Aramaic of Hatra
Encyclopedia
In 1912, W. Andrae published some inscriptions from the site of Hatra
, which were studied by S. Ronzevalle and P. Jensen. The excavations undertaken by the Iraqi Department of Antiquities brought to light more than 100 new texts, the publication of which was undertaken by F. Safar in the journal Sumer. The first four series were the subject of reviews in the journal Syria. The texts range in date from the 2nd or 3rd century BCE to the destruction of the city ca. 240 CE; the earliest dated text provides a date of 98 BCE.
For the most part, these inscriptions are short commemorative graffiti
with minimal text. The longest of the engraved inscriptions does not have more than 13 lines. It is therefore difficult at the moment to identify more than a few features of the Aramaic dialect of Hatra
which, all things considered, shows the greatest affinity to Syriac.
The stone inscriptions bear witness to an effort to establish a monumental script. This script is little different from that of the Aramaic inscriptions of Assur
(possessing the same triangular š, and the use of the same means to avoid confusion between m, s, and q). The ds and the rs are not distinguished from one another, and it is sometimes difficult not to confuse w and y.
is no more consistent than that of Palmyra
in its use of matres lectiones to indicate the long vowels ō and ī; the pronominal suffix of the 3rd person plural is written indiscriminantly, and in the same inscription one finds hwn and hn, the quantifier kwl and kl "all", the relative pronoun dy and d, and the word byš and bš "evil".
‘ayn; in one inscription, the masculine singular demonstrative adjective is written ‘dyn (‘dyn ktb’ "this inscription") which corresponds to Mandaic and Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic hādēn. Similar demonstratives, ‘adī and ‘adā, are attested in Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic.
of the final consonant of the substantive bt in the construct state is not attested in either Old Aramaic or Syriac; it is, however, attested in other dialects such as Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic and Western Jewish Aramaic.
construction, according to which the counted noun, in the plural, is preceded by a numeral in the construct state, with an inversion of genders, is attested by one inscription: tltt klbn "three dogs." This same construction has been discovered in Nabataean: tltt qysrym "the three Caesars."
Likewise, the particle d(y) can have a simple declarative meaning: "(a curse against whomever) does not say, 'may he be well remembered'" which can be compared with .
origin, such as ’rdkl’ "architect" (Syriac ’ardiklā), and Parthian
professional nouns such as pšgryb’ / pzgryb’ "inheritor of the throne" (Syriac ); three new nouns, which appear to denote some religious functions, are presumably of Iranian origin: (which Safar compares with the Pahlavi hylpt’ hērbed "teacher-priest"), and the enigmatic terms brpdmrk’ and qwtgd/ry’.
(e.g. the use of the emphatic state in place of the construct state, use of the construct state before the particle dy, inconsistent use of the matres lectiones, etc.) are found systematically in other Aramaic inscriptions throughout the duration of the Arsacid era, between the 3rd c. BCE and the 3rd c. CE (previously, in part, at Kandahar
, but primarily at Nisa
, Avromân, Armazi
, Tang-i Sarvak, etc.). We could therefore legitimately ask ourselves if, instead of speaking of "irregularities," which would be due, following each instance, to "scribal negligence," " archaisms of the language," and "orthographic indecision," etc., we should rather speak of the characteristics of these Aramaic dialects in their progressive developments (varying according to each region), which one could label "vernacular Aramaic" to distinguish them from "classical Aramaic."
Hatra
Hatra is an ancient city in the Ninawa Governorate and al-Jazira region of Iraq. It is currently known as al-Hadr, a name which appears once in ancient inscriptions, and it was in the ancient Iranian province of Khvarvaran. The city lies northwest of Baghdad and southwest of Mosul.-History:Hatra...
, which were studied by S. Ronzevalle and P. Jensen. The excavations undertaken by the Iraqi Department of Antiquities brought to light more than 100 new texts, the publication of which was undertaken by F. Safar in the journal Sumer. The first four series were the subject of reviews in the journal Syria. The texts range in date from the 2nd or 3rd century BCE to the destruction of the city ca. 240 CE; the earliest dated text provides a date of 98 BCE.
For the most part, these inscriptions are short commemorative graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
with minimal text. The longest of the engraved inscriptions does not have more than 13 lines. It is therefore difficult at the moment to identify more than a few features of the Aramaic dialect of Hatra
Hatra
Hatra is an ancient city in the Ninawa Governorate and al-Jazira region of Iraq. It is currently known as al-Hadr, a name which appears once in ancient inscriptions, and it was in the ancient Iranian province of Khvarvaran. The city lies northwest of Baghdad and southwest of Mosul.-History:Hatra...
which, all things considered, shows the greatest affinity to Syriac.
