‘To Hear and to Accept’: A Word-Pair in the Tell Fakhariyah Bilingual Inscription
Beginning by looking at occurrences of the Akkadian word-pair šemû ( m ) // leqû ( m ), common in Mesopotamian literature, and the pair šm ʽ // lqḥ , relatively uncommon in Northwest Semitic texts, this paper takes its starting point from the observation that the sole instance of the pairing of šm ʽ...
| Published in: | Journal of Semitic studies |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2016]
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| In: |
Journal of Semitic studies
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| RelBib Classification: | TC Pre-Christian history ; Ancient Near East |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | Beginning by looking at occurrences of the Akkadian word-pair šemû ( m ) // leqû ( m ), common in Mesopotamian literature, and the pair šm ʽ // lqḥ , relatively uncommon in Northwest Semitic texts, this paper takes its starting point from the observation that the sole instance of the pairing of šm ʽ // lqḥ in Old Aramaic occurs in the Tell Fakhariyah bilingual — though the ‘cognate’ pair is absent from the parallel Akkadian inscription. I shall argue that the presence of this word-pair in the Tell Fakhariyah inscription, the earliest attestation of it in Northwest Semitic, is evidence of an Aramaic literary tradition as early as the ninth century bce . Crucial to this interpretation is the recognition that this instance of the pairing is not a translation from the Akkadian text of the bilingual but is an independent occurrence. In this way a modest contribution to the debate surrounding the much hypothesized Aramaic literary tradition will be put forward. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-8556 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Semitic studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jss/fgw017 |