ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

HEBREW LANGUAGE
AND LINGUISTICS
Volume 1
A–F

General Editor
Geoffrey Khan

Associate Editors
Shmuel Bolokzy
Steven E. Fassberg
Gary A. Rendsburg
Aaron D. Rubin
Ora R. Schwarzwald
Tamar Zewi

LEIDEN • BOSTON
2013

© 2013 Koninklijke Brill NV ISBN 978-90-04-17642-3

Table of Contents

Volume One

Introduction ........................................................................................................................ vii

List of Contributors ............................................................................................................ ix
Transcription Tables ........................................................................................................... xiii
Articles A-F ......................................................................................................................... 1

Volume Two

Transcription Tables ........................................................................................................... vii

Articles G-O ........................................................................................................................ 1

Volume Three

Transcription Tables ........................................................................................................... vii

Articles P-Z ......................................................................................................................... 1

Volume Four

Transcription Tables ........................................................................................................... vii

Index ................................................................................................................................... 1

© 2013 Koninklijke Brill NV ISBN 978-90-04-17642-3

 arabic loanwords
include ‫ מאמי‬mámi ‘mom’ and ‫ אבויה‬±abúya
‘my father’ (Rosenthal 2006). The latter is also
calqued to Hebrew with the Yiddish diminutive
suffix ‫לה‬- -le, e.g., ‫ אבאלה‬±ábale ‘dad’ (now
used as a somewhat condescending, patronizing
vocative among adults, with a pseudo-endearing
pragmatic connotation).
Palestinian Arabic equivalents such as
yÙœa~yaœ‹y ‘dad’, yú¤¤a~yᤤa ‘mom’,
and many other kin terms such as ‘grandpa,
grandma, uncle, auntie’ have not entered Israeli
Hebrew in their bi-polar use. This seems to
point to the Moroccan, rather than Palestin-
ian Arabic, origin of this category in Israeli
Hebrew. In other cases, linguistic items that
were common to Palestinian Arabic and Judeo-
Arabic varieties have merged in Israeli Hebrew
and their source has become blurred.
References
Avinery, Yitzhak. 1964. Yad ha-lašon. Tel-Aviv:
Izre’el.
Avishur, Yitzhak 2003. “The Arabic elements in
contemporary Hebrew language and its literature”
(in Hebrew). Ha-≠Ivrit ve-±a™yoteha: Studies in
Hebrew language and its contact with Semitic
languages and Jewish languages, vols. 2–3, 9–50.
Haifa: University of Haifa.
Ben-Amotz, Dahn and Netiva Ben-Yehuda. 1972.
The world dictionary of Hebrew slang (in Hebrew),
Part 1. Jerusalem: Lewin-Epstein.
——. 1982. The world dictionary of Hebrew slang
(in Hebrew), Part 2. Tel-Aviv: Zmora-Bitan.
Ben-Rafael, Eliezer. 1982. The emergence of ethnic-
ity: Cultural groups and social conflict in Israel.
Westport / London: Greenwood.
Blanc, Haim. 1955. “La-yesod ha-≠Arvi še-ba-
dibur ha-Yi«re±eli”. Lłšonénu la-≠Am 53:6–14;
54–55:27–32; 56:20–26.
Canaan, Tawfik. 1935. “The curse in Palestinian
folklore”. Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society
