Letter from Wiener, Leo to Morais, Sabato. Columbia, MO; Mar 1895 · Sabato Morais Digital Repository · Legacy Projects from Judaica DH at Penn Libraries

Title

Letter from Wiener, Leo to Morais, Sabato. Columbia, MO; Mar 1895

Author

Wiener, Leo

Morais, Sabato

Date Created

21 March 1895

Location(s)

United States -- Missouri -- Columbia

United States -- Missouri

Format

4 pages on 3 sheets

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?

Language(s)

English

Source

Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies

Sabato Morais Collection, Box 7, Folder 7

Has Format

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/items/ark:/81431/p3th8c697/manifest.json

Link to Colenda

https://colenda.library.upenn.edu/catalog/81431-p3th8c697

Provenance

Transfer of Custody from the Hebrew Education Society, 10 March 1913.

Is Format Of

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/judaicadh/morais/main/TEI/SMBx7FF7_3.xml

content

Rev. Dr. S. Morais
546 N. 5th Str.
Philadelphia,
Pa.

MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY,
COLUMBIA, MO.
March 21, 95
Dear Sir:
I return to you the "order" with many thanks. My request for Judaeo Spanish books which I made of many persons has been without avail and I have been compelled to order a number of them from Germany. If my means permit me I expect to make as a complete a collection as can be made of all that has appeared in the language for the purpose of writing a catalogue raisonne' "to gether with the grammar on which I am writing.
Very truly yours Leo Wiener
Dr. S. Morais

THE FERRARA BIBLE. I.

THE FERRARA BIBLE.*
I
THE study of Ladino or Judaeo-Spanish must begin with the Ferrara Bible, for being printed out of Spain and primarily for Jews, it must to some extent represent the deviating forms of the language in the diaspora. So far, the Lad-ino has been sadly neglected, although its im-portance for the investigation of Old Spanish was pointed out by Böhmer. Of the two es-says mentioned in Gröber's Grundriss der romanischen Philologie i. 691, only Grünwald's Ueber den Jüdischspanischen Dialekt als Bei-trag zur Aufhellung der Aussprache im Alt-spanischen has been accessible to me: it con-tains an ill-digested heap of facts and betrays the dilettante. A much better article is that by R. Foulché-Delbosc: La Transcription Hispano-hébraïque--in the Revue Hispanique for 1894 (Numéro I, p. 22-34); it does what it promises: "c'est pour faciliter l'étude de ce rameau du castillan qu'a été composé le pré-sent travail."
Considering the fact that the Ferrara Bible was simultaneously struck off for the use of Christians, its importance for the study of six-teenth century Spanish becomes at once evi-dent. The bible was again reprinted with Roman characters in 1631, and from time to time there have issued from the Judaeo-Span-ish Press in Vienna and Constantinople mod-ernisations of the same in Hebrew type. The prayers of the Spanish Jews are mainly ex-tracts from different passages of the Bible, and as long as they are printed in Spanish they adhere closely to the letter of the first source. The present essay is based entirely on one of these prayerbooks, kindly loaned me by Rev. Dr. S. Morais of Philadelphia. Its title is: Orden de las Oraciones Cotidianas Por estilo seguido y corriente, Con las de Hanucah, Purim y Ayuno del Solo. Como tambien las tres Pascuas de Pesah, Sebuoth, y Sucoth, y con las Parasioth, y Aftarót. Neuv-amente corregido, y à su costa Impresso en Amsterdam, por David Fernandes & David De Elisa Pereyra. Año 5488. à la Criacion. (A. D. 1727).

* Deprinted from MOD. LANG. NOTES, vol. x, NO. 2.

The title page of the Bible claims for it that it is palabra por palabra traduzida de la ver-dad Hebrayca, and in the following introduc-tion its barbarous and strange translation (lenguaje barbaro y estraño, y muy diferente de pulido que en neustros timepos se usa) is explained by the desire to follow closely the original Hebrew. Thus the present participle is frequently used without the copula for the present tense: no por nuestras justedades nos echantes nuestra rogativa delante ti; or the copula may be added: seamos conocientes tu nombre y aprendientes tu Ley. The copula is frequently omitted: todo tiempo que la alma entre mi; quiera que el-hijo de fermamiento. The adjective is often placed after the noun: el Dio en el mundo esse; porque hiziste à la cosa esta; de ojo malo y de tengua la mala. The possessive pronoun before a participle may have an objective meaning: nuestros abor-recientes; mis vencientes. A plural verb with a collective noun as subject and a singular predicate when preceding a plural subject are due to Hebrew influence: tu compaña estavan en ella; no sea à ti dioses otros delante mi. Nouns are sometimes put in the plural as in Hebrew: alce A. sus fazes à ti. These few deviations and the occasional misuse of the article is all that can be directly ascribed to the influence of the Hebrew original. Yet they suffice to turn at times the text into a puz-zle, especially when a Talmudical passage is translated.
Baist says (Gröber, Grundriss i, 702) that b and v are identical in every position and that in the Middle Ages they were used indiscrim-inately, while now they are misused (schul-mässig ungenau). But the Ladino distin-guishes between the spirant and the explosive both in writing and pronouncing, and even in the Ferrara Bible we find a consistent sepa-ration of the two consonants. Invariably we have b+cons, but cons. +v (except mb): sobre nombre hablar cobdicia dubda brosladura; salvo encorvar resvalar envoluntar barvez, but combite. Latin intervocalic p always gives b, otherwise b within the word changes to v: recebir arriba cabeca but escrevir governar maravilla; hence we find regularly ava in the imperfect of verbs in ar. In v voc. v the first v dissimulates to b: bivo bolver bever (but

