Barhebraeus’ Metrical Grammarin the context of 13th centurySyriac linguistic thinking

Margherita Farina Laboratoire ORIENT &MÉDITERRANÉE UMR 8167CNRS Paris

BH’s Metrical Grammar 1265/75 ca.ms. Florence BML Or. 298 1360, Daniel of Mardin, Egypt

ff. 11v-12r

BML Or. 298 f. 18r

Takahashi, H. 2005. Barhebraeus: A Bio-Bibliography, pp. 359-372, over 100 copies

• Bertheau, Ernest. 1843. Gregorii Bar Hebraei qui et Abulpharaggrammatica linguae syriacae in metro ephraemeo. Gottingen: Vandenhoek& Ruprecht.

• Martin, Jean-Pierre-Paul (ed.) 1872. Œuvres grammaticales d'Abouʼlfaradj’dit Bar Hebreus. Paris: Maisonneuve.

Merx,A. 1889. Historia artis grammaticae apud Syros, 229-233, on BH’s greatgrammar Ktābā d-Ṣemḥē:

• combination and harmonization of all previous Syriac sources• structural reception of the Arabic model (Zamaḫšārī)• preservation of Syriac peculiarities

Editions:

Terms of comparison

In the time when we weredwelling in Babylon, for thesake of correcting someecclesiastical issues, and thepractices of the believers of thevalleys that are over there, aswe conversed with peoplewho were accurate in thegrammatical knowledge, wethought to write a brief treatiseon the characteristics of thisscience, as others have writtendown what they understood.

BML Or. 298 f. 3v

Method of comparison

• Form of the text

• Structure of the exposition

• Selection of the examples

• Terminology

FORM OF THE TEXT

• Choice of the metrical structure• Layout

ms. CCM 20 Chaldean CathedralMosul

incipit of Bar Zo‛bī’s MetricalGrammar(d. 1241)

(courtesy of the Hill Museum andManuscript Library)

STUCTURE OF THE EXPOSITION : the parts of speech

Barhebraeus, Metrical Grammar,(Or. 298 f. 4v)

“Definition of the language The learned grammarians definelanguage as a vocal productionconveying a meaning byconvention and not by nature. Itis divided in three parts: noun,conjunction and verb (...). Andthe other four parts that the ancientauthors have put in the copies,according to the true investigationare nouns and conjunctions.”

Barhebraeus, MetricalGrammar, (Or. 298 f. 4v)

Gloss 2

“By convention and not bynature is said as there arevoices that convey a meaningby nature, such as thebarking of the dog, indicatingthat a stranger is approaching(…). And these things do notmean by convention and thusare not language.”

Proba’s commentary to the Περὶἑρμηνείας (6th cent.), ed.Hoffmann, De Hermeneuticis apudSyros, p. 71,18-19.

Bar Zo‘bī, Syriac grammar, ms. BL Add. 25876, f. 35v (beginning of the text)

“The parts of speech according to the Greek grammarians and to what thecomposition of their language allows for, are eight. The Syriac teachers, instead,those who were expert in the art of grammar (’ûmnūtā da-grammāṭīqī = téchnēgrammatiké) and applied it to the language of the Syrians, they found that the partsof speech are seven, according to what the Syriac language allows for.”

Huzāyā’s translation of the Téchnē grammatiké, ed. Merx

Beginning, p. 50*“Those who have knowledge of the Greek language say that the sentence is asmaller part of the composition of the discourse (…). The parts of the discourseare eight.”

Ch. on verb, p. 59* “The accidents of the verb are eight: the readings, the diathesis, the species, theschemes, the numbers, the persons, the tenses, the conjugations. In the Greeklanguage they are eight, in Syriac they are seven.”

Bar Šakkō (Bar Zo‛bī’s pupil), Book of dialogues, Dialogue on grammar, ed.Merx p. 2*

“First question: in how many parts is the speech divided?Answer: we say in seven parts, which are noun, verb, pronoun, adverb,participle, preposition, conjunction.”

Correlation between the parts of speech and the structure of the exposition

Barhebraeus, Metrical Grammar, Definition of the language (Or. 298 f. 5r)

“Therefore, in four chapters we divide the exposition, and not in seven: noun,verb, conjunction and compostion, which is the discourse.”

1 Chapter one - Notions on the noun On substantive nounOn pronounOn adverbOn verb-noun

...2 Chapter two - On the properties of the verb...

....3 Chapter three On conjunctions and on their meaningOn the letter bētOn the letter dāladOn the letter lāmadOn the conjunction ‘alOn memOn ’amīnOn lā, lāw and layt

4 Chapter fourOn the composition of the discourse

Ǧirǧīs al-‛Amīra, Grammatica Syriaca (Rome, 1596), ch. II, pp. 56-57:

“As there is no little disagreement among the Syriac grammarians on the numberof the parts of speech, before we begin to treat the noun, we have to establishtheir number (...). In the light of all this, as in the Latin language, so in ours Ibelieve that eight parts of speech must be stated, neither more, nor less.”

