Semitic languages

Observations on the Verbless Clause in the Language of Neophyti I

by Aaron Butts

A Note on nedari in Ex 15: 6

by Aaron Butts

The Etymology and Derivation of the Syriac Adverbial Ending-ɔʾiθ

by Aaron Butts

"Anteriority and Justification: Pragmatic Features of the We-x-qatal Form in Direct Speech in the Book of Genesis"

by William R. Osborne

Old Testament Essays 25/2 (2012): 369-82

Recognizing that scholarship has long struggled with the so-called “freeness” of Hebrew word order in direct speech,... more Recognizing that scholarship has long struggled with the so-called “freeness” of Hebrew word order in direct speech, this study seeks to demonstrate that the primary pragmatic functions of the wexqatal form within direct speech in classical biblical Hebrew are justification and anteriority. Examining the issues of word order and the syntactical opposition between the wayyiqtol and wex-qatal, the work concludes by presenting numerous examples of both functions in Genesis texts. The implications of the study are an improved understanding of clausal relationships within direct speech and improved translations and interpretations of these passages.

Annus Hegiræ vel Annus (H)Agarorum? Etymologische und vergleichende Anmerkungen zum Anfang der islamischen Jahreszählung

by Robert Kerr

To appear in Die Entstehung einer Weltreligion III (Schiler 2012).

On the Asymetrical Development of Some Common Semitic and Indo-European Lexemes and Its Eventual Incidence upon the Bible and the Qur'an (Spanish)

by Carlos Segovia

"El Mismo y el Otro: La evolución asimétrica de algunos lexemas propios de las lenguas semíticas e indoeuropeas y su incidencia en la revelación bíblica y coránica," Límite 2.15 (2007) 21-37.

The Stoic Anomaly: An Inquiry into Some Possible Semitic Components in Stoic Logic and Physics (Spanish)

by Carlos Segovia

"La anomalía estoica: En torno a los posibles componentes semíticos de la lógica y la física estoicas," Paideia 89 (2010) 295-307.

1. Introducción
2. La anomalía lingüístico-temporal (sobre la relativa indistinción del presente y el futuro en... more 1. Introducción
2. La anomalía lingüístico-temporal (sobre la relativa indistinción del presente y el futuro en el estoicismo)
3. La anomalía ontológica (sobre la supresión del verbo "ser" en la física estoica)
4. La anomalía lógica (sobre la supresión de la cópula verbal en la lógica estoica)
5. A modo de conclusión

Review of Weninger, Das Verbalsystem des Altäthiopischen

by Alessandro Bausi

Review of Stefan Weninger, Das Verbalsystem des Altäthiopischen. Eine Untersuchung seiner Verwen-dung unter Berücksichtigung des Interferenzproblems (Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur - Mainz, Veröffentlichungen der Orientalischen Kommission Band 47, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2001), in “Annali dell’Università degli Studi di Napoli ‘L’Orientale’” (Napoli), 63 (2003 [2004]), pp. 259-268.

1997 Aramaic Language and Literature

by Edward Cook

Appeared in: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East (ed. Eric Meyers; Oxford, 1997), Volume 1. The... more Appeared in: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East (ed. Eric Meyers; Oxford, 1997), Volume 1. The table of phonemes, that had suffered greatly in typesetting, has been corrected in a new appendix attached to this copy.

La racine QRB et son sens

by Gilles Bernard

Published in Cahiers du GLECS (Groupe de Linguistique Chamito-sémitique), 2000

The version proposed here is taken from Opérationalisme et mécanisation, Université Paris 8, 1999 (my HDR, which is a french post-doctoral thesis giving the equivalent of a tenure). The content is the same, only the form and page numbers diverge.

This paper is about the noun *qirb (lap) in afro-asiatic languages. After discussing the forms included in the... more This paper is about the noun *qirb (lap) in afro-asiatic languages. After discussing the forms included in the original classification of Marcel Cohen, a reconstruction of the evolution of the word is proposed, including an explanation for the arabic anomalous form qalb.

