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August 15, 2008

Friday Loanword: libbātu

Or is this Friday's word just part of a loan idiom?

Akkadian libbātu means "anger," "wrath." The word is often coupled with the verb malû, "to be filled," in expressions like šarrum li-ib-ba-ti-im im-ta-la, "the king was filled with anger" (remember this one) or kīma barbarim ma-li li-ba-tim, like a lion, filled with anger." See CAD L, 164 for these and other examples. But for our purposes, the most interesting example is aššumi ḫarrānika ilum libbātika mali, "because of your journey the god is filled with anger against you," in CCT 4:2a 27. Also, found in CAD L, 164. As usual, I take most of this from Mankowski, 77-80.

With that background, let's look at Ezekiel 16:30.

The NRSV translates this verse,

How sick is your heart, says the Lord God,
that you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen whore.

Here's how Mankowski, 78, explains this translation,

This reading would seem to follow the indications of the Masoretic pointing, taking אמלה as a defectively written feminine singular Qal passive participle on the root אמל, 'be weak,' and reading לבתך as a by-form of or scribal mistake for לבנך.

The ancient versions seem to have difficulty understanding the Hebrew. But the Akkadian expression ilum libbātika mali, "the god is filled with anger against you," and others like it suggest that we re-vocalize MT אֲמֻלָה לִבָּתֵךְ to אֶמְלֶה לִבָּתֵך or the like, and assume an Akkadian loanword or idiom. Driver, 393, first suggested this pointing. In translation, the verse would now read,

How filled with wrathful I have become against you, says the Lord God,
that you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen whore.

אֶמְלֶה is possibly a Hebrew cognate of Akkadian malû rather than a loan. Some might worry about the spelling of the Hebrew verb expecting a final aleph rather than he. But it is what we might expect if מלה were itself a loanword into Hebrew from Akkadian, מלא being the native Hebrew root of the verb. I think it possible, and perhaps even probable, that in Ezekiel 16:30's מלה לבתך we have a loan idiom and not just a single loanword. Of course, in the process of transmission, this idiom may well have been "Hebrewized" in various ways. On the other hand, Mankowski, 80, suggests that we might better understand the idiom in Hebrew as a calque, a loan translation, or "partial calque" rather than an untranslated barrowing, with לבת in the idiom a loanword from Akkadian. But he seems somewhat equivocal on question of the whole idiom being a loan rather than a calque or partial calque.

Let's take a quick look at the Aramaic of Daniel 3:19a.

Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage . . .

This is almost certainly a calque of the Akkadian idiom in Aramaic rather than a loan (Aramaic חֱמָא ≈ Akkadian libbātu). The Aramaic of Daniel 3:19a gives credence to the notion that Hebrew אמלה לבתך is a loan idiom or, at least that לבת is a loanword from Akkadian.

According to Mankowski, 79, Fitzmyer noted the idiom מלא לבת on a 5th century BCE Aramaic papyrus now in the Museo Civio di Padova. Discussing this papyrus in the context of other evidence Mankowski says, ". . . the meaning of the expression ml' lbt . . . is not in doubt. . ." In the light of Fitzmyer's example, I do wonder if לבת came into Hebrew from Akkadian by way of Aramaic. But his question only makes sense if Hebrew borrowed only לבת and not the whole idiom. If Hebrew did borrow the whole idiom then one can reasonable rule out an Aramaic intermediary based on the final he in מלה.

References:

Posted by Duane Smith at August 15, 2008 7:05 PM | Read more on Hebrew Bible |

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