The Hebrew alphabet became the founder for many other languages ​​(including most European ones).

Hebrew alphabet and Russian language

The Hebrew alphabet is the ancestor of modern Russian. And he, in turn, comes from - Cyrillic, processed from Greek. The Hebrew alphabet with transcription has survived to this day almost unchanged. Despite the fact that in the Middle Ages different regions practiced their own stylization, changing letters, these changes were insignificant. Such modifications only beautified the Hebrew alphabet. With a translation into Russian, you can see several similar letters even now.

Number of letters in the alphabet: vowels and consonants

How many letters are in the Hebrew alphabet is a simple question. The Hebrew alphabet includes 22 letters. There is no difference between lowercase and uppercase letters. But there are also features. The alphabet consists only of consonants. Consonants are used to write vowels.

Features of the Hebrew alphabet

The Hebrew alphabet uses a system (dots) to write vowels. Such dots are placed above or below the letter. In addition to a special recording system, 4 consonants are used. These are Aleph, Gay, Vav and Yod. In Yiddish, these letters completely lost their role as consonants and became vowels.

Hebrew alphabet: 3 groups of letters

All letters of the Hebrew alphabet are divided into 3 groups: three "mothers", 7 "double" and 12 "simple".

The 3 letters of the first group point to the Sefirot Hochma, Binah and Daat.

"Double" letters are letters that are pronounced in two ways.

"Simple" 12 letters indicate a branch, called "12 borders of diagonals". They represent the 4 cardinal directions, up and down. The 12 borders of the diagonals reflect the connection between them.

Hebrew alphabet: the meaning of the letters

The Hebrew alphabet is unique. It has a hidden meaning in the order of letters, pronunciation and rules of use. The Hebrew alphabet with a translation into Russian acquires and involves a detailed decoding and study. There is also hidden information in the names, forms of letters, as they are written (if we talk about the spelling in the Torah scrolls, tefillin or mezutot).

Meanings of numbers in the Hebrew alphabet

The Hebrew alphabet, the meaning of letters and numbers (gematria) is a body of knowledge accumulated over the centuries. The presence of information for each letter is an additional story transmitted from past centuries and has come down to the present day. Each number is associated with the semantic meaning of the letter, but it can also carry a separate story.

Origin of the Hebrew alphabet

The ancestor of the Hebrew alphabet was the ancient Semitic or Phoenician. The Hebrew alphabet was borrowed from the Aramaic, gradually adding something of its own. There is an opinion that the Hebrew alphabet is older than the Aramaic, but this probability is small, since the Jews lived in the neighborhood with two alphabets. And it makes it possible to use Aramaic letters in Hebrew writing, or vice versa. Scribes could confuse letters when writing due to their similarity.

The Hebrew alphabet with translation and its own characteristics independently begins to exist later. The evidence is numerous finds, inscriptions on the cave, column, coins. The Hebrew alphabet in Russian can be read below, with a decoding of the designation of each letter.

Alphabet, letter meanings

1. "Aleph" (the numerical value of the letter is 1). This number means the unity of all that exists. If the world is a set of everything interacting with each other, then 1 is the unity of everything.

2. Base (bet) (2). If Aleph is unity, then Beth (bet) is plurality and diversity, that is, the duality of nature and the possibility of connection.

If there is a world and a person, then the purpose of a person is creation, the realization of the potential inherent in a person. And in this there is an opportunity or freedom to choose, to choose between good and evil.

3. "Gimel" (3). Gimel is the top of the proposed triangle, which is also formed by the first two letters of the Alefbet alphabet. If aleph is unity, bet is plurality, then gimel is the connection between them, the connection.

4. "Dalet" (4). The letter Dalet symbolizes a poor person, Dalet is an open door that opens in front of the needy who came for help. But the dalet is not addressed to the gimel (the previous letter), which means that the provision of assistance to the needy must come from a person, but the recipient of this assistance should not know from whom he receives it. The meaning of the letter 4 indicates 4 cardinal directions. The letter itself consists of two lines, which means spreading in length and width.

5. "Gay" (gey) (5). The Hebrew alphabet in its alphabetic symbolism has a special meaning. In particular, the letter gay is the basis of speech. All uttered sounds are made on exhalation, which is the basis of this letter. The letter symbolizes the diversity of the world. The numerical value corresponds to 5 books of the Torah.

6. "Vov" (vav) (6). The number 6 symbolizes the perfection of the world. Each point can be determined by 6 coordinates: top, bottom. Also, the value of this figure is confirmed by 6 days. The world was created in 6 days. In grammar, the letter vav is a connecting conjunction that connects words and parts of a sentence.

