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I noticed that the names of some Masechtot have an Aramaic plural ending - nun - such as "Gittin", while others have a Hebrew ending - mem - such as "Bikurim". Was there some pattern or logic in deciding which masechtot get which type of ending.

Note - Offhand, I think this differentiation applies only to masechtot that have a plural "masculine" ending. "Menachot" and "Avot" have feminine endings and are Hebrew endings. (I can't think of what the Aramaic female plural ending would be. If someone knows, please comment, and I will edit the question.)

"Sanhedrin" is of Greek origin, and I'm not sure why that has an Aramaic ending, unless the entire word is Greek.

msh210
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DanF
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  • And why are some masechtos named in singular (like nazir, temurah) when most are in plural (yevamos, nedarim, gitin, kidushin)? Why is Seder 'Moed' in singular but all the other sedarim are in plural? – הנער הזה Jul 17 '14 at 15:37
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    @Matt - Very good question. I intentionally didn't ask this, b/c I think Ramba"m explains the names of all the Masechtot, or at least most of them - explaining why some are plural and others aren't. While I was learning Daf Yomi, I know he explained why it's called P'sachim. Because the Masechta talks about both the regular Korban Pesach as well as Pesach Sheni. In many cases, the plural is obvious such as "Brachot" and "Menachot". – DanF Jul 17 '14 at 15:42
  • he doesn't do that for most masechtos. I'm not sure if there is a real answer – הנער הזה Jul 17 '14 at 15:47
  • @Matt - Hmm. My bad :-) I thought he did. B"N, I'll see if I can locate the Daf Yomi page that listed who explained the masechta names. You may want to post yours as a separate question. – DanF Jul 17 '14 at 15:51
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    he does explain one or two, and the meiri does a few more, and tosfos once or twice... – הנער הזה Jul 17 '14 at 15:57
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    Note that -in is also a Hebrew suffix (borrowed from the Aramaic). – msh210 Jul 17 '14 at 16:22
  • @msh210 - Didn't know that. Example? – DanF Jul 17 '14 at 16:25
  • @DanF, look around in mishnayos (at least in some girsaos) or perush Rashi: it's all over the place. I can't think of any specific example offhand. – msh210 Jul 17 '14 at 16:35
  • @msh210 - Rashi's explanation on Gemarah often follows Gemarah style. Gemarah is mainly Aramit but it has a lot of Hebrew. Rashi appears to be mostly Hebrew but he uses a lot of Aramit. It's tough to say if the Hebrew is actually borrowed words from Aramit or it's just Rashi's style to try to stick to the Gemerah usage & style as much as possible. When explaing Chumash, Rashi rarely uses Aramit. So, offhand, I think it's just a preferred style Rashi uses, here. – DanF Jul 17 '14 at 17:42
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    @msh210 Try the end of Daniyel – Double AA Jul 28 '14 at 18:03
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    Honestly, it might just have to do with colloquial nature of Hebrew in Mishnaic times. If you read the Mishna, it has a huge amount of Aramaic influence, so maybe the Aramaic words were just more commonly used than their Hebrew alternatives. – rosenjcb Jul 29 '14 at 16:00
  • @DanF The Aramaic plural is generally אָת- instead of the Hebrew אוֹת- ending. So for the word בַּת ("daughter" in both Hebrew and Aramaic), the Hebrew plural is בָּנוֹת and the Aramaic plural is בְּנָת. – Tim Biegeleisen Jan 15 '15 at 01:34
  • About the Greek origins of "Sanhedrin," see the answers to this question. – MTL Jan 30 '15 at 01:59
  • I'm pretty sure the word גט is Aramaic, so it makes sense that its plural is גיטין and not גיטים. You could ask from קדושין, though. – DonielF Aug 03 '17 at 21:17
  • @DonielF Eruvin, Arachin and Machshirin are other "anomalies". – DanF Aug 04 '17 at 20:41

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I agree with rosenjcb. The other thing to note is that some words are just easier to say than others, so it would have been natural for the easier version to become the preferred version - personally, I find gittin is much easier to say than gittim. I'm surprised more of the endings aren't Aramaicized, since -in is generally easier than -im.

Regarding the word Sanhedrin, the whole word is Greek, that's not an Aramaicized ending.

And this is just a guess, but my assumption is that well-known terms from Torah would remain unchanged even if Aramaic translations would have been more natural to Aramaic speakers - bikkurim, avot, pe'ah, shkeylim, etc. Words like kiddushin (esp in reference to marriage) and gittin (in plural form) aren't mentioned in Torah.

ariann
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  • Welcome to Mi Yodeya, Ariann, and thanks for your answer! You might want to check out some of the answers to this question, which back up your claim about the etymology of the word "Sanhedrin." I hope to see you around the site! :) – MTL Jan 30 '15 at 01:58
  • Your guess regarding Torah-used words, has some merit, actually. Not something I thought about. I'd have to research the idea further, though. – DanF Feb 01 '15 at 03:28
  • There is also the fact that certain verses or strata of the Talmud were written later or earlier than others, and this causes a lot of differences in spelling. The more time went on, the more Aramaic and Hebrew mixed, the more things got mixed. Especially as Aramaic started developing into a distinct accent that cause its spelling to start changing as the writers of the Talmud spelled Aramaic the way they heard it. For more sources and information, see this free class with source sheets: http://www.webyeshiva.org/course/aramaic-grammar/ – Aaron May 21 '15 at 23:02