Arabic in Hebrew Letters: An introduction to ‘Judeo-Arabic’

Exercises

Transliterating ‘Judeo-Arabic’ Bible Translations

1. Gen. 1:1 (Saʿadia)

 

2. Is. 40:31 (Saʿadia)

 

3. Prov. 15:27 (Early, non-Saʿadianic translation)

Commentary

The spelling of this translation – one of the earliest extant Bible translations – is clearly phonetic. Matres lectiones for the vowels i and u are used, regardless of their length. Furthermore, this translation tries to remain as close as possible to the Hebrew original, by repeating its syntactical structure or reflecting its use of roots (using cognate roots as well as repetition of a root in Hebrew):

פאדיח: according to Classical Arabic spelling (CAS) פאצֹח. Two features are remarkable here: The mater lectionis י is used for a short i, and for the Arabic letter Ḍād is used the Hebrew letter Daleth representing a similar sound.

ביתוה/ נפסוה: according to CAS ביתה/נפסה , there would be no ו for the short u.

אלטאמיע: according to CAS אלטאמע; the mater lectionis י is used for a short i.

ביטמע: according to CAS בטמע; the mater lectionis י is used for a short i.

ושאני: as in Classical Judeo-Arabic, the Hamza (glottal stop) at the end of the word is not marked in the Hebrew transcription.