7. "Zain" (7). This is spirituality in the material world. The 6 directions along which any point can be defined are connected at the center by a seventh point. The 6 days of the creation of the world end on the 7th day, Saturday. Everything in the world has its purpose, and everything has its spark, which is the source of being. The symbol of the spark is the letter zayin.

8. "Het" (8). The letter het is associated with the concept of charisma, uniqueness in the eyes of other people. This quality is endowed with a person who has achieved harmony, which is reflected by the previous Hebrew letters. The alphabet also has a negative meaning. For example, the letter khet can be read as "sin". The meaning is that sins make it impossible to see and understand the universe itself, leaving only material goods.

9. "Tes" (tet) (9). The letter is a symbol of eternity and truth, symbolizes the meaning of good. Also, this letter symbolizes 9 months of pregnancy.

10. "Yod" (10). The small size of the letter symbolizes modesty. The creation of the world was according to 10 sayings of God. The letter also recalls the 10 commandments.

11. "Kaf" (haf) (20). The letter means palm and corresponds to practical activities. This letter is the first in the word power, crown. It literally shows the potential of a person.

12. "Lamed" (30). The letter symbolizes the heart, denotes teaching. The literal meaning is "teach".

13. "Mem" (40). This letter begins the word water and stands for fountains. The number 40 symbolizes 40 days, Moshe Rabbeinu spent just such a number of days on Mount Sinai, receiving the Written Torah, 40 days lasted Jews wandered for 40 years, 40 generations separate Moshe until the end of the Talmud.

14. "Nun" (50). The letter symbolizes a faithful and believing person. Faith is the key to excellence. Suppression of faith leads to 50 gates of spiritual impurity. Means "fish" in Aramaic.

15. "Samech" (60). Symbolizes a miracle. After 50 steps of impurity, the Almighty brought people out of slavery with the help of a miracle.

16. "Ain" (70). The letter itself means eye, but indicates the deep meaning of the Torah. The literal meaning of the letter is Divine Providence, the all-seeing God. Kabbalah says that the eyes have 5 powers: the right eye - 5 powers of kindness, the left eye - 5 powers of severity. There are 70 languages, 70 peoples of the world, the Babylonian exile was 70 years, the life span of King David was 70 years.

17. "Pe" (fe) (80). The letter symbolizes the power of speech, and in Hebrew means "mouth". And points to the principle of Jewish jurisprudence. Oral testimony in court is possible if the person was a witness in person. And before testifying in court, a person should think twice.

18. "Tzadi" (90). The letter symbolizes a righteous person. In its normal form, the letter is bent, which suggests the modesty of such a person, in the final form, the letter is straightened, which promises a reward for a righteous person.

19. "Kof" (100). The letter is translated from Hebrew as "monkey" and symbolizes duality. On the one hand, it means holiness, on the other hand, spiritual impurity (imitation of a monkey to a person).

20. "Resh" (200). Translated from Aramaic, the letter translates as "head". It symbolizes a sinner, pride, the desire for one's superiority.

21. "Shin" (sin) (300). The letter symbolizes the three forefathers. Three forefathers symbolize three types of service: mercy, severity, harmony.

22. "Tav" (400). The letter symbolizes truth, the universality of truth.

The meaning of the number in the Hebrew alphabet

The numerical values ​​of the letters reflect the essence of things, their connection with each other. Despite the same numerical values, things can be completely different. For example, any few words that have the same number can be completely different. The same numbers only mean that the same number of Divine powers were put into the creation of these things.

Literal translation of the Our Father prayer from Aramaic, read and feel the difference:

Oh Breathing Life,
Your name shines everywhere!
Free up space
To plant Your presence!
Imagine in your imagination
Your "I can" now!
Clothe Your desire in every light and form!
Sprout through us bread and
Insight for every moment!
Untie the knots of failure that bind us
As we free the rope ropes
by which we restrain the misdeeds of others!
Help us not to forget our Source.
But free us from the immaturity of not being in the Present!
Everything comes from you
Vision, Power and Song
From meeting to meeting!
Amen. May our next actions grow from here.

****
When and why did the mention of the evil one (Satan) appear in the prayer "Our Father"?
In ancient Church Slavonic there is no evil: "... and do not lead us into attack, deliver us from enmity." Who added "onion" to the main prayer of Jesus Christ?

The Lord's Prayer, known to every Christian since childhood, is a concentrated presentation of the entire Christian doctrine. At the same time, it is one of the most perfect literary works ever recorded in writing.

This is the accepted view of the short Lord's Prayer that Jesus taught His disciples.

