{"title":"The Christian Arabic dialect of Mērgī","authors":"Qasim Hassan","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgad030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad030","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The area northeast of Mosul, a collection of villages with varying topography and terrain, is known for being a mosaic of ethnic and religious minorities. The village of Mērgī, the focus of interest in this paper, is one of the historical Christian settlements in the area, located on the southern foot of the Mount Maqlūb. Based on a fieldwork carried out in 2022 in Mērgī, this article investigates the linguistic situation in this village and carries out comparisons with the other well-documented related dialects in the vicinity.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135059972","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 Sufi Writing Tradition in Arabic","authors":"Arin Salamah-Qudsi","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgad025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad025","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper addresses Sufi writing in its contemporary third/ninth-fifth/eleventh century CE context, looking at how writing was shaped by other Sufi and non-Sufi forms. Beginning with an overview of the Sufi writing tradition in Arabic during Sufism's formative period, between the early third/ninth and the late sixth/twelfth centuries, the article goes on to discuss early Sufi piety and the ways it challenged common conceptions and epistemological paradigms of early medieval Islamic thought. Looking at the mid fourth/tenth century case of al-Niffarī shows how mystical piety interacterd with a deep-rooted tradition in Arabic literature to forge the unique dynamics of what we know today as Sufi writing.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136024416","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 Evolution of Morpho-Syntactic Mood in Arabic: A View from early Christian Arabic Gospel Manuscripts","authors":"Phillip W Stokes","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgad023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad023","url":null,"abstract":"Journal Article The Evolution of Morpho-Syntactic Mood in Arabic: A View from early Christian Arabic Gospel Manuscripts Get access Phillip W Stokes Phillip W Stokes The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Address for correspondence: pstokes2@utk.edu Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Semitic Studies, fgad023, https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad023 Published: 11 September 2023","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136024596","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":"On the Acoustics of Emphasis in Central Mount Lebanon Lebanese","authors":"Georges Sakr","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgad024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper presents a study of emphasis in an attempt to determine its acoustic correlates in Central Mount Lebanon Lebanese Arabic (CMLL), an urban colloquial variety of Arabic spoken in Lebanon. Several analyses of emphasis exist in the literature, which largely focus on neighbouring vowels and either investigate, or make use of, a link between F2 lowering and emphasis. This study, based on acoustic data from 11 speakers, considers various possible consonantal as well as vocalic correlates. The vocalic analyses make use of statistical modelling in linear mixed effects, and generalised additive mixed modelling. This study finds significant F2 lowering in vowels preceding the emphatic voiceless sibilant /ṣ/. It argues that, in terms of the acoustics, emphasis is a vocalic rather than consonantal phenomenon, and that, in CMLL, the phonological feature ‘emphasis’ is consonantal, but is realized phonetically as a colouration of the adjacent vowels.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136024417","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":"Ruʾūs al-Jibāl Arabic in Context: A Proposal for an Expanded Typology of Southeastern Arabian Dialects","authors":"Mark Daniel Shockley","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgad026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad026","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper seeks to clearly outline the features that distinguish Ruʾūs al-Jibāl Arabic (also called Šiḥḥī Arabic, Musandam Arabic) spoken on the Omani peninsula from surrounding dialects. Comparison with nearby Arabic varieties yields a few areal features (in segmental phonology) that establish a dialect continuum from the coasts of northern Oman to Musandam. A large number of phonological similarities between Ruʾūs al-Jibāl Arabic and Dhofari Arabic are then documented here for the first time. This robust but discontinuous link re-frames many of the peculiarities of Ruʾūs al-Jibāl Arabic as vestiges of a coastal southern Arabian dialect group. This finding fits a wellknown ancient pattern of northward population movements out of south Arabia, and allows for a more effective delineation of innovations unique to Ruʾūs al-Jibāl . It also offers a direction forward for an expanded framework for the classification of the Arabic dialects of southeastern Arabia, incorporating Oman's peripheries at Dhofar and Musandam.