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Canaanite Varieties in the Second Millennium Bc: Can We Dispense with Anachronism?

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Canaanite Varieties in the Second Millennium Bc: Can We Dispense with Anachronism? CANAANITE VARIETIES IN THE SECOND MILLENNIUM BC: CAN WE DISPENSE WITH ANACHRONISM? Shlomo IZRE'EL* Introduction In a paper delivered at the meeting of the team of the forthcoming new edition of The Dictionary of Northwest Semitic Inscriptions (DNWSI) in Leiden at the end of 2001 (Izre'el 2003), I tried to set up a methodology for marking out West Semitic words in cuneiform texts from the Canaanite region. In that paper I dwelt on primary identification of Canaanite glosses, basically discussing the writing system and scribal traditions. The following are the main points to be considered: • Cuneiform writing does not separate between words, and thus signs can be attributed to strings on either side. • Cuneiform signs can be interpreted either as syllabic signs or as logograms. • Cuneiform signs are polyphonic and can bear different, sometimes quite remote values. Also, cuneiform signs have different values in different areas and periods, and must be interpreted according to their assigned scribal traditions. • When a sign is not inscribed carefully or the surface upon which it was inscribed has been damaged, there are many more options for reading and restoration than in alphabetic or consonantal, linear or pictographic script. • Non-Akkadian phonemes that form part of the Semitic stock and could have been part of the phonological system of the languages of the Levant in the second millennium BC (d, t, z, g, d, g,, h, h, o) are not represented faithfully by the cuneiform writing system. Laryngeal and pharyngeal consonants can be indicated in spelling only indirectly; in many cases such consonants are in effect ignored. In order to represent o, Canaanite scribes used the cuneiform u series.1 • Consonantal doubling is not always manifested in cuneiform writing, and it is less common in Amarna texts than others. However, when it is manifested, it • Professor , Department of Hebrew and Semitic Languages, Tel Aviv University 66 ORIENT CANAANITE VARIETIES IN THE SECOND MILLENNIUM BC must be interpreted as reflecting genuine phonological or morphophonological doubling. • Vocalic length is not always manifest in writing. However, when plene writing does occur, one must attend to its meaning, which in some cases represents genuine phonological length. Apart from these issues of decipherment and interpretation, one must also pay attention to the following primary methodological concerns: • The language in which the Amarna letters are written was thought by the local scribes to be Akkadian (Izre'el 1987b). However, one might rightfully say that the language was a mixed system, and in some scribal traditions it was based more on Canaanite than on Akkadian and therefore included more Canaanite features than Akkadian. The wisdom needed to distinguish disparate elements is not trivial, since Canaano-Akkadian is a single, unified system. • The inherent variation represented in the writings of the Amarna Canaanite scribes and their respective scribal traditions needs close scrutiny before one can determine non-Akkadian components. Still, much of the existing variation is concealed by the writing system, which was not only a foreign language to the scribes, but was in itself traditional and constrained by learning habits. In this paper I would like first to suggest some further methodological concerns, in order to deal with what can definitely be seen as Canaanite- mainly in the domain of glosses-and then see to what extent the data at hand can be used to show variation in the Canaanite dialect continuum of the 14th century BC. I will cover only the area of The Land of the Bible (to use Aharoni's term, 1967), which fits the interest of this workshop, which is dealing with dialectal variation in Hebrew. I should further emphasize that what will be discussed here are only those words that can be unequivocally isolated from the bulk of the Canaano-Akkadian flow as genuine Canaanite, either by their being marked by a Glossenkeil or otherwise. As will be shown later, this is not always clear. I have not discussed individual grammatical features integrated in the Canaano-Akkadian linguistic system, neither have I included in this study Canaanite roots that were integrated in the system through derivation. On the other hand, I have discussed, in some cases, Canaanite nominal stems that have adapted Akkadian inflectional affixes (e.g.,/ibu/, #9). I have not included proper names in the study. Although proper names may reveal some tendencies in local dialects, they tend to preserve older features and are therefore unreliable for synchronic studies. Lastly, one should notice that the