How is this possible? After all, many volumes were needed for a complete presentation of religious teachings in other religions. And Jesus didn't even ask His disciples to write down her every word.

Just during the Sermon on the Mount He said (Matthew 6:9:13):

"Pray like this:

Our Father, who art in heaven!



And leave us our debts,
like we leave our debtor.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.”

But this is not the only way to translate the Lord's Prayer into Russian. In the edition of the Gospel of 1892 that the author has, there is a slightly different version:

"Our Father, who art in heaven!
hallowed be thy name; let your kingdom come;
may Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;
give us our daily bread for this day;
and forgive us our debts;
our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;

In the modern, canonical edition of the Bible (with parallel places), we find almost the same version of the translation of the Prayer:

"Our Father who art in heaven!
hallowed be thy name; Let your kingdom come;
may Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;
give us our daily bread this day;
and forgive us our debts;
just as we forgive our debtors;
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;

In the Old Church Slavonic translation, the Prayer (if written in the modern alphabet) sounds closer to the first version:

"Our Father, who art in heaven!
May your name be hallowed! Let your kingdom come;
May Your will be done as in heaven and on earth.
Give us our daily bread today.
And leave us our debts,
as if we leave our debtor.
And do not lead us into misfortune,
but deliver us from the evil one.”

These translations use different words to denote the same concepts. “Forgive us” and “leave us”, “attack” and “temptation”, “who art in heaven” and “who is in heaven” mean the same thing.

There is no distortion of the meaning and spirit of the words given by Christ to His disciples in any of these options. But comparing them, one can come to the important conclusion that the literal transmission of the Words of Jesus is not only impossible, but not mandatory.

In the English translations of the Gospels, one can find several different versions, but all of them can be considered authentic, because in them the meaning of the Prayer and its spirit are adequately conveyed.

The Lord's Prayer became widespread immediately after the crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus. This can be seen at least from the fact that it was found in such remote points as the city of Pompeii (that is, it was there before Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.)

At the same time, the original text of the Lord's Prayer has not come down to us in its original form.

In translations into Russian, the Lord's Prayer sounds the same in the Gospels of Matthew (6:9-13) and Luke (11:2-4). We find the same text in the Gospels KJV (King James Version) in English.

If we take the Greek source, we will be surprised to find that the familiar words “who are in heaven”, “Thy will be done as in heaven and on earth” and “deliver us from the evil one” are absent in the Gospel of Luke.

There are many versions explaining the reasons for the disappearance of these words in the Gospel of Luke and their appearance in translations, and later in modern Greek editions of the Gospel. We will not dwell on this, for what matters to us is not the letter, but the spirit of the great Prayer.

Jesus did not command us to pray by memorizing His words literally. He simply said "Pray like this:" that is, "pray like this."

Konstantin Glinka

"Our Father" in Aramaic

Today in the morning I dreamed that I was walking with someone unfamiliar through the rocky desert and looking into the sun-drenched sky. Suddenly I noticed that either a carved gilded casket or a book in the same binding was rapidly approaching us.

I didn’t have time to tell my friend that objects were falling from the sky so easily in the desert, and it’s good that it wasn’t on my head, when I realized that the object was flying straight at me. A second later, he crashed to my right, where my friend should have been. I was so stunned that I woke up before I looked in the direction of the unfortunate comrade.

The morning began unusually: on the Internet I came across “Our Father” in the language of Jesus. The translation from Aramaic shocked me so much that I was late for work, checking if it was fake. ".

That is, as far as I understand, the Greek primary source used to be the dominant authority in theological disputes, but absurdities were noticed in it that could arise when translated from the original language. In other words, the Greek version is not primary.

The Aramaic version of the Gospel ("Peshitta", in the Edessa dialect of Aramaic) exists, but it is a translation from Greek.

True, as it turned out, not complete. And not only in the sense of the absence of some parts: there are places in it that have been preserved in an older form, since they were already written in Aramaic.

This also applies to the famous main prayer of Christians "Our Father".
*******
And if you translate literally:

Abwoon d "bwashmaya
Nethqadash shmakh
Teytey malkuthakh
Nehwey tzevyanach aykanna d "bwashmaya aph b" arha.
Hawvlah lachma d "sunqanan yaomana

Wela tahlan l "nesyuna ela patzan min bisha.
Metol dilakhie malkutha wahayla wateshbukhta l "ahlam almin.
Ameyn.
Abwoon d "bwashmaya (Official translation: Our Father!)