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136024419","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":"<scp>Ulf Bergström</scp>, <i>Aspect, Communicative Appeal, and Temporal Meaning in Biblical Hebrew Verbal Forms</i>","authors":"Kasper Siegismund","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgad020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad020","url":null,"abstract":"Journal Article Ulf Bergström, Aspect, Communicative Appeal, and Temporal Meaning in Biblical Hebrew Verbal Forms Get access Ulf Bergström, Aspect, Communicative Appeal, and Temporal Meaning in Biblical Hebrew Verbal Forms (Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic 16). Penn State University Press. University Park 2022. P232. Price: $94.95 hardback. ISBN: 978-1-64602-140-6. Kasper Siegismund Kasper Siegismund Biblical Studies Section Faculty of Theology University of Copenhagen Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Semitic Studies, Volume 68, Issue 2, Autumn 2023, Pages e27–e30, https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad020 Published: 31 August 2023","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136375738","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":"<scp>Michael Rand</scp>, <i>Studies in the Medieval Hebrew Tradition of the Ḥarīrīan and Ḥarizian Maqama: “Maḥberot Eitan ha-Ezraḥi”</i>","authors":"Naoya Katsumata","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgad019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad019","url":null,"abstract":"Journal Article Michael Rand, Studies in the Medieval Hebrew Tradition of the Ḥarīrīan and Ḥarizian Maqama: “Maḥberot Eitan ha-Ezraḥi” Get access Michael Rand, Studies in the Medieval Hebrew Tradition of the Ḥarīrīan and Ḥarizian Maqama: “Maḥberot Eitan ha-Ezraḥi” (Études sur le Judaïsme Médiéval 90; Cambridge Genizah Studies 14.). Leiden. Brill 2022. Pp. xii + 240. Price: €130.00. ISBN: 978-9-0044-6212-0. Naoya Katsumata Naoya Katsumata Kyoto University katsumata.naoya.5c@kyoto-u.ac.jp Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Semitic Studies, Volume 68, Issue 2, Autumn 2023, Pages e30–e32, https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad019 Published: 31 August 2023","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136375739","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":"There’s Something Bad in the Packs: A Vernacular Aramaic Phrase in al-Ṭabarī’s and al-Masʿūdī’s Histories?","authors":"G. Leube, C. Häberl","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgad021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad021","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Although Aramaic was spoken throughout the Middle East before the Muslim Conquest and continues to be spoken by communities across the region and beyond, evidence for its spoken forms is scarce before the early modern period. One rare such witness is a stray Aramaic phrase, transcribed and translated into Arabic, which appears within the Taʾrīx of al-Ṭabarī (d. 923 ce) and the Murūj al-ḏahab of al-Masʿūdī (d. 956 ce). Its immediate context is a narrative concerning the conflict between Tadmur/Palmyra and al-Ḥīra contemporary with the rise of the Sasanians. Based upon its attested versions and the morpho-syntactic evidence of the phrase itself, we nonetheless conclude that it likely represents a vernacular form of ʿIrāqī Aramaic which must have been transparent within Arabic-Islamic scholarly milieus of the second and third century AH/eighth and ninth century ce, rather than an authentically transmitted Aramaic proverb from the third century ce.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44650881","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 Girl in the Ape’s House: A folktale in a North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic variety of Urmiya, Russia","authors":"Alexey Lyavdansky, K. Kozhanov, M. Ovsjannikova","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgad010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad010","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The article discusses dialectal and folkloristic features of an oral narrative in a North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) variety recently recorded in the Southern Russian village of Urmiya. The dialect of the tale belongs to the NENA varieties originating in the easternmost regions of Turkey, which is corroborated by the tale’s speaker, who named its places of origin as Lewən, Albaq, and Gawar. These dialects remain largely undescribed and are highly endangered. The plot of the story is not known from hitherto published Neo-Aramaic field texts. Even though it resembles some of the folktales recorded in Iran and India, the story contains a unique combination of narrative motifs.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44641453","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 Silence of the Bride: A Fatimid marriage contract on silk","authors":"Reem Alrudainy, Mathieu Tillier, Naïm Vanthieghem","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgad018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad018","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Marriage contracts and divorce deeds are of particular importance for historians, as they provide clues about both social practices and gender relations. In this article, we offer an edition of a noteworthy document from Dār al-āthār al-islāmiyya in Kuwait, which, beyond its remarkable aesthetic quality, offers a testimony to marriage and divorce practices in a bourgeois milieu of the Egyptian capital during the late Fatimid period. More than a micro-history, this document adds a new piece to the picture of matrimonial dynamics in medieval Egypt, which were often more subtle than previously understood. Patriarchal authority did not prevent a father from deploying all sorts of strategies to protect his daughter in marriage and guarantee her a certain amount of autonomy. In accordance with some jurists’ recommendations, which were based on a Prophetic hadith, the father did not marry off his daughter without first obtaining her tacit permission. Finally, the document preserves the memory of a marital crisis in the seventh year of marriage, during which the husband repudiated his wife before rapidly taking her back.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42388312","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}