[Mesorah] Aramaic grammar

[Kenneth Miller via Mesorah]

Yesterday in Parshas Emor, I noticed two phrases which are similar but NOT identical in the Chumash, yet Onkelos translates them the same way. Namely:

23:27 - yom hakippurim
23:28 - yom kippurim

yet both are: yoma d'khipuraiya

I know that in English, the definite and indefinite articles are pretty distinct, and most of us would translate the first as "the day of" and the second as "a day of".

But I'm really not that familiar with Aramaic. My wild guess is that since both "yoma" and "d'khipuraiya" end with aleph, at least one of those alephs must be the definite article, leading me to suspect that this is a very literal translation for pasuk 27, and a not-so-literal translation for pasuk 28. But for all I know, Aramaic doesn't distinguish between the definite and indefinite articles, in which case both pesukim are being translated bery literally.

Any ideas? Or is this question less about dikduk and more about a girsa error?

Akiva Miller
KennethGMiller at juno.com

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