data presented here is not complete, as the aim of this paper is to discuss variation rather than to Vol. XXXVIII 2003 67 present a list of all Canaanite lexemes attested. This will be given in the forthcoming edition of DNSWI (a preliminary list appears in Izre'el 1998b). Methodological Concerns Let me first discuss some methodological concerns which must be dealt with when trying to determine genuine variation in the Canaanite data. Akkadian, Canaanite, and Canaano-Akkadian First, one must always remember that even when scribes used glosses and marked them by a Glossenkeil, this is not an indication that a word is Canaanite. Glossenkeil-marked words can be Canaanite, Canaano-Akkadian, Akkadian, Hurrian, Egyptian, or even Sumerian. Since the two main components from which Canaano-Akkadian is built, Canaanite and Akkadian, are two languages belonging to the same language family, some forms can be identical in both languages, at least in writing. This is true not only for some words within the flow of the text, but also for some glosses. Note the following two examples: (1) LUMES•_ma-sa-ar-ta/massarta/ "garrison" (EA 263: 24, central Palestine)2 (2) GAZ•_di12-[k]a-t[i] /dikat/ "I was killed" (EA 287: 73, Jerusalem) In the first example, the Akkadian word "garrison" is explanatory to the Sumerogram, which means just "men", thus indicating what type of men are needed. In the second example, the Canaano-Akkadian passive verb interprets a Sumerogram which indeed means "kill", but is usually found in the Amarna letters as a component of the logogram indicating the Papiru groups (Rainey 1978a, 72). Some glosses can be interpreted as either Canaanite or Akkadian and therefore cannot help in determining actual Canaanite lexemes, neither can they be used to determine variation in lexical usage in 14th century Canaan. I mentioned some examples (pi "mouth", maska "leather", murra "myrrh" and mu-tu-mi "death") in Izre'el 2003, 28. A case in point to our discussion here is found in the following prostration formula: (3) a-na sepe(GIRMES) sarri(LUGAL) beliya(EN-ia)7 samas(dUTU) is -tu sa-me-e 8 7-su 7-ta-a-an 9 us-he-hi-in 10 i-na pa-an-te-e •_ ba-at-nu-ma 11 u se-ru-ma •_su-uh-ru-ma At the feet of the king, my lord, the sun from heaven, I prostrate 7 times and 7 times on the belly and on the back. (EA 232: 6-11, Acre) 68 ORIENT CANAANITE VARIETIES IN THE SECOND MILLENNIUM BC Obviously, the glosses here reflect Canaanite /batnu/ (BH baetaen) and /Suhru/3 respectively. Similar prostration formulae can be found in many Amarna letters from all over the region. However, the lexeme used for "belly" or "front (of the body)" is not pantu or batnu , but-mostly-kabattu, which means "liver" in Akkadian. Because of this shift in meaning ("liver" •„ "front"), and because two of the occurrences of kabattu are preceded by a Glossenkeil, it has been regarded by some as Canaanite (in its adverbial form) (CAD K, 14; Sivan 1984, 131, 235). If so, there is room for the conclusion that there is dialectal variation between two lexemes with the same meaning. However, there is no reason to assume a Canaanite loan in the case of kabattu (cf. AHw, 416; Rainey 1978a, 75), except, perhaps, for the meaning ("front"), all the more so since the two occurrences where Glossenkeils are found are not clear of problems. One must also note that Glossenkeils serve not only as gloss markers, but also in other functions (Artzi 1963). Still, there are two occurrences that may be of interest here: (4) se-ru-ma •_ u ka-ib-du-ma "on the back and on the belly" (EA 316: 9, Yursa) (5) a-na muh-hi ka-bi-di-ia muh-hi •_ su-r[i-]ia "on my belly, on my back" (EA 147: 39, Tyre) The first example attests to a rather peculiar spelling of the word, which I cannot explain. It is possible to render it ka-ib-tu-ma to agree with the consonantal skeleton of the Akkadian lexeme. However, stepping away from the face value of the sign DU is unwarranted in Canaano-Akkadian.4 The second example attests to a rather rare form in Akkadian, also meaning "liver", which is found-besides in this Amarna occurrence-almost exclusively in lexical texts (in the form gabidu or kabidu, CAD G, 6; AHw, 272). Since it is only the second word, Suhriya, that is marked by a Glossenkeil, we may perhaps conclude that the word is not to be regarded as a borrowing from Canaanite but as a scholarly word, acquired though the curriculum of this scribe. The above rendering of the syllabic string, ka-bi-di-ia, which at face value would be read ga-bi-ti-ia, points towards a possible Canaanite-like reading of this string as kabidiya/, which may have been similar or identical to the cognate Akkadian/ form acquired at school. Still, one may further ask whether the meaning "belly" or "front (of the body)", which is not attested in Akkadian, can be attributed to Canaanite *kabidu.
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