Literal: Abwoon translates as Divine parent (fruitful emanation of light). d "bwashmaya - the sky; the root shm - light, flame, the divine word that arises in space, the ending aya - indicates that this radiance occurs everywhere, at any point in space

Nethqadash shmakh (Official translation: Hallowed be thy name)

Literal: Nethqadash translates as purification or an object for sweeping rubbish (clear a place for something). Shmakh - spreading (Shm - fire) and letting go of inner fuss, finding silence. The literal translation is the cleansing of the space for the Name.

Teytey malkuthakh (Official translation: Thy Kingdom come)

Literal: Tey is translated as come, but the double repetition means mutual desire (sometimes - a marriage bed). Malkuthakh is traditionally translated as a kingdom, symbolically a fruitful hand, gardens of the earth; wisdom, purification of the ideal, making it personal for oneself; come home; Yin (creative) hypostasis of fire.

Nehwey tzevyanach aykanna d "bwashmaya aph b" arha. (Official translation: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven)

Literal: Tzevyanach translates as will, but not strength, but the desire of the heart. One of the translations is naturalness, origin, the gift of life. Aykanna means constancy, embodiment in life. Aph - personal orientation. Arha - earth, b "- means living; b" arha - a combination of form and energy, spiritualized matter.
Hawvlah lachma d "sunqanan yaomana (Official translation: Give us our daily bread for this day)

Literal: Hawvlah translates to give (gifts of the soul and gifts of the material). lachma - bread necessary, vital for maintaining life, understanding of life (chma - growing passion, growth, increase). D "sunqanan - needs, what I can own, how much I could carry; yaomana - necessary to maintain the spirit, life force.

Washboqlan khuabayn aykana daph khan shbwoqan l "khayyabayn.
(Official translation: And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors)
Literal: Khuabayn translates as debts, internal accumulated energies that destroy us; in some texts, instead of khuabayn is wakhtahayn, which is translated as unfulfilled hopes. Aykana - letting go (passive voluntary action).

Wela tahlan l "nesyuna (Official translation: And do not lead us into temptation)

Literal: Wela tahlan translates to "don't let us in"; l "nesyuna - illusion, fluctuation anxiety, gross matter; symbolic translation - wandering mind.

Ela patzan min bisha. (Official translation: but deliver us from the evil one)

Literal: Ela – immaturity; symbolic translation - inappropriate actions. Patzan - untie, give freedom; min bisha - from evil

Metol dilakhie malkutha wahayla wateshbukhta l "ahlam almin. (Official translation: For Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever.)

Literal: Metol dilakhie is translated as the idea of ​​owning something that bears fruit (ploughed land); malkutha - kingdom, kingdom, symbolic translation - "I can"; wahayla - the concept of life force, energy, tuning in unison that supports life; wateshbukhta - glory, harmony, Divine power, symbolic translation - generating fire; l "ahlam almin - from century to century.

Ameyn. (Official translation: Amen.)

Ameyn - manifestation of the will, affirmation, swearing an oath. Instills strength and spirit in everything created

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About the title

The traditional designation of the language of written monuments that have come down to us from the territory of historical Palestine and date back to the period from the 10th century. BC e. according to the II century. n. e., in Russian Hebraic literature is the "Hebrew language". The less cumbersome term "Jewish language", identical to the common European usage, in Russian and Soviet linguistic terminology was more often associated with the spoken language of Eastern European Jews (Yiddish), but recently the use of the combination "Jewish language" in relation to the Yiddish language is found only occasionally. In the scientific and popular literature of recent years, the Hebrew language is sometimes referred to as "Hebrew" (also "Biblical Hebrew" - tracing paper from the English Biblical Hebrew).

The language of late antique, medieval and later monuments, in the Russian Hebraic tradition, is usually also called Hebrew, with the corresponding definition: Mishnaic Hebrew, Medieval Hebrew.

self-name

The oldest designation for the Hebrew language found in the Bible is ŝəpat kənáʕan ‛language of Canaan’.

More often, the adjective yəhudit 'Jewish' (feminine form, in agreement with ŝåpå or låšon 'language') is used as a lingvonim. This designation, apparently, was used by the inhabitants of the southern part of Palestine - Judea (heb. yəhudå). The dialect that existed in the northern (Israeli) area, apparently, was designated by its speakers differently, but information about this has not come down to us.

The designation of the Hebrew language by the term ʕibrit (a relative adjective of obscure etymology) has a complicated history. In the Old Testament, the adjective ʕibrit does not appear as a language designation. Within the framework of the Jewish tradition, the use of the term ʕibrit as a designation of the Hebrew language is first recorded in the Mishnah and the Talmud. Characteristically, examples of this kind in the Mishnah and Talmud are rather few: the designation ləšon ha-ḳḳódäš 'sacred language' was more common in the rabbinical era. The linguonym ʕibrit is widely used in the works of Hebrew grammarians of the Middle Ages, beginning with Saadia Gaon (882-942), where it is used as an equivalent of the Arabic designation ʔal-luγatu l-ʕibrāniyyatu.

