I've heard of this idea that -a denotes the definite article in Aramaic before, as an explanation of the -a suffix on the Greek names of the alphabet—Hebrew הָאַלֶף, הַבֵּית, etc, becoming Aramaic אַלְפָא, בֵּיתַַַַָא, etc, and hence Greek Αλφα, Βήτα, etc—but that doesn't seem to be the case in Judaeo-Aramaic, where there's lots of words ending in ־ָא without it connotating a definite article; so it seems a little disingenuous of Klein to suggest אַבָּא and אִמָא mean "the father" and "the mother".
(OTOH, what do I know? :o))
This page gives a few other examples of Aramaic words ending in alef meaning "the":
http://he.wiktionary.org/wiki/%
D....92.D7.99.D7.94
They offer:
ארעא = הארץ, אורייתא = התורה, סייפא = הסוף
I included this in the upcoming edition of Haveil Havalim.
I have to say I was surprised at how short this post is! There are all sorts of interesting characteristics of אב and אם that you seem to be missing out.
What I expected was more coverage of additional senses of the words "אב" and "אם".
Among its meanings, אב is a leader not only in Christianity: we have positions of authority such as אב בית דין, and Mishnaic Hebrew uses אב to refer to a category. Biblically, it can also mean "producer/originator": היש למטר אב (Jb 29:16)
אם also has many meanings, although fewer: it can mean origin, basis or principle, as in "יש אם למסורת" = "the consonantal text is authoritative in biblical interpretation", or "עיר ואם", a mother city. Less relevantly, we also find it in calques like "אם מרגלית" (mother of pearl), as may also be the case with "אמהות קריאה" (matres lectionis), etc.
Out of meaning, these words also have some interestingly irregular (phono-)morphology.
For instance, in semikhut, אב becomes אבי, and in plural it is אבות. Note in Aramaic the plural is אבהן, i.e. an extra ה is thrown in, but the plural also has a feminine form. The appearance of the ה/י suggests that the word's root includes one of these. (Note that many roots that we consider ה-final could also be considered י-final, e.g. עלה -> עלית,עלייה.) BDB places the word under root אבה.
I think also strange is that the Aramaic definite suffix usually does not double the letter it follows, so one would expect אָבָא, not אַבָּא. This may just be an irregularity, or may relate to the dropping of a root letter, or may indicate a second root (אבב) for the word...
אם is not irregular in semikhut. For a feminine noun, its common plural אמּות is not unusual, but it also has אמּהות, which curiously seems to parallel the Aramaic plural for אב. The doubling of the מ suggests that the root of the word is אממ.
Finally, you write: 'So when Rav said "Abba" was alive, he meant, "yes, my father is alive".' One could actually read this a couple of ways: אבא could refer to an individual's name; it was also a moniker for Rav himself, afaik; it could also possibly be used to refer to G-d, as Ushpizin much later made famous. =)
Nice to hear that my longer posts are appreciated - I'd receive some hints lately that some recent posts were a little long...
There were actually a couple of issues I read about but didn't discuss.
One of them relates to the question you raised about the dagesh in the bet of אבא. Kutscher writes that this is due to influence from the word אמא, which has a dagesh in the mem.
Klausner discusses the pronunciation of the word אמא. He mentions how Ben-Yehuda would pronounce it ama - and Klausner seems to think this is likely the original pronunciation. First of all, he says that is an easier word for babies to say than ima. Secondly, he brings proof that the word was pronounced that way in Punic - via a Latin play where they have Punic quotes.
As far as that gemara, I should have probably quoted the whole thing. Rav was also asked if "ima" was alive, and he responded "ima" is alive. I don't think "ima" here could be referring to anyone other than his own mother.
As to the terse posting on abba and imma; quite apropos for such an elementary posting!
Regarding Joel Nothman's comment that 'av' can also mean "producer/originator" -this is a fascinating concept! For the Alef-Bais is the source-code, as it were, of our Hebrew words. Moreover, 'av' is the source of 'aviv' (the ears produced by fast growing dagan/corn). In a similar vein, conceptually, ‘Aviv’ is the frame of reference from which issues forth the balance of the luach. Additionally, there is the connection to the word ‘aven’ which I would interpret from notarikon as ‘continual father,’ id est, the perpetuation of Da’at from master to student.
I agree that long posts can be tedious... But I'm used to thorough coverage =) Maybe just a mention of other wacky things...
Kutscher's suggestion on the b in Abba is an interesting one. It may be hard to decide on "amma" vs "imma". The fact that the vowel is a shortened tsere would usually suggest a chiriq, but of course common words are subject to a lot of irregularity, as we already see here with "abba" and "avi-".
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