Benjamin Suchard
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bnuyaminim.bsky.social
Benjamin Suchard
@bnuyaminim.bsky.social
1.5K followers 470 following 3.3K posts
Hebrew Bible, Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, Comparative Semitics. Blog: bnuyaminim.wordpress.com
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bnuyaminim.bsky.social
Benjamin Suchard @bnuyaminim.bsky.social · Oct 21
New #OpenAccess paper on what 'first', 'second', 'third' tell us about the #Semitic family tree, including new evidence for Aramaeo-Canaanite! Note that unfortunately, the names of Ethiopian scholars have been metathesized, something that will hopefully be remedied before the final print version. 🐦🐦
Ordinal Numerals as a Criterion for Subclassification: The Case of Semitic
This article explores how ordinal numerals (like first, second and third) can help classify languages, focusing on the Semitic language family. Ordinals are often formed according to productive deriv....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Reposted by Benjamin Suchard
petertarras.bsky.social
Arabic #WOTD:
هائل (hāʔil)
"dreadful, frightful, horrible"

as in Yefet ben Eli's Comm. on Dan. 11:1 (ed. Margoliouth):
وإن كان صوّر [الملائكة] هائلة فإنّ الله يمكن بني آدم من مشاهدتها
"Even if the forms [of angels] are horrible, God has enabled the sons of man to see them"
Replica of a supposedly biblically accurate angel that serves as a Christmas tree topper. It consists of iridescent pink and purple feathers that form a round centre from which six wings extend. In the centre is a large eye, surrounded by smaller eyes, including on the wings (among them the eye of Sauron). The replica was created by the Rev. Kira Austin-Young and her puppet-maker husband, Michael Schupbach. Source: https://www.ncronline.org/news/what-biblically-accurate-angel-and-do-you-need-one-top-your-christmas-tree
November 27, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Suchard
moudhy.bsky.social
I guess I now have to do a thread on shoes in ancient Mesopotamia in response to this (which happens to be from one of my favourite accounts).

I’m not an archaeologist, nor do I really know anything about shoes, but let’s go on this journey together.
dieworkwear.bsky.social derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 1d
can't believe this ancient mesopotamia shoe wearing ass said people need to dress up at the airport
United States Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy is seen wearing a blue suit, white shirt, and tan shoes. He's shaking hands with someone in a black outfit. A close up of his shoes show weird stitching on the side. They look like they're the first shoes ever made in history.
November 26, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Suchard
jennekevanderwal.bsky.social
Happy World Linguistics Day from Leiden, the Netherlands!
superlinguo.bsky.social Lauren Gawne @superlinguo.bsky.social · 1d
Happy World Linguistics Day from Melbourne, Australia!
November 26, 2025 at 5:59 AM
bnuyaminim.bsky.social
learning any Arabic, Ge'ez, Modern South Arabian word:
November 25, 2025 at 8:53 PM
bnuyaminim.bsky.social
#Arabic WOTD: فنجان finǧān '(small) coffee cup'
November 25, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Suchard
joshuaalfaro.bsky.social
The hottest Israelite historiography album of the 4th century BCE.
November 25, 2025 at 6:51 PM
bnuyaminim.bsky.social
Interesting question, I found a good answer here:
November 25, 2025 at 2:34 PM
bnuyaminim.bsky.social
I think the /tišend/ here is a perfect cognate of #Dutch dorstend. Indo-European! It's a thing!
acbm.bsky.social Adam Bremer-McCollum @acbm.bsky.social · 2d
Parthian word of the day
/wašend/
"hungry"

