Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon

Last updated
The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon
Type of projectOpen access
LocationUnited States
Owner Hebrew Union College
Established1980s
Website cal.huc.edu

The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon (CAL) is an online database containing a searchable dictionary and text corpora of Aramaic dialects. [1] [2] CAL includes more than 3 million lexically parsed words. [3]

Contents

The project was started in the 1980s [4] and is currently hosted by the Jewish Institute of Religion at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Dialects

CAL includes the following Aramaic dialects and texts. [5] [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

Aramaic is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, southeastern Anatolia, Eastern Arabia and the Sinai Peninsula, where it has been continually written and spoken in different varieties for over three thousand years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Targum</span> Aramaic translation of the Jewish scriptures

A targum was an originally spoken translation of the Hebrew Bible that a professional translator would give in the common language of the listeners when that was not Biblical Hebrew. This had become necessary near the end of the first century BCE, as the common language was Aramaic and Hebrew was used for little more than schooling and worship. The translator frequently expanded his translation with paraphrases, explanations and examples, so it became a kind of sermon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yeshua</span> Alternative form of the name Joshua (Yəhōšūaʿ)

Yeshua was a common alternative form of the name Yehoshua in later books of the Hebrew Bible and among Jews of the Second Temple period. The name corresponds to the Greek spelling Iesous (Ἰησοῦς), from which, through the Latin IESVS/Iesus, comes the English spelling Jesus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peshitta</span> Standard Syriac Christianity version of the Bible

The Peshitta is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition, including the Maronite Church, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, the Malabar Independent Syrian Church, the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, the Assyrian Church of the East and the Syro-Malabar Church.

George Mamishisho Lamsa was an Assyrian author. He was born in Mar Bishu in what is now the extreme east of Turkey. A native Aramaic speaker, he translated the Aramaic Peshitta Old and New Testaments into English. He popularized the claim of the Assyrian Church of the East that the New Testament was written in Aramaic and then translated into Greek, contrary to academic consensus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aramaic original New Testament theory</span> Belief that the Christian New Testament was originally written in Aramaic

The Aramaic original New Testament theory is the belief that the Christian New Testament was originally written in Aramaic.

Mar, also Mor in Western Syriac, is an Aramaic word meaning "lord". The corresponding feminine forms in Syriac are Morth and Marth for "lady".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Palestinian Aramaic</span> Western Aramaic dialect

Christian Palestinian Aramaic was a Western Aramaic dialect used by the Melkite Christian community, probably of Jewish descent, in Palestine, Transjordan and Sinai between the fifth and thirteenth centuries. It is preserved in inscriptions, manuscripts and amulets. All the medieval Western Aramaic dialects are defined by religious community. CPA is closely related to its counterparts, Jewish Palestinian Aramaic (JPA) and Samaritan Aramaic (SA). CPA shows a specific vocabulary that is often not paralleled in the adjacent Western Aramaic dialects.

Western Aramaic is a group of Aramaic dialects once spoken widely throughout the ancient Levant, predominantly in the south, and Sinai, including ancient Damascus, Nabatea, Judea, across the Palestine Region, Transjordan, Samaria as well as Lebanon and the basins of the Orontes as far as Aleppo in the north. The group was divided into several regional variants, spoken mainly by the Nabataeans, Palmyrenes, Mizrahi Jews, Melkites of Jewish and pagan descent, Samaritans, Galileans and Maronites. All of the Western Aramaic dialects are considered extinct today, except for the modern variety Western Neo-Aramaic, which is still spoken by the Arameans (Syriacs) in the towns of Maaloula and Jubb'adin in Damascus, Syria.

Eastern Aramaic refers to a group of dialects that evolved historically from the varieties of Aramaic spoken in the core territories of Mesopotamia and further expanded into northern Syria, eastern Arabia and northwestern Iran. This is in contrast to the Western Aramaic varieties found predominantly in the southern Levant, encompassing most parts of modern western Syria and Palestine region. Most speakers are Assyrians, although there is a minority of Mizrahi Jews and Mandaeans who also speak modern varieties of Eastern Aramaic.

Old Aramaic refers to the earliest stage of the Aramaic language, known from the Aramaic inscriptions discovered since the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bible translations into Aramaic</span>

Bible translations into Aramaic covers both Jewish translations into Aramaic (Targum) and Christian translations into Aramaic, also called Syriac (Peshitta).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syriac versions of the Bible</span>

Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic. Portions of the Old Testament were written in Aramaic and there are Aramaic phrases in the New Testament. Syriac translations of the New Testament were among the first and date from the 2nd century. The whole Bible was translated by the 5th century. Besides Syriac, there are Bible translations into other Aramaic dialects.

Robert Patterson Gordon is a British scholar who was the Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge from 1995 to 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sudra (headdress)</span> Ancient Jewish headdress

The sudra is a rectangular piece of cloth that has been worn as a headdress, scarf, or neckerchief in ancient Jewish tradition. Over time, it held many different functions and is today sometimes understood to be of great cultural and/or religious significance to Jews.

"My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" is a phrase that appears both in the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, in the Book of Psalms, as well as in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, as one of the sayings of Jesus on the cross, according to Matthew 27:46 and also Mark 15:34.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aramaic studies</span> Academic field

Aramaic studies are scientific studies of the Aramaic languages and literature. As a specific field within Semitic studies, Aramaic studies are closely related to similar disciplines, like Hebraic studies and Arabic studies.

The Thousand and Twelve Questions is a Mandaean religious text. The 1012 Questions is one of the most detailed texts on Mandaean priestly rituals. It is kept by Mandaean priests in the shkinta during certain rituals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Morgenstern</span> British-Israeli professor

Matthew Morgenstern, also known as Moshe Morgenstern, is an Israeli linguist and religious studies scholar known for his work on Eastern Aramaic languages, especially Mandaic. He is currently Full Professor in the Department of Hebrew Language and Semitic Linguistics at Tel Aviv University.

References

  1. "Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon". The Digital Classicist. 2023-04-20. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  2. 1 2 "4.2.2.1.3 Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon", Textual History of the Bible Online, Brill, doi:10.1163/2452-4107_thb_COM_225943
  3. "Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon". Medieval Digital Resources – Medieval Academy of America. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  4. Kaufman, Stephen A. (1987). The Comprehensive Aramaic lexicon: text entry and format manual. Baltimore.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. "Dialects and Texts". The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  6. Morgenstern, Matthew (ed.). "Mandaic texts". The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon. Retrieved 2024-07-27.