This volume consists of the proceedings of a conference which took place in the Netherlands in August 2006. The volume has no introduction to highlight the major themes or derive some overall conclusions from various articles, so the reader is left to consider what major contributions to the field of Aramaic studies have been made; one would like to have had some preview or guide to the major new developments in our understanding of Aramaic on offer. Before addressing this question, it is useful to review the articles individually. On the Neo-Aramaic front, Otto Jastrow offers some reflections on how modern Aramaic dialects can sometimes adopt phonemes known from far earlier periods in the history of the language, while Geoffrey Khan comments on the determined state in Neo-Aramaic dialects and Olga Kapeliuk treats perfect tenses in Neo-Aramaic from Urmi. As for grammar and syntax, A. Gianto discusses the well-known features of Aramaic (in common with other Semitic languages) in losing its final vowel and he refers to the qṭal hwā form of the verb as a narrative construction somewhat comparable to a pluperfect. This same verbal construction is discussed in far more detail in Syriac, in the Acts of Judas Thomas, by Craig Morrison, who argues that this form is used in narrative discourse for past events, in contrast to the qṭal used in direct speech. Renaud Kuty follows in a similar vein by studying the syntactic use of participles in the Targum Jonathan of Samuel. Edward Lipínski offers a useful catalogue of the phenomenon of Aramaic broken plurals, while Steven Fassberg gives an exhaustive catalogue of all forms for “son” and “daughter” in Aramaic, including some useful evidence from cuneiform orthographies. Na'ama Pat-El writes about historical syntax, isolating a few features which are unique to Aramaic within Semitic languages. Margaretha Folmer returns to the problem of object indicators within Aramaic, and Randal Garr studies the Aramaic plural morpheme ê. Regarding inscriptions, André Lemaire offers some corrections to published Aramaic dockets and some preliminary transliterations of new texts, without photos or copies of the originals. Holger Gzella re-edits some previously published Parthian Aramaic inscriptions with remarks on the dialectical features of Eastern Aramaic, although the inscriptions themselves are rather meagre in content, mostly being short inscriptions containing proper names. Looking further afield, Jan Joosten looks at Aramaic in the Septuagint, while Abraham Tal documents the well-known influence of Targum Onqelos on other Aramaic texts, using the Book of Tobit as a prime example. Peshitta studies and the general relationship of Syriac to other Aramaic dialects are discussed by John Healey and Wido van Peursen. Helen Murre-van den Berg writes about Chursch uses of Syriac, Neo-Aramaic and Arabic from 1500–1800, while Stephen Kaufman ends with a description of the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon.
The question is, what is new here that has not already been discussed elsewhere? It is instructive to have a cursory look at the bibliographies at the end of individual chapters. The great majority of works cited are in English, especially recent and modern studies of Aramaic. One contributor only bothers to cite his own work, while another cites eleven works, seven of which are his own; one author cites a thesis advisor no fewer than six times in the bibliography. Most contributors cite Nöldeke or Rosenthal or Dalman, but hardly anything in this volume would have surprised this older generation of scholars, since there is little here that was not already considered in previous studies of Aramaic grammar, syntax, or even inscriptions. Moreover, it is a matter of some puzzlement to the present reviewer that some exciting and new areas of research in historical perspectives of Aramaic are hardly represented in the present volume. One such question is the language of the Zohar and so-called mixed dialects of later Aramaic, which present complex linguistic puzzles that deserve much further study. Another important area of inquiry is Aramaic syntax, since it is the only ancient Semitic language to have replaced aspect with tempus in its verbal system. It is remarkable that no author in this collection has considered the fact that participle + verbal base is a characteristic of Indo-European syntax, reflecting tempus rather than aspect, and these instances are likely to reflect Persian influence on Aramaic. It is also noteworthy that this volume shows no awareness of the important contribution which cuneiform studies has made to understanding ancient Aramaic. The important article by M. Streck, for instance, on “Keilschrift und Alphabet” (in D. Borchers, F. Kammerzell and S. Weninger, Hieroglyphen, Alphabete, Schriftreformen, Göttingen, 2001, 77–97) has gone unnoticed. The famous Aramaic Uruk incantation in cuneiform script [published by the present reviewer in collaboration with T. Kwasman in JEOL 36–37, 1997–2000, 127–46, with corrections in N.A.B.U. 2001 No. 4, “Corrections”, No. 101, p. 97] offers new insights into Aramaic dialects and the phonology of Achaemenid Aramaic, since the Uruk tablet is much more reliable and authoritative than Massoretic pointing of biblical Aramaic or any other comparable means of assessing vocalization of the language. Any discussion of Aramaic in its historical setting ought to include these new perspectives.
To return to the original question posed regarding the overall impact of this volume on Aramaic studies, the judgement of this reviewer is that the book itself, while containing useful information and comment, is rather dull, conventional and unexciting.
