Latin Transcriptions Research Articles

Recitation and Performance in Late Antique Hebrew

Abstract Significant linguistic research has been carried out in the field of language register and its relevance for speech patterns. In various contexts, language users tend to employ different linguistic features, especially but not limited to the realm of pronunciation. In many linguistic communities, there is a higher register of language associated with more formal settings, a lower register of language associated with less formal settings, and a wide spectrum of variation in between. In the context of reading traditions that develop around a sacred text, the same principles may apply. While the pronunciation (or phonology) of the reading tradition often interacts with and is influenced by the vernacular, tradents of the reading tradition often try to preserve a more “archaic,” conservative, and/or simply distinct pronunciation. There appears to be evidence that such a phenomenon was already at play in Biblical Hebrew reading traditions of late antiquity. By comparing Greek and Latin transcriptions of the Biblical Hebrew reading traditions of late antiquity to transcriptions of Hebrew taken from non-biblical sources, we can actually isolate multiple features that demonstrate a distinct difference in pronunciation between biblical and non-biblical sources. The collection of linguistic features characteristic of the reading tradition may properly be termed a “performance register,” the societal implications of which for Jewish communities of late antiquity will be explored in closing.

“shewa” + Secondary Gemination in Late Antique Hebrew as seen in Greek and Latin Transcriptions of Hebrew and in Samaritan

From a historical perspective, shewa mobile (shewa na') in the Biblical Hebrew reading traditions may be regarded as an epenthetic vowel which breaks up a consonant cluster that came into being through the process of deletion, syncope, etc. Evidence from the attested reading traditions of Biblical Hebrew suggests that the kind of vowel reduction that would bring about the ubiquity of “shewa” in the medieval traditions was already underway in the Second Temple period. At the same time, there is evidence from antiquity that other phonological strategies were implemented to prevent such (complete) reduction of short vowels in open unstressed syllables. In particular, there is evidence in both the ancient transcription traditions of Hebrew and in the Samaritan tradition for non-etymological gemination of a consonant immediately following a vowel in the “shewa slot.” Though some such examples of gemination may be explained as variant morphological patterns, etc., it will be argued that such gemination was implemented to ensure the distinct pronunciation of the phonological sequence. While some cases of this phenomenon are best explained as orthoepic strategies for careful reading, other cases may have developed more naturally in the spoken language. This conclusion is significant because it demonstrates both that vowel reduction/deletion was already prone to occur in the late Second Temple period and that there was an impulse in both speech and in a careful reading of the Biblical Hebrew tradition to avoid consonant clusters (at least in some cases) already in this early period.