In modern times, ʕibrit functions as the main designation of the Hebrew language in modern Hebrew (in Israeli pronunciation; the clarifying definition of mikra’it ‛biblical’ can be used for the language of the biblical corpus).

In other languages

Outside of Jewish tradition, Hebrew has almost always been denoted by terms related to ʕibri(t) in one way or another. Numerous evidence of this kind is noted in the Greek-language works of the 1st century BC. n. e., for example, hebraicos, hebrais dialectos, hebraisti in Josephus and in the Gospel of John. At least in some places, the authors could also have in mind the Aramaic language, but already in the prologue to the Greek translation of the Hebrew book of the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach (III-II centuries BC), the expression en heautois hebraisti “in Hebrew ” undoubtedly refers to Hebrew (the author, describing his translation work, notes: “since the words pronounced in Hebrew, but translated into another language, do not have the same power”).

To the Latin terms hebraitas, lingua hebraica, in one way or another, the designations of the Hebrew language in modern European languages ​​(English Hebrew, German Hebräisch, French l’hébreu) ​​go back. In relation to the language of the biblical period, clarifying definitions can be used in linguistic literature (for example, English Biblical Hebrew, Classical Hebrew, Ancient Hebrew).

Linguistic geography

Range and abundance

In historical and geographical terms, the Hebrew language occupied an area bounded by the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the Sinai Peninsula and the Red Sea in the southwest and south, r. Jordan, Lake Tiberias, the Dead Sea and the Arava Valley in the east; on the political map of modern times, this territory basically corresponds to the modern borders of the State of Israel, including the West Bank of the Jordan River.

Epigraphic finds show that until the fall of the kingdom of Israel in 722 BC. e. the Hebrew language was more or less distributed throughout its territory, from Hatzor and Dan in the north to the southern regions of the Negev desert. After the fall of the kingdom of Israel and the deportation of its population, the existence of the Hebrew language on its territory, apparently, ceased. Within the boundaries of the Kingdom of Judah, the greatest concentration of epigraphic monuments in Hebrew is characteristic of the interior regions (Jerusalem, Lachish, Arad), but there is some evidence of its existence in the Mediterranean coast (Metsad Khashavyahu, Ashdod, Khirbet en-Nebi Hudj).

According to biblical tradition, at certain periods the Hebrew language was also spread east of the river. Jordan (see below about the “Shibboleth episode”), however, external evidence confirming this is scarce (see, for example, the mention of the Israelites from the Gad tribe living in Transjordan in the inscription of the Moabite king Mesha).

Several brief and fragmentary Hebrew inscriptions have been discovered outside of Palestine: during excavations at the sites of Nimrud in northern Mesopotamia (the capital of the Assyrian Empire, Kalhu; the objects on which the inscriptions were made came there as part of the booty taken out by the Assyrians after the capture of Samaria) and Susa (ancient the capital of Elam). It is obvious that such finds do not indicate the spread of the Hebrew language in the respective regions. In general, the possibility of the existence of the Hebrew language outside of Palestine (for example, in Egypt or Mesopotamia) can hardly be documented.

Sociolinguistic information

There is practically no direct evidence of the functional status and rank of the Hebrew language in the biblical period. Epigraphic monuments allow us to assert that in the era of the existence of the Israeli and Jewish kingdoms, the Hebrew language was the main language of military-administrative and business correspondence and economic accounting, that is, apparently, it served as the official language. This conclusion is also supported by the very high level of standardization of the language of Hebrew prose, evident both in biblical and epigraphic monuments.

Dialects

Traditionally, the Hebrew language is postulated to have two dialects, southern (“Jewish”, or “Jerusalem”) and northern (“Israeli”), however, consideration of the linguistic features that oppose these dialects is possible only in the broad context of the chronological, geographical and genre stratification of the Hebrew language.

There are no explicit references to the existence of Hebrew dialects in the Bible. The only exception is the famous “episode of Shibboleth” (eng. Shibboleth Incident), described in the Book of Judges (12:5): the word for “ear” (according to another interpretation, “stream”) was pronounced šibbolet by the inhabitants of Gilead (Transjordan), while while the Ephraimites (northern Palestine) pronounced it sibbolät (the phonetic and phonological meaning of this distinction has been repeatedly considered in the specialized literature, but there is no generally accepted solution to this problem).

