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July 18, 2008
Friday Loanword: asuppu
I intended to start this series last Friday. I even wrote most of this post last week, but stuff happened. In response to a question from Joel L. Watts about the usefulness of Akkadian cognates in understanding Hebrew lexemes, John Hobbins wrote the following,
yes, sometimes Akkadian cognates, and usage data peculiar to them, tip the scales a bit in favor of a particular construal of a Hebrew word in context. For example, you can learn a lot about how brit 'covenant' and shevu'a 'oath' were understood by looking at how the Akkadian terms biri, birit, mamit birini 'our mutual oath, tamu, etc. were used.On the other hand, sometimes the information is interesting but no longer relevant. For example, the word in Hebrew for both 'palace' and 'temple' is hekal, which goes back to Akkadian ekallu = Sumerian E.GAL which means, etymologically, 'big house.' Very cool, but few if any Israelites knew that, and it would not have influenced how they used the Hebrew vocable.
But in addition to the occasional heuristic value of Akkadian cognates in understanding Hebrew, there are also Akkadian loanwords in Biblical Hebrew. John's reference to Akkadian ekallu may well be an example but I actually think it is a "culture word" rather than an ordinary loanword that came into Hebrew and other Semitic languages. It's origin is Sumerian. John's equal sign indicates that he thinks something like this too. I'll tackle this word in some later post, perhaps as part of a different series on words that came into various Semitic languages from Sumerian. A few years ago, Paul Mankowski wrote an entire book on Akkadian loanwords in Biblical Hebrew. I think Monkowski may have misidentify a few words but he sure gets a lot more right than he gets wrong.
Anyway, today I start a Friday series on Akkadian loanwords in Hebrew. I hope it will be abnormally fun. Over the course of the series, I'll discuss what a loanword is and what it isn't. Over time, I will define the differences between cognates, loanwords and, somewhat related, culture words. But I thought I'd start with a few reasonably certain examples of loanwords.
Today, I just want to say one word to you, just one word: "plastics" asuppu. Asuppu is an Akkadian word meaning something like "outbuilding" or "annex" or, as I would prefer, "shed." An asuppu can be an insubstantial standalone building, something build alongside of, and sharing one wall with, a more substantial building or such a makeshift structure on a roof. It often occurs in the phrase "bīt (É) asuppi," which might indicate that asuppu represents a kind of construction or construction material. One text (Dar 163:2) indicates that slaves were kept in such a structure. To begin with, it indicated more the method or material of construction than an exact kind of building or a usage. Perhaps, but just perhaps, by Neo-Babylonian times the word stood for a type of "sub-standard" structure with specific functions. But I don't see this as certain.
Now let's look at בֵּית הָאֲסֻפִּים , "the annex houses," in I Chronicles 26:15, לָאֲסֻפִּים, "to the annexes," in I Chronicles 26:17 and בַּאֲסֻפֵּי הַשְּׁעָרִים, "in the annexes of the gates," in Nehemiah 12:25. While I use "annex" as a neutral term, the common translation is "storehouse" or the like. But this common translation likely rests on a false etymology. See below. The LXX renders the Hebrew word, εσεφιν, little more than a greekized transliteration of the Hebrew consonants. The LXX translators likely didn't know what it meant in Greek beyond the Hebrew usage in Hebrew. They may have even thought it a proper name. Here's what Mankowski, 37, says about this word,
The qatull- shape of the Hebrew noun is a prima facie indication that it is a loanword, and phonologically it replicates Akkadian asuppu. BDB (p. 63) attempted to assimilate the word to the root אסף, "gather," glossing it as "what is gathered, store, hence בֵּית אֲסֻפִּים store-house," but there is no evidence whatever for this derivation. Driver rightly compared Akk. bīt asuppi and proposed the Hebrew as a loan.
In a footnote, Mankowski reminds us that qatull- forms are "not uncommon" in Hebrew adjectives, but "it is not an indigenous pattern for substantives."
How much of the method or material of construction meaning of the Akkadian word one should read into the Hebrew is not clear. CAD, A/2, 349, indicates that the loan in Hebrew is evidence for a functional connotation rather than a "construction method" connotation but Mankowski does not seem so certain. I think that we would not miss the mark too far if we translated the Hebrew loan from the Akkadian as "shed" or if that's too crude for your taste, "outbuilding" without indicating the function of such a shed or outbuilding.
Reference:
Posted by Duane Smith at July 18, 2008 3:31 PM | Read more on Hebrew Bible |
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