In this book Nadia Vidro presents a critical edition and English translation of the first Karaite pedagogical grammar of Hebrew, Kitāb al-ʿUqūd fī Taṣārīf al-Luġa al-ʿIbrāniyya. Composed in Jerusalem in the 11th century, Kitāb al-ʿUqūd is a concise description of Hebrew prepared specifically to cater for the needs of students just beginning their study of the language. The critical edition is accompanied by an historical introduction, a description of manuscripts, and a glossary of grammatical terminology. This publication expands the corpus of available primary sources emanating from the Karaite school of Hebrew grammar, and makes this fascinating and important medieval work accessible to a wide audience of Hebrew linguists, Biblical scholars and those interested in language pedagogy and its history.
Nadia Vidro, Ph.D. (2009), Cambridge University, works on history of Hebrew linguistics, mainly the Karaite grammatical tradition. She is author of Verbal Morphology in the Karaite Treatise on Hebrew Grammar Kitāb al-ʿUqūd fī Taṣārīf al-Luġa al-ʿIbrāniyya (Brill, 2011).
Introduction
Kitāb al-ʿUqūd fī Taṣārīf al-Luġa al-ʿIbrāniyya and Its Place in the Karaite Grammatical Tradition
Description of Manuscripts
The Vocalisation of the Manuscripts
Notes on the Edition and Translation
TEXT AND TRANSLATION OF KITĀB AL-ʿUQŪD FĪ TAṢĀRĪF AL-LUĠA AL-ʿIBRĀNIYYA
Chapter One. (On the Purpose of the Discipline of Grammar)
Chapter Two. On Establishing Root Letters and Other Related Matters
Chapter Three. On the Categories of Words that Are Used in Speech
Chapter Four. On Masculine and Feminine Letters
Chapter Five. On the Conditions for Forming Morphological Patterns
Chapter Six. On Imperatives That Differ in Their First Vowel from the Past Verb Forms Derived from Them and on Other Related Matters
Chapter Seven. On Imperatives That Coincide in Their First Vowel but Differ in Their Last Vowel from the Past Verb Forms (Derived from Them) and on Other Related Matters
Chapter Eight. On Imperatives That Differ Neither in Their First Vowel Nor in Their Last Vowel from the Past Verb Forms Derived From Them
Chapter Nine. On Imperatives That Have No Past Form
Chapter Ten. On Conjugational Patterns Belonging to Mnemonics הְנֹן ,ָהֵהם , or הֶהָמֵת
Chapter Eleven. On Establishing the Form of an Imperative in Difficult Cases
Chapter Twelve. On Types of Active Participles
Chapter Thirteen. On Passive Participles That Belong to a Conjugational Pattern
Chapter Fourteen. On the Infinitive
Chapter Fifteen. On Stripping Words of Added Letters in Order for a Word to Return to Its Essential Form Without Additions
Chapter Sixteen. On Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
Chapter Seventeen. On the First and the Second Imperative
Chapter Eighteen. On Infi,ʿāl and Iftiʿāl
Chapter Nineteen. On the Structure of Agent-Oriented and Patient-Oriented Verbs
Chapter Twenty. On Types of Nouns
Chapter Twenty One. On Conjoining
Chapter Twenty Two. On the Connective
Chapter Twenty Three. On the Attribute
Chapter Twenty Four. On the Emphatic and the Permutative Elements
Chapter Twenty Five. On the Initial Item and the Predicate
Chapter Twenty Six. On True and Pseudo-Verbs
Chapter Twenty Seven. On Legitimate Combinations of the Three Parts of Speech into Self-Sufficient Utterances
Chapter Twenty Eight. On the Division of Verbal Complements
Chapter Twenty Nine. On Some of the Functions of Masculine Letters
Chapter Thirty. On Particles and Words That Resemble Them
Bibliography
Glossary of Grammatical Terminology
Index of Sources
Biblical Verses
Manuscripts
Other Grammars and Grammarians
Index of Imperative Bases
All those interested in Biblical Hebrew, history of Hebrew linguistics, Karaite intellectual legacy and the history of pedagogy in the Middle East