Grammatical Similarities between Nineteenth-Century Hasidic and Maskilic Hebrew Narratives

This paper comprises the first comparative linguistic analysis of Hasidic and Maskilic Hebrew narrative literature composed in the second half of the nineteenth century in Eastern Europe. Its main contention is that the Hasidic and Maskilic corpora have a high degree of morphological and syntactic correspondence, with a comparable distribution of biblical, rabbinic, medieval, and independent features. These findings have significant implications for Early Modern Hebrew research as they represent the first challenge to the traditional view that Hasidic and Maskilic Hebrew have little in common, the former being regarded as largely rabbinic-based and the latter as mainly biblicizing. The paper demonstrates these arguments by examining a selection of shared phenomena including the biblically derived wayyiqṭol and infinitive construct without lamed prefix; the rabbinic masculine plural with nun suffix and qal yiqtṭol of II- and III-guttural and stative roots; the medieval qal infinitive construct of I-yod and I-nun roots with subject suffix; and independent features including the retention of the definite article following inseparable prepositions, unapocopated wayyiqṭols, the qạtal in past progressive and habitual contexts, the particle הנה + infinitive construct, and the technique of shibbuṣ. These points are illustrated with examples from Hasidic tales published by the prominent collectors M. L. Rodkinsohn and M. M. Bodek, and from Maskilic prose fiction by a range of authors including S. J. Abramowitz, J. L. Gordon, A. Mapu, and P. Smolenskin.