Aramaic 'k', lyk' and Iraqi Arabic 'aku, maku: the Mesopotamian particles of existence.

• Author: Muller-Kessler, Christa

A linguistic phenomenon which has been evident in the central and southern Mesopotamian area (the former Babylonia), including neighboring Khuzistan, since the early Christian centuries is the deictic indicator k' "here" that functions predominantly as the adverb k' or kh, and is a Common Aramaic particle. (1) The earliest attestation of kh in Aramaic occurs in the Sfire inscriptions in ancient northern Syria outside the boundaries of Mesopotamia, (2) and it is still employed in modern Aramaic. This deictic particle can be combined with many other grammatical particles. For example, with the deictic element h' it forms the adverb hkh or h(')k' "here, hither," (3) which appears in Classical Syriac in a dissimilated variant hrk' (4) and in modern West Aramaic (e.g., Ma'lula) on account of phonetic change as hoxa. (5) Furthermore ka can be combined with prepositions, e.g., with the proclitic preposition l_, as the adverb lk' "here," with 'd as 'd k' "up to here," or with mn as mn k' "from here." (6) This list could be lengthened, but for our purposes this is not necessary, since all other possible combinations can be looked up in the relevant Aramaic dictionaries.

Another grammatical category where the deictic indicator k' is in use is that of the demonstrative pronouns that refer to distance. As early as Imperial Aramaic forms such as zk, dk, zk', znk, and zky (7) and augmented variants h'z'k, and h'zyk (pre-Classical Mandaic) (8) are employed, and only later shortened variants like h'k "that," identical for the masculine and feminine singular. (9) For the plural ("those") one has 'lk, 'lky in Imperial Aramaic, hlyk in Qumran Aramaic and Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, hn(y)k in Christian Palestinian Aramaic, Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic, and Mandaic. (10) This means that the deictic particle k' can be added to the basic forms of the demonstrative pronouns that are identical with the neardeixis (z', d', zn, dn, or 'ylyn, hlyn, and hnyn), thereby forming the far-deixis.

A comparable situation exists for the Classical Arabic demonstrative pronouns of distance daka, taka, tika, dalika, tilka, 'ulaka, and 'ulalika and their diverse dialectal byforms, which need not be listed here. None have yet been attested for Early Arabic (Fruharabisch).

All of the above-mentioned forms in Aramaic and Arabic are well known, and this overview is intended only as a demonstration that the deictic particle k' may be suffixed or combined with many other particles (demonstratives, prepositions, adverbs).

The same is true for the following variant forms of the particle of existence, which are restricted to the central and southeastern Babylonian Aramaic dialects. This dialect group, to which belong Mandaic, Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic, and a few incantation texts in koine Babylonian Aramaic, is quite distinct from the other northeastern Aramaic dialects such as Palmyrene, Hatran, and Syriac. The latter have only the simple particle of existence 'yt(y) "there is" and lyt "there is not." Both 'yt and lyt or l" yt are Common Aramaic, and except for the koine Babylonian Aramaic, examples are accounted for in the relevant reference grammars and do not present any problem. They differ in the dialects only by their diverse pronunciation, but not in spelling. Apart from the non-augmented particles of existence, one finds the variants augmented by k' in the central and southeastern Babylonian Aramaic dialects. They are restricted to this dialect group and do not survive in the Neo-Syriac dialects, as do other grammatical features, such as the infinitive forms of the derived stems.

For Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic one has 'yk'

The forms 'k' and 'k' correspond to the negated versions lyk' and l'k', although no negated form has yet been attested for the pre-Classical incantation corpus. Furthermore, later Classical Mandaic texts show: 'k' d-g'byr myn'n "there is one who is stronger than us," Ginza yamina 80:24 (= Petermann 1867: 80); 'k' hyy' 'k' m'r'y 'k' m'nd' d-hyy' "there is the living one, there is my lord, there is Manda d-Hiyya," de Morgan 1904, 3:1; lyk' (variant l'k') d-lyt lh s'k' "there is nothing that has no end," Ginza yamina 77:18 (= Petermann 1867: 77).

The spelling with the grapheme 'is naturally only the mater lectionis for /i/ or /e/. Also the koine Babylonian Aramaic bowls once show 'yk' in the sentence: wkl lwtt' 'ysp' smyd' wnydr' wqyryt' wlwtt' wsyqwpyt' d'yk' bgwt' "and every curse, bridled spell, vow, imprecation, curse, and plague that exist there in the inside," Muller-Kessler 2003a, bowl 15:4. (12) In Neo-Mandaic, viz., the dialect of Ahwaz in the province Khuzistan the augmented particle of existence has survived as ekko or ekka "there is," and as negated lekka, lekko "there is not." In this very dialect it...