Language and Tradition

This book, stemming from a PhD dissertation under the advising of Prof. Moshe Bar Asher, offers a description of the traditional Hebrew of the Jews of southern Yemen. The description is based on a lengthy and intensive field work consisting of recording their reading of biblical, rabbinic, and liturgical literature. As S. Morag's The Hebrew Language Tradition of the Yemenite Jews (Jerusalem, 1963) focuses mainly on central Yemen, especially the city of Sanaa, the study of the southern Yemen phonological tradition remained a desideratum, which the current book aims at fulfilling. Thus, the first part of the book includes addenda et corrigenda to the description of the southern Yemen phonological system. One major innovation in this regard is the different pronunciations of the holam, along with several phonological matters missing in Morag's book, such as the principles of the mobile shewa and the primary and secondary accents (the ga'aya).

The second part consists of a description of the traditional reading of the Mishna in southern Yemen, including a very meticulous comparison to the mainstream tradition of central Yemen, and to some other non Yemenite traditions. In chapter 2, some phonological matters concerning the Tiberian Hebrew are discussed, such as the conditions for gemination (doubling), different issues related to the gutturals, and the principles of the dagesh lene in the bgdkpt consonants. The largest chapter of this book, chapter 3, consists of a detailed description of over 1200 Mishnaic nominal forms as realized traditionally. Organized alphabetically, this list includes post-biblical nouns, biblical nouns pronounced differently in their Mishnaic occurrence, and inflections of biblical nominal forms not attested in the Bible. The entries offer oral information based on six main informants and vocalized manuscripts from southern Yemen.

Every entry has been compared to the data available from reliable informants, existing recordings, vocalized manuscripts and printed editions from central Yemen, along with other circumstantial. evidence. The material was systematically compared to other linguistic traditions, such as the Babylonian, and to almost all the vocalized manuscripts and printed editions ever used in southern Yemen. In chapter 4, several topics are discussed with regard to the traditional reading of the Mishnah: Various participle forms, the punctuation of relative ש, pausal forms, the definition of nominal forms, ketiv and qere in Mishnaic reading, and the like. The database analysis reveals that the southern Yemen tradition is certainly a Yemenite one, correlating very well with the central Yemen tradition. Yet, in some details it rather correlates with ancient traditions of Mishnaic Hebrew on the one hand, and with vocalized printed editions, including mistakes and inconsistency, on the other.

A fundamental outcome of this work is that the Yemenite Rabbinic Hebrew tradition should be examined within its regional backdrop and variations. Needless to say, that this work has been a rescue mission of a tradition not extensively recorded and of which the number of individuals familiar with is rapidly decreasing. This work, based on recordings and vocalized manuscripts from southern Yemen, ensures that the memory of this tradition is perpetuated for future generations.

Introduction

The Research on the Language Traditions

The Research on the Yemenite Tradition

The Research on the Southern Yemenite Tradition

The Communities in this Paper

Shar'ab

Aden

The Jews of Southern Yemen and the Printed Books

Research Methods

The Corpus

The Informants

Presentation of the Results and an Analysis

Phonology in the Reading of the Bible

Preface

The Sound System

The Consonants

The Vowels

Stress in the Reading of the Bible

Primary Stress

Secondary Stress

Secondary Stress in Closed Syllables

Gemination

Furtive Patah

Phonology in the Reading of the Mishnah

Gemination

ר Gemination in

אהח"ע Gemination in

In shva and in מ in shva י Gemination in

מה Gemination after

Gemination of Dehik

The Influence of the Gutturals

The Vocalization of a Prefix before a Guttural

The Gutteral Vowel

Furtive Patah

Changes in Verbs with Gutturals

The Vocalization of Definiteness before Gutturals and before ר

Fricative and Plosive בגדכפ"ת Letters

Plosive בגדכפ"ת Letters Not Following the Tiberian Tradition

Fricative בגדכפ"ת Not Following the Tiberian Tradition

Analysis and Conclusions

Stress in the Reading of the Mishna

The Noun in the Tradition of Mishnaic Hebrew

Some Participial Forms

The Vocalization of the Relative Pronoun ש

The Vocalization of ובכ"ל in Pretonic Position

Pausal Forms

Participles with First Person Pronouns

Feminine Participles with Object Suffixes

Absolute Forms in Construct State

Construct Forms in Absolute State

Joining של to the Following World

Second Person Suffixes

Definiteness of Nouns

Ketiv and Qere in the Reading of the Mishna

The Southern Yemenite Tradition – A Summary

Phonetics

The Reading Tradition of Mishnaic Hebrew

Some Notes on Noun Morphology

Characteristics of the Southern Yemenite Tradition

Insights on the Central Yemenite Traditions

Conclusive Remarks

Bibliography and Abbreviations

Index of Words