Mishnaic Hebrew

Mixed African or rabbinical Hebrew is a stage of the Hebrew language, which has evolved from the Biblical Hebrew. Since the pioneering research of Eduard coachman two language levels are distinguished:

The extent to which Tannaitic Hebrew but was also a spoken language and was not about only as a written language, is still controversial.

Therefore, the exploration of mixed African Hebrew designed not least difficult because the manuscripts of these writings date from a later period and often " corrected " within the meaning of the Hebrew Bible and Mishnaic forms had been eradicated it.

Phonetics

Rabbinic Hebrew has essentially the same phonetics as the biblical Hebrew in the Masoretic tradition. Nevertheless, there are significant differences to the spoken Hebrew of the biblical period. As the transcription of proper names in the Septuagint shows that Pharyngale Ayin and Chet were still realized twice. In rabbinic period accounted for this dual realization. Rather, the other gutturals Aleph and He were only weakly pronounced or accounted for in intervocalic position. For He, this often occurs when the infinitive Nif'al: From Biblical להכתב ( lehikkatev ) is לכתב ( likkatev ). Aleph eliminated regularly in the aleph verbs I. Likewise, the verbs III aleph as weak verbs, that is, after the pattern of verbs III iodine / waw treated.

Another change that is already in the late writings of the Hebrew Bible, refers to the final Mem This is often, but not regularly, replaced by final now. Most cases concern the plural ending -im → - in. It predominates in words that are biblically occupied but also the biblical spelling. That it is at this phenomenon from a phonetic change, and not a Aramaismus, the case shows adan for biblical adam (see picture).

Morphology

The personal pronoun shows a change in va in the first person. The biblical singular form אנכי ( Anochi ) enters completely into the background in favor of the ( also already biblical short form) אני ( ani). The usual form for the first person plural is אנו ( aanu ). The female pronouns in the plural orthographically fall together with those of masculine pronouns. However, this is more of a phonetic process. In fact, already observed in Biblical Hebrew the tendency to non-use of the female form, so that one has to put communis forms for the Mishnaic Hebrew.

In the verbal system, a decrease in the internal passive forms can be observed. These occur almost exclusively in the participle. Instead, find other Konjugationsstämme or paraphrases application. The infinitives of weak verbs are adapted to the Futurbildung, eg לירד for biblical לרדת.

Syntax

Typical of the syntax of Mishnaic Hebrew is the increasing use of composite tenses and the elimination of the narrative.

The mold is past, the same as in modern Hebrew. Moses was called ( the ) Torah from Sinai here ( Ethics of the Fathers 1:1): " משה קיבל תורה מסיניי ".

He used to say ( Ethics of the Fathers 1:2 ) is called in rabbinic Hebrew " הוא היה אומר ".

The present is just as in Modern Hebrew by the use of the participle expressed, with an example from Ethics of the Fathers 1:2, Hebrew Pirkei Avoth " פרקי אבות " Simon the Just, used to say: On three things the world stands on the Torah, on the service and on the charity is called " על שלושה דברים העולם עומד, על תורה, ועל עבודה ועל גמילות חסדים ".

The future tense is the future tense or the connection from עתיד infinitive expressed ( Ethics of the Fathers 3:1): " ולפני מי אתה עתיד ליתן דין וחשבון ".

Lexicon

Compared to the Biblical Hebrew, the Mishnaic Hebrew to many new words. In part, this may be attributed to the evidence base and the thematic specificity of the vocabulary. However, it can also be numerous foreign words from the Aramaic and Greek, identify less Latin. These shifts of meaning come classical Hebrew words. So, for example, takes the root לקח ( biblical "take" ) to "buy" the importance of.