Dorota Molin - University of Oxford (original) (raw)

Papers by Dorota Molin

Interconnected Traditions: Semitic Languages, Literatures, Cultures—A Festschrift for Geoffrey Khan, 2025

The article examines the development of the indefinite particle in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NEN... more The article examines the development of the indefinite particle in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA), showing that it is further developed than hitherto thought. Originating from the numeral ‘one’, it is now grammaticalising towards an indefiniteness marker, and can thus no longer be considered simply a presentative marker (like the English 'a certain'). This conclusion is based on the Christian and Jewish dialects from north-western Iraq (Zakho Dohok). The particle’s extended use seems to be influenced by contact with Iranian languages like Kurdish and Gorani. Comparisons with Biblical Hebrew and Modern Hebrew reveal typological parallels and contrasts in the evolution of indefiniteness marking. In Biblical Hebrew, indefinite marking tends to be restricted to the presentative function, but examples extending beyond this function can also be found. This shows the capability of languages to mark explicitly
a function such as indefiniteness by exploiting an existing structure, even well before this function becomes more grammaticalised.

Studies in Language, 2025

Drawing on a corpus-based typology of 24 spoken dialects of contemporary Arabic and Aramaic, we e... more Drawing on a corpus-based typology of 24 spoken dialects of contemporary Arabic and Aramaic, we explore relevant microvariation along the VO-OV spectrum in Central Semitic, which holds implications for the still understudied VO-to-OV shift. While the literature emphasizes that this type of syntactic change is only possible under external pressure, our findings demonstrate that this development is also driven by internal dynamics, in particular the syntax of definite objects. Our study shows a robust tendency for pronouns and definite object noun phrases to be selected first for preverbal placement; being originally left-dislocated topics with resumption, this at times results also in higher rates of object cross-referencing. Furthermore, this corpus-based typology also highlights the importance of a gradient approach to word order variation and change as well as the importance of studying distinct object types, which, together, help us document mixed systems that in themselves can be diachronically stable.

Journal of Biblical Literature, 2023

The Jewish Aramaic incantation bowls from talmudic Babylonia quoted biblical material as part of ... more The Jewish Aramaic incantation bowls from talmudic Babylonia quoted biblical material as part of their written spells, in order to bolster the apotropaic ritual. Current scholarship is making it increasingly apparent that these spells were part of the Jewish “mainstream,” rather than its margins. The bowl spells were often (sometimes?) produced by professional scribes many of whom—as I argue here—were also steeped in Jewish Scripture and liturgy. Moreover, given the high number of artifacts found, the spells can be considered representative of widespread religious practices and beliefs. The quotations are thus an unparalleled (and the only Babylonian epigraphic) source for the study of pre-Masoretic Bible traditions. The orthographic practices encountered in the biblical quotations become a lens through which to view attitudes to the Bible’s “writtenness” and the functions of writtenness, orality, and different types of memory. On the one hand, many spells provide evidence for the prominence of orality and memorization in Bible transmission and its reproduction. On the other, many bowls also imply a conceptual prestige of writtenness, alongside scribal training. At the same time, most bowls suggest a degree of self-sufficiency of the Bible as an oral, memorized, and liturgical text. While the Bible was construed as a written authority by the rabbis, in practice, its written component was likely neither always present, nor strictly necessary for achieving spiritual efficacy within the spells.

Neo-Aramaic and Kurdish Folklore from Northern Iraq

This work is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). This l... more This work is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text for non-commercial purposes providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information:

She has published on language contact in Semitic, Biblical Hebrew phonology and on issues in Neo-... more She has published on language contact in Semitic, Biblical Hebrew phonology and on issues in Neo-Aramaic syntax from a typological and diachronic perspective. Her doctoral thesis is a comparative grammar of a critically endangered Jewish Neo-Aramaic variety.

