Syriac Nsr, Ugaritic Nsr, Hebrew Nsr Ii, Akkadian Nsr Ii

SYRIAC NSR, UGARITIC NSR, HEBREW NSR II, AKKADIAN NSR II

JOHN F. HEALEY Cardiff

This note suggests the existence in Ugaritic, Hebrew and Akkadian of the proto-Semitic root *N$R, best known in Syriac. The num- bering of the Hebrew and Akkadian roots as N$R II is meant to contrast with N$R I which has the well-established sense "keep, guard" in both languages

(1) There is a well-documented Syriac verb nefar/na;rar (also in Jewish Aramaic-nefar) with a range of meanings, according to Payne Smith 2), from "chirp" (striduit) to "sigh, groan, murmur, howl, shriek, lament" (quiritavit). Derived nouns include ndsartd, "song", equated also by Payne Smith with naenia, "lament" and "lullaby". He also quotes Arabic bukj', "weeping". This nefar may be related to Arabic sarsara, "scream", and farra, "chirp, etc." 3). nesar appears in Syriac alongside near, "keep, etc.", the /t/ being usually regarded as an Aramaic development (cf. older Aramaic n?rr and the Aramaism in later Hebrew ntr) 4). According to the regular pattern of consonantal correspondences, the proto-Semitic form of these two roots would be *nsr and *ntr respectively. They would be expected to appear in Akkadian and Hebrew a s nsr and in Ugaritic as nfr and n?r (or ngr).

1) In the present discussion the Hebrew noun neser, "sprout, shoot", is not relevant. Cf. F. Brown, S. R. Driver, C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament(Oxford, 1907) (henceforth BDB), pp. 665-6. 2) R. Payne Smith, Thesaurus Syriacus (Oxford, 1879-91), II, cols. 2442-5. Cf. also J. Payne Smith, A CompendiousSyriac Dictionary (Oxford, 1903), D. 349. For Jewish Aramaic ne sar, cf. M. Jastrow, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmiand the Midrashic Literature (New York, Berlin, London, 1926), p. 930. 3) Cf. H. Wehr, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (Wiesbaden, 1961), (English ed. Milton Cowan), pp. 510, 511. 4) Cf. S. Moscati (ed.), An Introduction to the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages(Wiesbaden, 1969), § 8.18. Vetus Testamentum,Vol. XXVI, Fasc. 4 430

(2) As expected the two appear distinctly in Ugaritic as nsr and ngr. The latter is common though there has been much dispute about it. The /i/ always found in the written form instead of (also in other words) may be an orthographic peculiarity with the pronunciation still This is, however, unlikely for it can be seen that /i/ has its normal value from a word list which equates nafâru (Akkadian) with Ugaritic ni-ib-rttlJJ (syllabic for njr(gw) ) 5). We should also note the dispute between S. E. Loewenstamm and A. F. Rainey whether the assumed root is ngr or gyr (so Loewenstamm). This seems to have been settled in Rainey's favour (cf. the Ugaritiea text quoted above and clear instances of ngr, as in 4 viii 14 ff.) 6). The other root appears at least once in nfrt (CTA 16 vi 5). In his glossary entry C. H. Gordon refers to the Syriac verb 1). It has been normally assumed that n rrt is in close parallelism with bkt in the preceding line. Since lamentation fits the context well, Gordon translated the two words as "weeping" and "sobbing" (nfrt) s). This must be looked at further since M. Dahood misrepresents nsrt as parallel to bt and meaning "enclosure" (cf. Hebrew BDB, p. 666) 9). J. C. de Moor and P. van der Lugt rightly reject the equation of Ugaritic nsr with Hebrew nsr I, since Hebrew J1:fr I is certainly to be equated with Ugaritic ngr 10). But the suggestion that nsr II operates in Hebrew opens the question again, though not in the case quoted by Dahood (Job xxvii 18). In any case Dahood's translation of the Ugaritic lines is at odds with most others. The text reads:

5) C. F.-A. Schaeffer (ed.), Ugaritica V (Paris, 1968) (henceforth Ugar. V) 137 I 11'; cf. 135 rev. 17', 20'. Other Ugaritic texts are quoted according to A. Herdner, Corpus des Tablettes en cunéiformesalpbabétiques (Paris, 1963) (henceforth CTA). 6) The arguments arc found in B. Hartmann, Supp. VT 16 (1967), pp. 102-5; S. E. Loewenstamm, BASOR 194 (1969), pp. 52-4; A. F. Rainey, Leshonenu35 (1970), pp. 11-15; Loewenstamm, Leshonenu36 (1971), pp. 67-70. 7) Ugaritic Textbook (Rome, 1965) (henceforth UT), § 19.1691. 8) Ugaritic Literature (Rome, 1949), p. 81. 9) In Ras Shamra Parallels I, (ed. L. R. Fisher) (Rome, 1972), II 132. 10) BibOr 31 (1974), p. 11.