ii. Iranian Loanwords In Early Aramaic

Speakers of Iranian languages were in all likelihood in contact with Aramaic speakers from the 7th century B.C. onwards in northern Mesopotamia, but this contact has not left a detectable impression. It is with the advent of the Achaemenids to power in the 6th century that a growing number of Iranian loanwords are found in Aramaic. In the Achaemenid period Aramaic was in use throughout the empire as a sort of official language and the Aramaic script was widely employed from Egypt in the southwest to Bactria and Sogdiana in the northeast. Texts were in all likelihood dictated in the native dialects, Iranian and others, written down in Aramaic, and then read out again in the native language at the place they were received. It is therefore not surprising that the Aramaic script, and the scribal practices of the chancery using Aramaic, achieved important status in these areas even after Aramaic had been replaced by Greek.

Many Iranian loanwords found in Aramaic are also found in neo-Babylonian and Elamite administrative and legal texts. It may also be assumed that the Iranian loanwords in Hebrew (primarily in the Book of Esther) entered via Aramaic.

The sources for these loanwords are 1) literary—the biblical books of Ezra (Ez), which quotes many early documents, and Daniel (Dan), which, although redacted in the time of the Maccabean revolt (i.e. ca. 186 B.C.), contains earlier material and is replete with Iranian words and usages; 2) the various collections of letters, contracts, administrative documents, etc. from Egypt (C = Cowley, K = Kraeling, D = Driver); 3) Aramaic inscriptions from Persepolis (B = Bowman); 4) inscriptions from other parts of the empire, primarily from Anatolia. As will be seen below, much of the vocabulary is from the spheres of administration, law, and commerce, but the texts also contain vocabulary from other walks of life. The later the text, the more Iranian words and idioms it will contain. Some phrases are entirely Iranian, and some documents, such as the ship-repair order (C 26) issued by Aršāma and the letters sent by Aršāma from Babylon and/or Susa (D), are particularly replete with Iranianisms. The Aramaic used in these texts has been called Official or Imperial Aramaic.

In the eastern provinces and the periphery of the Hellenistic world Aramaic continued in use as a written language into the Arsacid and Roman period. Aramaic inscriptions are known from Armenia and Georgia (Mcʿxeṭʿa) as well as from such sites as Laḡmān and Qandahār in Afghanistan and Taxila in Pakistan. The Aramaic of these inscriptions was clearly a sort of heterograph; with Aramaic words replacing the language actually spoken by the scribe. Three Aramaic dialects spoken in the Near East during this period have also left us inscriptions that contain Iranian words, primarily Parthian in form. They are a) Palmyrene inscriptions from Palmyra, the important ancient caravan city in the Syrian desert, the written dialect being a continuation of “official Aramaic” with Eastern traits; b) the Hatra inscriptions, from Hatra in northern Iraq, whose dialect shows clear eastern traits; and c) the Syriac inscriptions from the Edessa area (modern Urfa in southern Turkey ), the earliest testimony to the Syriac dialect of Aramaic.

The graphic realization of Iranian words in Aramaic in the early period presented few problems, for the Aramaic consonantal shape fit the known and assumed Iranian words; however, the vocalization of Iranian words transmitted in Biblical texts conforms to the patterns of Aramaic and Hebrew, while the consonantal shape remains relatively intact. Iranian č is expressed graphically by Aramaic š, θ by t and xw at times by simple ḥ.

It is not surprising that the number of Iranian words in the administrative and legal fields is relatively large. Among the administrative functions, the following officials should be mentioned: ʾzdkryʾ azdakara “recorder” (C 17:5); ʾdrgzrʾ handarza-kara “counselor” (Dan); ʾḥšdrpnʾ xšaθrapāna “satrap” (Dan); ḥštrpnʾ (Xanthos); gzbrʾ ganzabara “treasurer” (Ez); ʾpgnzbrʾ upaganzabara “sub-treasurer” (B pp. 30ff.); gwškyʾ gaušaka “hearer, spy” (C); dtbrʾ dātabara “law officer” (Dan); dtkyʾ dātaka “lawyer” (C); hdbrʾ hadabāra “companion” (Dan); hptḥptʾ haftaxwapātā “guardian of the seventh (part)” (K 8:2, 3); hmrkr hamārakara “accountant” (D); prmnkrʾ framānakara “superior, foreman” (C); ʾprskʾ frasaka “investigator” (Ez); ʾprstkʾ frastāka “leading official” (Ez); prtrkʾ frataraka “governor” (C); prtm fratama (Heb.) “general” (Dan); ptyprs pātifrāsa “retribution” (C); srkʾ sāraka “chief minister” (Dan); tptʾ tāyupātā “policeman” (Dan). Such professions as patikarakara “sculptor (D); waršabara “forester” (D) and nāupati “(ship) captain” (C) should also be noted.

A variety of items from the realm of realia deserve mention here: ʾbšwnʾ abišavana “pestle” (B); ʾšrnʾ āčarna “furnishings” (C); ʾḥšynpyn axšainafaina “turquoise” (B); ʾstdnʾ astōdāna “ossuary” (KAI 262); ʾtrwdn āθrōdāna “fire altar” (C); drḥt draxta “tree” Sardis (KAI 260); hmynk hamyānaka “necklace, belt” (Dan); hndwn handavana “repair material” (C); hnpnʾ hanpāna “covered passage” (K); hwnʾ havana “mortar” (B); nbršt nibrāšti “lamp” (Dan); ndn nidāni “container, sheath” (Dan; Gen Apoc); prds paridaiza “garden, park” (Enoch); prbr paribāra, parbar “wall” Sardis (KAI 260); ptpʾ piθfa “ration” (C; D); ʾwpšr upačāra “repair (material)” (C 26); ʾwpkrtʾ upakarta “preparation, gathering of material” (C); zrnyk zaranyaka “arsenic” (C).

