- Semitic languages, Ugaritic Language, Akkadian Language, Afro-Asiatic Linguistics, Etymology, Philology, and 38 moreWriting Systems & Decipherment, Aramaic, Aramaic Dialectology, Comparative Linguistics, Dialectology, Historical Linguistics, Egyptian language, Endangered Languages, Ethiopian languages, Hebrew Language, Writing, Languages and Linguistics, Near Eastern Studies, Egyptology, Archaeology, Ancient Hebrew, Contact Linguistics, Babylon, Akkadian, Loanwords, Language contact & change, Phoenician, Writing systems, Sumerian, Ancient Near East, History of the Book, Undeciphered Writing Systems, Modern South Arabian Languages, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East, Mesopotamian Archaeology, Ancient Near Eastern Languages, Hebrew Lexicography, Eblaite (Languages and Linguistics), Comparative Semitics, Assyria, Amarna Letters, Hurrian, Arabic Language and Linguistics, and Canaanite Languagesedit
Co-authored by Thomas O. Lambdin and John Huehnergard.
The Semitic Languages presents a comprehensive survey of the individual languages and language clusters within this language family, from their origins in antiquity to their present-day forms. This second edition has been fully revised,... more
The Semitic Languages presents a comprehensive survey of the individual languages and language clusters within this language family, from their origins in antiquity to their present-day forms. This second edition has been fully revised, with new chapters and a wealth of additional material. New features include the following: • new introductory chapters on Proto-Semitic grammar and Semitic linguistic typology • an additional chapter on the place of Semitic as a subgroup of Afro-Asiatic, and several chapters on modern forms of Arabic, Aramaic and Ethiopian Semitic • text samples of each individual language, transcribed into the International Phonetic Alphabet, with standard linguistic word-byword glossing as well as translation • new maps and tables present information visually for easy reference. This unique resource is the ideal reference for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of linguistics and language. It will be of interest to researchers and anyone with an interest in historical linguistics, linguistic typology, linguistic anthropology and language development.
Although scholars have generally treated Ugaritic ltn as a cognate of Hebrew liwyātān, the vocalization of this word and its relationship to the Hebrew form remain debated. In this article, we will argue that ltn should be vocalized... more
Although scholars have generally treated Ugaritic ltn as a cognate of Hebrew liwyātān, the vocalization of this word and its relationship to the Hebrew form remain debated. In this article, we will argue that ltn should be vocalized /lītan-/ and that Ugaritic ltn and Hebrew liwyātān derive from Proto-Northwest Semitic *lawiy-(a)t-an through a series of attested sound changes. We will also discuss the morphology of *lawiy-(a)t-an- and the syntax of the Northwest Semitic formula *lawiy(a)tanu baṯnu barīḥu … baṯnu ʕaqallatānu "Leviathan, the fleeing serpent … the twisting serpent" found in KTU 1.5 i 1-3 and Isa 27:1.
This revision of the Introduction to A Grammar of Akkadian features links to additional websites with resources for the study of Akkadian; an expanded bibliography, especially including recent studies of Akkadian dialects (now also... more
This revision of the Introduction to A Grammar of Akkadian features links to additional websites with resources for the study of Akkadian; an expanded bibliography, especially including recent studies of Akkadian dialects (now also referenced in the section on dialects); and an index to enable readers to locate the texts presented in the book’s exercises at the website of the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative.
All Semitic languages use a relative marker as at least one strategy of rela-tivization, and all branches show reflexes or relics of reflexes of an inter-dental relative marker. The wide consensus that the relative pronoun was originally... more
All Semitic languages use a relative marker as at least one strategy of rela-tivization, and all branches show reflexes or relics of reflexes of an inter-dental relative marker. The wide consensus that the relative pronoun was originally identical to the proximal demonstrative is based on the formal identity between the bases of the two in West Semitic, and on the wide attestation of the process Demonstrative > Relative in world languages. In this paper, we will show that there are a number of significant problems with the reconstruction of the relative pronoun, which, when taken together, make tracing its origin to the demonstrative highly unlikely. Instead we will argue that the opposite is true: the demonstrative in West Semitic is a secondary formation on the basis of the relative marker.
This PDF is a draft of Part I of an in-progress textbook on comparative and historical Semitic linguistics, which will be published in the open-access series Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures. My sincere thanks to the general... more
This PDF is a draft of Part I of an in-progress textbook on comparative and historical Semitic linguistics, which will be published in the open-access series Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures. My sincere thanks to the general editor of CSLC, Geoffrey Khan, for his kind permission to make this first part of the book available to students and colleagues while the rest of the book is in preparation.