ABSTRACT

This article considers Semitic loanwords and transcriptions in the Greek epigraphy of the southern Levant, roughly corresponding to the Roman provinces of Judaea–Palaestina and Arabia, through three case studies entailing Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic as source languages. The texts are a bilingual Hebrew–Greek ossuary inscription from a burial cave in Jerusalem; a Greek mosaic inscription from the cathedral church of Madaba; and a bilingual Greek–Old Arabic rock-cut graffito from Wadi Salma in north-west Arabia. This consideration complements a similar survey for Syria and Phoenicia by J.-B. Yon and reinforces his conclusion of a connection between loanwords and epichoric religious traditions. It also provides a counterpoint to the more recent study of J. Price and S. Naeh, who associate transcription with ‘marginality’ and ‘liminality’; the cases assembled here show that, at least for the inscribers, the practice was instead centrally integrated with religion and culture.

摘要

本文通过将希伯来语、阿拉米语和阿拉伯语作为源语言的三个案例研究，考虑了黎凡特南部希腊铭文中闪米特语的借词和转录，大致对应于罗马的犹太-巴勒斯坦和阿拉伯省。这些文本是来自耶路撒冷一个墓穴的希伯来-希腊双语骨瓮铭文；来自马达巴大教堂的希腊马赛克铭文；以及来自阿拉伯西北部 Wadi Salma 的双语希腊语和古阿拉伯语岩石雕刻涂鸦。这种考虑补充了 J.-B. 对叙利亚和腓尼基的类似调查。Yon 并强化了他关于借词和史诗般的宗教传统之间联系的结论。它还与最近对 J. Price 和 S. Naeh 的研究形成对比，后者将转录与“边缘性”和“极限性”联系起来；