Grammar’s index:

1) De litteris, vocalibus, punctis et aliis quae ad modum legendum pertinentia2) De nomine, ac pronomine3) De verbo et verbo nominis 4) De reliquis orationibus partibus5) De syntaxi6) De contexendi carminibus7) De interpungendae orationis ratione

The definition of the noun

BH, Metrical Grammar, (Or. 298 f. 6v)

“First Chapter, on the nounThe noun has this definition: simple voice, with no tense, endowed with ameaning of its own, unlike its fellow the conjunction.”

BZ, Syriac grammar, ms. BL Add. 25876, ff. 36r-37v

“And thus the noun is a voice endowed with meaning by convention, withno tense, of which no part is meaningful when separated. (…)And by saying by convention it distinguishes the noun from the voices thathave a meaning by nature, without convention: that is they are unarticulated,such as the barking of the dog that indicates that a stranger is approaching.”

Arist. Περὶ ἑρμηνείας, 2

Ὄνομα μὲν οὖν ἐστὶ φωνὴσημαντικὴ κατὰ συνθήκην ἄνευχρόνου, ἧς μηδὲν μέρος ἐστὶσημαντικὸν κεχωρισμένον·

Proba’s commentary to the Περὶἑρμηνείας (6th cent.), ed.Hoffmann, De Hermeneuticis apudSyros, p. 71,18-19. ON THENOUN

BH, Metrical Grammar, (Or. 298 ff. 6v-7r)

“First Chapter, on the nounThe noun has this definition: simple voice, with no tense, endowed with ameaning of its own, unlike its fellow the conjunction. (...)On the substantiveAre attached to the substance genders, species, numbers, schemes anddiathesis, and the cases are four.”

τ έ χ ν η γ ρ α μ μ α τ ι κ ή, π ε ρ ὶ ὀ ν ό μ α τ ο ς.

παρέπεται δὲ τῶι ὀνόματι πέντε· γένη,εἴδη, σχήματα, ἀριθμοί, πτώσεις.

SELECTION OF THE EXAMPLES and TERMINOLOGY

Barhebraeus, Metrical Grammar,(BML Or. 298 f. 50r)

SELECTION OF THE EXAMPLES and TERMINOLOGY

BH, Metrical Grammar, (Or. 298 ff. 50r-51v)

“On what in every discourse is by necessity beginning (šūrāyā) and information(šûwād‛ā), namely on theme (sīm) and predicate (metqaṭrag) <Ar. gloss Onincohative (mubtada’) and predicate (ḫabar)>” NO DEFINITION FOLLOW, ONLYEXAMPLES “On the properties that distinguish the agent (‛būdā) and the acted upon(met‛abdānā ) <Ar. gloss al-fā‛il wa-l-maf‛ūl bi-hi>” In five ways the agent is distinguished from the acted.1. the agent precedes in the order [synt.]2. the use of the preposition l- before the acted [moprho-synt.]3. there cannot be confusion between agent and patient even when the actedprecedes the agent [semant.]agreement in 4. gender and 5. number [morph.]

Arabic gloss f. 50v (Daniel of Mardin, 1360):“You should know that the agent among the Arabic speakers is every nounoccurring after an action and to which the action is attributed, either positivelyor negatively, have the agent accomplished it or not [al-‛Anbarī, ch. 20 on verb]. Andamong the Syrians the agent is the one who accomplishes the action and thepatient is the one that undergoes action from the agent.”

Bar Šakkō, Book of dialogues, Dialogue on grammar, ed. Merx pp. 27*-30*

“Eleventh question: by which marks do we tell the agent (‛būdā) from thepatient (ḥšūšā )?Answer: we say by three marks: 1) by nature, namely by the quality of the agent and the patient

[semantic]2) by the introduction of the particle l- before the patient [morpho-synt]3) by the order and the precedence of the agent with respect to the

patient [synt]”And it is good to know that the agent is the one who performs theaction, while the patient is the one who is acted upon by the agent.”..........Then we recognize the agent by means of the verb, singular and plural,masculine and feminine.”

Examples

BŠ, Book of Dialogues (Merx, 27*-30*)

order and the precedence of theagent: māryā šmāyā ‘bad (Godmade the heavens, Ps. 95,6); bnāšleymūn baytā l-māryā (Salomonbuilt a house for the Lord),

semantics:’alāhā lā ḥzā ’nāš mtūm(no man has ever seen God, Jn.1,18)

agreement in gender and number:maz‘rīn ’emwātā ḥṭāhē (the sinsdiminish the people, Prov. 14,34).

BH, Metrical Grammar, Or. 298 ff.51r-51v

the agent precedes in the order: bnāšleymūn baytā l-māryā; māryā ‘badšmayā b-ḥekmateh (God madeheavens in his wisdom);

semantics:’alāhā lā ḥzā ’nāš mtūm;

agreement in gender and number:maz‘rīn ’emwātā ḥṭāhē.