The stone inscriptions bear witness to an effort to establish a monumental script. This script is little different from that of the Aramaic inscriptions of Assur
Assur
Assur , was one of the capitals of ancient Assyria. The remains of the city are situated on the western bank of river Tigris, north of the confluence with the tributary Little Zab river, in modern day Iraq, more precisely in the Al-Shirqat District .Assur is also...
(possessing the same triangular š, and the use of the same means to avoid confusion between m, s, and q). The ds and the rs are not distinguished from one another, and it is sometimes difficult not to confuse w and y.
Orthography
The dialect of HatraHatra
Hatra is an ancient city in the Ninawa Governorate and al-Jazira region of Iraq. It is currently known as al-Hadr, a name which appears once in ancient inscriptions, and it was in the ancient Iranian province of Khvarvaran. The city lies northwest of Baghdad and southwest of Mosul.-History:Hatra...
is no more consistent than that of Palmyra
Palmyra
Palmyra was an ancient city in Syria. In the age of antiquity, it was an important city of central Syria, located in an oasis 215 km northeast of Damascus and 180 km southwest of the Euphrates at Deir ez-Zor. It had long been a vital caravan city for travellers crossing the Syrian desert...
in its use of matres lectiones to indicate the long vowels ō and ī; the pronominal suffix of the 3rd person plural is written indiscriminantly, and in the same inscription one finds hwn and hn, the quantifier kwl and kl "all", the relative pronoun dy and d, and the word byš and bš "evil".
Lenition
A weakening of the laryngealLaryngeal
Laryngeal may mean*pertaining to the larynx*in Indo-European linguistics, a consonant postulated in the laryngeal theory*in phonetics, an alternate term for glottal sounds....
‘ayn; in one inscription, the masculine singular demonstrative adjective is written ‘dyn (‘dyn ktb’ "this inscription") which corresponds to Mandaic and Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic hādēn. Similar demonstratives, ‘adī and ‘adā, are attested in Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic.
Dissimilation
- The surname "the court" () and the proper name , which resembles the Nabataean and the SafaiticSafaiticSafaitic is the name given to an Old North Arabian dialect, preserved in the form of inscriptions which are written in a type of South Semitic script. These inscriptions were written by bedouin and semi-nomadic inhabitants of the Syro-Arabian desert...
, demonstrate a regressive dissimilation of emphasis, examples of which are found already in Old Aramaic, rather than a loss of the emphasis of q, which is found in Mandaic and Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic. - Dissimilation of geminate consonants through n-insertion: the adjective šappīr "beautiful" is regularly written šnpyr; likewise, the divine name gadd "Tyché" is once written gd, but more commonly appears as gnd. This is a common phenomenon in Aramaic; BrockelmannCarl BrockelmannCarl Brockelmann , German Semiticist, was the foremost orientalist of his generation. He was a professor at the universities in Breslau, Berlin and, from 1903, Königsberg...
, however, claims that it is a characteristic feature of the northern dialect to which ArmenianArmenian languageThe Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...
owes its Aramaic loans.
Vocalism
The divine name Nergal, written nrgl, appears in three inscriptions. The pronunciation nergōl is also attested in the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin, 63b) where it rhymes with tarnəgōl, "cock."Syntactic Phonology
The Hatran b-yld corresponds to the Syriac bēt yaldā "anniversary". The apocopeApocope
In phonology, apocope is the loss of one or more sounds from the end of a word, and especially the loss of an unstressed vowel.-Historical sound change:...
of the final consonant of the substantive bt in the construct state is not attested in either Old Aramaic or Syriac; it is, however, attested in other dialects such as Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic and Western Jewish Aramaic.
Verbal Morphology
- The Perfect: The first person singular of the perfect appears only in one inscription: ’n’ ... ktbyt "I ... wrote"; this is the regular vocalization elsewhere among those Aramaic dialects in which it is attested.
- The causative perfect of qm "demand" should be vocalized ’ēqīm, which is evident from the written forms ’yqym (which appears beside ’qym), the feminine ’yqymt, and the third person plural, ’yqmw. This detail distinguishes Hatran as well as Syriac and Mandaic from the western Jewish and Christian dialects. The vocalization of the preformative poses the same problem as the HebrewHebrew languageHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
hēqīm.
- The Imperfect: The third person of the masculine singular is well attested; it consistently has the preformative l-.
- In the jussive: "that Bacl Šemēn may announce it" (Syriac ), "that he not oppress them" (Syriac "to oppress," lit. "to carry away with force").
