Recitation and Performance in Late Antique Hebrew: Linguistic Hints of a Performance Register in Greek and Latin Transcriptions of Biblical Hebrew from Late Antiquity
Significant linguistic research has been carried out in the field of language register and its relevance for speech patterns. In various contexts, language users tend to employ different linguistic features, especially but not limited to the realm of pronunciation. In many linguistic communities, th...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2022
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| In: |
Dead Sea discoveries
Year: 2022, Volume: 29, Issue: 3, Pages: 342-365 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Hebrew language
/ Diglossia
/ Language
/ Ideology
/ Judea
/ Pronunciation
/ Index
/ Declamation
/ Genetic transcription
/ Greek language
/ Latin
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| IxTheo Classification: | HA Bible |
| Further subjects: | B
performance pronunciation
B language ideology of Judea-Palestine B Greek and Latin transcriptions of Hebrew B Hebrew recitation B Hebrew diglossia B performance register |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | Significant linguistic research has been carried out in the field of language register and its relevance for speech patterns. In various contexts, language users tend to employ different linguistic features, especially but not limited to the realm of pronunciation. In many linguistic communities, there is a higher register of language associated with more formal settings, a lower register of language associated with less formal settings, and a wide spectrum of variation in between. In the context of reading traditions that develop around a sacred text, the same principles may apply. While the pronunciation (or phonology) of the reading tradition often interacts with and is influenced by the vernacular, tradents of the reading tradition often try to preserve a more “archaic,” conservative, and/or simply distinct pronunciation. There appears to be evidence that such a phenomenon was already at play in Biblical Hebrew reading traditions of late antiquity. By comparing Greek and Latin transcriptions of the Biblical Hebrew reading traditions of late antiquity to transcriptions of Hebrew taken from non-biblical sources, we can actually isolate multiple features that demonstrate a distinct difference in pronunciation between biblical and non-biblical sources. The collection of linguistic features characteristic of the reading tradition may properly be termed a “performance register,” the societal implications of which for Jewish communities of late antiquity will be explored in closing. |
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| ISSN: | 1568-5179 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Dead Sea discoveries
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685179-02903003 |