100 holger gzella
(/tz/ > /zd/, /tṣ/ > /ṣṭ/). in addition to that, the three active stems also
dispose of an apophonic passive (gp, dp, cp) featuring the same con
sonantal skeleton as the respective active variant but a different vowel
sequence. it is not always easy to determine the exact nuance of the
tstems as opposed to the apophonic passives, but the former often have
a reflexive nuance.89 due to the limited textual corpus, the paradigm con
tains many lacunae, but some forms can be reconstructed with reasonable
confidence on the basis of other old aramaic varieties, official aramaic,
and vocalized Biblical aramaic:90
“perfect” “imperfect” imperative participle infinitive
g /katab/ /yaktob/ /ktob/ /kāteb/ /maktab/,
/ktab/
gp /katīb/ /yoktab/ — /katīb/ —
gt /ʾetkateb/ /yetkateb/(?) /ʾetkateb/ /metkateb/(?) /ʾetkatābā/
d /katteb/ /yakatteb/ /katteb/ /makatteb/ /kattābā/
dp (unattested) (unattested) — /makattab/ —
dt /ʾetkattab/91 /yetkattab/(?) /ʾetkattab/ /metkattab/(?) (unattested)
c /hakteb/ /ya(ha)kteb/ /hakteb/ /ma(ha)kteb/ /haktābā/
cp /hokteb/ (unattested) — /ma(ha)ktab/ —
ct /ʾethakteb/92 (unattested) (unattested) (unattested) (unattested)
contrary to some offshoots of old aramaic attested around 500 B.c. and
later Western aramaic as well as Syriac, the infinitives of the derived
stems in the majority of old and official aramaic witnesses lack an /m/
prefix. the tell fekheriye inscription also contains a number of forms that
can be understood either as dstem infinitives without the feminine end
ing /ā/ or as masculine nouns belong to a different pattern (ḥyy, kbr, šlm,
Kai 309: 7–8).93 another peculiarity is the gt“imperfect” ʾl ygtzr /ʾal yeg
tazer/ ‘may it not cease’ (Kai 309: 23; an agentless middle of the root gzr
‘to cut’ with the meaning ‘to be cut loose’, cf. dan 2: 34) with an infixed,
89 following the loss of the apophonic passives in aramaic at the end of the 1st millen
nium B.c., however, the tstems become more clearly marked for passive diathesis at the
expense of their reflexive meaning. for a general outline of the passive system in Semitic
and its historical development, see gzella 2009.
90 See folmer 2011: 149–151 for a succinct but comprehensive outline of the situation
in old and official aramaic.
91 the form htnʾbw /hetna ʾʾabū/ (presumably a dt“perfect” from nʾb: degen 1969: 67;
hoftijzer – Jongeling 1995: 710f ) ‘they were envious’ (Kai 216: 14) with /h/ instead of /ʾ/
and a few similar cases from other aramaic corpora may be (graphic?) hypercorrections
patterned after the cstem “perfect,” just as in the hebrew dtstem (gzella 2009: 305 with
n. 30).
92 Later /ʾetʾakteb/ > (as in Syriac, with assimilation of the medial /ʾ/) /ʾettakteb/.
93 folmer 2011: 149.