Babylonian Aramaic: The Yemenite Tradition.

• Author: Kaufman, Stephen A.

In this long-awaited volume, Prof. Morag presents the phonology and the vocalization of the verbal forms in the reading tradition of the Babylonian Talmud as preserved in the San a Yemenite Jewish community. This is a noteworthy achievement in its own right. The premise of the volume, however, is that this tradition is particularly important because it actually preserves a synchronically valid and consistent linguistic stratum, i.e., an authentic Babylonian Aramaic tradition.

This argument has become somewhat of a dogma in recent years among Israeli scholars. The reasoning behind it is rehearsed yet again here: This tradition has many features in common with the vocalization preserved in the early manuscript Sassoon ms 263 of the Gaonic text Halakhoth Pesuqoth, and that manuscript, in turn, is known to be the most authentic witness to an authentic Babylonian tradition. I would maintain, however, that this emperor may be wearing few clothes! One of the reasons that ms 263 is prized is precisely because it is similar to the Yemenite tradition...