Margaretha Folmer is a University Lecturer at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies.

More information about Margaretha Folmer

Fields of interest

Imperial Aramaic; Targumic literature; Biblical literature; Qumran Aramaic and Dead Sea Scrolls; Rabbinic Literature; History of Aramaic and Hebrew language; Languages in contact; Bilingualism; Comparative Semitics; Hebrew and Aramaic magical literature.

Research

Description of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic Description: The aim of this project is to provide for a detailed linguistic description of the Palestinian Aramaic language from the period of Middle Aramaic and the period of Late Aramaic. This description will be based on the inscriptional material, which has increased enormously since the publication of Dalman's grammar in 1905 (G. Dalman, Grammatik des jüdisch-palestinischen Aramäisch, Leipzig 1905). With their variety in place, date of origin and textual genre these inscriptions allow for a linguistic investigation of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic in its Apure form, without later textual revisions and errors which are inherent to texts with a long textual history.

CV

2006-2007 Teacher of Talmudic Aramaic, Levisson Institute, Amsterdam (Academy for Progressive Jewish Rabbis).

1998 - Lecturer of Aramaic, Dept. of Hebrew and Aramaic, Universiteit Leiden

1991- Teacher of Hebrew, Faculty of Theology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam,

1991-1992 Teacher of Hebrew, Dept. of Hebrew and Aramaic, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden

1995 Defence of doctoral dissertation “The Aramaic Language in the Achaemenid Period. A Study in Linguistic Variation (promotor: Prof. dr. J. Hoftijzer). Universiteit Leiden, September 2005.

1987-1995 Ph.D. student, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden.

1984-1985 Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem

1977-1986 Student of Semitic Languages (Major: Hebrew, minor: Arabic; Comparative Semitic Languages; Cultural Anthropology), Rijksuniversiteit Leiden (MA degree: May 1986).

1971-1977 Gymnasium Haganum, The Hague.

Key publications

• Folmer, M.L. (2001). The use of morphological features to distinguish Aramaic dialects The case of the pronominal suffix sing.3rd masc. in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic. Dutch Studies (Leiden) (Rugtitel: DS-NELL), IV(2), pp. 175-188.
• Folmer, M.L. (2003). Some Peculiarities in the Spelling of the Aramaic Bar Kochba Letters in Comparison with Contemporary Aramaic Documents from the Judean Desert Caves. Dutch Studies (Leiden) (Rugtitel: DS-NELL), 1(2), pp. 59-74.
• Folmer, M.L. (2003). Methatesis in Jewish Aramaic: A So-Called 'Pan-Semitic' Feature Recondsidered. In Baasten, M.F.J. & Peursen, W.Th. van (Ed.), Hamlet on a Hill. Semitic and Greek Studies Presented to Professor T. Muraoka on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birhday. (pp. 233-244). Leuven: Peeters.
• Folmer, M.L. (2004). Response to Paul Flesher, 'The Aramaic Dialect of the James Ossuary Inscription'. Aramaic Studies, 2(1), pp. 56-62.
• Verheij, A.J.C. & Folmer, M.L. (2004). Basisgrammatica van het bijbels Hebreeuws. Oefenboek. Delft: Eburon, 73 pp.
• Folmer, M.L. (2003). Officiele Aramese correspondenties uit de satrapie Egypte. In Demaree, R.J. & Veenhof, K.R. (Ed.), Zij schreven geschiedenis. Historische documenten uit het Oude Nabije Oosten (2500 - 100 v. Chr.). (pp. 387-397). Leiden/Leuven: Ex Oriente Lux/Peeters.

Teaching

Current: Imperial Aramaic; Biblical Aramaic; Qumran Aramaic; Targumic Aramaic; Jewish Palestinian Aramaic; Jewish Babylonian Aramaic; Northwest Semitic epigraphy; Cultural History of Aramaic

Past: Biblical Hebrew Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam: Biblical Hebrew (current) and Modern Hebrew (in the past)

Publications

Activities