Line syntax in 4th–8th centuries Jewish liturgical poetry in Aramaic

Abstract

This article is concerned with analysis of the syntactic foundations for versification in the Jewish liturgical poetry written in Aramaic in the pre-classical and classical periods. This research embraces thirty poems which were added to the text of Aramaic translation of the Pentateuch in the Cairo Genizah Targum and Fragmentary Targum. The main hypothesis is: the verse structure in both poetical traditions is not strictly connected with certain syntactic models, but rather orientated to the rhythmic structure and phonetic means (acrostic and rhyme). Just for this reason the main syntactic unit of the verse structure in both pre-classical and classical poetry is a syntagma-colon. Analysis of the correlation between poetical lines does not display any specific type of syntactic relationships: the lines may be independent clauses, parts of coordinate or subordinate composite sentences, or parts of clauses (nominal phrases, predicative expressions or adverbial phrases). This characteristic of syntax is inherent in both the pre-classical linear and the classical strophic verse structures, what confirms our hypothesis that the main principles of versification in the Jewish liturgical poetry were not strongly orientated to the syntactic standards. The main difference in the verse structure at the level of a poetical line in these two types of poetry is a more regular rhythm and rhyme in the classical poems. Refs 17.

Keywords:

liturgical poetry, Aramaic, poetical syntax, targums