Notes on Transliteration, Conventions, Translation, and Sources
1. The (simplified) transliteration system for Hebrew follows loosely the scientific conventions of the Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed.,3 except for ignoring the distinction in the transliteration of ת/תּ, ג/גּ, and ד/דּ, and representing the fricative פ with f instead of p̄, the final ה mater lectionis with h, and all vowels—including short, long, and murmured—with their Latin counterparts a, e, i, o, u with no further distinction.
2. The transliteration system for Arabic follows the conventions of Encyclopaedia of Islam, 3rd ed.4
3. The critical transcription of the Hebrew alphabet used to render the vernacular glosses, or leʿazim (לעזים, sg. laʿaz) in the Latin alphabet is shown in the following table:
|
Grapheme |
Phoneme |
Critical transcription |
|---|---|---|
|
⟨א⟩ |
Used as mater lectionis only |
None |
|
⟨ב⟩, ⟨בּ⟩ |
/b/ |
b |
|
⟨ב⟩, ⟨בֿ⟩ |
/v/ (or [v]) |
v |
|
⟨ג⟩, ⟨גּ⟩, ⟨גֿ⟩ |
/g/ |
g+a,o,u/gu+e,i |
|
⟨ג⟩, ⟨גֹ⟩ |
/ʒ/ (or /ʤ/) /ʧ/ |
j/g+e,i ch |
|
⟨ד⟩, ⟨דּ⟩, ⟨דֿ⟩ |
/d/ |
d |
|
⟨ה⟩ |
Used as mater lectionis only |
None |
|
⟨ו⟩ |
Used as mater lectionis only |
None |
|
⟨ז⟩ |
/ʣ/ |
z |
|
⟨ח⟩ |
/ḥ/ used in one laʿaz only, in a word borrowed from Arabic |
ḥ |
|
⟨ט⟩ |
/t/ |
t |
|
⟨י⟩ |
/ʝ/; also used as mater lectionis |
y |
|
⟨כ⟩ |
/k/ |
c+a,o,u/qu+e,i |
|
⟨ל⟩ |
/l/ /ʎ/ |
l l[l] |
|
⟨לּ⟩, ⟨לְי⟩ |
/ʎ/ |
ll |
|
⟨ם⟩, ⟨מ⟩ |
/m/ |
m |
|
⟨ן⟩, ⟨נ⟩ |
/n/ |
n |
|
⟨נְי⟩ |
/ɲ/ |
ñ |
|
⟨ס⟩ |
/ʦ/ |
ç+a,o,u/c+e,i/-ç |
|
⟨ע⟩ |
Not used |
None |
|
⟨פ⟩, ⟨פּ⟩ |
/p/ |
p |
|
⟨פ⟩, ⟨פֿ⟩ |
/f/ |
f |
|
⟨צ⟩ |
/ʦ/ |
ç+a,o/c+e/-ç |
|
⟨ק⟩ |
/k/ |
c+a,o,u/qu+e,i |
|
⟨ר⟩ |
/ɾ/ /r/ |
-r- r-/-r[r]- |
|
⟨רּ⟩ |
/r/ |
r-/-rr- |
|
⟨ש⟩, ⟨שׁ⟩, ⟨שׂ⟩ |
/s/ /z/ /ʃ/ |
s s x |
|
⟨ת⟩ |
/t/ |
t |
Vowels are transcribed with their Latin counterparts, a, e, i, o, u; šewaʾ (שוא) is consistently used to represent the lack of a vowel and therefore is not transcribed. As in Hebrew, some letters are used as matres lectionis—א, ה, ו, י, and therefore when functioning as such (which is always except for י), only the vowel they indicate is transcribed. Hiatuses and diphthongs are transcribed according to the rules of standard Spanish.
Graphic conventions adopted in general for the rendering of the leʿazim in the Latin alphabet follow the conventions for editing medieval Spanish texts as proposed by Sánchez-Prieto Borja, Cómo editar los textos medievales: Criterios para su presentación gráfica.5 Accordingly, in the critical transcription of the leʿazim as shown in the table above, the closest equivalents to standard Spanish orthography are adopted, including graphic accentuation, while respecting the phonological system of thirteenth-century Castilian.