Neo-Aramaic and Kurdish Folklore from Northern Iraq

Word Order Variation: Semitic, Turkic and Indo-European Languages in Contact (Studia Typologica [STTYP]), 2022

This article is the first quantitative typology of word order in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic. It em... more This article is the first quantitative typology of word order in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic. It employs a comparative approach to analyse an Aramaic variety that preserves the historical VERB-OBJECT order with a dialect which has since shifted to OBJECT-VERB. It suggests that this drastic shift-neglected in general typology-takes place in in subtle, incremental pragmatic steps, affecting topical and prominent objects first. Thus, the 'object-verb' order is in fact predominant for topical objects even in the VERB-OBJECT dialect. The study also compares the placement of ditransitive and monotransitive objects, and discusses differences between intransitive and transitive subjects. It also deals with the post-verbal placement of Goals (destinations), a prominent feature of languages of historical Mesopotamia.

The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Dohok: A Comparative Grammar

This thesis provides a linguistic analysis of key issues in the Neo-Aramaic dialect that was hist... more This thesis provides a linguistic analysis of key issues in the Neo-Aramaic dialect that was historically spoken by the Jewish community in Dohok, north-western Iraq. This linguistic variety belongs to the North-Eastern sub-branch of Neo-Aramaic – a group of dialects and languages used by Jews and Christians in parts of Turkey, Iraq and Iran. Like many other linguistic varieties from the North-Eastern branch, the dialect of Dohok now faces imminent extinction. This work is based on a language questionnaire and a corpus of personal narratives, descriptions of traditions and folktales which I collected in my own fieldwork among speakers now living in Jerusalem, Israel. My analysis includes comparisons with other North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic varieties. These comparative data help to identify both the distinctive and the shared features of the Jewish Dohok dialect, and thus help place this dialect within the general linguistic landscape of the North-Eastern group. Such a comparison also le...

Israeli Hebrew in the Mouths of Native Negev Arabic Speakers: Some Characteristic Interference Features in Phonology, Syntax and Morphology

Mediterranean Language Review

The Negev Bedouins in Israel, though native speakers of Negev Arabic, use Modern Israeli Hebrew o... more The Negev Bedouins in Israel, though native speakers of Negev Arabic, use Modern Israeli Hebrew out of educational, professional and social necessity - often on a daily basis. This paper is based on a spoken-data corpus from seven female Bedouins and identifies the salient interference features of native Arabic attested in the speakers' Hebrew speech. Going beyond previous studies of Arabic-Hebrew contact which focused on overt lexical borrowings, this investigation shows the creative nature of phonological and syntactic interference: often, a transfer involves a re-combination of formal and functional elements. In syntax, for instance, I show that a formal syntactic pattern (asyndetic relative clauses) is transferred beyond its 'original' function in the Source Language - to clauses with definite nouns. This challenges the notion that contact-induced features are structures or lexical material which were simply transferred from one language to the other.

Biblical Quotations in the Aramaic Incantation Bowls and Their Contribution to the Study of the Babylonian Reading Tradition

Dorota Molin’s article highlights the importance of the incantation bowls in Jewish Babylonian Ar... more Dorota Molin’s article highlights the importance of the incantation bowls in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic from the sixth–seventh centuries CE for the study of the pre-Masoretic Babylonian reading tradition of Biblical Hebrew. Biblical quotations within these bowls constitute the only direct documentation of Biblical Hebrew from Babylonia at that time. The phonetic spelling of the quotations provides much information about their pronunciation. In a series of case studies Molin shows that the pronunciation of the quotations corresponds closely to the medieval Babylonian reading tradition. She also demonstrates that they reflect interference from the Aramaic vernacular, manifested especially in weakening of the guttural consonants, and that the writers drew from an oral tradition of the Hebrew Bible.

