Hatran Aramaic
Hatran Aramaic designates a Middle Aramaic dialect, that was used in the region of Hatra and Assur in northeastern parts of Mesopotamia, approximately from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century CE. Its range extended from the Nineveh Plains in the centre, up to Tur Abdin in the north, Dura-Europos in the west and Tikrit in the south.
Most of the evidence of the language comes from inscriptions within the cities dating between 100 BC and the mid-3rd century AD, coinciding with Shapur I's destruction of Hatra in 241 AD and Assur in 257 AD. As a result of Hatra being the site with the most attestation, Hatran Aramaic is a more common name. It is attested by inscriptions from various local sites, that were published by Walter Andrae in 1912 and were studied by S. Ronzevalle and P. Jensen. The excavations undertaken by the Iraqi Department of Antiquities brought to light more than 100 new texts, the publication of which was undertaken by F. Safar in the journal Sumer. The first four series were the subject of reviews in the journal Syria. The texts range in date from the 2nd or 3rd century BCE to the destruction of the city c. 240 CE; the earliest dated text provides a date of 98 BCE.
For the most part, these inscriptions are short commemorative graffiti with minimal text. The longest of the engraved inscriptions does not have more than 13 lines. It is therefore difficult to identify more than a few features of the Aramaic dialect of Hatra, which shows overall the greatest affinity to Syriac.
The stone inscriptions bear witness to an effort to establish a monumental script. This script is little different from that of the Aramaic inscriptions of Assur. The ds and the rs are not distinguished from one another, and it is sometimes difficult not to confuse w and y.
Having conquered the Aramean city-states to the west, the Neo-Assyrian Empire adopted Old Aramaic as the official language alongside the Assyrian Akkadian language. With the Achaemenid Empire succeeding them and adopting Old Aramaic, it rose to become the lingua franca of Iran, Mesopotamia and the Levant.
Development
Hatran Aramaic developed through dialectic deviation as well as producing its own script. Various dialects of Aramaic developed around major cities or regions including the sister dialect of Syriac, Mandaic, Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, Palmyrene and various Palestinian sub dialects. Syriac, Mandaic and Christian Palestinian Aramaic also developed their own variants of the original script which is still employed today by Western Neo-Aramaic speakers as well as members of the Jewish nation for Hebrew who refer to it as "Ktāḇ Āšūrī" since it was the Assyrian monarchs who promulgated it.Hatran Aramaic and Syriac have been heavily influenced by Akkadian, partly due to the proximity to the heartland as well as the native Assyrians having adopted these two dialects. Many commonly used nouns such as month names were burrowed from Akkadian as well as being influenced phonologically, morphologically and syntactically.
History
The city of Nisibis came under siege several times during the Roman-Persian Wars. However, in 363 AD the Romans were forced to surrender the city to the Persians and standby as the Christian population was expelled. St Ephrem the Syrian was one of these refugees and ended up settling in Edessa. The city was flourishing with pagans, quite the opposite to his beloved Nisibis which had been a bastion for Syriac-speaking Christians. As Edessa's demographics shifted to a Christian-majority which used Syriac as the language of worship, the language rose to become the new regional lingua franca. Well over 70 important Syriac writers are known from the gold age of Syriac, stretching from the Levant and the Sinai to the foothills of the Zagros Mountains and Qatar. Combined with the devastation of the cities of Assur and Hatra, Syriac replaced the language of the locals and remained as a major language until its decline following the Mongol invasions and conquests and rise of the Neo-Aramaic languages.Evidence and attestation
With Hatra enjoying great prosperity during the life of the language, the city has by far the most inscriptions with the city of Assur also containing numerous inscriptions. The rest of the evidence is spread sparsely throughout Dura-Europos, Gaddāla, Tikrit, Qabr Abu Naif, Abrat al-Sagira and Sa'adiya. The surviving corpus which has been published, transliterated and translated consists of commemorative and votive inscriptions, similar to those found in Edessa, Palmyra and among the Nabataean inscriptions. This method usually includes the date of completion of the writing, place, person who commissioned the inscription or statue as well as the scribe's own details on some occasions. Unlike the Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian and the Syriac scribes of the Sasanian realm, the regal year is not included. Both Assyro-Babylonian and Arabian gods are mentioned in the inscriptions including Ashur, Allat, Bel, Gad, Nabu, Nasr,, Shamash and Sin. ܽWhile both cities also attest the personal names of affluent citizens, the Hatran rulers with distinctly Parthian names are attested only in Hatra.| Ashurian Transliteration | English | Syriac Equivalent |
