Ἀβαχθανῆ

Notes

1. Strictly speaking the headword is a truncated Aramaic, rather than Hebrew, term. Its proper form in Greek transliteration is sabaxqa/ni and translates "you have forsaken me." The term occurs at Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34, where Jesus on the cross quotes Psalm 21:2 LXX (22:2 MT): "God, my God, ... why have you forsaken me?" (see eta 210). For the Hebrew, see Kohlenberger, 3.367. In Aramaic, "why have you forsaken me" is למא שבקתני lama šaḇaqtani. The Suda has carelessly disassociated the sigma, creating in effect "lamas aḇaqtani or a)baxqanh--a clear signal that the compiler was unfamiliar with Aramaic. The Psalmic Hebrew original is עזבתני 'azaḇtani, from עזב ʿazaḇ "forsake, forget". For the triliteral root citation, see Brown, Driver, and Briggs, 736ff. For šaḇaqtani (from שבק šeḇaq), see Perschbacher, 364; Danker, 909.
   The Suda item has a circumflex accent on the final syllable. In the Hebrew עזבתני ʿazaḇtani, the accent falls on the penultimate syllable (-ta-), consistent with perfects suffixed with a first person singular pronoun; for this, see Kelley, 154.A; Gesenius, 155(58.1). So in the Aramaic, the accent falls on the penultimate syllable (-ta-). That said, the accent in Greek transliteration is inconsistent. Perschbacher places it over the final iota (sabaxqani/) in the headword; however, his citation from The Greek New Testament According to the Majority Text (1982) places the accent over the penultimate (sabaxqa/ni). In addition, Perschbacher offers the transliteration sabaxqanei/ from The New Testament in the Original Greek (1881). Danker places the accent over the penultimate syllable.
   Phonologically, the Aramaic shin (ש š /ʃ/) cannot be accommodated by Greek, which must substitute sigma. For a parallel instance, see omega 182 (note 47). Both chi (for Aramaic ק qaf) and theta (for Aramaic ת taw) function as aspirated plosives (equivalent to English "kit" and "top"). See Allen, 16-17. The theta is noteworthy insofar as its sound value parallels that of the taw (ת) in šaḇaqtani, hardened by silent shewa and dagesh lene. Moreover, the Aramaic in Greek transliteration bolsters the linguistic argument for the compound "chi-theta" as successive aspirated plosives. See Allen, 24-27. Aramaic taw, like its Hebrew counterpart, otherwise has a "th" (as in "both") value. See "Aramaic" in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 3.263; a modern descriptive approach is found in "Aramaic" (Kaufman). For theta as a fricative in Hebrew transliteration, see omega 182 (note 47).
   That the Suda terminates the headword with eta rather than iota (paralleling the Aramaic khireq-yod or long "i") showcases a phonological shift in Greek. By the 3rd century CE, the Greek letters eta, and the digraph epsilon-iota (note the -ei alternative in Perschbacher) were sounded like iota. See Allen, 74. The Suda compiler viewed eta as the more elegant solution. This feature bears directly on the Suda's own taxonomy: the homophones epsilon-iota, eta, and iota follow zeta in the Suda's alphabetical scheme (antistoichia). See "Suidas" in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, XXVI.51.