| Abstrakt: |
Abstract: The scattered outcomes of recent research in the epigraphic corpora of Old Syriac and Hatran Aramaic (Jazirah - Western Mesopotamia, 1st-3rd centuries CE) have provided the scholarly discussion with new data regarding the lexicon of these two Middle Aramaic varieties. Both varieties existed side-by-side but, while Old Syriac ended up e- volving into Syriac as the language of Aramaic-speaking and -writing Christians, Hatran Aramaic gradually disappeared after the fall of the city at the hands of the Sasanian army (240 CE). Hatra and Edessa were the centers around which these two varieties of Aramaic were used. Both cities were ruled by dynasties of Arabic cultural stock and their administrative structures seem to resemble one another in historical sources. This contribution describes a series of issues arising from the comparative study of terms related to the semantic field of administration as attested in Old Syriac and Hatran Aramaic contexts with a peculiar focus on the epigraphic corpora of these two languages. |