5 The Neo-Aramaic dialects are modern vernacular forms of Aramaic, which has a documented history... more 5 The Neo-Aramaic dialects are modern vernacular forms of Aramaic, which has a documented history in the Middle East of over 3,000 years. Due to upheavals in the Middle East over the last one hundred years, thousands of speakers of Neo-Aramaic dialects have been forced to migrate from their homes or have perished in massacres. As a result, the dialects are now highly endangered. The dialects exhibit a remarkable diversity of structures. Moreover, the considerable depth of attestation of Aramaic from earlier periods provides evidence for the pathways of change. For these reasons the research of Neo-Aramaic is of importance for more general fields of linguistics, in particular language typology and historical linguistics. The papers in this volume represent the full range of research that is currently being carried out on Neo-Aramaic dialects. They advance the field in numerous ways. In order to allow linguists who are not specialists in Neo-Aramaic to benefit from the papers, the exa...

Aims and their justification 1 Linguistic and historical background of NENA 3 The linguistic and ... more Aims and their justification 1 Linguistic and historical background of NENA 3 The linguistic and social background of J. Dohok Neo-Aramaic 4 Literature review 6 Organisation of the thesis 7 Sources & methodology 9 0.6.1. Data collection and sources 9 0.

Studies in the Grammar and Lexicon of Neo-Aramaic, 2021

North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic comprises around 150 distinct linguistic varieties spoken historically ... more North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic comprises around 150 distinct linguistic varieties spoken historically by Jews and Christians in south-eastern Turkey, northern Iraq and western Iran, many of which are now on the verge of extinction. One such endangered variety is the dialect of the Jews of Dohok (north-western Iraq), studied here for the first time. I provide two folktales narrated in this dialect, glossed, translated and accompanied by a link to their audio recording. This is followed by comments on selected features of tense-aspect-mood. In many dialects including that of Dohok, the Neo-Aramaic realis habitual preverb (e.g. k-) does not occur regularly in all temporal or syntactic context, suggesting its incomplete grammaticalization. The Neo-Aramaic construction widely described as 'perfect' is in fact lexically restricted in dialects such as Dohok, indicating a resultative function in some varieties. The Neo-Aramaic construction described often as 'progressive' is in the Dohok variety only attested with intransitive verbs, raising questions about this construction's grammaticalization path.

Mediterranean Language Review, 2020

The Negev Bedouins in Israel, though native speakers of Negev Arabic, use Modern Israeli Hebrew o... more The Negev Bedouins in Israel, though native speakers of Negev Arabic, use Modern Israeli Hebrew out of educational, professional and social necessity - often on a daily basis. This paper is based on a spoken-data corpus from seven female Bedouins and identifies the salient interference features of native Arabic attested in the speakers' Hebrew speech. Going beyond previous studies of Arabic-Hebrew contact which focused on overt lexical borrowings, this investigation shows the creative nature of phonological and syntactic interference: often, a transfer involves a re-combination of formal and functional elements. In syntax, for instance, I show that a formal syntactic pattern (asyndetic relative clauses) is transferred beyond its 'original' function in the Source Language - to clauses with definite nouns. This challenges the notion that contact-induced features are structures or lexical material which were simply transferred from one language to the other.

Studies in Semitic Vocalisation and Reading Traditions, 2020

This article highlights the importance of the incantation bowls in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic from... more This article highlights the importance of the incantation bowls in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic from the sixth–seventh centuries CE for the study of the pre-Masoretic reading tradition of Biblical Hebrew. Biblical quotations within these bowls constitute the only direct documentation of Biblical Hebrew from Babylonia at that time. The phonetic spelling of the quotations provides much information about their pronunciation. The pronunciation of these quotations corresponds closely to the medieval Babylonian reading tradition. This shows that the reading traditions reflected in the medieval Babylonian manuscripts are the continuation of established, centuries-long traditions. At the same time, the quotations reflect interference from the synchronic Aramaic vernacular, manifested especially in weakening of the guttural consonants. Finally, the quotations testify to orality as (one of) the chief vehicles for the transmission of the Hebrew Bible.