The following nouns belong essentially to the administrative sphere: ʾbygrn abigarana “penalty, fine” (C; K); ʾdrngʾ ādranga “guarantor” (K); ʾwdysʾ avadaisa “protocol” (C); ʾzt āzāta “free” (K); ʾzdʾ azdā “known” (C; Dan); ʾdwn advan “route, (stage of a) journey” (D); bg bāga “portion, domain” (D); grd garda “domestic staff” (D); gnz ganza “treasury” (C; D; Ez); dmʾ dama “domain” (Xanthos); dšn dāšna “gift” (D); dtʾ dāta “law” (passim); dwškrtʾ duškarta “misdeed” (C); hdʾbgw hadā-abigāva “with interest” (D); hnbgʾ hngytʾ hanbāga, hangaiθa “partners (in land or movable property)” (C; K); ksntw kasanθva “decrease” (D); nštwnʾ ništavana “order” (C; Ez); srwšytʾ sraušyata@ “punishment” (D); ptbg patibāga “portion” (Dan); ptgm patigāma “message, report” (passim); ptšgn patičagna (Hebrew ptšgn</strong>; Aram. pršgn) “document, copy;” psšrt pasčā-rāti “addition to dowry” (K); rz rāza “secret” (Dan); ywz yauza “rebellion” (D).

There are also interesting idioms which consist of a form of the Aramaic verb ʿbd “to do, make” and an Old Persian noun: gst ptgm (gasta patigāma) yṭʿbd (D) “he will be strictly called to account;” hdmyn tṭʿbdwn (Dan) “you will be direly punished;” hndrz (handarza) yʿbdwn (D) “they will give instructions.” There is a group of words used in an adverbial construction: apatamā(m) “finally” (Ez); azdā “publicly” (Dan); asparnā “in full” (D; Ez); (a)drazdā “diligently” (Ez).

It has been plausibly suggested that the enigmatic ddymyy (K 9:3) which follows Aramaic yhbth lky “I gave/have given it to you” is a similar declaration in Old Persian dadāyam ayāy (for *adadāyam *ahyāi ). In the inscription from Arebsun (KAI 264) the phrase dynmzdysnš dainā-mazdayasniš “Mazda-believing,” and in KAI 265, the verbal mgyš lmtrh (Greek emageuse Mithrē) “acted the magus to Mithra” is found. Religious terminology from the Iranian sphere is found in the Aramaic of the recently discovered Xanthos trilingual: krpʾ karpa “religious usage, rite” and ḥštrpty xšaθrapati “noble, protective spirit,” used for Apollo (lit. “landlord”). In the Taxila inscription (KAI 273) the following religious terms are found: hwptysty hu-patyāsti “good obedience,” hww[rd] hu-varda “good progress” and hwnštwn hu-ništavana “good order” and from Qandahār I ptytw patīθva “for redemption (?),” ptyzbt pati-zbāta “forbidden,” prbsty frabasta “unbridled,” mzyštyʾ mazišta “elders, superiors.” The inscriptions from Afghanistan contain other Iranian terms.

A not unexpected source of interesting Iranian words in Aramaic are the Qumran scrolls. The Aramaic texts are written in Standard Literary Aramaic and therefore reflect essentially the Eastern Literary dialect. As well as several Iranian words known from other texts, they contain such words as: (a)sparaka “buckler” (Gen Apoc.), daxšta “desert” (Targ. Job), naḥšīr “hunt” (I Q Wars), naḥšīrūta “slaughter” (Test. Levi), *naiza-ka (written nzk) “spear” (Targ. Job).

Of particular interest are the Iranian titles that have reached us in variant forms. In the inscriptions from Mcʿxeṭʿa in Georgia, the same title is written both bṭḥš (I 1.2) and pyṭḥš (II 1.2-5). In the Greek version of inscr. I this is rendered pitiaksēs. In the Hatra inscription, there may also be two versions of this term: bṭḥšʾ (no. 143) and also pdḥšʾ (no. 127). The forms bytḥš (Parthian) and btḥšy (Pahlavi) are known from Šāpūr KZ while the Greek transcriptions pitiaksou and pituaksou are also found there, and Ammianus Marcellinus preserves vitaxa. On this word see O. Szemerényi in Monumentum H. S. Nyberg II, Acta Iranica 5, Tehran and Liège, 1975, pp. 363-65. Another title with slightly divergent spellings is found as pšgrybʾ in the Syriac Hymn of the Soul (where it was recognized by I. Gershevitch, JRAS, 1954, p. 124) as well as in an Old Syriac inscription; at Hatra it has the forms pzgrybʾ (185:3) and pšgrybʾ/psgrbʾ (287:6; 282). It is attested in Man. Mid. Pers. as psʾgryw and as a Parthian loanword in Man. Sogd. as pšʾgryw, and derives from OIr. *pasčā-grīva “behind/instead of the self,” i.e. “viceroy” (see Szemerényi, op. cit., p. 365, with references). Among the other civic and religious titles that occur in these inscriptions are ʾrgptʾ “city governor” (Palmyra), mhrqrʾ “incantation maker” (Palmyra), hdrpṭʾ “fire-priest” (Hatra), and nḥšrpṭʾ “in charge of hunt” (Hatra). The god Nergal, of Babylonian origin, is given the title dḥšpṭʾ at Hatra. It is Parthian *daxšpat, known from Syriac daḥša and Armenian dahič, daḥčapet, where it means “chief guard, executioner.” This is consonant with Nergal’s role as god of the underworld.