The Tale
of Peter Rabbit
by Beatrix Potter
Translation by
Steve Caruso

Foreword by the Translator

Galilean Aramaic (also known as “Jewish Palestinian Aramaic” or  סוריסטון [Suriston]) is an obscure, Western dialect of Aramaic, and the “granddaughter” of the very language spoken by Jesus and his early followers. Where it shares a great deal of core vocabulary and grammar with other Aramaic dialects (as all dialects do) there are a large number of quirks and differences that make it unique. Because of this a Galilean speaker tended to stick out with their speech in Jerusalem as much as someone from the American South sticks out in New England (and vice versa), and this is exactly what we see in the Bible:

After a little while those who stood by came and said to Peter, “Surely you are also one of them, for your speech gives you away.” – Matthew 26:73

As it was a minority language and already in decline, it would have been all but lost if it were not adopted by a number of Jewish leaders who resettled in Galilee in the wake of the Bar Kochba Revolt in 135 AD. From there it was used to pen a number of elaborate works, such as the Palestinian Talmud and a large body of Rabbinic literature.

However, over the next 1800 years, the survival of the dialect was once again challenged when these Western Aramaic texts fell into the hands of scribes who were more proficient in Eastern Aramaic. Believing that the documents they were entrusted with were riddled with “errors,” these scribes freely “corrected” the things they saw as odd or unusual, bringing the orthography and grammar more in line with standard Eastern Aramaic conventions. Little did they know that these “errors” were perfectly acceptable Western Aramaic, and that their efforts to preserve the text ultimately resulted in its corruption.

It was not until the late 20th century that scholars realized these grievous mistakes and began efforts to reveal genuine Galilean Aramaic by working with the most intact, unedited manuscripts and better understand the diversity of “phonetic” spellings that Galilean had to offer, which influenced later developments such as the Tiberian Vowel System (what is used to point Jewish Aramaic and Hebrew to this day).

This book builds upon those efforts, but in a direction that hopes to make Galilean Aramaic relevant, and learnable: Through storytelling.

Nearly all of the vocabulary in this story has been drawn from extant Galilean documents in proper context. As few loan-words are employed as possible, and they are used they are noted as such in the glossary, and spelling conventions strongly.

My hope is that this classic story by Beatrix Potter can be used as a tool for learning Galilean by children and adults alike.

-Steve Caruso, March 15 2013

Disclaimer:

By using this online publication you affirm that you understand that this work is in no ways affiliated with Frederick Warne & Company.

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