Conference Presentations by Dorota Molin

Semitics Twitter Corona Conference, 2020

Co-authored by Paul Noorlander, this talk demonstrates the usefulness of grammaticalization model... more Co-authored by Paul Noorlander, this talk demonstrates the usefulness of grammaticalization models for understanding the synchronic variation in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic. We take a look at the future and present realis forms.

Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, 2018

This presentation studies pre-Masoretic traditions of Biblical Hebrew in Babylonia through the le... more This presentation studies pre-Masoretic traditions of Biblical Hebrew in Babylonia through the lens of biblical quotations found in the Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowls. Though no longer a living language, Biblical Hebrew was nevertheless transmitted with a considerable degree of linguistic conservatism in late-antique Babylonia, showing considerable resistance to language contact. In some areas, however, the influence of the vernacular is apparent - and more readily discernable than in the medieval Masoretic sources.

Irregular verb paradigms pose a challenge for the classical Semitic derivational root-and-pattern... more Irregular verb paradigms pose a challenge for the classical Semitic derivational root-and-pattern morphology. This presentation discusses the mechanisms by which irregular verbs develop and suggests that root-and-pattern and stem-and-affix derivations coexist in those verbs side-by-side - sometimes within a single verb.

Drafts by Dorota Molin

unpublished MPhil dissertation, University of Cambridge, 2017

The quotations constitute the only epigraphic source of the Hebrew Bible from Late-Antique Babylo... more The quotations constitute the only epigraphic source of the Hebrew Bible from Late-Antique Babylonia and display a tendency to phonetic spelling. They also come from a period from which we only possess a handful of Biblical manuscripts. This means that they constitute a unique source of information about the transmission and pronunciation of Biblical Hebrew before the Masoretes. The pronunciation of these quotations corresponds closely to the medieval Babylonian reading tradition. This shows that the reading traditions reflected in the medieval Babylonian manuscripts are the continuation of established, centuries-long traditions. At the same time, the quotations reflect interference from the synchronic Aramaic vernacular, manifested especially in weakening of the guttural consonants. Finally, the quotations testify to orality as (one of) the chief vehicles for the transmission of the Hebrew Bible in Talmudic Babylonia.

Thesis Chapters by Dorota Molin

Interconnected Traditions: Semitic Languages, Literatures, Cultures—A Festschrift for Geoffrey Khan, 2025

The article examines the development of the indefinite particle in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NEN... more The article examines the development of the indefinite particle in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA), showing that it is further developed than hitherto thought. Originating from the numeral ‘one’, it is now grammaticalising towards an indefiniteness marker, and can thus no longer be considered simply a presentative marker (like the English 'a certain'). This conclusion is based on the Christian and Jewish dialects from north-western Iraq (Zakho Dohok). The particle’s extended use seems to be influenced by contact with Iranian languages like Kurdish and Gorani. Comparisons with Biblical Hebrew and Modern Hebrew reveal typological parallels and contrasts in the evolution of indefiniteness marking. In Biblical Hebrew, indefinite marking tends to be restricted to the presentative function, but examples extending beyond this function can also be found. This shows the capability of languages to mark explicitly
a function such as indefiniteness by exploiting an existing structure, even well before this function becomes more grammaticalised.

Studies in Language, 2025

Drawing on a corpus-based typology of 24 spoken dialects of contemporary Arabic and Aramaic, we e... more Drawing on a corpus-based typology of 24 spoken dialects of contemporary Arabic and Aramaic, we explore relevant microvariation along the VO-OV spectrum in Central Semitic, which holds implications for the still understudied VO-to-OV shift. While the literature emphasizes that this type of syntactic change is only possible under external pressure, our findings demonstrate that this development is also driven by internal dynamics, in particular the syntax of definite objects. Our study shows a robust tendency for pronouns and definite object noun phrases to be selected first for preverbal placement; being originally left-dislocated topics with resumption, this at times results also in higher rates of object cross-referencing. Furthermore, this corpus-based typology also highlights the importance of a gradient approach to word order variation and change as well as the importance of studying distinct object types, which, together, help us document mixed systems that in themselves can be diachronically stable.

