ܢܳܠܳܐ [†] nlʾ nālā incubus, nightmare
Derivatives: ܢܲܘܹܠ nwl nawwel to afflict; ܡܢܲܘܠܘܼܬܵܐ mnwlwtʾ mnawlūṯā affliction, torment; Etpa. to be afflicted
Shaked 1985, 512 suggests that Syr. nālā, Talm. Aram. nʾlʾ and Md. nʾlʾ are loanwords from an Iranian word connected to NP nāl lamenting, complaining, lamentation, complaint (Steingass 1378), but his hypothesis seems untenable: if the Syr. term were an Iranian loanword, it would be a very old one, judging from the diffusion of the term in other Aramaic varieties and from the great number of derivatives, whereas it seems impossible to find Iranian antecedents of NP nāl. On the contrary, according to Kaufman (1974, 75 and n. 226), Syr., Bab. Talm. and Md. nālā are loanwords from Akkad. nālu to lie down; Kaufman also underlines the presence of the causative verbal stem in Akkad. šunūlu, comparable with Syr. nawwel "to afflict" and Md. nywlʾ "torment". However, as to Kaufman's opinion, Leonid Kogan (personal communication)—even though admitting that the hypothesis of a loanword from Akkad. nālu “may probably be justified because of the interesting cross-linguistic parallel from Latin in-cubo”—observes that the relationship with the causative šunūlu "to bury" does not seem pertinent, and furthermore Kaufman does not explain the semantic relationship with the meanings of the Syr. word: the meanings of "vexatio" etc. would come secondarily from "incubus", or directly from Akkad. nālu "to lie down" (a possibility that seems very unlikely)? ● nlʾ BA 2, 57, 8; BB 1249, 13; nwl ES 1, 38E; 334C; MS 2, 66, 1; JSB 2, 306, 14; mnwlwtʾ Th Marg 1, 311, 9; Bh car 81, 8; Eb Par 117, 11; Etpa. ES 1, 145A; 489A; am 6, 6, 9; SE 1204, 8 = 2134, 17; Bh chr 109, 9 ◆ LS 420b