as in Sundermann, MKG 805-806
/pad wuzurg aβɣām, wašend ud tišend/
"in great agony, hungry and thirsty"
November 25, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Suchard
ghilene.bsky.social
archive.is/202401140507...
November 25, 2025 at 1:45 PM
bnuyaminim.bsky.social
Modern #Hebrew: 'winter'; see also סְתָו, BH 'winter', ModH 'autumn'
bdb-bot.bsky.social Brown-Driver-Briggs Bot @bdb-bot.bsky.social · 2d
Entry:
חֹ֫רֶף
n.m. harvest-time, autumn
November 25, 2025 at 11:16 AM
bnuyaminim.bsky.social
Some cool additional data on names in Aramaic ostraca from 4th/3rd-c. Idumaea, from Giulia Francesca Grassi's review of Porten & Yardeni (2023). www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
With regard to anthroponymy, all the proper names contained in Volumes 1–5 are conveniently listed in Table 2, “Names in TAO (TAO A–J)” (…). Recorded names number 567, although the authors rightly stress that some of them are uncertain or difficult to explain. They write that 65 names are composed with the theonym Qos, the Idumaean god, whereas only five names begin with the theonym Baʿal. However, the reviewer could count 74 Qos-names, as well as 14 names beginning with Baʿal; moreover, Baʿal names increase to 27 if the second element of composite names is taken into account. Additionally, frequent theonyms in proper names are El/Il (74 occurrences; the word ʾl may be either the theonym El/Il or the term for “god”) and Yahweh, recorded in 20 names. Other names which are frequently attested among Judaeans, such as Menaḥem, Mešullem, or Baruk, are also recorded. Other deities, such as Šamaš, Nabu, Nanai, and Egyptian Isis and Osiris (see below), are rarely present. Not surprisingly, many names are Arabic, and some of them have the desinence -w that was frequent in Nabataean names: examples are the frequent anthroponyms mlkw and ʿbydw (the latter being a qutayl diminutive form). Other names are Aramaic, for example zbynʾ or nṭyrʾ, qatīl-forms from the Aramaic elements zbn and nṭr. Two of them belong to the early stage of Aramaic anthroponymy, for they are borne by two kings of the 9th and 8th century b.c., although their distribution is different. ḥzʾl, “El has seen,” is common in the corpus, and is relatively well known in both Aramaic and Akkadian (…), besides the famous king of Damascus. In contrast, mtyʿʾl, “Benefited/Saved by El,”2 occurs just once in the Idumaean corpus and in Neo-Assyrian besides the king of Arpad, in Old Aramaic the similar form mtʿʾl is borne only by the king of Arpad, whereas mtyʿʾl is recorded in Nabataean and mtʿʾl in North Arabian and even in Minaean (…).
November 25, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Suchard
kirbyconrod.bsky.social
hey #linguistics peeps! have you ever taken (or taught) a syntax class? we want to hear your opinions (good or bad) about it! We're doing focus group interviews (on zoom, or in person at select conferences) - if you're at all interested, you can fill out our interest form: forms.gle/nhBtz78hQXNA...
SynTeach Focus Group Interest Form
SynTeach is a project researching peoples' experiences teaching and learning syntax in higher education. We have conducted surveys of the field including syntax instructors and students, and we are pl...
forms.gle
November 24, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Suchard
mariazielenbach.bsky.social
Dutch "aarzelen" 'to hesitste, waver' is derived from "aars" 'arse', German "Arsch". It was formed based on French "reculer" 'move backwards' from "cul" 'arse'. English "arsle" is cognate.
Sadly, the German cognate *arschelen (or *ärschelen?) is not used.
#LessObviousDutchGermanCognates
November 25, 2025 at 6:22 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Suchard
nathanielbdemiller.bsky.social
I made a little app to help myself remember German vocabulary. In the interest of efficiency and correct pronunciation, it uses the Google speech-to-text API.

It asks you for an English word and you respond with the German in the format

article + noun + pl or just the verb or uninflected adj.
Streamlit app UI with ASR widget for German "city" Streamlit app UI telling me I said die Stadt correctly
November 25, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Suchard
samspinner.bsky.social
Want to get a PhD in Yiddish or Hebrew? Or Yiddish AND Hebrew? We are accepting applications for the PhD in Jewish Languages & Literatures! Please help me get the word out!

@jhuartssciences.bsky.social
November 25, 2025 at 1:36 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Suchard
nathanielbdemiller.bsky.social
Right now my core deliverable is drinking coffee
November 24, 2025 at 4:18 PM
bnuyaminim.bsky.social
Just received my first submitted manuscript for Oxford Semitic Languages and Linguistics 😎

Just two small problems: I'm not involved with that series, and also, it doesn't seem to exist. 🤖
November 24, 2025 at 6:26 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Suchard
avzaagzonunaada.bsky.social
You gotta love how Caucasians literally undo centuries of sound changes to pronounce Arabic (voiceless) emphatics as ejectives.

Listen to this Chechen woman’s طيف as тӀойф.
youtube.com/shorts/dicGm...
Редкие и красивые имена #arabic #english #lingualand #ингушетия
YouTube video by Khava Tsechoeva
youtube.com
November 23, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Reposted by Benjamin Suchard
josie.zone
What I love about the Hebrew Bible, more than anything else, is it's a collection of viral meme templates that have been in continuous use by shitposters since before recorded history began
November 21, 2025 at 12:10 PM
bnuyaminim.bsky.social
Is Saudi in #Arabic al-suʕūdiyya or al-saʕūdiyya? If the former, why a in Saudi—does it represent the ayn?
November 21, 2025 at 11:08 AM
bnuyaminim.bsky.social
#TIL that it's the Persian Wars that separate the Greek Archaic period (800–480) from the Classical one (480–323). Basic to people in the field I'm sure, but new to me.
November 20, 2025 at 8:22 PM
bnuyaminim.bsky.social
Edge offering to translate a page in the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon from Welsh to English
November 20, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Suchard
jennekevanderwal.bsky.social
Being available; sharing network and resources; giving timely feedback; offering opportunities and learning moments (e.g. co-reviewing a paper, organising a conference, co-presenting - these are things you have to learn somehow). Oh and be kind - there is enough harshness in academia.
November 19, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Reposted by Benjamin Suchard
theoldgermanicguy.bsky.social
badb s. bodb s. badb s. bodb ...
November 17, 2025 at 3:27 PM
bnuyaminim.bsky.social
De beren in de bus smeren brood brood brood
Brood brood brood
Brood brood brood
De beren in de bus smeren brood brood brood
O, het is een wonder
November 19, 2025 at 7:26 AM