- In the indicative: "whoever strikes him" (Syriac ), "whoever reads it and does not make mention of it", "whoever goes from here to Mesene", "whoever passes ... and writes over".
- The preformative l- is employed identically in the Aramaic of AssurAssurAssur , was one of the capitals of ancient Assyria. The remains of the city are situated on the western bank of river Tigris, north of the confluence with the tributary Little Zab river, in modern day Iraq, more precisely in the Al-Shirqat District .Assur is also...
. The dialect of HatraHatraHatra is an ancient city in the Ninawa Governorate and al-Jazira region of Iraq. It is currently known as al-Hadr, a name which appears once in ancient inscriptions, and it was in the ancient Iranian province of Khvarvaran. The city lies northwest of Baghdad and southwest of Mosul.-History:Hatra...
is thus further distinguished from Syriac (which uses an n- preformative) and also from Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic, in which the use of the l- preformative for the indicative is not consistent.
Nominal Morphology
The distinction between the three states is apparent. As in Syriac, the masculine plural form of the emphatic state has the inflection -ē, written -’. The confusion of this form with that of the construct state may explain the constructions "sons of Š." and "their cousins." The absolute state is scarcely used: klbn "dogs" and dkyrn "(that they may be) remembered."Numbers
The ancient SemiticSemitic
In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages...
construction, according to which the counted noun, in the plural, is preceded by a numeral in the construct state, with an inversion of genders, is attested by one inscription: tltt klbn "three dogs." This same construction has been discovered in Nabataean: tltt qysrym "the three Caesars."
Syntax
As in Syriac, the analytical construction of the noun complement is common. The use of the construct state appears to be limited to kinship terms and some adjectives: . In the analytical construction, the definite noun is either in the emphatic state followed by d(y) (e.g. "statue of...", "the scribe of (the god) Barmarēn") or is marked by the anticipatory pronominal suffix (e.g. "creator of the earth," "for the life of his brother," "against the hair (Syriac zemtā) of whomever..."). The complement of the object of the verb is also rendered analytically: "do not make mention of N.", "whoever reads this inscription."Likewise, the particle d(y) can have a simple declarative meaning: "(a curse against whomever) does not say, 'may he be well remembered'" which can be compared with .
Vocabulary
Practically all of the known Hatran words are found in Syriac, including words of AkkadianAkkadian language
Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
origin, such as ’rdkl’ "architect" (Syriac ’ardiklā), and Parthian
Parthian language
The Parthian language, also known as Arsacid Pahlavi and Pahlavanik, is a now-extinct ancient Northwestern Iranian language spoken in Parthia, a region of northeastern ancient Persia during the rule of the Parthian empire....
professional nouns such as pšgryb’ / pzgryb’ "inheritor of the throne" (Syriac ); three new nouns, which appear to denote some religious functions, are presumably of Iranian origin: (which Safar compares with the Pahlavi hylpt’ hērbed "teacher-priest"), and the enigmatic terms brpdmrk’ and qwtgd/ry’.
Final Observations
Many "irregularities" revealed by the texts of HatraHatra
Hatra is an ancient city in the Ninawa Governorate and al-Jazira region of Iraq. It is currently known as al-Hadr, a name which appears once in ancient inscriptions, and it was in the ancient Iranian province of Khvarvaran. The city lies northwest of Baghdad and southwest of Mosul.-History:Hatra...
(e.g. the use of the emphatic state in place of the construct state, use of the construct state before the particle dy, inconsistent use of the matres lectiones, etc.) are found systematically in other Aramaic inscriptions throughout the duration of the Arsacid era, between the 3rd c. BCE and the 3rd c. CE (previously, in part, at Kandahar
Kandahar
Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 512,200 as of 2011. It is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...
, but primarily at Nisa
Nisa
-Locations:*Nısa - a village in Azerbaijan*Nisa, Portugal - a municipality in the district of Portalegre*Nisa, Turkmenistan - an ancient city , first capital of the Parthians-Organizations:*The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency in Japan....
, Avromân, Armazi
Armazi
Armazi was, according to the medieval Georgian chronicles, the supreme deity in a pre-Christian pantheon of ancient Georgians of Kartli ....
, Tang-i Sarvak, etc.). We could therefore legitimately ask ourselves if, instead of speaking of "irregularities," which would be due, following each instance, to "scribal negligence," " archaisms of the language," and "orthographic indecision," etc., we should rather speak of the characteristics of these Aramaic dialects in their progressive developments (varying according to each region), which one could label "vernacular Aramaic" to distinguish them from "classical Aramaic."