성서 아람어의 어순에 관한 연구

Abstract

Aramaic is a language affiliated with the north-west Semitic languages, which include Ugaritic, Phoenician, and Hebrew. A common characteristic of Semitic languages is the initial position of the verb within the sentence. However, the word order in Biblical Aramaic, the formal Aramaic language is very different from that of the north-west Semitic languages. This in-depth study examines all the sentences in Biblical Aramaic, specifically the 1002 Biblical Aramaic clauses, in order to explore word order. Sentence types (verbal, nominal, participial, and HAVA [=to be] sentences, etc.), verb forms, subject-predicate-object word order, descriptive and colloquial styles, tense, independent and subordinate clauses, etc. were considered.BR The greatest differences appear in the word orders of verbal sentences. All possible word orders, i.e. all the six word orders appear in sentences where subject, verb, and object are included, while the word orders of VO and OV account for almost half of the samples when the orders of verbs and objects are considered. Thus, verbal sentences in Biblical Aramaic can be said to have flexible word orders.BR To determine what factors influence word order in Biblical Aramaic, we have employed various parameters in our investigations, and made comparisons with the word orders of Biblical Hebrew, Akkadian and Ugaritic languages, Arabic, and Sumerian, the most ancient language. However, no linguistic factors were discovered, and thus it was noted that examining geographic and historical factors was necessary. We conclude that movement by the Aramaic people following the national migration policy of the Neo-Assyrian Empire resulted in Biblical Aramaic or formal Aramaic having the flexible word order, as the original ancient Aramaic from the eastern area of Mesopotamia received influence from the Akkadian language used in the area to where migration took place.