Journal of Biblical Literature, 2023

The Jewish Aramaic incantation bowls from talmudic Babylonia quoted biblical material as part of ... more The Jewish Aramaic incantation bowls from talmudic Babylonia quoted biblical material as part of their written spells, in order to bolster the apotropaic ritual. Current scholarship is making it increasingly apparent that these spells were part of the Jewish “mainstream,” rather than its margins. The bowl spells were often (sometimes?) produced by professional scribes many of whom—as I argue here—were also steeped in Jewish Scripture and liturgy. Moreover, given the high number of artifacts found, the spells can be considered representative of widespread religious practices and beliefs. The quotations are thus an unparalleled (and the only Babylonian epigraphic) source for the study of pre-Masoretic Bible traditions. The orthographic practices encountered in the biblical quotations become a lens through which to view attitudes to the Bible’s “writtenness” and the functions of writtenness, orality, and different types of memory. On the one hand, many spells provide evidence for the prominence of orality and memorization in Bible transmission and its reproduction. On the other, many bowls also imply a conceptual prestige of writtenness, alongside scribal training. At the same time, most bowls suggest a degree of self-sufficiency of the Bible as an oral, memorized, and liturgical text. While the Bible was construed as a written authority by the rabbis, in practice, its written component was likely neither always present, nor strictly necessary for achieving spiritual efficacy within the spells.

Neo-Aramaic and Kurdish Folklore from Northern Iraq

This work is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). This l... more This work is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text for non-commercial purposes providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information:

She has published on language contact in Semitic, Biblical Hebrew phonology and on issues in Neo-... more She has published on language contact in Semitic, Biblical Hebrew phonology and on issues in Neo-Aramaic syntax from a typological and diachronic perspective. Her doctoral thesis is a comparative grammar of a critically endangered Jewish Neo-Aramaic variety.

Neo-Aramaic and Kurdish Folklore from Northern Iraq

Word Order Variation: Semitic, Turkic and Indo-European Languages in Contact (Studia Typologica [STTYP]), 2022

This article is the first quantitative typology of word order in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic. It em... more This article is the first quantitative typology of word order in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic. It employs a comparative approach to analyse an Aramaic variety that preserves the historical VERB-OBJECT order with a dialect which has since shifted to OBJECT-VERB. It suggests that this drastic shift-neglected in general typology-takes place in in subtle, incremental pragmatic steps, affecting topical and prominent objects first. Thus, the 'object-verb' order is in fact predominant for topical objects even in the VERB-OBJECT dialect. The study also compares the placement of ditransitive and monotransitive objects, and discusses differences between intransitive and transitive subjects. It also deals with the post-verbal placement of Goals (destinations), a prominent feature of languages of historical Mesopotamia.

The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Dohok: A Comparative Grammar

This thesis provides a linguistic analysis of key issues in the Neo-Aramaic dialect that was hist... more This thesis provides a linguistic analysis of key issues in the Neo-Aramaic dialect that was historically spoken by the Jewish community in Dohok, north-western Iraq. This linguistic variety belongs to the North-Eastern sub-branch of Neo-Aramaic – a group of dialects and languages used by Jews and Christians in parts of Turkey, Iraq and Iran. Like many other linguistic varieties from the North-Eastern branch, the dialect of Dohok now faces imminent extinction. This work is based on a language questionnaire and a corpus of personal narratives, descriptions of traditions and folktales which I collected in my own fieldwork among speakers now living in Jerusalem, Israel. My analysis includes comparisons with other North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic varieties. These comparative data help to identify both the distinctive and the shared features of the Jewish Dohok dialect, and thus help place this dialect within the general linguistic landscape of the North-Eastern group. Such a comparison also le...