Writing

The oldest form of writing used to write texts in Hebrew is the so-called Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, similar in form to the alphabets of other Canaanite languages ​​of the 1st millennium BC. e. (Phoenician, Moabite). This alphabet (in the Jewish tradition denoted as kətåb ʕibri ‛Hebrew letter’) recorded the epigraphic monuments of the Hebrew language (in addition, the Samaritan script goes back to Paleo-Hebrew, which, in particular, the Samaritan Pentateuch is recorded).

In the last centuries of the 1st millennium BC. e. the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet falls out of use in the Jewish environment, being replaced by the so-called "square" or "Assyrian" script (kətåb mərubbåʕ, kətåb ʔaššuri), which was widely used during this period for writing texts in Aramaic. The vast majority of Hebrew manuscripts that have come down to us are written in square writing; various types of cursive writing, as well as printed fonts, are based on it.

Both Paleo-Hebrew and Square are consonantal alphabets with relatively extensive use of the letters W (ו), Y (י) and, in final position, H (ה) as matres lectionis. Although the scope of the matres lectionis in the history of the Hebrew language gradually expanded, the text written in the consonantal alphabet left room for numerous readings and interpretations. In the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. for the consistent transmission of vowel phonemes of the biblical text, a system of superscript and subscript characters was developed. In addition, another system of superscript and subscript characters (accents, or cantillation marks) serves to designate stressed syllables, large and small pauses, and other intonational characteristics.

In this article, the examples are rendered in traditional Semitic phonological transcription.

Linguistic characteristic

Phonetics and phonology

There are 23 phonemes in the consonantism of the Hebrew language (proto-Semitic interdental, emphatic lateral, uvular are lost; the non-emphatic lateral ŝ is preserved). All consonants except guttural and r can be doubled. Voiceless and voiced stop phonemes (p, t, k, b, d, g) have spirant variants with a tendency to turn them into independent phonemes.

There are 7 full-voiced phonemes in vocalism (å, a, ä, e, i, o, u) and 4 reduced ones (ə, ă, ä̆, o), the phonological status of reduced vowels (in particular, the nature of the opposition "ə - zero sound") not quite clear.

The stress is phonologically significant (cf. bǻnu 'in us' - bånú 'they built'), although most word forms are stressed on the last syllable. The mobility of stress during inflection led to the emergence of a complex system of vocal alternations.

Morphology

In nominal morphology - opposition of the masculine (not marked) and feminine (with indicators -å, -Vt), units. and many others. numbers (indicator of masculine gender -im, feminine - -ot). Some types of names in the formation of pl. h. ablaut is observed (cf. mäläk ‘king’ - pl. məlåk-im). The dual indicator -ayim is attached to a limited circle of lexemes.

Case relations are expressed analytically (the direct object is formed by the preposition ʔеt; belonging - by juxtaposing the vertex and the dependent name, sometimes with phonetic changes: dåbår ‘word’, dəbar dawid ‘David’s word’). There is an ending -å with a directional meaning (yámm-å ‘to the sea’). The definite article has the form ha-.

In verbal morphology, a reduced system of breeds (5), an “internal” (apophonic) passive, suffixal (perfect) and prefixal (imperfect) conjugations expressing past and future tenses (cf. kåtab 'he wrote' - yiktob 'he will write' ). The meaning of the present tense is expressed by the active participle (hu koteb ‘he writes’). In a narrative text, combinations of the perfect and imperfect forms with the union wə/wa ‘and’ have the opposite meanings of these forms without this union: cf. wəkåtab ‘he will write’ (wə with the perfect) - wayyiktob ‘he wrote’ (wa with the imperfect); the interpretation of this phenomenon remains controversial. There are moods: imperative (kətob 'write'), cohortative (only in the 1st person: ʔäšmər-å 'yes I will keep'), some verbs have jussiv (cf. imperfect yåʕum 'he will get up' - jussiv yåʕom 'let him get up'). 2 infinitives - conjugate (kətob), absolute (kåtob).

Syntax

The neutral word order is "subject + predicate" in a nominal sentence, "predicate + subject + (direct object)" in a verb. Dependent words follow the vertex ones.

Vocabulary

In the vocabulary there are Arameisms, borrowings from the Akkadian language, the ancient Egyptian language, the ancient Persian language, in the Mishnaic monuments - Greekisms and Latinisms.

