MEDITERRANEAN

LANGUAGE
REVIEW
edited by
Matthias Kappler, Werner Arnold and Till Stellino

with the editorial assistance of

Ingeborg Hauenschild

19 (2012)

Harrassowitz Verlag · Wiesbaden

 Contents
Articles
Klaus Beyer
Die Entstehung des Alphabets .................................................................................. 1
Adolfo Zavaroni
Il suffisso di compagnia -pi, -pe ed il suffisso agentivo/pertinentivo -si/-osio
in etrusco e falisco .................................................................................................... 13
Michael Waltisberg
Zur Syntax eines arabischen Beduinendialekts ....................................................... 35
Dimitris Evripidou
Factors Influencing Greek Cypriot Senior-Adults’ Attitudes
Towards Cypriot Greek and Standard Modern Greek ............................................ 59
Ibrahim Bassal
Hebrew and Aramaic Substrata in Spoken Palestinian Arabic .............................. 85
Edward Y. Odisho
Mechanisms for Lexical Enrichment in Modern Aramaic....................................... 105

Book Reviews
Scott N. Callaham
Modality and the Biblical Hebrew Infinitive Absolute
(Christian Stadel) ....................................................................................................... 117
Gianluca Frenguelli & Laura Melosi (eds.)
Lingua e cultura dell’Italia coloniale
(Francesco Bianco) .................................................................................................... 121
Jared Greenblatt
The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Amәdiya
(Steven E. Fassberg) ................................................................................................. 131
Annette Herkenrath
Wh-Konstruktionen im Türkischen
(Jaklin Kornfilt) ......................................................................................................... 134
Veronika Ritt-Benmimoun
Texte im arabischen Beduinendialekt der Region Douz (Südtunesien)
(Judith Rosenhouse) ................................................................................................... 146
 Hebrew and Aramaic Substrata
in Spoken Palestinian Arabic
Ibrahim Bassal (Beit-Berl College & Arab College, Haifa)

1 Introduction
(1) The Palestinian dialects include layers of ancient languages that belong to the
earliest historical periods of culture of Palestine indigenous tongues: Canaanite,
classical Hebrew (Biblical Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew), Aramaic (particularly
Western Aramaic), Persian, Greek and Latin. Moreover, from the new era, it con-
tains components of the Turkish and European languages, mainly English, French,
German and Italian. Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, there has
been a significant influence of Hebrew on the Palestinian Arab dialect as a result of
the immediate contact between the Palestinian population and the Jewish population
in Israel.1
Former peoples and cultures found in Palestine in past centuries had an impact,
directly or indirectly, on the linguistic profile of Palestine. One of the earliest ele-
ments making a significant mark on Palestinian Arab dialects is the Aramaic layer.
(2) Aramaic predominated as the spoken and written language in Syria, Babylonia,
and Palestine for over fifteen hundred years, from the 7th and 6th centuries B.C.E. to
the 9th and 10th centuries C.E.2 From the mid-seventh century B.C.E. officials in the
Assyrian kingdom began to use the Aramaic language for writing official docu-
ments. During the period of the Assyrian empire, Aramaic spread across the whole
area including Palestine. In the Bible, 2 Kings 18:26, we find evidence of the use of
Aramaic for diplomatic exchanges at this time rather than for daily use. During the
time of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, around the year 500 B.C.E., King Darius I
(522–486 B.C.E.) used the Aramaic language as the official language for admini-
stration. This choice increased the prestige of the Aramaic language. As the official
language of the state, it was in use from western Iran to the Mediterranean, and
down to the southern part of Egypt. However, with the rise of Islam in the 7th cen-
tury, this situation changed, and Aramaic was supplanted by the Arabic of the con-
querors which became the spoken and written language. Late Aramaic had been at
its peak and dominated the entire region, both orally and in writing, among Jews,

1 For a detailed discussion on the foreign strata in Palestinian Arabic, see Bassal (2010).
2 About the language of Palestine from 200 B.C.E–200 C.E., see Greenfield (1978); and about
Hebrew and Aramaic in the Persian period, see Greenfield & Naveh (1999); on diglosia in
Palestine in ancient times, see Spolsky (1983).
86 Ibrahim Bassal

Christians, Mandaeans, Samaritans, and pagans. Simon Hopkins writes that Arab
conquest changed this linguistic situation rapidly and decisively. In most areas,
people stopped speaking Aramaic, and the literary activity was interrupted com-
pletely or was reduced to very minor proportions, Ancient Aramaic languages were
preserved for ritual cult and tradition. In the course of time, indigenous people un-
derstood them less and less. Linguistically and religiously, the area became a Mus-
lim Arab region, and in the new era, Aramaic survived only among Christian mi-
norities, Jews and Mandaeans.3 Later Aramaic4 was in direct contact with Arabic
and its dialects, and we still find residues of it in dialects spoken in Palestine and
Israel. Such residues have been naturalized, and it is quite hard to identify them.
They belong to different fields of everyday life such as seasonal agriculture, house-
keeping, tools and utensils, alongside Christian religious terms. However, within
these major macro groups in Palestinian dialects which are spoken in Israel and
Palestine, the degree of influence varies from one region inside Israel to another.
There are the North (Galilee dialects),5 the Centre (the Triangle-Muṯallaṯ dialect),6
the South (the Bedouin dialect),7 the West Bank dialects. Also, the Jewish, Christian