Israeli Hebrew in the Mouths of Native Negev Arabic Speakers: Some Characteristic Interference Features in Phonology, Syntax and Morphology

Mediterranean Language Review

The Negev Bedouins in Israel, though native speakers of Negev Arabic, use Modern Israeli Hebrew o... more The Negev Bedouins in Israel, though native speakers of Negev Arabic, use Modern Israeli Hebrew out of educational, professional and social necessity - often on a daily basis. This paper is based on a spoken-data corpus from seven female Bedouins and identifies the salient interference features of native Arabic attested in the speakers' Hebrew speech. Going beyond previous studies of Arabic-Hebrew contact which focused on overt lexical borrowings, this investigation shows the creative nature of phonological and syntactic interference: often, a transfer involves a re-combination of formal and functional elements. In syntax, for instance, I show that a formal syntactic pattern (asyndetic relative clauses) is transferred beyond its 'original' function in the Source Language - to clauses with definite nouns. This challenges the notion that contact-induced features are structures or lexical material which were simply transferred from one language to the other.

Biblical Quotations in the Aramaic Incantation Bowls and Their Contribution to the Study of the Babylonian Reading Tradition

Dorota Molin’s article highlights the importance of the incantation bowls in Jewish Babylonian Ar... more Dorota Molin’s article highlights the importance of the incantation bowls in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic from the sixth–seventh centuries CE for the study of the pre-Masoretic Babylonian reading tradition of Biblical Hebrew. Biblical quotations within these bowls constitute the only direct documentation of Biblical Hebrew from Babylonia at that time. The phonetic spelling of the quotations provides much information about their pronunciation. In a series of case studies Molin shows that the pronunciation of the quotations corresponds closely to the medieval Babylonian reading tradition. She also demonstrates that they reflect interference from the Aramaic vernacular, manifested especially in weakening of the guttural consonants, and that the writers drew from an oral tradition of the Hebrew Bible.

5 The Neo-Aramaic dialects are modern vernacular forms of Aramaic, which has a documented history... more 5 The Neo-Aramaic dialects are modern vernacular forms of Aramaic, which has a documented history in the Middle East of over 3,000 years. Due to upheavals in the Middle East over the last one hundred years, thousands of speakers of Neo-Aramaic dialects have been forced to migrate from their homes or have perished in massacres. As a result, the dialects are now highly endangered. The dialects exhibit a remarkable diversity of structures. Moreover, the considerable depth of attestation of Aramaic from earlier periods provides evidence for the pathways of change. For these reasons the research of Neo-Aramaic is of importance for more general fields of linguistics, in particular language typology and historical linguistics. The papers in this volume represent the full range of research that is currently being carried out on Neo-Aramaic dialects. They advance the field in numerous ways. In order to allow linguists who are not specialists in Neo-Aramaic to benefit from the papers, the exa...

Aims and their justification 1 Linguistic and historical background of NENA 3 The linguistic and ... more Aims and their justification 1 Linguistic and historical background of NENA 3 The linguistic and social background of J. Dohok Neo-Aramaic 4 Literature review 6 Organisation of the thesis 7 Sources & methodology 9 0.6.1. Data collection and sources 9 0.

Studies in the Grammar and Lexicon of Neo-Aramaic, 2021

North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic comprises around 150 distinct linguistic varieties spoken historically ... more North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic comprises around 150 distinct linguistic varieties spoken historically by Jews and Christians in south-eastern Turkey, northern Iraq and western Iran, many of which are now on the verge of extinction. One such endangered variety is the dialect of the Jews of Dohok (north-western Iraq), studied here for the first time. I provide two folktales narrated in this dialect, glossed, translated and accompanied by a link to their audio recording. This is followed by comments on selected features of tense-aspect-mood. In many dialects including that of Dohok, the Neo-Aramaic realis habitual preverb (e.g. k-) does not occur regularly in all temporal or syntactic context, suggesting its incomplete grammaticalization. The Neo-Aramaic construction widely described as 'perfect' is in fact lexically restricted in dialects such as Dohok, indicating a resultative function in some varieties. The Neo-Aramaic construction described often as 'progressive' is in the Dohok variety only attested with intransitive verbs, raising questions about this construction's grammaticalization path.

