From: "Trevor & Julie Peterson" <06peterson AT cua.edu>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] Distinguishing between Aramaic and Hebrew
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2003 05:41:34 -0400
Chris wrote:
> Both Hebrew and Aramaic passages appear in Jewish prayer books. Would
> someone offer a short list easy identifiers so that a Hebrew beginner
> can realize he's looking at Aramaic, not Hebrew?
Looking for alef at the end of a lot of words has already been
mentioned. Another common clue is to look for relative pronouns. In
Hebrew they should take the form asher or she-, in Aramaic, di or d-.
>
> An earlier contribution noted that the Kaddish is Aramaic with a
> concluding Hebrew verse. I believe the prayer preceding the removal
> of the Torah from
> the ark is also in Aramaic. Why is this, I wonder?
Well, as has already been discussed, some of these prayers may have been
devised in Aramaic at a time when Aramaic was the more commonly spoken
language, so that the people would be sure to understand them, even if
they hadn't learned Hebrew very well.