15:235–279.
Efrati, Nathan. 2004. The evolution of spoken
Hebrew in Pre-state Israel, 1881–1922 (in Hebrew)
(Studies in Language 6). Jerusalem: The Academy
of the Hebrew Language.
Elihai, Yohanan. 1999. Arabic-Hebrew dictionary
for Spoken Arabic. Jerusalem: Ministry of Defence
and Kesset.
Geva-Kleinberger, Aharon. 2006. “Ivrit”. Encyclo-
pedia of Arabic language and linguistics, vol. 2,
462–464. Leiden: Brill.
Gouri, Haim and Haim Hefer. 1977. Mišpa≤at ha-
palma≤: Yalqut ≠alilot ve-zemer. Jerusalem: Yedi≠ot
A≤ronot.
Har-El, Menashe. 2002. Historical geography of the
Land of Israel (in Hebrew). Tel-Aviv: Zmora-Bitan
and Am Oved.
Henkin, Roni. 2010. Negev Arabic: Dialectal, socio-
linguistic, and stylistic variation (Semitica Viva
Series). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
© 2013 Koninklijke Brill NV ISBN 978-90-04-17642-3
149
Henshke, Yehudit. 2007. Hebrew elements in daily
speech: A grammatical study and lexicon of the
Hebrew component of Tunisian Judeo-Arabic (in
Hebrew). Jerusalem: Bialik Institute.
Kosover, Mordecai. 1966. Arabic elements in Pales-
tinian Yiddish. Jerusalem: Rubin Mass.
Kutscher, Eduard Yechezkel. 1984. A history of the
Hebrew language. Jerusalem: Magnes.
Morag, Shelomo. 1990. “Ha-≠Ivrit ha- óXadaša
be-hitgabšutah: Lašon be-aspaqlarya šel ≤evra”.
Cathedra 56:70–92.
Oring, Elliott. 1981. Israeli humor: The content and
structure of the chizbat of the Palmah. Albany,
New York: State University of New York Press.
Piamenta, Moshe. 1961. “Hašpa≠at ha-≠Arvit ≠al
≤iduše Ben-Yehuda”. Lłšonénu la-≠Am 12:151–
158.
Rosenthal, Ruvik. 2004. The joy of laguage (in
Hebrew). Tel-Aviv: Am Oved.
——. 2006. Dictionary of Israeli slang (in Hebrew).
Jerusalem: Keter.
——. 2007. The lexicon of life: Israeli sociolects and
jargon (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Keter.
——. 2009. Dictionary of Hebrew idioms and
phrases (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Keter.
——. 2010. “Hašpa≠at yoß±e ßfon ±Afriqa ≠al ha-
leqsiqon ha-Yi«re±eli”. Hed ha-±Ulpan he- óXadaš
96:67–72.
Shunary, Jonathan. 1976. “Pereq be-darka šel
ha-≠Arvit ±el ≤iduše Ben-Yehuda”. Kil±shon ≠ammo:
Studies in applied linguistics (Chaim Rabin jubilee
volume), ed. by Ben-Zion Fischler and Raphael
Nir, 140–149. Jerusalem: Council on the Teaching
of Hebrew.
Spolsky, Bernard and Robert L. Cooper. 1991. The
languages of Jerusalem. Oxford: Clarendon.
Spolsky, Bernard and Elana Shohamy. 1999. The
languages of Israel: Policy, ideology and practice
(Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 17). Clev-
edon: Multilingual Matters.
Suleiman, Yasir. 2004. A war of words: Language
and conflict in the Middle East. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press.
Weir, Shelagh. 1989. Palestinian costume. London:
British Museum Publications.
Zuckermann, Ghil’ad. 2003. Language contact and
lexical enrichment in Israeli Hebrew (Palgrave
Studies in Language History and Language Con-
tact). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Roni Henkin-Roitfarb
(Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Arabic Loanwords
Arabic exerted great influence on Hebrew in the
medieval period, when Arabic replaced Aramaic
and other languages as both the vernacular and
literary language of Jews in Muslim lands. In
the golden age of Jewish culture on the Iberian
Peninsula, where Jews were entirely assimilated
into Arab society, the Hebrew language was
150 arabic loanwords
subject to profound and comprehensive Arabic
influence. Now, in the modern period, con-
