{"title":"An Oath for Vengeance? A vendetta with the testimony of the goddess Allāt in an Ancient North Arabian inscription from Jordan","authors":"Hani Hayajneh, Rafe Harahsheh","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgae024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgae024","url":null,"abstract":"This paper deals with a new Ancient North Arabian (ANA)-Safaitic inscription from the north-eastern basaltic region of Jordan. Its author registers a revenge-taking action for a man called S1 TR. In contrast to the usual type of Safaitic inscriptions that deal with revenge, we encounter here a case of revenge in which the Arabian goddess Allāt is called for s2 hdt ‘testimony’. The onomastic and lexical components, with special focus on the lexeme s2 hdt and its semantic field, are investigated and analyzed in light of the Semitic lexicon.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"158 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141611223","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Gezer Inscription ʿṣd pšt ‘Bundling Flax’: Revising the Arabic Cognate Etymology","authors":"Mila Neishtadt","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgae012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgae012","url":null,"abstract":"This article is dedicated to one of the main lexical cruxes of the Gezer tablet, the expression ʿṣd pšt in the third line of the inscription. I follow the longstanding understanding of the Gezer inscription, according to which pšt refers to flax. The primary innovation of the article lies in the re-evaluation of the cognate Arabic etymology. I argue that the cognate Arabic ʿḍd in both Classical and Modern Arabic does not signify ‘cutting’, as has been suggested in research thus far. Rather, it means ‘upper arm’. I then examine the Mishnaic Hebrew phrase פשתן חוצני ḥoṣne pištan ‘flax bundles’ (m. Pe’ah 6:5) which exhibits a semantic shift: ḥōṣɛn ‘bosom’ > ‘amount carried under bosom’ > ‘bundle’. Based on the revised Arabic ʿḍd ‘upper arm’ meaning, I propose a semantic parallel: the Gezer inscription’s verbal noun ʿṣd (< Proto- Semitic ‘upper arm’) has possibly experienced a semantic shift similar to that of חוצני פשתן ḥoṣne pištan ‘flax bundles’ in m. Pe’ah 6:5: ‘upper arm’ > ‘armful of produce’ > ‘bundle’. Accordingly, I suggest ʿṣd pšt means ‘bundling flax’. This suggestion offers a straightforward solution which clarifies etymological data from various Semitic languages, fits within the context of the Gezer inscription and finally resolves the agricultural ‘cutting’ flax difficulty.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"469 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141574328","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Serialism in regressive voicing assimilation: The case of heterorganic obstruent clusters in Modern Hebrew","authors":"Mufleh Salem M Alqahtani","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgae023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgae023","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines serialism (i.e. serial derivations) in regressive voicing assimilation (RVA) within the framework of harmonic serialism in coping with heterorganic obstruent clusters in Modern Hebrew. The study depends primarily on data gathered from literature, including books, articles, and theses. The findings show that RVA in Modern Hebrew operates through two derivational steps in a feeding order (i.e. transparent rule interaction): the first step involves delinking the [voice] feature of the target consonant feeds and spreading the [voice] feature of the trigger consonant. Heterorganic obstruent clusters are created by attaching the hitpa'el prefix /hit-/ to the root initial [z] and require RVA and metathesis. RVA occurs before metathesis in a counterbleeding order, constituting an opaque rule interaction. In other words, this opaque phonological derivation embodies RVA and metathesis where RVA counterbleeds metathesis. This research shows that harmonic serialism, in contrast to parallel optimality theory (P-OT), effectively expresses the generalization about RVA in Modern Hebrew.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141574315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Grammar of Emotion Verbs in the Qurʾān: A Case Study of the verb xāfa","authors":"Yehudit Dror, Salam Saied, Bayan Amara","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgae021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgae021","url":null,"abstract":"The concept of emotions has been studied from numerous perspectives in psychology, the history of emotions and religion. This study sheds light on the linguistic devices implemented to articulate emotions in the Qurʾān by taking the emotion verb xāfa ‘to fear’ or ‘to be afraid’ (and its derivatives) as a case study. In both modern and classical dictionaries of the Arabic language as well as in Quranic exegesis, the verb xāfa is often replaced by another verb that expresses fear such as xašiya ‘to be afraid’ or ‘to be in awe’. Here it is shown that the verb xāfa occurs in certain syntactic structures and has specific meanings that are not denoted by other verbs expressing fear in the Qurʾān. Specifically, when the verb xāfa is followed by a subordinate clause that starts with the particle ‘an, it can be rendered as ‘to fear’ or ‘to be afraid’ since the cause of this fear is a probable event. When the verb xāfa is followed by the preposition ‘alā it denotes ‘to fear for [the wellbeing of] someone (e.g., a family member)’ because of a situation in which they are likely to be found. When it is followed by the noun rabb ‘Lord’ or Allāh ‘God’, the verb refers to ‘fear of God’, where fear of His punishment motivates the people to worship Him. When the verbal noun xawf has no object and is used in conjunction with the verbal noun ‘amn (‘security’) it can be interpreted as ‘insecurity about something’. Because the verb xāfa is central to the religious concept of fear of God, it is used in the Qurʾān to express a general and collective attitude of fear or awe. However, xāfa is also used to express individual experiences of fright at specific times or places.