2. The Karaim language of the translation
2.8 Syntax
2.8.7 Copying of sentence types
2.8.7.2 Rendering of Hebrew oaths and wishes
Trakai Karaim
t́eńgiź-mo ḿeń γ́em ačdaγa sea-Q I or sea monster
‘Am I the sea or a sea monster?’
Job 7:12
2.8.7.1.2.3 Selective copying: the use of demonstrative pronouns in interrogative forms copied from Biblical Hebrew
In exclamatory questions and presentatives the enclitic zè ‘this’ is used to emphasize the question (Walkte & O’Connor 1990: 312). This enclitic is translated into Halich Karaim with the pronoun bu ‘this’, e.g. nege bu? ‘why?’ See more about it in Section 2.4.2.2 (Semantic and combinational copying of the deictic force of the Hebrew domonstrative pronouns).
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Biblical Hebrew
lûº- y뺚 napšükem
would that being.PTCL.ADV your soul.N:BOTH.SG.CONST.SUFF:MASC2PL
TaºHat napšî
instead of my soul.N:BOTH.SG.CONST.SUFF:1SG
‘if you were in my place’
Job 16:4 Trakai Karaim
eǵer boł:se:idyr ʐ̌an:yi̭yz ʐ̌an: ym orn:u:na
if become:HYP:COP3SG soul:POSS2PL soul:POSS1SG place:POSS3SG:DAT
‘if your soul would be in the place of my soul’
Job 16. (4) The Crimean Karaim translation exhibits the optative form –GAy with the free word vali meaning ‘if (only)’ when the Hebrew conditional particle expresses a formal wish, for instance tiri bolγay edi in (164) (Jankowski 1997: 41).
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Biblical Hebrew
lû yišmä`ë´l yiHyè
would that Ishmael live.V:QAL.IPRF.MASC3SG
lüpänʺkä
to front of you.PREP.N:BOTH.PL.CONST.SUFF:MASC2SG
‘would that Ishmael might live in thy sight’
Gen. 17:18 Crimean Karaim
vali Yišmael tiri bol:γay e:di ald:ïm:a91
but Ishmael live:OPT be:DI.PST3SG front:POSS1SG:DAT
‘but Ishmael might live in my sight’
4a (25)
Besides the conditional particles, questions with mî ‘who?’ and the interrogative phrase mî|-yiTTën ‘who will give?’ also express formal wishes in Biblical Hebrew 91 The first person singular form is written in the manuscript instead of the second person singular
form of the Hebrew Bible. See also Jankowski’s remark in his footnote 80 (1997: 41).
(Gibson 1994: 186). The translational equivalent contains interrogatives in HKB as well: kim ‘who?’ and kim ber- ‘who give?’; see (165) and (166).
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Biblical Hebrew
mî ya´ákìlëºnû BäSär
who.Q shall cause to eat us.V:HIPH.IPRF.MASC3SG.SUFF:1PL flesh.N:MASC.SG.ABS
‘o that we had meat to eat’
Num. 11:4 Halich Karaim
kim asattir:si:ydi biz:ge et
who.Q cause to eat:HYP:COP.DI.PST3SG we:DAT flesh
‘who made us eat meat?’
Num. 11:4 (328/2) (166)
Biblical Hebrew
mî|- yiTTën mûtëºnû
who.Q shall
give.V:QAL.IPRF.MASC3SG
we had
died.V:QAL.INF.CONST.SUFF:1PL
büyad- yhwh(´ädönä
y)
Bü´eºrec micraºyi
m in the hand
of.PREP.N:FEM.SG.CON ST
LORD in the land
of.PREP.N:FEM.SG.CONST
Egypt
‘would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt’
Exod. 16:3 Halich Karaim
kim ber:ši:ydi elgen:imiz:ni
who.Q give:HYP:COP.DI.PST3SG death:POSS1PL:ACC
ḵudrạt:i:ndạ ha:nin yẹr:i:nde micri:nin
power:POSS3SG:LOC LORD:GEN land:POSS3SG:LOC Egypt:GEN
‘who had given our death by the power of the LORD in the land of Egypt’
Exod. 16:3 (161/3)
The Crimean Karaim material provides no example of rendering Hebrew wishes with interrogative forms. The Trakai Karaim translations sometimes render the He-brew wishes introduced by mî ‘who?’ and mî|-yiTTën ‘who will give?’ with the ques-tion word kim? ‘who?’ or kim ber- ‘who give?’. See for instance (167). As the exam-ple shows, the verb b́er- ‘to give’ can be also used in a non-finite form in Trakai Karaim (Kowalski 1929a: 13).