Notes

1. (Jes 19.18: ba-yyom ha-hu yihyu ḥåmeš ʕårim bəʔä́räṣ miṣráyim mədabbərot ŝəpat kənáʕan ‛that day five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan’, a prophecy about the conversion of the Egyptians to Christianity)
2. In 2R 18.26, 29 (= Jes 36.11, 13 = 2Chr 32.18) and in Ne 13.24
3. In general, in the text of the Old Testament, the adjective ʕibri ‛Jew(sky)’ (female ʕibrit) is rare and has a specific usage, as a rule, denoting the Israelites in situations of contact with representatives of other peoples. The greatest concentration of this kind of use is noted in the books of Genesis (Joseph in Egypt), Exodus (exodus of the Jews from Egypt) and the first book of Samuel (Philistine wars), see also Jon 1.9 (Jonah and the sailors) and Gn 14.13 (Abraham and the Canaanites). The predominance of passages that are direct speech, both of foreigners and of the Israelites themselves, is characteristic.
4. For example, Mishnah Yadaim 4.5 (targum šä-kkåtəbu ʕibrit wə-ʕibrit šä-kkåtəbu targum<…>ʔeno məṭamme ʔät-hayyšådayim ‛Aramaic (Bible text) written in Hebrew (i.e. translated into Hebrew) and Hebrew (Bible text) written in Aramaic (i.e. translated into Aramaic)<…>does not defile hands (that is, it does not have a sacred character)’, Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 1.8 (4 ləšonot nåʔim šä-yyištammeš båhem håʕolam<…>láʕaz ləzämär romi liḳråb sursi ləʔilyå ʕibri lədibbur 'there are four languages ​​suitable for people to use: Greek for singing, Latin for war, Aramaic for mourning, and Hebrew for conversation').
5. bəbåbäl låšōn ʔărammi ləmå? ʔällå ʔo ləšon ha-ḳḳódäš ʔo låšon parsi ‛Why (use) Aramaic (language) in Babylonia? No, or the sacred language, or the Persian language!’ (Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 49.2

> see also

• Jewish languages
• Hebrew

The Aramaic script was used to write text in the language of the same name, in which trade transactions were conducted in the Middle East from about 1000 BC. e. and up to 1000 AD. e. It comes from the Phoenician script. Since the evolution from one to the other has been a continuous process for about 2000 years, it is difficult to separate them into separate Phoenician and Aramaic blocks. However, scholars agree that the divergence between them began around the 8th century BC. The script used in Western Europe and the Mediterranean is called Phoenician, and the one used in the Middle East, Central and South Asia is called Aramaic.

Language of the Persian Empire

Aramaic was the official language of the Achaemenid Empire from the 5th to the 3rd century BC. e. It was used in what is now Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Macedonia, Iraq, northern Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and parts of Egypt. The Aramaic script was so common that it survived the collapse of the Persian Empire and continued to be used until the 2nd century AD. By the end of the 3rd century, other forms emerged from this alphabet, which formed the basis of the Syriac, Nabataean and Pamir scripts.

The least changed form of Aramaic of Persia is now used in Hebrew. The cursive Hebrew variant developed in the first centuries CE. e., but it was used only in a narrow circle. In contrast, cursive, developed from the Nabataean alphabet in the same period, soon became the standard and was used in the developing period. This happened during the early spread of Islam.

Aramaic writing and features of its writing

Aramaic was written from right to left, with spaces between words. The abjad system was used: each of the twenty-two letters represented a consonant. Since the interpretation of some words was ambiguous when vowels were not written in, Aramaic scribes began to use some of the existing consonants to indicate long vowels (first at the end of words, then inside). Letters that have this double consonant/vowel function are called matres lectionis. The letters waw and yudh can represent respectively the consonants [w] and [j] or the long vowels , , respectively. Similarly, the letter "alaf" represents a consonant [ʔ] at the beginning of a word, or a long vowel elsewhere.

Another feature of Aramaic writing is the presence of a section mark to indicate thematic headings in texts. Aramaic orthography was very systematic. Often the spelling of words more accurately reflected their etymology than their pronunciation.

Above is a photo of Aramaic writing. This is a rare manuscript, namely an ancient Syriac manuscript about Rikin Al Kiddas (holy power). It also contains a postscript written in Arabic and a note that this manuscript was purchased by Abraham Ben Jacob.

Branches of the Aramaic script

The Aramaic script serves as the basis for various alphabets that eventually came to be used by many peoples in the Middle East. One example is the square Hebrew script.

Another important Aramaic offshoot is Nabataean, which eventually evolved into Arabic script, replacing older Arabian scripts such as South Arabic and Thamudic.