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"100 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141506823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Syntax of the Jewish Arabic Dialect of Wad-Souf (Saharan Algeria)","authors":"Wiktor Gębski","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgae006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgae006","url":null,"abstract":"Jewish dialects of Algerian Arabic remain terra incognita within Arabic dialectology. This paper addresses this lacuna and examines specific syntactic aspects within the critically endangered Jewish dialect of Wad-Souf. The study selectively focuses on the topics relevant to the ongoing discussions in the field of Arabic dialectology and the sub-field of Judaeo-Arabic. This research builds on my prior work concerning the phonology and morphology of Jewish Wad-Souf, emphasising linguistic traits that align with Bedouin dialects and showcasing historical connections to sedentary Jewish dialects. The article includes glossed text samples and analytical sections exploring noun, verb and pronoun syntax. While presenting tendencies rather than rigid rules, this research lays the groundwork for future studies on the Jewish dialect of Wad-Souf and on Algerian Judaeo-Arabic in general, forming a basis for a deeper understanding of its syntax and linguistic nuances. The data were obtained during three periods of fieldwork in Israel between March and December 2022.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140205476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Approaching the ‘Social Context of Writing Practices in Late Bronze Age Ugarit’","authors":"Andrew Burlingame","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgae001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgae001","url":null,"abstract":"This review article discusses points raised in Philip Boyes's 2021 monograph Script and Society: The Social Context of Writing Practices in Late Bronze Age Ugarit. The arguments of the book are summarized, contextualized, and evaluated from an Ugaritological disciplinary perspective; remarks on method and opportunities for future research are presented; and a series of specific comments is offered as a supplementary resource for readers and researchers interested in further pursuing the topics Boyes addresses.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139769615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Yesterday and the Day Before in Semitic","authors":"Aaron D Rubin","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgad047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad047","url":null,"abstract":"In addition to reflexes of Proto-Semitic*timāli, the Semitic languages use a variety of innovative words meaning ‘yesterday’, as well as numerous different words and phrases used to mean ‘the day before yesterday’ and sometimes even earlier days. This article examines these various adverbs or adverbial phrases in the diverse Semitic languages, both ancient and modern, coming from a variety of semantic developments, some of which are typologically unusual.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139677376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Numeral reduplication as a pluractional marker in Jordanian Arabic","authors":"Amazigh Bedar, Ashraf Allawama","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgad045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad045","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a first study of numeral reduplication in Jordanian Arabic, which uses a syntactic strategy of numeral reduplication not previously recognized in other languages. This involves the reduplication of a numeral implies reduplication of the Noun Phrase (NP) that follows it (Num NP Num NP). Semantically, and at first glance, numeral reduplication mandates distributives readings. We show that numeral reduplication is in fact a marker of pluractionality (event plurality), and the distributive readings are the consequence of separating plural events.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"168 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-01-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139584056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Use of Nafs ‘Soul’ for Self-Referencing in al-Maqqarī’s Nafḥ al-ṭīb and the Evolution of the ‘Divided Self’","authors":"Laila M Jreis-Navarro","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgad044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad044","url":null,"abstract":"This article will analyze the use of the noun nafs ‘soul’ with the first-person possessive pronominal suffix, through the corpus of Andalusi texts gathered in Nafḥ al-ṭīb by the North-African author Shihāb al-Dīn al-Maqqarī (d. 1632). The aim is threefold: one, to identify patterns of the use of nafsī in the Nafḥ, their semantic performance, and diachronic evolution; two, to compare the use of the term in this corpus with its use in lists of collocates in the macro corpora KSUCCA and arTenTen of Classical and Modern Standard Arabic; and three, to show that linguistically systematizing self-expression is adequate for the identification of highly subjective texts in a corpus. Analysis will show that the notions of the ‘divided self’, sacrificing oneself, and yearning change towards a closer relationship between the subject and the self over time.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139465117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Valentina Grasso, Pre-Islamic Arabia: Politics, Cults and Identities during Late Antiquity","authors":"A. Al‐Jallad","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgad046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad046","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"14 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2024-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139439182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}