Mediterranean Language Review, 2020

The Negev Bedouins in Israel, though native speakers of Negev Arabic, use Modern Israeli Hebrew o... more The Negev Bedouins in Israel, though native speakers of Negev Arabic, use Modern Israeli Hebrew out of educational, professional and social necessity - often on a daily basis. This paper is based on a spoken-data corpus from seven female Bedouins and identifies the salient interference features of native Arabic attested in the speakers' Hebrew speech. Going beyond previous studies of Arabic-Hebrew contact which focused on overt lexical borrowings, this investigation shows the creative nature of phonological and syntactic interference: often, a transfer involves a re-combination of formal and functional elements. In syntax, for instance, I show that a formal syntactic pattern (asyndetic relative clauses) is transferred beyond its 'original' function in the Source Language - to clauses with definite nouns. This challenges the notion that contact-induced features are structures or lexical material which were simply transferred from one language to the other.

Studies in Semitic Vocalisation and Reading Traditions, 2020

This article highlights the importance of the incantation bowls in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic from... more This article highlights the importance of the incantation bowls in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic from the sixth–seventh centuries CE for the study of the pre-Masoretic reading tradition of Biblical Hebrew. Biblical quotations within these bowls constitute the only direct documentation of Biblical Hebrew from Babylonia at that time. The phonetic spelling of the quotations provides much information about their pronunciation. The pronunciation of these quotations corresponds closely to the medieval Babylonian reading tradition. This shows that the reading traditions reflected in the medieval Babylonian manuscripts are the continuation of established, centuries-long traditions. At the same time, the quotations reflect interference from the synchronic Aramaic vernacular, manifested especially in weakening of the guttural consonants. Finally, the quotations testify to orality as (one of) the chief vehicles for the transmission of the Hebrew Bible.

Semitics Twitter Corona Conference, 2020

Co-authored by Paul Noorlander, this talk demonstrates the usefulness of grammaticalization model... more Co-authored by Paul Noorlander, this talk demonstrates the usefulness of grammaticalization models for understanding the synchronic variation in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic. We take a look at the future and present realis forms.

Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, 2018

This presentation studies pre-Masoretic traditions of Biblical Hebrew in Babylonia through the le... more This presentation studies pre-Masoretic traditions of Biblical Hebrew in Babylonia through the lens of biblical quotations found in the Babylonian Aramaic incantation bowls. Though no longer a living language, Biblical Hebrew was nevertheless transmitted with a considerable degree of linguistic conservatism in late-antique Babylonia, showing considerable resistance to language contact. In some areas, however, the influence of the vernacular is apparent - and more readily discernable than in the medieval Masoretic sources.

Irregular verb paradigms pose a challenge for the classical Semitic derivational root-and-pattern... more Irregular verb paradigms pose a challenge for the classical Semitic derivational root-and-pattern morphology. This presentation discusses the mechanisms by which irregular verbs develop and suggests that root-and-pattern and stem-and-affix derivations coexist in those verbs side-by-side - sometimes within a single verb.

unpublished MPhil dissertation, University of Cambridge, 2017

The quotations constitute the only epigraphic source of the Hebrew Bible from Late-Antique Babylo... more The quotations constitute the only epigraphic source of the Hebrew Bible from Late-Antique Babylonia and display a tendency to phonetic spelling. They also come from a period from which we only possess a handful of Biblical manuscripts. This means that they constitute a unique source of information about the transmission and pronunciation of Biblical Hebrew before the Masoretes. The pronunciation of these quotations corresponds closely to the medieval Babylonian reading tradition. This shows that the reading traditions reflected in the medieval Babylonian manuscripts are the continuation of established, centuries-long traditions. At the same time, the quotations reflect interference from the synchronic Aramaic vernacular, manifested especially in weakening of the guttural consonants. Finally, the quotations testify to orality as (one of) the chief vehicles for the transmission of the Hebrew Bible in Talmudic Babylonia.

BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS, 2021

The article reviews a publication of texts by Jastrow and Talay in the Miḏyoyo dialect of Ṭuroyo.... more The article reviews a publication of texts by Jastrow and Talay in the Miḏyoyo dialect of Ṭuroyo. Miḏyoyo is an endangered variety of Neo-Aramaic spoken by the Christians of Midyat in Ṭur ʿAbdin, located in the Mardin province of south-eastern Turkey. This volume and the envisioned series which is to follow constitute a landmark in Neo-Aramaic research, thanks to its focus on the urban dialect of Ṭuroyo. The material presented in the book by Jastrow and Talay has a great value also for the
ethnographic and historical research of endangered ethno-religious minorities in Turkey.

The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of the Jews of Dohok: A Comparative-Typological Grammar (FREE DOWNLOAD AT BRILL)

The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of the Jews of Dohok: A Comparative-Typological Grammar (FREE DOWNLOAD AT BRILL), 2024

This book combines in-depth grammatical analysis with dialectology and typology. It presents impo... more This book combines in-depth grammatical analysis with dialectology and typology. It presents important features of Jewish Neo-Aramaic from Dohok (Iraqi Kurdistan), a previously undocumented dialect that is now on the verge of extinction. The first Neo-Aramaic grammar to offer data glossing, this book is accessible for and highly relevant to Semitists, language typologists and historical linguists. It focuses especially on phonology, verbal morphosyntax and syntax. The monograph also highlights features that characterise the wider lišana deni dialect group, which is the most widespread Jewish Neo-Aramaic today. The book leverages the staggering microvariation persisting within North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic to reconstruct the grammaticalisation of some key Neo-Aramaic constructions. It also includes a text sample of prime historiographic value (Jews of Iraq during the Second World War).

The Bible in the Bowls A Catalogue of Biblical Quotations in Published Jewish Babylonian Aramaic Magic Bowls, 2022

This is an introduction to Daniel Waller's The Bible in the Bowls, co-authored with the book auth... more This is an introduction to Daniel Waller's The Bible in the Bowls, co-authored with the book author. The introduction gives an overview of the most significant functional, orthographic and linguistic features of the Hebrew Bible quotations found in the Aramaic bowls. As our only direct epigraphic witnesses to the Hebrew Bible from late antique Babylonia, the bowls are uniquely placed to contribute to research on the (oral and written) transmission of the biblical text in late antiquity; the pre-Masoretic Babylonian pronunciation tradition; the formation of the liturgy; the social locations of biblical knowledge in late antique Babylonia and socio-religious typologies of the bowls; and the dynamics of scriptural citation in ancient Jewish magic. In a number of cases, the bowls also contain the earliest attestations of biblical verses not found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Pre-dating the next available evidence by four to five centuries, the bowls are a valuable resource for biblical text critics.

Neo-Aramaic and Kurdish Folklore from Northern Iraq A Comparative Anthology with a Sample of Glossed Texts (Vol. 1), 2022

This comparative anthology showcases the rich and mutually intertwined folklore of three ethno-re... more This comparative anthology showcases the rich and mutually intertwined folklore of three ethno-religious communities from northern Iraq: Aramaic-speaking (‘Syriac’) Christians, Kurdish Muslims and—to a lesser extent—Aramaic-speaking Jews. The first volume contains several introductory chapters on language, folkore motifs and narrative style, followed by samples of glossed texts in each language variety. The second volume is the anthology proper, presenting folklore narratives in several distinct varieties of North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic and Northern and Central Kurdish. The stories are accompanied by English translations. The material includes different genres such as folktales, legends, fables and anecdotes, and is organised into seven thematic units. The folkloristic material of these three communities is shared to a large extent. The anthology is, therefore, a testament to the intimate and long-standing relations between these three ethno-religious communities—relations that existed in a multilingual environment centuries before the modern era of nationalism.