| 'Assurḥēl | Ashur is powerful | ܐܠܗܐ ܚܝܠܬܢܐ |
| 'Assurḥannī | Ashur took pity on me | ܐܬܪܚܡ ܐܠܗܐ ܥܠܝ |
| 'Assurəmar | Ashur has declared | ܐܡܪ ܐܠܗܐ |
| 'Assurnṯan | Ashur has given | ܢܬܠ ܐܠܗܐ |
| 'Assur'qab | Ashur has replaced | ܥܩܒ ܐܠܗܐ |
| 'Assuršma' | Ashur has heard | ܫܡܥ ܐܠܗܐ |
| 'Assurtāreṣ | Ashur set right | ܬܪܨ ܐܠܗܐ |
| 'Ap̄rahāṭ | Aphrahat | ܐܦܪܗܛ ܐܘ ܚܟܝܡܐ |
| Bēṯlāhyhaḇ | The house of God has given | ܒܝܬ ܐܠܗܐ ܝܗܒ |
| Bar Nērgāl | Son of Nergal | ܒܪ ܪܓܠ |
| Bar Nešrā | Son of Nasr | ܒܪ ܢܫܪܐ |
| Māranyhaḇ | Our lord has given | ܝܗܒ ܡܪܢ |
| Māryā | The lord | ܡܪܝܐ |
| Mlāḇēl | Bel has filled | ܡܠܐ ܒܝܠ |
| Nḇūḇnā | Nabu has built | ܒܢܐ ܢܒܘ |
| Nḇūḡabbār | Nabu is mighty | ܢܒܘ ܓܢܒܪܐ |
| Nḇūdayyān | Nabu is the judge | ܢܒܘ ܕܝܢܐ |
| Nērgāldammar | Nergal is wondrous | ܢܪܓܠ ܕܘܡܪܐ |
| Nešrānṯan | Nasr has given | ܢܬܠ ܢܫܪܐ |
| Sanaṭrūq | Sanatruq I and Sanatruq II | ܣܢܛܪܘܩ |
| Slōkh | Seleucus | ܣܠܘܟ |
| Walagaš | Vologash | ܘܠܓܫ |
Grammatical sketch
Orthography
The dialect of Hatra is no more consistent than that of Palmyra in its use of matres lectiones to indicate the long vowels ō and ī; the pronominal suffix of the 3rd person plural is written indiscriminately, and in the same inscription one finds hwn and hn, the quantifier kwl and kl "all", the relative pronoun dy and d, and the word byš and bš "evil".Phonology
The following features are attested:Lenition
A weakening of ʿayn; in one inscription, the masculine singular demonstrative adjective is written ʿdyn which corresponds to Mandaic and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic hādēn. Similar demonstratives, ʿadī and ʿadā, are attested in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic.Dissimilation
- The surname ʾkṣrʾ "the court" and the proper name kṣyʾ, which resembles Nabataean qṣyw and the Safaitic qṣyt, demonstrate a regressive dissimilation of emphasis, examples of which are found already in Old Aramaic, rather than a loss of the emphasis of q, which is found in Mandaic and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic.
- Dissimilation of geminate consonants through n-insertion: the adjective šappīr "beautiful" is regularly written šnpyr; likewise, the divine name gadd "Tyché" is once written gd, but more commonly appears as gnd. This is a common phenomenon in Aramaic; Carl Brockelmann, however, claims that it is a characteristic feature of the northern dialect to which Armenian owes its Aramaic loans.
Vocalism
Syntactic phonology
The Hatran b-yld corresponds to the Syriac bēt yaldā "anniversary". The apocope of the final consonant of the substantive bt in the construct state is not attested in either Old Aramaic or Syriac; it is, however, attested in other dialects such as Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and Jewish Palestinian Aramaic.Morphology
Verbal morphology
- The perfect: The first person singular of the perfect appears only in one inscription: ʾnʾ... ktbyt "I... wrote"; this is the regular vocalization elsewhere among those Aramaic dialects in which it is attested.
- The causative perfect of qm "demand" should be vocalized ʾēqīm, which is evident from the written forms ʾyqym, the feminine ʾyqymt, and the third person plural, ʾyqmw. This detail distinguishes Hatran as well as Syriac and Mandaic from the western Jewish and Christian dialects. The vocalization of the preformative poses the same problem as the Hebrew hēqīm.
- The imperfect: The third person of the masculine singular is well attested; it consistently has the preformative l-.
- In the jussive: lṭb bʿšym "that Baʿl Šemēn may announce it", lʾ ldbrhn... bqṭyrʾ "that he not oppress them".
- In the indicative: mn dy lšḥqh "whoever strikes him", mn dy lqrhy wlʾ ldkrhy "whoever reads it and does not make mention of it", mn dlʿwl mhkʾ bmšn "whoever goes from here to Mesene", kwl mn dlcbwr... wlktwb lʿlyh "whoever passes... and writes over".
- The preformative l- is employed identically in the Aramaic of Assur. The dialect of Hatra is thus further distinguished from Syriac and also from Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, in which the use of the l- preformative for the indicative is not consistent.