In addition, it is the Aramaic script that is believed to have influenced the development of scripts in India. Many of the characters in the Kharosty and Brahmi scripts bear some resemblance to the letters in the Aramaic alphabet. It is not clear what the exact relationship between Indian and Aramaic is, but the latter was certainly known in northwestern India, and to some extent it influenced the development of writing in South Asia.

Another important branch of Aramaic writing was the Pahlavi script, which in turn developed Avestan and Sogdian. The Sogdian script, which is used in Central Asia, has branched out into the Uighur, Mongolian, and Manchu alphabets.

As can be seen, the Aramaic language was a kind of base in the history of the development of writing in Asia. It spawned recording systems used by many countries in vastly different geographic locations.

Modern Aramaic

Today, biblical texts, including the Talmud, are written in Hebrew. Syriac and Neo-Aramaic dialects are written using the Syriac alphabet.

Due to the almost complete identity of Aramaic and Classical, the Aramaic text in scholarly literature is mostly typed in Standard Hebrew.

Letters on a dreidel

Dreidel is a spinning top used for games during the Hanukkah festival. It has four Hebrew/Aramaic letters: shin, hey, gimel, nun/gamal, heh, noon, pe.

The custom of playing dreidel is based on the legend that in the time of the Maccabees, when Jewish children were forbidden to study the Torah, they still bypassed the ban and studied. When the Greek official approached, they would put away their books and spin the tops, claiming they were just playing games.

The letters on the dreidel are the first letters in the Hebrew phrase meaning "a great miracle happened there", that is, in the land of Israel. In Israel, the letter "pe" (for the Hebrew word "po" meaning "here") replaces the letter shin to describe "the great miracle that happened here."

A short self-instruction manual for the Hebrew language

The Hebrew language belongs to the Semitic group of languages, which also includes (Phoenician, Aramaic, Arabic, etc.). Subsequently, the Greeks borrowed the letter from the Phoenicians, and the Latin and Cyrillic / Glagolitic alphabets originated from the Greek alphabet. Writing in Hebrew is one of the first on earth. It is assumed that the first texts included in the Old Testament were dated 1200 BC. The first writing in this language originated in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC.

Due to the fact that they wrote then mainly on stone by knocking out signs with some pointed object held by the left hand and hammer blows clamped in the right hand, it was easier to write not from left to right, but from right to left. There was no division into uppercase and lowercase letters. Also, given the imperfection and complexity of the letter, only letters corresponding to consonant sounds were knocked out. For example, the word “Man” with such a writing system would be written as “KVLCH”, and the words “House”, “House”, “Lady” would be written in the same way - “MD”. The skill of reading texts correctly was transmitted orally.

From the middle of the 1st millennium AD. Jewish scholars (masoretes - from the Hebrew word “masorah”, which means tradition) began to designate vowels with the help of special diacritical marks affixed in the biblical text. The Tiberias vowel designation system became generally accepted, which got its name from the city of Tiberias on the shores of Lake Gennesaret, where the most famous Masoretes lived (VIII-X centuries).

Until the end of the 1st century AD, as the Dead Sea Scrolls show, different manuscripts of the Bible were very different from each other. From the end of the 1st century AD all Jewish communities, wherever they were, began to use Bible lists almost identical to each other - at least as far as consonants are concerned.

When in the XVI century, under the influence of humanism and the Reformation, among the scientists of Christian Europe arose interest in the Hebrew language, they had to face a serious problem. It turned out that in Jewish communities scattered all over the world, traditions of reading sacred texts differed from each other. Ashkenazi and Sephardi dominated at that time. Based on the Sephardic tradition, the pronunciation of Hebrew sounds (Reuchlin's reading) has become generally accepted in European universities. The same phonetics was also the basis of the phonetics of the revived 20th century Hebrew.

The designation of consonants in a letter (in brackets is indicated the spelling of the character at the end of the word):

Writing	Pronunciation
בּ
גּ
דּ
ךּ) כּ)
ך) כ)
ם) מ)
ן) נ)
	-
ףּ) פּ)
ף) פ)
ץ) צ)
שׂ
שׁ
תּ

The designation of vowels in writing on the example of a letter בּ . In an effort to keep the main text of Scripture unchanged, the Masoretes denoted vowels by various combinations of dashes and dots below and above the letters:

Writing	Pronunciation
בִּ
בֵּ
בֶּ
בַּ
בָּ	A or O
בֹּ
בֻּ
בְּ
בֱּ
בֲּ
בֳּ

The reading rules are quite cumbersome and, unfortunately, cannot be covered in detail in such a brief presentation. At the same time, in the texts of the interlinear and attached symphonies, for all words written in Hebrew, a facilitated transliteration into Russian is given.