3 Hopkins 2000: 119.

4 On distribution of Aramaic, see Beyer (1986).
5 The Arab inhabitants of al-Ǧalīl (Galilee) in the northern part of Israel are very heterogeneous,
contrary to the Muṯallaṯ, where both the population and the spoken dialect are homogeneous in
character, or to the Naqab area with the Bedouin dialect. The Galilee population consists of
various religious groups: Muslims, Christians, Druze, and to some extent different ethnic
groups: Circassians (non-Arab Muslims), Armenians (non-Arab Christians), and Maronites
(Christians of Syrian origin who speak a unique dialect that resembles the Lebanese-Syrian
dialect of the Maronite communities). The vernacular dialects of these groups have deep
variety. Sometimes we find differences between one village and another and among the
members of the same religious community. There are several works about Palestinian Arabic
dialects: Bergsträsser (1915) Sprachatlas von Syrien und Palästina, Blanc (1953) Studies in
North Palestinian Arabic, Piamenta (1964) wrote on the use of tenses, aspects and moods of
Jerusalem dialect; (1959) wrote chapters on the Arab dialects of the Central Galilee. Palva
(1965) Lower Galilean Arabic Dialects, Rozenhouse (1969), wrote on the dialect of Sakhnīn
town; (1984) wrote on the Bedouin dialects in the North of Israel, and Levin (1995), wrote
about Arabic of Jerusalem, Geva-Kleinberger (2004) wrote on the Arab dialects of the residents
of Haifa in the first half of the 20th century that was spoken by Muslims, Christians and Jews.
He also dealt with the Arab Jewish dialect in the North of Israel in the first half of the 20th
century (in Haifa, Tzfat and Tiberias, where Jews lived beside Arabs); (2009) Autochthonous
texts in the Arabic dialect of the Jews of Tiberias, Khariush (2004) published a book about the
phonological description of the Palestinian dialects, through surveying the researches that had
dealt with the Palestinian dialect, its distribution and linkage to old Arab dialects [in Arabic].
Havelova (2000) Arabic Dialects of Nazareth which contains dialectological and sociolinguistic
description. See also Bassal (2008) (Western Galilee) Kufur-Yasīf Dialect: A Morphophonemic
Description.
6 On the Muṯallaṯ dialects, see O. Jastrow’s (2004) paper that deals with phonological aspects and
morphophonemics.
7 On the Bedouin dialect of the Negev, see Blanc (1970); Shawarba (2007) about the Tiyaha
Bedouin dialect and Henkin (2010).
 Hebrew and Aramaic Substrata 87

and Samaritan dialects of Aramaic that were spoken in Palestine each left its own
mark.
Therefore, it is reasonable that the substrata from Late Aramaic dialects that
were spoken in Palestine on the eve of the Arab expansion were pushed back gradu-
ally, and Arabic became the dominant language in the Levant, supplanting Aramaic
as the language of spoken communication. But Aramaic traces remained in Arabic in
the regions that were formerly dominated by Aramaic, especially in rural areas.8 Our
discussion of residues concerns itself with Late Western Aramaic with the sub-dia-
lects: Jewish Aramaic, Christian Aramaic, and Samaritan Aramaic.9 These came in
direct contact with Arabic and Arab dialects, and it is only natural that through this
contact, they would affect the existing linguistic profile of Palestine.10
(3) Palestinian Arabic is a Levantine Arabic dialect subgroup spoken by Palestini-
ans. It falls into three groups: urban Palestinian, rural Palestinian and Bedouin. Of
these, the urban dialect is the closest to northern Levantine Arabic (such as Syrian
and Lebanese), while the Bedouin dialect is nearer to the dialects of Arabia itself.
Within each of these groups there are of course geographical, ethnic and religious
variations: Palestinian Arabic is spoken by Muslims, Druze, Jews, Samaritans and
various denominations of Christians.11 The varieties are reflected in the pronouncia-
tion of some phonemes which differ from one area to another or from one village to
another, in morphophonemic changes and in lexical items. There are some villages
that exhibit a remarkable number of conservative features and they preserve the
classical pronunciation. Others, however, exhibit deviation of some phonemes from
the classical pronunciation.
Researchers studying the vocabulary of spoken Arabic in Palestine and who are
familiar with Aramaic dialects find substrata of Aramaic: nouns, verbs, grammatical
forms that are alien to classical Arabic, and are typical of the Arabic spoken in the
region of Aramaic influence – especially in the vernacular Arabic of Syria and
Palestine.12

8 For the subject of supplanting Aramaic by Arabic in Syria and Palestine, see Ben-David 1967:
153–165; Cambridge (1999); on the replacement, in speech and writing, of Samaritan Aramaic
by Arabic, see Shehadeh (1983).
9 Greenfield (2001: 369) notes that the elements that are common to these Aramaic dialects are
more numerous than are those that distinguish them from each other. Three different scripts
were used – the Jewish for Jewish Aramaic; a development of the paleo-Hebrew for Samaritan;
and a modification of the Syriac script for Christian Palestinian Aramaic; Greenfield (1978:
150) notes that the New Testament as well as Talmudic sources of a later period observe that
the Galilean dialect of Aramaic was different from that of Judah. There are some slight
differences between these Aramaic dialects as compiled by Gluska 1999: 48–51.
10 See Tal (1980) for some notes and clarifications regarding demonstrative pronouns and their
use in the Aramaic of Palestine [in Hebrew].
11 For a profound and comprehensive description of the Palestinian Arabic see Hopkins 2012: 51.
12 Good studies have been made on this subject: Behnstedt & Arnold 1993; Behnstedt 1997.
88 Ibrahim Bassal

The task of sketching these Aramaic characteristics in Palestinian Arabic has

been considerably facilitated in recent decades by the appearance of important dic-
tionaries of Aramaic dialects in Palestine such as Lexicon Syropalaestinum of
Schulthess (1903), although it is not updated and not comprehensive; Dictionary of
Jewish Palestinian Aramaic (Sokoloff 1990); Dictionary of Samaritan Aramaic (Tal
2000); and the dictionaries of Mishnaic Hebrew (Levy; Jastrow); in addition to the
Syriac glossaries and dictionaries. These dictionaries assist us in finding Aramaic
characteristics existing in Palestinian dialects. In addition to the above, we have the
prototype texts of the Palestinian Talmud and Palestinian Midrashim and the Neofiti
translation of the Bible.
It is significiant to note that in grammar, Aramaic influence on the Arab dialects
in Palestine is relatively minor, but it is particularly prominent in vocabulary.
Although there are several studies on the Aramaic influence upon the Arab dia-
lects, they are partial and actually no more than lists of words. Yehezkel Kutscher,
who wrote on Aramaic items in the Hebrew Encyclopedia (pp. 959–969), argues that
Aramaic elements were preserved in Arabic dialects in locations where Aramaic was
dominant. However, Avishur in his article “The Ancient Aramaic elements in the
Iraqi Judaeo-Arabic” (Avishur 2001), suggests that research done on the topic is
partial and needs to be augmented and updated. Indeed, most of it, produced by
Christian priests, has been limited to word-lists, and the subject of Aramaic influ-
ence need to be examined, using scientific tools.

2 Research overview
Siegmund Fraenkel’s (1866) study of Aramaic loans in classical Arabic is known,
but it lacks vocabulary employed in written Christian Arabic literature.13 There are
some studies on the Lebanese dialect, the most prominent being that of Feghali. On
Syrian Arabic we have Seidel (1988) and Arnold & Behnstedt (1993: 47–92).
In fact, there is no methodical and comprehensive research on the topic that inte-
grates the post-classical Hebrew and Aramaic elements existing in both literary and
spoken languages, especially in Palestine.
In this paper I intend to deal with some grammatical characteristics that can be
plausibly ascribed to Aramaic and will go on to focus principally on the lexicon. I
will discuss the elements of early Aramaic and post-classical Hebrew in the spoken
Arabic of Israel and Palestine, both in its grammar and vocabulary. For the latter, I
will focus particularly on two domains: household and vineyard.

3 Morphology
(a) The shift of the pronominal suffix -kum > -kon; -hum > -hon
In literary Arabic, the suffix for possessive pronoun 2nd pers. plur. masc. is -kum
e.g. ‫( أخو ُكم‬your brother) and for 3nd pers. plur. masc. is -hum.; ‫( أخوھُم‬their brother);

13 For a detailed discussion on Aramaic words in Christian Arabic Bible translations, see Bassal
2004.
 Hebrew and Aramaic Substrata 89

while in Syriac, the pronominal suffix is -kon for 2nd pers. plur. masc.; -hon for 3rd
pers. plur. masc.14 It is remarkable that in the Arabic spoken in Northern Galilee –
especially in the Northern villages close to Lebanon, such as Miʕilia, Fassūṭṭa,
Tarshīḥa, al-Rāmi, Bqēʕa, Ǧišš, Ḥorfeesh, Kufr-smeeʕ, and Druze villages on the
Karmel: Dāliat al-Karmel and ʕisifya – the shift of -kum > -kon; -hum > -hon has
taken place. ‫( أخوكن‬your brother), in classical Arabic (‫( أضربھن ;)أخو ُكم‬I will hit
them), in classical Arabic (‫)أضربھم‬.
Indeed, it is a morphological isogloss that typifies the Arab villages close to
Lebanon and Syria and distinguishes them from the rest of the southern Arab vil-
lages located on the outskirts of the cities Acre and Haifa and in other parts of the
country. The form as used in spoken Arabic is consistent with the form as it exists in
Syriac. It may be noted that Feghali mentioned this shift in the Lebanese Arabic.15
There is no doubt that this is an Aramaic influence that has remained in the ver-
nacular Arabic in this area.
(b) The form for nisba -ānī
In Arabic, nisba is made by a morphophonological change in the pattern of the
word. But there is another frequently occurring way to mark nisba in Spoken Arabic
by adding the form -ānī as a suffix. For example: barrānī (external); ǧūwwānī (in-
ternal); maġlawānī (over charging); haqqānī (honest); tabarānī (Tiberian). Blau
noted that this is an Aramaic influence since its use in classical Arabic is restricted.16
(c) The Syriac form of diminution: -ōn/-ūn; -ōs/-ūs
The diminutive form in Arabic is expressed by a morphophonological change of the
word pattern, e.g. kalb (dog) > kulayb (puppy); walad (boy) > wulayd (youngster).
Of interest to us is that some Arabic words and other words borrowed from Syriac
are used with the diminutive suffix -ōn/-ūn ‫ جملون‬ǧamalōn / ǧamlōn: (ridged roof)
known in Iraqi, Syrian and Palestinian colloquial Arabic.17 It should be observed
that the word is not mentioned in classical Arabic dictionaries, and Fraenkel notes
that the basis of the word is Gamla with the addition of the Syriac diminutive mor-
pheme -ōn. Other examples of this form of diminution are: ‫ كرعونة‬karʕūne (small
leg); ‫ َس ﱡنون‬sannūn (small tooth); ‫ قلحون‬qalḥūn (small twig) in the Druze dialect of
the residents of Dāliat al-Karmel village; ‫ قرعون‬qarʕūn (small almonds). This last
term is familiar in the Druze spoken language of the Golan, (and, I have been told,
among the Christians in al-Rāmi).
It is of interest that in colloquial Arabic in Israel we also find words with the
Syriac diminutive suffix -ōn/-ūn. Some of these words are not found in the classical

14 On diminution in Arabic Grammar, see Wright 1967: 166–175.

15 Feghali 1919: 84; Diem (1972); Behnstedt (1991).
16 Blau 1967: 231, note 144.
17 Bustani 1983: 125; Dozy 1967: I, 219; Barthélmy 1935–55: I, 122; Hava 1964: 99; on spoken
Arabic of Syria, see Mubāraka 1999: 107; Frayḥa 1973: 29; on the Iraqi dialect, see al-Bakri
1972: 147.
90 Ibrahim Bassal

Arab dictionaries18 but are found in Aramaic or Syriac, and in the Arabic dialects of
Syria and Lebanon. An example is the word ṭarbūn (the soft part of the leaf). This
word is used in the Arab dialect in the north of Israel in two variants: ṭarbūn /ṭarnūb
(metathesis). The word is not known in the Mutallat dialect. Even al-Barghouthi, in
his dictionary of the Palestinian Arab dialect, does not mention the word, whereas it
is mentioned in regard to Syria and Lebanon, Hobeika ascribed it to Syriac and
noted the shift of p>b in the Arabic form. Furthermore, Frayḥa added a morphologi-
cal explanation: that the word is composed of the root plus the suffix diminutive
morpheme. In the Syrian Arab dialect, this word is used as noted by Mubaraka, who
added that in the spoken Arabic of Syria, there are two variants: ṭarnūfa / ṭarbūna.
The word taraf, a basis of these variants, exists in Mishnaic Hebrew and in the Ara-
maic translations of the Bible: Onkelos and Peshitta, in Genesis 8:11. Indeed, the
word exists in the former region of Aramaic influence, and it exists in Mishnaic
Hebrew. Lieberman19 noted that the form ‫מטרבת‬, which appears in a Midrash frag-
ment, is a doublet of the form '‫'מטרפת‬, "‫"מוציאה טרפין‬, produces leaves, blossoms. It is
also found in another passage of the Midrash fragment which reads: "‫והטריבו העצים‬
‫( "ועשו פירות‬they blossomed and produced). Sokoloff, in his dictionary of the Jewish
Palestinian Aramaic, gives two forms in the entry of '‫'טרף‬, '‫'טרב‬.20
About words with the suffix -ūs/-ōs: there is one word in colloquial Arabic in
Galilee with this suffix: ṭalmūsi (small round cake of bread). The word is known in
the vernacular Arabic of Syria and Lebanon. Hobeika and Abed-Alraḥīm21 state that
this word is a Syriac residue in colloquial Lebanese and Syrian.
(d) šaf ʕal form
In classical Arabic the form šaf ʕala is very rare. The dictionary Lisān al-ʕArab gives
two verbs in this form: šabraqa (to tear, to cut) from the stem brq, and šašqala from
the stem šql (to weigh).22 However, in the spoken Arabic of Syria and Palestine, this
form is very productive, as noted by Feghali.23 The classical form parallel with
šaf ʕala is saf ʕala, and this form – in colloquial Arabic – is borrowed from Aramaic.
In colloquial Arabic in Palestinian dialects, especially in the north of Israel, there is
a frequency of verbs in the form šaf ʕal: šalhab (reddened); šartaḥ (make poor, to

18 In the Arabic lexicon there are some words that terminate with -us, e.g ʕamrūs (a lamb). Arabic
grammarians treat them as foreign words, and some of the Arab philologists attribute them to
Greek, or they express their lack of knowledge by the statement: ‘God knows!’
19 Lieberman 1946: 318–319.
20 Sokoloff 1990: 231–232; about the shift between voiced and unvoiced in the case of consonants
with closed articulation in Mishnaic Hebrew, e.g p turned into b: see ‫נברשת‬-‫הבקר ;נפרשת‬-
‫ הבקיע ;הפקר‬- ‫הפקיע‬, Epstein 1948: II, 1220.
21 Abed-al-Raḥīm 2003: III, 989.
22 About Šaf ʕala forms, see Nöldeke 1970: 179; Brockelmann 1908–13: I, 525 notes that
causative verbs with prefix ša entered the Aramaic dialects from Akkadian; Attalla (2000) in
his discussion about quadrilateral verbs; about Šaf ʕala in Iraqi Judaeo-Arabic, see Avishur
2009: 166–170.
23 Feghali 1919: 83, §c.
 Hebrew and Aramaic Substrata 91

live a life of poverty, but in Syriac there is an opposite meaning – to make rich, to
live a life of abundance); šargal (to let slide); šaḥtaf (to rub); šaqbaʕ (to fall);
šalwaḥ (expose him to cold wind); šanhaq (bray of an ass); šaḥbar (to scribble).
Thus, we can conclude that vernacular Arabic borrowed the form šaf ʕal from
Aramaic and built new Arabic verbs in this pattern.
(e) la as an object marker
We may conclude that the presence of Aramaic remnants in several new Arab dia-
lects spoken today, in areas that were previously dominated by Aramaic, is probably
not coincidental. As an example we can note the use of la as an object marker. In his
comprehensive article about la and its occurrence as an object marker, Levin24
summarizes that the occurrence in the Arabic dialects is usually attributed to an
Aramaic substratum. e.g. Smiʕtu la-axūk? (did you hear your brother?). In Aramaic
the use of la is limited to definite objects.25 There is evidence of la as an object
marker in texts that are rendered from Aramaic, especially in Christian Arabic texts
from the south of Palestine. Blau also notes that in Christian Arabic texts rendered
from the Syriac we can discern this use of la as an object marker.26 Furthermore I
have cited some samples of la as an object marker in the Arabic Bible translations
from Syriac.27

4 Lexicon
Notwithstanding the grammatical influence of Aramaic in Arabic, the bulk of the
substrata is found in vocabulary. In general, Aramaic loan words underwent mor-
phophonemic adaptation when they entered vernacular Arabic. In the course of time,
it has become difficult to identify them. Some of these words have become produc-
tive and have given rise to verbal derivations.
Here I will present a collection of words from everyday life in two fields: agri-
culture and the household, which may demonstrate the Aramaic generating sedi-
ments that were used in the territory of Palestine. In fact these words do not exist in
classical Arabic, and some of them are not mentioned in al-Barghouthi’s dictionary
of the colloquial Arabic of Palestine.

24 Levin 1987: 38.

25 Nöldeke 1970: 226–231, §287–288.
26 Blau 1966–67: II, 413–415, 305.1.1–305.1.1.1.
27 Bassal (2004), Dissertation, p. 119 [in Hebrew].
92 Ibrahim Bassal

Words from the household

c
azaqah ‫( – عزقة‬ring)
In the Spoken Arabic in the north of Israel, one finds the word cazaqah (a ring). This
word is not recorded in Arabic literature and does not exist in many Arab dialects,
and the question of its origin arises. But the word ʕazaqtha is known in Aramaic. It
occurs in the Peshitta and in Daniel 6:18:
‫שׁנֵא צְבוּ‬
ְ ִ‫ת‬-‫פֻּם ֻגּבָּא ְוחַתְ ַמהּ ַמ ְלכָּא ְבּ ִעזְקְתֵ הּ וּ ְב ִעזְקָת ַרב ְְרבָנוֹהִי דִּ י לָא‬-‫שׂ ַמת עַל‬
ֻ ‫ְוהֵיתָ י ִת ֶאבֶן חֲדָ ה ְו‬
.‫בְּדָ נִיּ ֵאל‬
Syriac dictionaries list the word in the sense of ‘ring’. The word is documented in
Jewish Aramaic dialects: ‫א ; ִעזְ ָקתָ א ; ֶעזְ ְקתָ ה‬/‫ ; ִעזְקָה‬in Samaritan Aramaic: ‫ ;עסקה‬in
Christian Palestinan Aramaic ‫ܥܙܩــܬܐ‬. In the Neofiti translation the Hebrew word
‫ טבעת‬is translated to the Aramaic word: ‫עזקתא‬, Genesis 41:42:
‫ועבר פרעה ית עזקתא מעילוי ידיה ויהב יתיה על ידוי דיוסף ואלבש יתיה לבושין דבוץ ושוי‬
.‫דדהבא מניכא על צואריה‬
and Exodus 26:24:
‫ויהון מתכוונין מן מלרע וכחדא יהוון מכוונין על רישא לגו עזקתא חדא כדן יהוי לתריהון‬
.‫לתרין יהוון סטרין‬
In Post-Biblical Hebrew the verb ‫ עזק‬means ‘to hold fast’.28
This word is used in the vernacular Arabic of Syria and Lebanon. Feghali and
Frayḥa refer to it as a loan word from Aramaic. What emerges from the discussion
above is that the word is part of an Aramaic substratum in vernacular Arabic in
Syria, Israel, and Palestine.
bannūr ‫( – بنّور‬fireplace)
In his book Land, Man and Effort, Arraf records an abundance of words from the
everyday life of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel. This documentation of ancient words
makes a contribution to the study of the Palestinian dialects used in Israel. These
dialects preserve words from ancient layers, words that have disappeared due to
changes in technology. In his description of the locksmith’s work, he uses the word
bannūr (fireplace) which is a part of the furnace. He writes:
... ‫والنار تحرك بالسفوت وباللقط يفتح رأس البنّور الذي يعطي الريح‬
(The coals are stirred by the spit, and with the tongs, the cover of the
fireplace is opened, bringing the wind).
The word is vague in Arabic, and there is no mention of it in the Arabic lexicon,
although Dozy and Dalman do mention the phrase ‫بيت النار‬.29 And thus the phrase

28 Jastrow 1903: 1062.

29 Dozy 1967: I, 132; Dalman 1964: II, 139.
 Hebrew and Aramaic Substrata 93

is a calque of the Aramaic phrase ‫ בית נוּ ָרא‬and in Syriac ‫( ܒܝܬ ܢܘܪܐ‬fireplace). It is

a part of the furnace in which the wood to be burned is placed. But there is also an
Aramaic form '‫נוּרא‬ָ ‫ 'בֵּי‬in the same sense, e.g. in the Babylonian Talmud, Nedarim
62:2.30 Apparently, this phrase was borrowed in vernacular Arabic as a blended form
of the Aramaic phrase '‫'ביי נורא‬, and we find it in the spoken Arabic of Syria,
Lebanon, Israel and Palestine.
zallūʕa / zal ʕa ‫ زلعة‬/ ‫ زلوعة‬zallūca min fuxār – (a ceramic pitcher)
This word is not mentioned in al-Barghouthi’s dictionary and is not recorded in the
Arabic lexicon. It is used in the Syrian and Lebanese dialects.31 Dozy mentions it,
and Frayḥa points out that it is used in the Lebanese dialect in the sense of “jar”.
Indeed, the word is known from Mishnaic Hebrew '‫ זְלוּ ַע‬/ ‫ זַ ְלעָא‬/ ‫'זלועא‬. In the
Jonathan Translation of Jeremiah 19:1, the Hebrew word baqbūq is translated as
‫זלוע‬. This word is borrowed in spoken Arabic from Aramaic. Blau did not list this
word in his dictionary on Mediaeval Judaeo-Arabic. Rather than a noun, he brings a
verb that means ‘let out water and draw it’.32 Also in Hebrew, the verb is borrowed
from Aramaic. Loewinstamm noted that this is an ancient verb from Mishnaic
Hebrew that has been renewed in Modern Hebrew through Arab influence.33
sarīde ‫( – سريدة‬straw basket)
kān cinna sarīde ncabbi fīha tibin, zibil (we had a basket for carrying straw or dung).
This word is used in the Arabic spoken in the Galilee in the sense of ‘basket made of
straw’. This meaning is not recorded in the Arabic dictionaries, neither in the
classical nor in the spoken Arabic. It is noteworthy that in Talmudic literature there
is a word '‫( 'ס ְִרידָ ה‬matting, a sieve). Midrash Tanḥūma B’shall 18 uses the phrase
‫( סרידות תבן‬basket with straw). Furthermore, in Onkelos '‫ 'ס ְָרדָ א‬is used for the Hebrew
word '‫'מכבר‬. In Judaeo-Arabic, Saadia Gaon translates '‫ 'מכבר‬in Exodus 27:4 as ‫סרדא‬.
Also, the Samaritan translation of the Pentateuch to Arabic uses '‫ 'سردا‬and in the
Abu-saʕīd version '‫'سرند‬، '‫'صرند‬. Dalman34 relied on Tawfiq Canaan and brought
the word sarūde in the sense of sieve. He added that in New-Syriac sarīdā. These
words in Judaeo-Arabic and Samaritan Arabic translation are from Aramaic.35
Indeed, the form sarīde in vernacular Arabic, known only in connection with
agricultural work, corresponds to the Rabbinic form '‫'ס ְִרידָ ה‬.

30 Sokoloff 2002: 215.

31 Dozy 1967: I, 599; Frayḥa 1973: 74; Abed-al-Raḥīm 2003: II, 694.
32 Blau 2006: 275.
33 Loewinstamm (1976).
34 Dalman 1964: III, 140.
35 The words ‫ صرند \ سرند‬are variants of the word ‫ سردا‬with dissimilation. See Dozy 1967: I,
647.
94 Ibrahim Bassal

sifil ‫( – سفل‬bowl, mug)

The word sifil is not familiar in contemporary spoken Arabic, but we find it in the
Encyclopaedia of Palestinian Folklore, vol. 3.36 This volume gives illustrations of
tools and their names, among them the word sifil (bowl, mug):
،‫ سم‬60-80 ‫ وھو إناء أكبر ﻣن الزبدية إذ يبلغ قطره األعلى‬: ‫السفل‬
.‫يستعمل لغسل الثياب وتحميم األطفال ووضع الماء الساخن عند اإلستحمام‬
(The sifil [bowl, mug] is bigger than zibdiyye [mug], and its diameter is 60–
80 cm. It is used to wash clothes, bathe children, and hold hot water when
bathing).
In an article about pottery handicraft,37 there is a detailed description of this utensil:
‫ باالضافة إلى كونه‬،‫ وھو إناء كبير يشبه )الطشت( يستعمل لنفس الغرض الذي يستعمل فيه‬:‫سفِل‬ ِّ ‫ال‬
‫مكانا مناسبا ومفضال لنقع الطين الخام أو ما شابه ذلك كما كان يستعمل لوضع القطين أو الزبيب او‬
.‫البنادورة المجففة ريثما تنقل بمكانھا الطبيعي في الخوابي أو األكياس‬
(The sifil is a big utensil similar to the bowl and is used for the same
purposes. It is an appropriate container for soaking raw clay and the like and
was also used for the temporary storage of dried figs, raisins and dried
tomatoes before they are stored in proper and bigger clay urns and bags).
This word is not frequent in contemporary spoken Arabic usage in Palestine. It is not
noted in the dictionary of Colloquial Palestinian Arabic Dialect, but it appears in
folk documentation, which is evidence of its use in the past. Support for the
existence of the word in Palestinian Arabic we find in Ms Sinai 72, an 897 A.D.
south Palestinian Christian Arabic manuscript of the New Testament translation of
the word '‫ 'כיור‬in John 13:5:
‫قام ﻣن العشا وضع ثيابه واخذ ازار فاتزر به بعد ذلك اخذ ﻣا فصبه في سفل‬
.‫وبدا يغسل ارجل التلميذ‬
(He rose from dinner, put on some clothes and a robe, took some water and
put it in a sifil and began to wash the disciples’ feet).
It is also documented in a manuscript Bod. 493 14th century, as a translation of the
Hebrew word ‫ ספל‬in Jud. 6:38:
.‫وبكر بالغداة وعصر الجزة وﻣصى طل ﻣن الجزة ﻣال سفل ما‬
(He rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew – a
bowlful of water).
We also find a reference in the Mediaeval Judaeo-Arabic Risāla of Ibn-Qurayš
which mentions the word ‫אלספל‬.38

36 Encyclopaedia of Palestinian Folklore III: 709.

37 Ḥasan 1980: 50.
 Hebrew and Aramaic Substrata 95

In the Geniza texts the word is found, and Avizur mentions that in the 19th
century, the word was known in Palestine. The word is, however, not documented in
the classical Arabic dictionaries, but in contrast, Dozy and the Judaeo-Arabic
dictionaries have recorded it. And they attribute the word to Aramaic as did
Fraenkel.39
To sum up, it emerges from our discussion above that according to the evidence
of the popular literature and Jewish Arabic dictionaries, the word was used in
spoken Arabic in Palestine. The word sifil has been discussed exhaustively by
Simon Hopkins, who deals with its appearance in Aramaic and sub-dialects and in
Judaeo-Arabic and vernaculars. In his searching discussion of this word, he deals
with the possibility that the word is a Canaanite/Hebrew substrate that has been
preserved, via Aramaic, in Arabic.40
korkiyye ‫( – ُكركيّة‬small jar for liquid)
jarra zġīri min fuxār nicmal fīha mazahir (small evaporation vessel of ceramic for
making neroli water)
The word is not documented in the classical Arabic dictionaries, but it is mentioned
in some of the vernacular dictionaries. Hobeika notes its connection with the Syriac
word ‫ ܰܟܪܟܐ‬which means rounded. Frayḥa mentions the word karky which means
evaporation vessel; he attributes the word to the root krk which means: to go around,
to encircle. Abed al-Raḥīm included it in the spoken Arabic of Syria and attributed it
to Syriac Karko.41
qurṭalle / ʔurṭalle ‫( – قُرطلّة‬wicker-basket)
In classical Arabic the word qirṭalla-tun / qirṭālla-tun means pack-saddle. What is
interesting for our discussion is that in Syria and Palestine the sense of the word is
‘wicker-basket’, e.g. qurṭallit Ɉinab; qurṭallit tīn. In the Palestinian dialect, it
explicitly denotes a basket made of olive wickers. The word is known in Syria and
Lebanon. It is attested in Eastern Aramaic and in Western Aramaic as a basket:42
"‫"חד קרטל דתאנין‬. Sokoloff noted that it is borrowed into Arabic from Aramaic. The
glossary of Bar-Bahlūl lists the word and describes the material of the basket: ‫ܙܒܝܐܠ‬
‫(ܓܕܝܐܠ ܕܡܢ ܫܒܘܩܐ‬a basket made of wickers). Epstein43 gives the word in the
Geonim literature, "‫( "וכפישא פ' כמין קרטליתא שנותנין בו ענבים כשבוצרין בו את הכרם‬a
vessel, like a basket in which grapes are put when gathering from the vineyard). In
Aramaic the first syllable is with the vowel a, like the Greek χαρταλλος, but in
vernacular Arabic, the first syllable is pronounced with the vowel u: qurṭalle.

38 Risāla 1984: 278; Shy 2005: 386–387.

39 Fraenkel 1886: 67.
40 Hopkins 1995: 41–43.
41 Frayḥa 1973: 152; Abed al-Raḥīm 2003: IV, 1309.
42 Sokoloff 1990: 504.
43 Epstein 1982: 20.
96 Ibrahim Bassal

fakūra / [fagūra] ‫( – فكورة‬fastener of a window)

The word is known in the Syrian, the Lebanese and north Palestinian dialects and is
found in the vernacular dictionaries of Syria and Lebanon. However, it is not used in
the south Palestinian dialect, and therefore, it is not mentioned in the al-Barghouthi’s
dictionary. Bustani gives the word ‫( فاكورة‬pl. ‫[ فواكير‬fāʕūla-Nomina Instrumenti])
as a vernacular in Arabic that means ‘lock, fastener of a window’. The al-Munjid
dictionary also attributes this word to Syriac. Hobeika brings the word as borrowed
from Syriac from the stem fkr, to tie, to bind. Frayḥa also brings the verb ‫فَوْ كَر‬.44 It is
worth noting that in Syriac Aramaic the verb ‫ ܦܟــــــــܪ‬means to bind, to join, and the
ܰ
noun ‫ ܱܦ ܰܟܪܐ‬means a door-fastening, a bolt. In classical Arabic, this stem does not
have that meaning.
Bar-Bahlūl wrote ‫ ﻣترس الباب الفخار‬as a fricative ḵ, but Bar-Ali wrote ‫ الف ّكار‬as
a plosive k.45
ܰ
The Syriac Thesaurus of Payne-Smith brings the form ‫ܦ ܰܟܪܐ‬, ܱ and he quotes Bar-
Ali and Bar-Bahlūl who explain the form in Arabic: ‫المترس للباب الف ّكار‬.46
In spoken Arabic in the north of Israel, the word is pronounced in the pattern of
faʕūla fakūra [fagūra].

Words from the Vineyard and Other Agricultural Terms

baccar / tbaccar ‫بعر‬/ ‫( – تبعر‬to glean the grain and fruits behind the harvesters)
Niswān w-iwlād bitbaccaru zatūn (women and kids glean olives)
This verb is usually used in spoken Arabic with the meaning of gathering olives or
fruit fallen from the tree. In Aramaic the verb is original. The Peshitta attested it as a
translation of the Hebrew verb ‫( תְ עוֹלֵל‬Deut. 24:21):
.‫כִּי תִ בְצ ֹר כּ ְַר ְמָך ֹלא תְ עוֹלֵל אַח ֲֶריָך ַלגֵּר ַליּ ָתוֹם ְולָאַ ְל ָמנָה י ִ ְהי ֶה‬
The Peshitta translates:
.‫דקטף אית כרמך לא תבער בסתרך אלא לעמורא וליתימא ולארמלתא יהוא‬
We do not find this word in Arabic dictionaries. On the other hand, it exists in
Aramaic. In light of this situation, we can assume that the word is borrowed from
Aramaic, especially in the areas that in the past were dominated by Aramaic. Thus,
we can see this verb as an Aramaic substrate in spoken Arabic.

ǧarǧīr ‫( – جرجير‬the shriveled olive)

In the spoken Arabic of Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, the word ǧarǧīr is used in the
sense of shriveled olive.47 In addition, in Lebanon there is a verb ǧarǧar connected

44 Bustani 1983: 699; Hava 1964: 572; Hobeika 1939: 359; Frayḥa 1973: 134.
45 In Arabic, the word is written in two variants: ‫ الف ّكار‬in Bar-Ali, II, p. 261 and ‫ الفخار‬in Bar-
Bahlūl, p. 1561.
46 Payne-Smith 1879–1901: III, 3129; Payne-Smith 1998: 445.
47 Dalman 1964: II, 159.
 Hebrew and Aramaic Substrata 97

to olive: ǧarǧar az-zatūn (shriveled and fell to the ground). In the spoken Arabic of
Palestine, the word is known by the peasants as shriveled olive: nōkil ʔil-ǧarǧīr maʕ
xubiz (we eat the il-ǧarǧīr with bread). This word was not recorded in dictionaries of
literary Arabic, but it is mentioned in later dictionaries of the Arabic of Syria,
Lebanon and Palestine.48
In biblical Hebrew the word is known to have a meaning of (berry) grain (single
berries remaining on the topmost branches), Isaiah 17:6:
-‫אַר ָבּעָה חֲמִ שָּׁה ְס ִעפֶי ָה פּ ִֹריּ ָה נְ ֻאם‬
ְ ‫שֹׁלשָׁה גּ ְַרגּ ְִרים בְּר ֹאשׁ אָמִיר‬
ְ ‫שׁנַי ִם‬
ְ ‫בּוֹ עוֹלֵֹלת כְּנ ֹ ֶקף זַי ִת‬-‫ְונִשְׁאַר‬
‫שׂ ָראֵל‬
ְ ִ ‫י ְהוָה אֱֹלהֵי י‬
(Yet some gleanings will remain, as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two
or three olives on the topmost branches, four or five on the fruitful boughs,
declares the Lord, the God of Israel).
In Judaeo-Arabic49 the word is known to mean berry as rendered by Saadia Gaon
who translates '‫ 'גורגורין‬meaning berry, grain and also in the Judaeo-Arabic
translation of the Prophets.50 However, the meaning ‘shriveled olive’ is unique to the
vernacular Arabic in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine.
Furthermore, in the Mishnaic Hebrew, there are both meanings: one is a single
small olive, while the second is ‘shriveled olive’, and the verb ‘grgr’ which means
to let the olive shrivel on the tree or in the sun on the roof.51 This second meaning is
consistent with the existing meaning in the spoken Arabic in Palestine. In light of
this, we can consider the sense of the word in the spoken Arabic as a residue from
the Mishnaic Hebrew and Talmudim, and it remains in the spoken language as a
substrate from Mishnaic Hebrew.
qurmīyye / ʔurmīyye ‫( – قرﻣية‬trunk of tree)
qurmīyye meaning trunk of the tree is employed in vernacular Arabic in Iraq, Syria,
Lebanon and Palestine.52 What is relevant to our discussion is the occurrence of the
word in Palestinian spoken Arabic: qurmīyyit šaǧarit ɔiz-zatūn (trunk of olive tree).
The word is not documented in the classical dictionaries, whereas it is found in
Judaeo-Arabic53 and in the new dictionaries. In Iraq, Al-Mawsilī noted that it is used
in the spoken Arabic of Mosul and is attributed to Aramaic.
Syrian dictionaries document this word as ‫ܩܘܪܡـــــــــــܐ‬.54 It originated from the
Greek word κορµός which entered Syriac and via Syriac penetrated to the spoken

48 Bustani 1983: 99; Dozy 1967: II, 169; Barthélmy 1935–55: I, 107; Frayḥa 1973: 25–26.
Compare with Hebrew and Aramaic; Barghouthi 2001: 264.
49 Shy 2005: 111–113; Blau 2006: 83.
50 Avishur 1998: 61.
51 Jastrow 1903: 264–265.
52 Bustani 1983: 730–731; Dozy 1967: II, 337; Frayḥa 1973: 139; Barghouthi 2001: 997; al-
Mawsilī 1935: 70.
53 Blau 2006: 541.
54 Paine-Smith 1879–1901: III, 3566; Sokoloff 2009: 1344.
98 Ibrahim Bassal

Arabic. Furthermore, Kosover documents the word among the Arabic elements in
Palestinian Yiddish,55 with the meaning: a large block of charcoal, a piece of wood.
ǧift ‫( – جفت‬residue of olive ‘turf’)
In the spoken Arabic of Syria and Palestine, the residue of olives after pressing is
called ‫ جفت‬ǧifit.56 ʔil-ǧifit mnistácimlu fī waɔid in-nār lal-xabīz (we use the residue
of olive ‘turf’ to burn in the oven). This word is not mentioned in classical Arabic
dictionaries, but it is mentioned in the new dictionaries, and they add that it is a
vernacular word. The word is known in Jewish Aramaic as '‫ 'גיפתה‬and in Mishnaic
Hebrew ‫( ֶגּפֶת‬Shabbat III: 1).57 In the Geonim commentary to Taharot it is mentioned
as ‫جفث – גופת‬.58 In addition, the Judaeo-Arabic Tanḥūm states that in Hebrew it is
called gefet and in Arabic, gift.59 We can sum up that the word borrowed in Spoken
Arabic from Jewish Aramaic or Mishnaic Hebrew.
qlūḥ / ʔlūḥ ‫ قلح‬pl. ‫( – قلوح‬soft branch)
This is a special word known and used in the northern villages of the Galilee and in
Lebanon. The word is not known in the Muṯallaṯ dialect in central Israel, but it is
known in Aramaic as ‫קוּ ְלחָא‬/‫ קי ְלחָא‬meaning ‘stem, stalk’ and in Mishnaic Hebrew as
‫‘ ֶקלַח‬tube’, ‘stem’, ‘stalk’.60 The al-Munjid dictionary attributes the word to Syriac
and notes that it occurs with the diminutive form -ūn ‫قلحون‬.61 Thus, in spoken
Arabic, the word is borrowed from the Syriac with the diminutive form.
fārūḥ ‫( – فاروح‬thin chaff which flies in the wind)
This is a word uniquely connected to the threshing floor. The soft straw that flies in
the wind is called farūḥ / fārūḥ, and people in Palestinian areas call it muṣṣ. The
word is known in Palestinian Arabic in some areas, and Encyclopedia of Palestinan
Folklore notes that this material is used for pottery.62 In a paper describing the craft
of pottery, Ḥasan mentions the word farūḥ.63 Furthermore, Arrāf records this word as
a thin chaff which flies in the wind. The word is not known in classical Arabic, but it
is known in Aramaic. The verb ‘praḥ’ in Aramaic and Hebrew is to fly. In Syriac the
form farūḥa means flying. It is an Aramaic word borrowed by spoken Arabic.

55 Kosover 1966: 243.

56 Dalman 1964: IV, 79.
57 Sokoloff 1990: 135.
58 Epstein 1982: 127.
59 Shy 2005: 110–111.
60 Jastrow 1903: 1374.
61 Al-Munjid 1986: 649.
62 Encyclopaedia of Palestinian Folklore III: 47–48.
63 Ḥasan 1980: 47–48.
 Hebrew and Aramaic Substrata 99

dafūra64 – (the first figs)

dafūra is still used in spoken Arabic in Israel and Palestine to mean ‘the first figs’,
especially in the north: dafūret ʔittīn (fruit of figs that ripens at the beginning of the
season). Dalman compares the word dēfūr to the Hebrew word '‫( 'בכורה‬Hosea 9, 10),
while the late fruit was called ‫( התאנ‬tīn).65 In the Syrian and Lebanese Arabic
dialects it is also used. Al-Bustāni writes
.‫ ﻣا سبق غيره بأيام النضج ﻣن ثمر التين وھو ﻣن كالم العا ّﻣه‬:‫ديفور‬
(Fruit of the fig tree that ripened early, in the vernacular language).
Dozy also cites Bustani and notes the two forms ‫ ديفوره‬and ‫ديثوره‬. Frayḥa too
notes that the two forms are used in the Lebanese Arabic dialect.66
Barthélemy writes that ‫ ديفور‬is used in the Arabic of Syria and Jerusalem,
meaning ‘fruit that ripens early’, but he does not note the origin nor does he add an
explanation.67 The word is not mentioned either in Barghouthi’s dictionary or in
Lisān al-ʕArab.
What is the origin of this obscure word, and what is the significance of its
various forms?
'‫ 'דופרא‬is mentioned in the Mishna, Demai 1:1:
.‫כל השיתין פטורין חוץ משל דו פ ר א‬
(All the wild figs are exempt except those which have a biannual crop).
Shevi it: 9,4:
ʕ

.‫ דֻ פ ְָרא[ אבל לא על הסתוונית‬:‫אוכלין על הטפחין ועל הדו פרא]אלבק‬

(One may continue to eat in clay vessels the second crop of trees that yield
biannually. But, one must not eat summer fruit that ripen in the winter).
But there are also other versions of the word: ‫דיופרא‬, ‫הליפרא‬, ‫דיפיא‬.68
In Jewish Aramaic texts as well, the word is found in several versions: ‫דיופרא‬,
‫דיפרין דפרים‬, ‫ראדיפ סופא‬.69 Definition of its meaning first appears in the Talmud
Eruvin 18:1:

64 This word appears in different forms in vernacular Arabic. It is listed under different entries in
the dictionaries: e.g under d-f-r in Dozy 1967: I, 448 -dayfūr; and under d-ṯ-r - dayṯūr; also he
gives dīfāl/dīqāl, p. 481. He relies on Ibn al-ʕAwām’s book, al-Filāḥah that gives two forms: tīn
dīqāl and tīn dīfāl.
65 Dalman 1964: I, 379.
66 Dozy 1967: I, 448; Bustani (1983) gives the word under d-ṯ-r dayṯūr, and under d-f-r dayfūr.
The two forms are loans in Arabic and reflect differing vernacular pronounciations. Also
Frayḥa (1973: 60) gives the form dayṯūra and notes that in some villages they say dayfūr,
meaning figs before ripening.
67 Barthélmy 1935–55: I, 242.
68 For details, see Aruch 1928: III, 45–46, under ‫דיופרא‬.
69 Aruch 1928: III, 45: δίφορος (bearing fruit twice a year); Levy 1963: I, 394. In vernacular
Arabic in the Jenīn area, dafūr refers to a special variety of fig trees that bear fruit twice a year.
100 Ibrahim Bassal

‫ אילן העושה דיו פרות בשנה‬,‫מאי דיופרא)דיפרא(? אמר עולא‬

(What [is the meaning of] ‘deyfura’? Ulla [name of several Amoraim]
replied: A tree that bears fruit twice a year).
Levy explains “A fig tree bearing fruit twice a year” Sheviʕit 9:4, and he noted that
this is a Greek word composed of two elements: δυω-φορος (bi-seasonal). Kraus
also brings it as a word borrowed from the Greek.70
The first appearance of the words '‫ 'דיפור‬and '‫ 'דופרה‬in Arabic is attributed to
Rabbi Saadia Gaon in Al-Fāẓ al-Mishna: "‫משלדפרה‬, ‫ ;"אלדיפור‬and to Rabbi Sherira
Gaon: "‫( "תכ ֹרג ֹ דפעתין פי אלסנה‬gives fruit twice a year).71 Afterwards Moses
Maimonides uses it in the Mishnah commentary, Demai 1:1:
‫דו פ רה לפט ֹה מרכבה דו פירי ודו פי לגתהם זוג ֹ יעני יטעם מרתין והו נוע מן אלתין יטעם‬
.‫מרתין פי אלעאם‬
(Dufra is a blended word du in their language means pair, that is to say [in
other words] it will ripen twice, and it is a kind of fig that ripens twice a
year).
and also [in] Sheviʕit 9:4:
.‫הד פ רה נוע מן אלשג ֹר מא תטעם מרתין פי אלעאם‬
(A type of tree that bears fruit twice a year).
Actually, the word entered spoken Arabic via [through] Aramaic and was
adapted to the Arabic forms, and it is used in connection with fruit or with harvest
that is gathered more than once. For example, they would say dafurit adduxān (first
harvest of tobacco leaves) and second harvest, and so on. However, it was more
common in Arabic to use the word specifically in reference to figs ripening early.

5 Conclusion
This paper has examined some Hebrew and Aramaic residues (grammatical and
lexical items from agriculture and the household) in Spoken Palestinian Arabic.
There is considerable value in gathering such material and in preserving this tra-
dition, otherwise it will be lost. The rapid changes in society cause far-reaching
permutations in the life style and the words that were used in everyday life but have
disappeared or changed with the times. Those words which cease to be used are
being forgotten, especially among the younger generation, and tend to fade away.
Furthermore, most informants have grown old and it is our duty to cherish and pre-
serve that linguistic tradition while it is still possible.

70 For details, see Levy 1963: I, 394; Jastrow 1903: 304; Kraus 1899: II, 201–202.
71 Aloni 1986: 185.
 Hebrew and Aramaic Substrata 101

This paper also notes the distinctive qualities of the layer of Spoken Palestinian
Arabic dialects in the Holy Land compared with other Arabic dialects, and it clari-
fies the linkage between this layer and the languages that were spoken in Palestine
such as Hebrew and Aramaic. Study of the Hebrew and the Aramaic components in
these layers contributes to the definition of the unique linguistic atlas of the Spoken
Palestinian dialects and to the completion of the spoken Arabic and Palestinian dic-
tionary.

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