Leʿazim are given between quotation marks throughout the book, except when they appear within a quoted paragraph from the commentary. In the alphabetical glossary at the end of Part 1 of this book, they are given in bold characters. When a laʿaz, or part of it, is not vocalized, it is given in italics, as in, for example, “esmovedura” ⟨אישמובידורה⟩ (Jb 16:5), and mañana ⟨מניאנה⟩ (Ps 57:9) in the alphabetical glossary. Where ⟨ב⟩ does not take dageš (דגש) or rafe (רפי), the following transcription method has been followed: if the word, or another word with the same root, appears elsewhere in the leʿazim with a dageš or a rafe, the form without the diacritic is transcribed in the same way as the form with the diacritic;6 where there are several vocalized forms, some with dageš and others with rafe, the forms that have neither mark are transcribed according to whichever spelling has the larger number of instances;7 where there are no other attested forms, the form without the diacritic is transcribed according to the RAE’s standard modern spelling or—for words that are either obsolete or not included in the RAE’s dictionary—Corominas’s DCECH or another specialized dictionary.8 For questionable cases of ⟨פ⟩ without dageš or rafe, the spelling of the corresponding term in Castilian has been followed in choosing between ⟨p⟩ and ⟨f⟩. Cases where ⟨ר⟩ corresponds to the intervocalic /r/ have been transcribed as ⟨r[r]⟩, whereas ⟨rr⟩ has been used exclusively for cases of ⟨רּ⟩, with dageš. Cases where ⟨ל⟩ corresponds to /ʎ/ have been transcribed as ⟨l[l]⟩, whereas ⟨ll⟩ has been reserved for either ⟨לּ⟩, with dageš, or for the digraph ⟨לְי⟩. The rare cases where ⟨ג⟩, without a diacritic over the letter, represents /ʧ/ or/ʒ/, are not indicated in any special way.
4. Biblical translations follow Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures; The New JPS Translation,9 with changes as needed.
5. Unless otherwise indicated, quotations of commentaries by medieval Jewish exegetes follow the standard edition in MGH, when available.
6. Names of Jewish authors are kept as they appear in the Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. Many medieval Jewish authors are known by acronymic cognomens, such as Rashi for Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, or Radak for David Kimḥi. With the exception of Rashi, the authors’ names or a part of these have generally been used, as fitting, and not their acronymic cognomens.
7. Unless otherwise indicated, lemmata are recorded as they appear in the manuscript, generally with no vocalization, and occasionally with partial or complete vocalization that may or may not match that of the Masoretic Text. When relevant, particularly in chapter 3, the Masoretic form has been added to that exhibited in the codex.
Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, eds., Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed., 22 vols. (Detroit, MI: Macmillan, 2007), Gale eBooks,
Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, John Nawas, and Everett Rowson, eds. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 3rd ed. (Leiden: Brill, 2007–).
Pedro Sánchez-Prieto Borja, Cómo editar los textos medievales: Criterios para su presentación gráfica (Madrid: Arco Libros, 1998).
For example, since “baziadura” ⟨בַּזְיָאדּוּרָה⟩ (Jb 37:10) is written with dageš, the forms “baziadu” ⟨בַזְיָאדֿוּ⟩ (Ps 45:3), “bazíes” ⟨בַזְיֵישׁ⟩ (Ps 141:8), and “baziávad” ⟨בַזְיָאבָֿדֿ⟩ (Jb 29:6) have been transcribed according to that form.
For example, “covdicia” ⟨קוֹבְֿדִיסְיָא⟩ (Ps 39:12), “covdiciad” ⟨קוֹבְֿדִיסְיָאדֿ⟩ (Ps 63:2), “covdicies” ⟨קוֹבְֿדִיסְײֵשׁ⟩ (Jb 36:20), and “covdiciant” ⟨קוֹבְֿדִיסְיַאנְט⟩ (Prv 1:19) are written with rafe, while “cobdiciad” ⟨קוֹבְּדִיסְיָאדֿ⟩ (Ps 84:3) and “cobdíciad” ⟨קוֹבְּדִּיסִיַידֿ⟩ (Jb 27:8) are written with dageš. Since there are more cases with rafe than with dageš, the two instances without either diacritic have been transcribed with ⟨v⟩: “covdicia” ⟨קוֹבְדִיסְיָא⟩ (Jb 20:20) and “covdicia” ⟨קוֹבְדִּיסְיָא⟩ (Prv 1:19).
For example, ⟨בִײֵרְבֵֿין⟩ (Jb 24:20) is a hapax in the leʿazim and has been transcribed as “vierven,” with ⟨v⟩ for the first ⟨ב⟩, which is the spelling given in Joan Corominas, Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., con la colaboración de José A. Pascual, Biblioteca románica hispánica 7 (Madrid: Gredos, 1980–1991), CD-ROM, ad loc. (hereinafter DCECH).
Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures; The New JPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1985).