tact between Arabs and Hebrew-speaking Jews
remains common. Approximately one-third of
Modern Hebrew (MH) speakers are Palestinian
Arabs, and a significant portion of Israeli Jews
come from families with an Arabic-speaking
background. So it is not surprising that MH
contains a large number of Arabic loanwords.
1. T h e M e d i e v a l P e r i o d
A large quantity of Arabic loanwords entered
the Hebrew language during the Middle Ages.
Most of those words entered the later intellec-
tual tradition, such as ‫ אופק‬±oƒeq ‘horizon’ (<
Ar. ±ufq), ‫ מרכז‬merkaz ‘centre’ (< Ar. markaz),
‫ הנדסה‬handasa ‘geometry’, (< Ar. handasa),
‫ קוטר‬qo†er ‘diameter’ (< Ar. qu†r), ‫ תאריך‬ta±≥riú
‘date; history’ (< Ar. ta±rìx), ‫ קוטב‬qo†e∫ ‘pole’
(< Ar. qu†b). Yet, many words are not found
outside of Medieval Hebrew compositions,
such as ‫≠ עצל‬aßal ‘muscle’ (< Ar. ≠a∂al), ‫קשר‬
qašar ‘to peel’ (< Ar. qašara), ‫ שוער‬šò≠er ‘poet’
(<Ar. šà≠ir), ‫ מחול‬ma™ul ‘absurd’ (< Ar. mu™àl),
‫ גשור‬gašur ‘courageous’ (< Ar. jasùr), ‫ אוגה‬±uga
‘summit’ (< Ar. ±awj), ‫ פתח‬pata™ ‘conquer’
(< Ar. fata™a), ‫ ממולח‬mëmulla™ ‘nice, agree-
able’ (< Ar. malì™) (cf. Avinery 1964:458).
More so than with loanwords, Arabic influ-
ence on medieval Hebrew is reflected in calques
(loan translations), semantic borrowings, and
in syntax. Such calques, which are very numer-
ous, are Hebrew words that are direct transla-
tions of the meanings of an Arabic word. In
some cases they are based on a cognate root
or imitate them phonetically. Examples include
‫ משנה‬mišne ‘dual’ (< Ar. muμanna), ‫ כמות‬kam-
mut ‘quantity’ (< Ar. kammiyya; the morpheme
‫ות‬- -ut in Hebrew corresponds to -iyya in
Arabic), ‫ הפיל‬hippil ‘subtract’ (< Ar. †ara™a),
‫ העתיק‬he≠łtiq ‘translate’ (< Ar. naqala), ‫תושבת‬
toše∫et ‘base (of a triangle, etc.)’ (< Ar. qà≠ida),
‫ לא זולת‬lo zulat ‘solely’ (< Ar. là :gayr), ‫בית ממון‬
bet mamon ‘treasury’ (< Ar. bayt màl), ‫היה מן‬
‫ המבואר‬haya min ha-më∫u±ar ‘it was obvious’
(< Ar. kàna mina l-wà∂i™), ‫ העברה‬ha≠≥vara
‘metaphor’ (< Ar. majàz), ‫ סדר‬seder ‘poetry’
(< Ar. naΩm), ‫ קהל המשכילים‬qehal ham-ma«kilim
‘plural of words denoting human beings’ (< Ar.
jam≠ al-≠àqil), ‫ אנשי הדקדוק‬±anše had-diqduq
‘grammarians’ (< Ar. ±ahl ±al-na™w), ,‫ חצב‬,‫חתך‬
© 2013 Koninklijke Brill NV ISBN 978-90-04-17642-3
‫™ גזר‬ataú, ™aßa∫, gazar ‘to derive (in grammar)’
(< Ar. šqq, ištaqqa) ( Astronomical Terminol-
ogy; Mathematical Terminology).
In syntax it should suffice to mention that
the relative clause in the Hebrew translations of
the Tibbonides generally adheres to the rules of
Arabic, most notably in that indefinite relative
clauses are normally asyndetic.
2. M o d e r n H e b r e w
The direct influence of Modern Standard Ara-
bic on MH has been limited, the reason being
that most of the Hebrew revivalists came from
Eastern Europe and lacked any knowledge of
Arabic. The same holds true for most early MH
writers. It is important to mention that it was
only in 1988 that Arabic began to be taught as
a compulsory subject in public (Jewish) schools
in Israel, a decision that has been only partially
implemented. However, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda
advocated extensive borrowing from Arabic
and other Semitic languages. He succeeded in
borrowing a small number of words from liter-
ary Arabic, such as ‫ רשמי‬rišmi ‘official’ (< Ar.
rasmì), ‫ רציני‬reßini ‘serious’ (< Ar. raßìn), ‫אדיב‬
±adiv ‘polite’ (< Ar. ±adìb), ‫ מברק‬mivraq ‘tele-
gram’ (based on Ar. barqiyyah), ‫ תמרון‬timrun
