Syriac Rhetorical Lexica: Towards the Compilation of a Trilingual Dictionary

Nicosia, Mara

Abstract

The paper discusses the challenges posed by the creation of a trilingual lexicon (Syriac-Greek-Arabic) of the technical vocabulary of rhetoric and its advantages. It will present the selected corpus, the proposed layout of the lemmas, and a selection of relevant vocabulary. This lexicon proves to be an indispensable tool for anyone who studies rhetoric in Syriac and Arabic (at least for texts on ḫiṭāba), as it helps with the creation of consistent translations of these texts. This aspect has been a long-standing problem, as, when rhetorical texts in Syriac and Arabic have been translated into Western languages, they suffered from a lack of general coherence stemming from the absence of an established tradition of studies that considers them together. Moreover, the lexicon allows drawing connections between the technical vocabularies and points to the transmission of words together with the contents, which clarifies many previously debated issues, such as the employment of a Syriac translation of Aristotle’s Rhetoric to create the Arabic version.

Citation

Nicosia, M. (2024). Syriac Rhetorical Lexica: Towards the Compilation of a Trilingual Dictionary. In M. Nicosia (Ed.), Syriac Lexis and Lexica: Compiling ancient and modern vocabularies. Gorgias Press

• Online Publication Date: Nov 21, 2024
• Publication Date: Nov 21, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jun 7, 2024
• Series Title: Perspectives On Linguistics and Ancient Languages
• Book Title: Syriac Lexis and Lexica: Compiling ancient and modern vocabularies
• ISBN: 9781463247898
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2475101
• Publisher URL: https://www.gorgiaspress.com/syriac-lexis-and-lexica
• Contract Date: Jun 5, 2024