Stages of ‘Judeo-Arabic Orthography’
‘Early Judeo-Arabic (EJA)’
The spelling of ‘Early Judeo-Arabic’ displayed in papyri, the oldest extant sources we have, is clearly phonetical. We will briefly introduce some features of this manner of writing:
- EJA uses –as Hebrew and Aramaic – matres lectionis (Aleph, Waw, Yod) for certain vowels (ā, i, u) but it is not systematically distinguished between their short and their long versions. In Classical Arabic, matres lectionis are used only for long vowels.
- For the Hebrew alphabet consists of less letters than the Arabic one, some letters represent more than one phoneme. The letter Daleth, for instance, is used for the Arabic letters Dāl representing [d] and Ḏāl representing [ð] (as in English ‘these’) but sometimes even for the ‘emphatic’ (linguistically spoken: pharyngealized/velarized) consonants Ḍad (emphatic d [dˤ]) and Ẓāʾ (emphatic [ðˤ]). What these four sounds have in common, is that they are articulated in the same place (again linguistically spoken: they are either dental or dentoalveolar consonants).
- Moreover, the l of the Arabic article al- is phonetically aligned before the so-called ‘sun-letters’. So, one would write, e. g., <al-šams>, but pronounce [aš-šams], however, the letter Lām is always written in Classical Arabic. In the phonetic spelling of EJA, it is omitted as the Alif, representing the long ā, is often, so we find אסלם instead of Classical Arabic אלסלאם (as-salām) which sometimes makes interpretation difficult .
- Alif maqṣūra, a letter with the shape of the Arabic letter Yāʾ, but pronounced as ā and employed only at the end of a word is rendered phonetically with Aleph (and not with Yod as in CJA): עלא instead of עלי.
‘Classical Judeo-Arabic’ (CJA)
After having established some features of EJA, it is now very easy to refer to the peculiarities of CJA which displays clear influence by the orthographic conventions of CA.
- Matres lectionis are only used to denote long vowels.
- The allocation of the Hebrew and Arabic letters is made based on similarity in appearance (and not in pronunciation): Because the letter Ḍād (ض) is graphically derived from the letter Ṣād (ص) by adding a diacritical point, CJA spelling uses the Hebrew letter Ṣade (צ) (which is used for Ṣād) with an additional diacritical point (צׄ). The same applies to Ẓaʾ (ظ): For it is derived from the letter Ṭāʾ (ط), CJA uses for its representation the Hebrew letter Ṭet (ט) with a diacritical point (טׄ). Next to these cases, some other letters of the Hebrew Alphabet are used twice in CJA as well (as one can see in the transliteration table on the next page). Although there is a convention on how to assign the letters of the different alphabets to each other, we must bear in mind that we often encounter ‘divergences’ in our manuscript sources.
- Contrary to what we have seen regarding EJA, the article al- is written with Lāmed, regardless of its pronunciation.
- Alif maqṣūra is written with Yod (as it has the shape of Yāʾ) and not with Aleph according to its pronunciation.
‘Late Judeo-Arabic (LJA)’
From the 15th century onwards, texts written in ‘Judeo-Arabic’ move away from the ideal of ‘Classical Arabic’. This has mainly two reasons: On the one hand, a greater spatial separation sets in as Jews then used to live in Jewish quarters, and on the other, the educational system in which the ideal of Classical Arabic was preserved was in a certain decline. This increasing isolation, in experience of daily life as well as in intellectual discourses favoured the emergence of vernaculars that become more distinct from non-Jewish varieties of Arabic and Neo-Arabic vernaculars (‘dialects’). What all the different manifestations of Late ‘Judeo-Arabic’ have in common is a strong influence of the vernacular on the literary language (e. g., the writer’s regional variety is reflected) and the return to phonetic spelling. This includes some features we already know from Early Judeo-Arabic, the use of matres lectionis regardless of a vowel’s length, following more spelling conventions of Hebrew or Aramaic than that of Classical Arabic.
The following (orthographic) characteristics of ‘Late Judeo-Arabic’ are taken from M. Connolly’s analysis of a folk tale in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (shelfmark: AIU VII.C.16). They illustrate the influence of spoken vernaculars on orthographic conventions; however, these specific features originate from a specific context and we must bear in mind that other sources may diverge from this one. Morphological or even lexical pecularities are not taken into account in the following list, even though they have an effect on the orthography:
- the article al- is treated like an independent unit and written separately from the word to which it belongs.
- though the usage of Yod for Alif maqṣūra continued, the latter is often rendered as Aleph (as in EJA, according to its pronunciation rather than the shape of the corresponding Arabic letter).
- Ẓāʾ (Arabic: ظ, CJA: טֹ) is rendered as Ṣadē with a diacritical point (צֹ) which serves also as the representation of Ḍād (ض). As in EJA, phonetically close sounds may merge.
- An ‘emphatic’ sound may extend its emphasis on adjacent letters which alters the spelling. In פי צֹארי (fī ḍārī; in my house) for instance, the initial Daleth (Arabic: Dāl, representing the sound [d]) has become its emphatic counterpart Ḍād [dˤ]/[dˠ] due to the sonorant /r/.
- Wāw serves as mater lectionis also for short u.