‘maneuver’ (< Ar. tamrìn), ‫ פרוה‬parva ‘fur’
(< Ar. farwa).
Still, since the time of Ben-Yehuda, numer-
ous Arabic words have entered Hebrew. Some
of these are international borrowings, such
as intifà∂a, jihàd, and ™izbu-llàh. The term
‫ אינתיפאדה‬±intifada was initially rejected in
Israel at the official level. It was replaced by
various words such as ‫ הפרעות סדר‬hafra≠ot
seder ‘disturbances of order’, ‫ מהומות‬mehumot
‘riots’, ‫ מאורעות‬me±ura≠ot ‘events’, and ‫מרד‬
mered ‘rebellion’. The Director General of the
Israeli broadcasting authority, Uri Porat, actu-
ally banned the use of ‫ אינתיפאדה‬±intifada,
claiming that it ‘‘was established by hostile ele-
ments’’ (see the newspaper ‫ כל העיר‬kol ha-≠ir,
29 July 1988, p. 9). The linguistic struggle to
suppress the term ‫ אינתיפאדה‬±intifada failed,
and the word has become widely used in
Hebrew, including in the media.
It should be noted that institutions as well
as individuals have continually attempted to
replace Arabic words with Hebrew words. For
example, the word ‫≤ חמסין‬amsin ‘period of hot
 arabic loanwords
and dry weather’ (< Ar. •amsìn), used since the
beginning of the 20th century, is today often
replaced by ‫ שרב‬šarav, especially in the media.
Another example is ‫† טיארה‬ayara ‘kite’ (< Ar.
†ayyàra), replaced by ‫≠ עפיפון‬afifon.
Still, we find many hundreds of Arabic loan-
words in modern spoken Hebrew, not least in
the realm of slang. Many early Jewish immi-
grants consciously adopted Arabic words in
order to sever ties with the diaspora and strike
roots in Palestine. For example, members of
‫ השומר‬ha-šomer, the Jewish self-defence orga-
nization founded in 1905, used to wear Arabic
headdress (kafiyyah) and use Arabic words and
phrases like daxilak ‘I beg you’, ma≠aleš ‘never
mind’, and finjàn ‘kettle’.
The 1982 slang dictionary of Dan Ben Amotz
and Netiva Ben-Yehuda contains over six hun-
dred Arabic words and expressions, some of
which are already outdated. The majority of
these borrowed words are adjectives. In his
2005 dictionary of Israeli slang, Ruvik Rosen-
thal included more than five-hundred loan-
words from Arabic. A few examples are ‫אהבל‬
±ahbal ‘stupid’, ‫ אהלן‬±ahlan ‘hi!’, ‫ אחלה‬±a≤la
‘great’, ‫ אסוד‬±aswad ‘opium’ (< Ar. ±aswad
‘black’), ‫ דיר באלק‬dir balak ‘be careful!’, ‫ואללה‬
walla ‘wow! really, is that so?!’, ‫≤ חביבי‬abibi
‘my friend, my dear’, ‫ יללה‬yalla ‘come on!’,
‫ מג׳נון‬majnun ‘crazy’, and ‫ סבבה‬sababa ‘awe-
some’, and ‫≠ ערס‬ars ‘pimp’.
There are also many words outside the realm
of slang that have been borrowed from Ara-
bic. A large number of words relate to food,
for example, ‫ פלאפל‬falafel ‘falafel’, ‫ פול‬ful
‘fava beans’, ‫≤ חומוס‬umus ‘hummus; chick-
peas’, ‫ קובה‬qube ‘meat and bulgur pastry’,
‫ מנגל‬mangal ‘barbeque’, ‫ שקשוקה‬šaqšuqa ‘egg
and tomato dish’, ‫ זעתר‬za≠tar ‘one of several
spices, e.g., thyme, oregano, or marjoram; also
a mixture of such spices with sesame seeds and
salt’, ‫ לבן‬leben ‘sour milk’, ‫ תבולה‬tabule ‘salad
with bulgur’. Other words come from the field
of politics or religion, e.g., ‫ פת"ח‬fata™ ‘P.L.O.’,
‫ פדאי‬fida±i ‘commando’, ‫≤ חמאס‬amas ‘Hamas’,
‫ הודנה‬hudna ‘armistice’, ‫ אינתיפאדה‬intifada
‘uprising’, ‫ ג׳יהאד‬jihad ‘holy war’, and ‫שהיד‬
šahid ‘martyr’.
During the second Jewish immigration to Pal-
estine, the inclination to borrow from Arabic
was strong. Jewish writers in the 1960s–1980s
used to put Arabic words in brackets to stress
© 2013 Koninklijke Brill NV ISBN 978-90-04-17642-3
151
their foreignness, but later such words began to
