18, 2021 at 07:13:42AM -0500, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
> The point of this post is to ask if there is a way that a
> non-linguist might be able to determine whether a given word is Hebrew or
> Aramaic...

Shorashim, likely not. So I can't help you with cases like "techum".
But it shouldn't take that much diqduq knowledge to recognize which way
the word is conjugated, so, more hope for verbs.

Then the easy things, like .... I say "like", but I only can think of
this example:

No suffix for zakhar and a final h "-ah" for neqeiva in Hebrew.
A final alef "-a" for zakhar nouns ans "-isa" for neqieva in Aramaic.
Eg:
Malkah with a hei is Lh"Q for queen.
Malka with an alef - Aramit for king.

For that matter, once we get to rabbinic Hebrew, the shorashim they both
got from before the split between the languages is compounded by Leshon
Chazal's heavy borrowing of shorashim from Aramit. The question of which
language a shoresh belongs to itself becomes blurry. More like asking
"when did this enter Hebrew". Like "techum", which is used in Mishnayos,
in Hebrew. So, it's a Hebrew word, but a later addition, borrowed from
Aramaic.

(Then there is always sefaria. When you search for the word, which books
dominate the search results? If the answer is Targumim, the Talmuds,
Zohar, etc... you know it's Aramaic. Of course, so much of gemara (TY &
TB) is in Hebrew, finding a word in gemara alone wouldn't make the
point.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 You cannot propel yourself forward
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   by patting yourself on the back.
Author: Widen Your Tent                      -Anonymous
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF

> The point of this post is to ask if there is a way that a
> non-linguist might be able to determine whether a given word is Hebrew or
> Aramaic. This question came to me from two different things that I was
> learning this week.
> 
> I have mentioned a few times recently that in my learning of Shnayim Mikra
> v'Echad Targum, I've seen Onkelos translating a word into what I *thought*
> was a Hebrew synonym, but is now clearly the Aramaic translation. A good
> example is the word "techum", which we are familiar with from the phrase
> "techum Shabbos". But as it turns out, "techum" appears nowhere in Tanach,
> and it is how Onkelos consistently translates the word "gevul". I am led to
> conclude that "techum" was not originally a Hebrew word at all, even if it
> was absorbed into Mishnaic Hebrew and Rabbinic Hebrew.
> 
> I found a similar word tonight, where Parshas Terumas teaches us about the
> loops which were at the edges of the Mishkan's curtains. The Torah uses the
> word "lulaot" for these loops in Shemos 26:10 (and many other pesukim),
> which Onkelos translates as "anuvin". It is obvious to me that this is a
> form of the word "anivah", which is familiar to me from Hilchos Shabbos: A
> "kesher" (knot) is more problematic than a mere "anivah" (bow or loop).
> [See, for example, Shmirat Shabbat Kehilchata 15:53.] I was unable to find
> this meaning of ayin-nun-beis in Tanach, and now I suspect that it is
> actually an Aramaic loanword like techum.
> 
> On a related note, the Gemara Megilla teaches that a Megillas Esther must
> be written without translations: One's megilla will be pasul if it has any
> Aramaic words that are supposed to be written in Hebrew, or if it has any
> Hebrew words that are supposed to be Aramaic. Of course, the megilla has
> many many Hebrew words in it, and if the sofer would translate any of them,
> the result would be a pasul megilla. But, asks the Gemara Megilla 9a, what
> Aramaic is there that one might wrongly translate into Hebrew? Rav Pappa
> cites the word "pisgam" in Esther 1:20; if the sofer would substitute
> "davar", then the megilla would be pasul. But Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak
> claims to have found a different Aramaic word in the Megilla: That same
> pasuk (1:20) has the word "yakar". (Indeed, I have noticed many times, that
> Onkelos translates "kavod" as "yakar".) Incidentally, "yakar" appears in
> about 9 other places in Megillas Esther also.
> 
> My problem is this: How can Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak think that yakar is
> Aramaic? It doesn't appear in the Chumash, but it does appear in a few
> places in Tanach, such as Tehillim 49:13 and 49:21. My guess is that
> whereas "techum" is an Aramaic word that was adopted by Hebrew in the days
> of the Amoraim, "yakar" was already adopted into Hebrew during the Neviim,
> and that for purposes of writing a Megilla, it still counts as Aramaic even
> today.
> 
> Is it possible that some Aramaic words were adopted into Hebrew even
> earlier? Might they even appear in the Chumash? How might we recognize them?
> 
> Akiva Miller
> 
> (As long as we're talking about foreign words showing up in our texts,
> here's an interesting trivia question: There is a Latin word in the siddur.
> I've seen it in nusach Ashkenaz, Sefard, and Edot Hamizrach siddurim. It's
> not in the daily tefilos, though, just one particular holiday paragraph.
> Anyone who wants to know which word and which tefila - or if you want
> another clue - write me offlist, and we'll keep the rest of the chevra
> guessing. Happy Adar!)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 You cannot propel yourself forward
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   by patting yourself on the back.
Author: Widen Your Tent                      -Anonymous
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF