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