appear more or less as an integral part of the
text. Many Arabic words are used for literary
effect in the works of well-known Jewish-Israeli
writers like Amos Oz and David Grossman.
Such words are written in accordance with
the general MH pronunciation that does not
distinguish between ‫ כּ‬kaf and ‫ ק‬qof, ‫≠ ע‬ayin
and ‫ א‬±alef, ‫ ת‬tav and ‫† ט‬e†, ‫≤ ח‬et and ‫ כ‬xaf
rafe, etc., consonants that are distinguished in
Arabic. The Arabic sound jìm is transcribed as
‫ג׳‬, as in ‫ ג׳ין‬jin ‘demon’, ‫ ג׳יפה‬jifa ‘stench’. The
stress position remains as in Arabic, and nouns
preserve the Arabic vocalization, but the verbs
follow the Hebrew patterns. The Hebrew rules
of ‫ בגדכפ"ת‬bgdkpt are not applied to Arabic
(or other) loanwords, or at least they can be
violated, e.g., ‫ פלאפל‬falafel ‘falafel’, ‫ פשלה‬fašla
‘failure’.
In numerous cases Arabic loanwords in
Hebrew undergo phonetic or morphologi-
cal modification, and there are also sometimes
semantic shifts. For example, ±u∂rub in Arabic
means ‘hit, strike!’, but in spoken Hebrew ‫אודרוב‬
±udrub means ‘go ahead!’; ‫† טיז אנאבי‬iz ±anabi
means literally in Arabic ‘the buttock of the
prophet’, whereas in spoken Hebrew the mean-
ing is ‘a remote location’; ‫≠ עדס‬adas is ‘lentils’ in
Arabic and ‘rubble’ in Hebrew; ‫ אחמד‬±a≤mad in
Arabic is a male name, but in Hebrew it is used
as a derogatory nickname for an Arab.
There are also examples of Arabic collec-
tives, which are adapted to the singular/plural
norms of Hebrew. For example, the plurals
of ‫ פיסתוק‬fistuq ‘pistachio’ (< Ar. fustuq) and
‫ משמש‬mišmeš ‘apricot’ (< Ar. mišmiš) are
expressed by adding Hebrew plural affixes,
i.e., ‫ פיסתוקים‬fistuqim and ‫ משמשים‬mišmešim
‘apricot’, respectively, rather than by using the
Arabic plural forms.
Sometimes Arabic loanwords entered Hebrew
through European languages, mainly English
and French, as in ‫ אדמירל‬admiral ‘admiral’
(< Ar. ±amìr al-ba™r), ‫ אלכוהול‬alkohol ‘alco-
hol’, ‫ אלגברה‬±algebra ‘algebra’, ‫ ספה‬sapa ‘sofa’
(< Ar. ßaffa), ‫ קירט‬qira† ‘carat’, ‫ קפה‬qafe
‘coffee’, and ‫ תעריף‬ta≠arif ‘tariff’.
In the 1960s–1970s Arabic loanwords in
spoken Hebrew formed around forty percent
of the foreign vocabulary, whereas by 2007
the percentage had decreased to approximately
twenty-seven percent (Netzer 2007:203).
152 arabic, hebrew loanwords in: pre-modern period
References
Avinery, Yitzhak. 1946. Kebuše ha-≠Ivrit be-dorenu.
Mir™avia: Sifriyat Po≠alim.
——. 1964. Yad ha-lašon. Tel-Aviv: Izreel.
Avishur, Yitzhak. 1997. ‘‘The innovations of
E. Ben–Yehuda under the influence of Arabic” (in
Hebrew). Hebrew through the ages: In memory of
Shoshanna Bahat, ed. by Moshe Bar-Asher, 209–
222. Jerusalem: Academy of the Hebrew Language.
——. 2002. ‘‘The Arabic component in Modern
Hebrew language and literature from E. Ben-
Yehuda until N. Ben-Yehuda and D. Ben-Amotz’’
(in Hebrew). Ha-≠Ivrit ve-a≤yoteha: Ketav ≠et
le-≤eqer ha-lašon ha-≠Ivrit ve-ziqata la-lešonot
ha-Šemiyot ve-li-lšonot ha-Yehudim 2–3:9–50.
Ben-Amotz, Dan and Netiva Ben-Yehuda. 1982. The
world dictionary of Hebrew slang. 2 vols. Tel-
Aviv: Zmora.
Blanc, Haim. 1955. “La-yesod ha-≠Aravi še-ba-
dibur ha-Yi«ra±eli.” Lłšonénu la≠-Am 53:6–14;
54–55:27–32; 56:20–26 reprinted in Blanc, Haim.
1989. Human language, 135–149. Jerusalem:
Mosad Bialik).
Goshen-Gottstein, Moshe. 2006. Syntax and vocabu-
lary of mediaeval Hebrew as influenced by Arabic
(in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Institute.
Klar, Binyamin. 1947. “On the ways of broaden-
