People and speech

Rabbinic texts are organized by voices. Names, titles, and speech verbs tell you whether the Mishnah is stating an anonymous rule, reporting an individual sage, or contrasting that sage with חכמים, “the sages.” The learner must learn to mark speaker changes before interpreting the law. Words such as עד, בעל, and תלמיד are included because they recur as legal/social roles but can carry more than one English sense.