SEELANGS Digest - 23 Oct 2006 to 24 Oct 2006 (#2006-360)

[Alexander Kulik]

Subject: Who knows Aramaic?

For the question of Daniel Rancour-Laferriere:

* Joshua is a Hebrew name, and normally the pronunciation of personal names 
in the mixed Hebrew-Aramaic vernacular of Palestine of that period would not 
depend on Aramaic or Hebrew context. It is as if you try to discern between 
the pronunciation of names in Church Slavonic and Old Rusian (one s).
* Originally it might have forms Yehoshua' (with a glottal at the end, which 
most probably, according to Mishna evidence, was not pronounced at least in 
some Palestinian regions already then) with a long form of a theophoric 
prefix, and Yoshua', a short form. The Greek form Jesu(s) allows to 
reconstruct one more short colloquial form: Yeshu.
* There are grounds to suggest that at least some of evangelical materials 
were originally composed not in Greek but in Aramaic and Hebrew (at least 
portions of Mark and may be Matthew). As for Hebrew, it was almost not 
spoken in Galilee, but today many scholars believe that it remained one of 
spoken languages in Judea as long as until the 4th cent., and thus it also 
might have been used during early Christian activity there.

Sincerely,

Alexander Kulik,
Department of Russian and Slavic Studies
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Mt. Scopus 91905 Israel

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