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Galilean Accents



James,
I just happen to be sitting here at the same time as you and so I'll keep
putting in my two cents worth. Peter's Galilean accent is probably an Aramaic
issue, on which we have marvelous anecdotal evidence. It seems that Galilean
Jews did not differentiate their ayins and hets in pronunciation, such that
Judeans (I believe this is mentioned in the Talmud, though I don't know where)
joked about them that Galileans don't know the difference between anger and love
(r'm vs. rhm by the roots, respectively). It is possible this very word, in
fact, is the cause of a Greek New Testament textual problem. In Mark 1:41, Jesus
heals a leper after the text states that "Jesus, having compassion on him
(splagxnistheis) stretched out his hand and touched him In some witnesses, the
In some witnesses the reading is "was angered at him" (orgistheis). It seems the interchange I
referred to above was potentially informing textual development.
 
 
Keith Massey