Targum Song of Songs: Language and Lexicon

Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures. The Catholic University of AmericaTargum Song of Songs (TgSong) contains linguistic features from "literary" Aramaic as found in Targum Onqelos and Targum Jonathan, western Aramaic, eastern Aramaic, Biblical Aramaic, and Syriac. A similar mixing of linguistic features is evident in other targumim, and their language is collectively termed Late Jewish Literary Aramaic (LJLA). Though several of these LJLA texts have been linguistically analyzed, one text that has not received such an analysis is TgSong. Since TgSong expands well beyond the underlying Hebrew, it provides an excellent example from which to analyze distinct linguistic features. This dissertation approaches TgSong in two ways. First, it is a descriptive grammar and includes standard grammatical categories: phonology and orthography, morphology, syntax, and lexical stock. Second, in order to determine how the language is mixed and where the language of TgSong fits into the spectrum of Aramaic dialects, each grammatical feature and lexical item is compared to the other pre-modern Aramaic dialects. This dissertation shows first, that the mixing of linguistic features in TgSong is not haphazard. Individual linguistic features are largely consistent in the text, regardless of their dialectal classification. Second, the language of TgSong is primarily modeled on the language of Onqelos and Jonathan, with a secondary influence being Targumic Jewish Palestinian Aramaic. Eastern Aramaic and Biblical Aramaic elements are not as centrally influential on the language of TgSong, and linguistic elements specific to non-Jewish dialects are rarely attested. Finally, based on the data, it is argued first, that the author is self-consciously writing a targum, in spite of its expansiveness; second, that the well-educated targumist is writing for laity, rather than exclusively for an educated elite; third, that the targumist's linguistic choices allow TgSong to be understood by Jews in all locales, making TgSong a text for Jews of all places