THE FARRARA BIBLE. I.
bebraje); bivora for vibora is to be explained through the intermediate form vivora. Initial-ly original b is always preserved, and so is generally v, but in a few cases; as, abolar bola-tilla, v passes to b. A g has been developed be-fore initial ue and hue: guesso guerfano guer-to and also aguelo; this g was probably pro-nounced, for it is sounded in Ladino.
Intervocalic, d remains in the verbal end-ings -ades, -edes, -ides, but the forms -ais, -eis, also occur; it remains after the accent, hence the preterit of ver is vide by the side of vistes, hence the correct form fiuzia for fiducia. Dl changes to ld: cercalda for cercadla; tr be-comes dr in cidron.
Between g and a, u is always inserted: gualardon quatregua.
M assimilates a preceding n: emmalecer commigo and has slipped into trompieco. N changes to ñ before i in añidar, and similarly in liña for linea. Bufano stands for bufalo; tembrar frequently occurs for temblar.
S is written ss for etymological reasons in passo fuesse criasse appressurar, fuessa po-cession, etc.; similarly in assi assituar assos-seguado. Intervocalic s may have been a sonant, since visitar stands by the side of vezitar, lazo for laso; so too before n as we find alezna for lesna.
F is probably under literary influence in flama, and ff is etymological in afflarse, afflito. H frequently takes the place of f: conhorte hulano horo (fuero), but it was certainly not sounded, as can be seen from elada enchir ombro and hechar. Alharroba=algarroba.
X occurs only where its etymology demands it and doubtless was sounded ŝ in popular and cs in learned words as it still is in Ladino: dixo alexar dexar execucion. G before e and i and j coincide in sound and are used at times indiscriminately: linage bebraje, but always gentio muger. In agora, g stands for h.
C before e and i; ç before a o u has only an etymological signification and coincides in sound with s, as is to be seen from aciento for assiento, pocession, etc. S before m and n and Latin ci ce become z: hazer vezino dezir paz diezmo alezna; juyzio is probably to be explained from juez, since generally cy dy becomes voiceless ç: verguença alçar tercero braço. Sc remains or becomes c: conoscer aparecer. Initial ci remains. Wherever ç appears for z, a learned form may be sus-pected; some irregularities occur here, but to judge from Ladino they are only graphical. In cc the first c generally disappears: licion (lec-cion) aflicion aperficionar. The c has also disappeared in perfeto afflito.
Pretonic e varies with i: heziste hiziste, vesitar visitar, escrevir, bendiziré bendeziré and i with a in alabimiento; pretonic o may become u: pus-sible. Post-tonic e becomes o in bispora; post-tonic i disappears in estança. Esquadriñar for escudriñar is probably due to analogy.
Dio espirito stand regularly for dios espir-itu, but the plural of the first is dioses. Change of declension takes place in animalia apetite culebro generancio oida. Abstract nouns are freely formed in -acion, -miento, -ança, -ura: adereçamiento alabacion perdonança amaril-lura secura. Their frequent use is due to the many verbal cognate nouns in Hebrew. Strange is the use of the feminine past parti-ciple as a noun in occulta hecha. Before feminine nouns with accented a we find both el and la. The preposition á is used in the direct object even before inanimate objects.
Nos vos are generally used instead of noso-tros vosotros. The pronoun él with de gives ael. The personal pronoun is inserted be-tween the infinitive and the future ending: aarlosá.
The present participle ends in -án -ien, in the plural in -antes -ientes; besides, the ger-und in -ando -iendo occurs. The third person plural perfect of dezir is dixieron. In the second person plural of the future subjunctive e in -edes disappears: guardardes oyerdes. The imperfect of hazer is haz and haze, of poner-pon and pone. The following verbs in guar (=Lat. ficare) occur: aboniguar abivi-guar fermosiguar fruchiguar (learned fructi-ficar) muchiguar testiguar. A large number of words, generally active verbs, are formed with a prosthetic a: alevantar apresentar arrepudiar arrodear asufrencia, etc. L. WIENER. Missouri State University.

Identifier

p3th8c697

identifier

SMBx7FF7_3