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Biblical Hebrew mî yiTTën
who.Q gives.V:QAL.IPRF.MASC3SG
Biš´ôl TacPìnëºnî
in Sheol.PREP.N:BOTH.SG.ABS would hide me.V:HIPH.IPRF.MASC2SG.SUFF:1SG
‘oh that thou wouldest hide me in Sheol’
Job 14:13 Trakai Karaim
kim b́er:ïp ǵor:d́a astra:se:i̭dy:i̭ ḿeni who.Q give:CONV tomb:LOC hide:HYP:DI.PST:2SG me (ACC)
‘would that you would have hidden me in the tomb’
Job 14. (13) 2.8.7.2.2 Translation of Biblical Hebrew negative oath with ´im
The Hebrew conditional particle ´im ‘if’ is also used in negative oaths (Gibson 1997: 187). With the particle ´im ‘if’ only, “the oath has the form of protasis with no apodosis” (Waltke & O’Connor 1990: 679). Morphologically such a negative oath contains no negation.92 As (168) illustrates, a literal translation of the Hebrew oath is found in HKB. The particle ´im ‘if’, which introduces the Hebrew sentence, is ren-dered by eger ‘if’ + verb:HYP into Halich Karaim. Such expressions do not usually express negative oaths in Karaim. The meaning of the Karaim hypothetical form can be rendered as ‘imagine that’.
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Biblical Hebrew
´im- yir´è ´îš
if.HYP sees.V:QAL.IPRF.MASC3SG person
92 As Joüon-Muraoka states about negative oaths: „one does not find Kî lö´ [for not] (which we would have expected), but ´im[if]” (2006: 583).
Bä´ánäšîm hä´ëºllè
in the men.PREP
-DEF.N:MASC.PL.ABS
the these.DEF.ADJ:PL
haDDôr härä` hazzè
the
genera-tion.DEF.N:MASC.SG.ABS
the
bad.DEF.ADJ:MASC.SG
the
this.DEF.ADJ:MASC.SG
´ët hä´äºrec ha††ôbâ
DIR.OBJ the land.DEF.N:FEM.SG.ABS the good.DEF.ADJ:FEM.SG
‘not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land’
Deut. 1:35 Halich Karaim
eger ker:se kiši eren:ler:de ol uspu:lar:dạ ol dor if see:HYP person man:PL:LOC the this here:PL:LOC the generation
ol yaman ol uspu osol ol yẹr:ni ol yaxsi
the evil the this here that the land:ACC the good
‘(imagine that) a person among these men, this evil generation, sees the good land’
Deut. 1:35 (395/25) The Trakai Karaim translation, like HKB, also shows the literal translation of such Hebrew oaths. The Trakai Karaim translation method is illustrated in (169), in which both eģer ʻif’ and the hypothetical marker -sA occur. Eģer ʻif’, with the verb in the hypothetical form ałda:sa:m ʻif I lie’, is the translational equivalent of the Hebrew form ´im-´ákazzëb ‘if I shall not lie’ (Kowalski 1929a: 6).
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Biblical Hebrew
wü`al- Pünêkem
and on.CONJ.PREP fronts of you.N:MASC.PL.CONS.SUFF:MASC2PL
´im- ´ákazzëb
if.HYP I shall not lie.V:PIEL.IPRF1SG
‘for I will not lie to your face’
Job 6:28 Trakai Karaim
eģer ałn:yiyz:da ałda:sa:m if front:POSS2PL:LOC lie:HYP:1SG
‘(imagine that) I lie in front of you’
Job 6:28
The Crimean Karaim material published by Jankowski contains no example of a negative oath expressed by a conditional verb form. There are, however, examples of the literal translation of Hebrew oath forms in H̱aki’s Bible translation. H̱aki, like the Halich and Trakai Karaim translators, renders the Hebrew oath formula in a very literal way; see (170) (Neudecker 1994: 294–295). However, the Hebrew ´im- ‘if’ is mirrored only in the hypothetical form of the verb without the addition of any free word meaning ‘if’.
(170)
Biblical Hebrew wayyöº´mer
and he said.CONJ.V:QAL.W.CONS.IPRF.MASC3SG
hiššäb`â llî
swear.V:NIPH.IMP.MASC.SG to me.PREP.SUFF:1SG
bë|´löhîm ´im- Tümîtëºnî
by
God.PREP.N:MASC.PL.ABS
if.HYP you shall kill
me.V:HIPH.IPRF.MASC2SG.SUFF:1SG
wü´im- TasGìrëºnî
and if.CONJ.HYP you shall deliver me.V: HIPH.IPRF.MASC2SG.SUFF:1SG
Büyad- ´ádönî
in the hand of.PREP.N:FEM.SG.CONST my lord/master. N:MASC.SG.CONST.SUFF:1SG
‘and he said: “swear to me by God, that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master’
1Sam. 30:15 H̱aki’s Turkish translation
ve de:di yemi̱n ʾeyleh baŋah
and say:DI.PST3SG swear.IMP2SG to me tanŋrı:yah ben:i ʾöldür:ür:sẹ:ŋ
God:DAT I:ACC kill:R.NPST:HYP:2SG
ve teslim ʾėd:er:se:ŋ ben:i ʾefenḏi:m:iŋ ʾel:i:neh
and deliver:R.NPST:HYP:2SG I:ACC master:POSS1SG:GEN hand:POSS3SG:DAT
‘and he said: swear to me to God that you will not kill me and deliver me into the hand of my master’
1Sam. 30:15
By copying the functions of Hebrew formal wishes and negative oaths onto hypo-thetical forms the frequential properties of eger ‘if’ and of -sAhave changed in the Karaim Bible translations.