ing the Hebrew language in the Middle Ages” (in
Hebrew). Lłšonénu 15:116–124.
Netzer, Nisan. 2007. Hebrew in jeans: The image
of Hebrew slang. (in Hebrew) Beer Sheva: Ben-
Gurion University of the Negev.
Rosenthal, Ruvik. 2005. Dictionary of Israeli slang
(in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Keter.
Shehadeh, Haseeb. 1998. “The influence of Arabic
on Modern Hebrew”. Études sémitiques et samar-
itaines offertes à Jean Margain, ed. by Christian-
Bernard Amphoux et al., 149–161. Lausanne:
Éditions du Zèbre.
——. 2004. “The Arabic component in Maimonides’
Hebrew”. Verbum et calamus: Semitic and related
studies in honour of the sixtieth birthday of pro-
fessor Tapani Harviainen, ed. by Hannu Juusola
et al., 323–340. Helsinki: Finnish Oriental Society.
——. 2011. “Arabic loanwords in Hebrew”. Studia
Orientalia 111:327–344.
Haseeb Shehadeh
(The University of Helsinki)
Arabic, Hebrew Loanwords in:
Pre-Modern Period
As opposed to the large number of Aramaic
loans in Classical Arabic (Fraenkel 1886), spe-
cifically Hebrew loans are rather few and for
the most part restricted to the Qur±àn (par-
ticularly its eschatological portions) and the
religious milieu of pre-Islamic Arabia in which
that book arose. Most of these Hebrew words
probably reached Arabic through the media-
tion of Aramaic, some from Jewish (and/or
© 2013 Koninklijke Brill NV ISBN 978-90-04-17642-3
Christian) contacts in Northern Arabia and the
Fertile Crescent, others less directly via Chris-
tian Abyssinia and the Yemen in the south. In
many cases the direction and route of the loan
is difficult to establish.
The basic collection of Jewish vocabulary
in the Qur±àn was made in 1833 by A. Gei-
ger, who compiled a list (Geiger 1833:44–61
[=1902:43–59]) of fourteen Qur±ànic items
which reflect what the author calls ‘rabbinisch-
hebräisch’. This term, however, is used by him
as a cultural rather than a linguistic label and
does not refer to ‘Hebrew’ in the narrow sense
of Canaanite Semitic, but to the Hebrew/Ara-
maic medium of rabbinic literature as a whole.
Geiger adduced the following items, arranged
in the alphabetical order of Arabic, together
with their ‘rabbinisch-hebräisch’ equivalents:
tàbùt ‘ark’ (‫ תיבה‬te∫a, ‫ תיבותא‬te∫uta)
tawràh ‘Torah, the Law’ (‫ תורה‬tora)
jannàt ≠adn ‘Garden(s) of Eden’ (‫ גן עדן‬gan
≠eden)
jahannam ‘Gehenna, hell’ (‫ גהנם‬gehinnom/
gehinnam)
a™bàr ‘teachers, fellows’ (‫™ חברים‬averim)
darasa ‘to study’ (‫ דרש‬daraš)
rabbànìy ‘teacher, rabbi’ (‫ רבן‬rabban)
sabt ‘sabbath’ (‫ שבת‬šabbat)
sakìnah ‘divine presence’ (‫ שכינה‬šeúina)
†àÿùt ‘error, idolatry’ (‫† טעות‬a≠ut)
furqàn ‘salvation’ (‫ ֻפרקן‬purqan)
mà≠ùn ‘refuge’ (‫ ָמעוֹן‬ma≠on)
maμànì ‘repetition’ (‫משנָ ה‬/‫ משנֶ ה‬mišne/mišna)
malakùt ‘kingdom’ (‫ מלכות‬malúut)
Geiger’s list of ‘rabbinisch-hebräisch’ words
well exemplifies the difficulty of identifying
certain Hebrew loans among the Jewish mate-
rial in Classical Arabic in general and in the
Qur±àn in particular. Only a few items in the
list bear a distinctively Hebrew shape (tawràh,
spelled either ‫ﺗﻮراة‬ ‫ﺗﻮرﻳﺔ‬
or , < Hebrew ‫תורה‬
tora rather than Aramaic ‫ אורייתא‬±orayta),
some seem clearly Aramaic (maμànì < Aramaic
‫ מתניתא‬matnita rather than Hebrew ‫משנה‬
mišna), while others are linguistically indif-
ferent as regards Hebrew~Aramaic (sakìnah
< Hebrew ‫ שכינה‬šeúina ~ Aramaic ‫שכינתא‬
šeúinta). A number of examples are better
regarded as loan translations than loanwords
proper (‫ דרש‬daraš), and some have been
adapted in various ways to Arabic phonology