A Grammar of Galilean Aramaic

דקדוק הארמית הגלילית

by Caspar Levias

Introduction by Michael Sokoloff (in Hebrew and English)

With Foreword by Gerson D. Cohen (in English)

343 pp. (in Hebrew) + XXXII pp. (in English),  hard cover, The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York 1986.

Includes also Chrestomathy (לקוטי קריאה), Glossary (מלון) and Paradigms (לוחות פעלים).

ISBN 0-87334-030-2

From Introduction by Michael Sokoloff:

The term “Galilean Aramaic” refers to the Aramaic vernacular and literary language of the Jews of Palestine during the Amoraic Period (200 -500 C.E.). This dialect forms together with the closely related Christian Palestinian and Samaritan Aramaic dialects the western branch of Middle Aramaic. During the Amoraic Period, this dialect was employed as literary language either alone or together with Rabbinic Hebrew in the following compositions: 1. the various Palestinian (vulgarly styled “Jerusalem”) Targumim, now comprising the Neophyti Targum, the fragments od the Palestinian Targum from the Cairo Geniza, and the Fragment Targums. 2. The Palestinian (“Jerusalem”) Talmud. 3 The Palestinian aggadic Midrashim, e.g. Bereshit Rabba, Vayyikra Rabba, and Pesikta de-Rav Kahana. 4. A small number of inscriptions found mainly in ancient synagogues. 5. Liturgical poetry.

Levias’ Grammar: The entire work contains the following parts: 1. Introduction – A description of the language, its sources, and the book’s methodology. 2. Orthography. 3. Phonetics and Phonology. 4. Morphology. 5. Sintax. The grammar is followed by a fully vocalized chrestomathy with selections from the Palestinian Talmud and Midrashim and is accompanied by an Aramaic-Hebrew-English glossary. A table of fully vocalized verbal paradigms completes the book.

From Foreword by Gerson D. Cohen:

Caspar Levias (1860-1934) came to the United States in about 1890. He completed his doctoral work under Professor R. Gottheil at Columbia University and later did post-doctoral work at Johns Hopkins University. Levias’ first major pubication was a grammar of Babylonian Aramaic. the present grammar is a noteworthy sequel to this work and completes the author’s analysis of the Jewish Aramaic traditional literature.