It then procedes to the reconstruction of the meanings of the word and its derivative, founded on semantic parallelisms, and finally proposes some paths for linking these meanings to the qrb verb.

La racine QRB et son sens

by Gilles Bernard

Published in Cahiers du GLECS (Groupe de Linguistique Chamito-sémitique), 2000

The version proposed here is taken from Opérationalisme et mécanisation, Université Paris 8, 1999 (my HDR, which is a french post-doctoral thesis giving the equivalent of a tenure). The content is the same, only the form and page numbers diverge.

This paper is about the noun *qirb (lap) in afro-asiatic languages. After discussing the forms included in the... more This paper is about the noun *qirb (lap) in afro-asiatic languages. After discussing the forms included in the original classification of Marcel Cohen, a reconstruction of the evolution of the word is proposed, including an explanation for the arabic anomalous form qalb.

It then procedes to the reconstruction of the meanings of the word and its derivative, founded on semantic parallelisms, and finally proposes some paths for linking these meanings to the qrb verb.

A neglected phonetic law: The assimilation of pretonic yod to a following coronal in North-West Semitic

by Guillaume Jacques

Co-authored with Romain Garnier, Bulletin of SOAS, 75, 1 (2012), 135–145.

This paper shows the existence of a pretonic assimilation of *y to a following
coronal consonant (including *y... more This paper shows the existence of a pretonic assimilation of *y to a following
coronal consonant (including *y from proto-Semitic *y and *w) in
North-West Semitic languages. This rule, which has been obscured by
analogy in each of the North-West Semitic languages, explains three independent
sets of facts: the formation of irregular maqtal-s in Hebrew,
Phoenician and Aramaic; the irregular conjugations of several verbs in
Hebrew; and the plural formation of the irregular noun “house” in
Hebrew and Aramaic. This proposal also solves the long-standing problem
of the etymology of the verb “to give” in North-West Semitic languages
(NTN in Hebrew vs. YTN in Phoenician).

Bemerkungen zum ugaritischen Dual

by Juan-Pablo Vita

Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica 28 (1997), 33-41.

Egypto-Semitic Lexical Comparison - 2 Some Considerations in the Lexicon of Physical Environment, Spontaneous Vegetation and Wild Animals.

by Massimiliano Franci

Proceedings of the Third Central European Conference of Young Egyptologists.
Egypt 2004: Perspectives of Research.
Warsaw 12-14 May 2004
Edited by Joanna Popielska-Grzybowska,
Olga Białostocka & Jadwiga Iwaszczuk
The Pułtusk Academy of Humanities
ACTA ARCHAEOLOGICA PULTUSKIENSIA
Vol. I
Institute of Anthropology and Archaeology
PUŁTUSK 2009

Pursuing his research on the common Egypto-Semitic lexicon, the Author, in the present note, takes in consideration... more Pursuing his research on the common Egypto-Semitic lexicon, the Author, in the present note, takes in consideration the words relating to the physical environment, spontaneous vegetation and to wild animals, after a critical analysis of the major studies brought forward by many scholars, to create a solid base for the next comparative researches, not just in the Egypto-Semitic context but in the Afroasiatic as well. He suggests – in a graduated perspective of probabilities – the forms and the meanings which may have originated in the common vocabulary, underlining the importance and the reality of the contacts between both different areas. Finally he brings light on a series of problems referred to the phonetic relations between Egyptian and Semitic, and also Afroasiatic.
For example: “rock”, in Common Semitic *'ABN, Egyptian bi3t “grit stone”, also “quarry”, where in the first Semitic radical we can see a morphological prefix, that shows the importance of biconsonantal bases from which Egyptian and Semitic distinguished different meanings, using the different possibilities inside own system. Or “urus”, Common Semitic *RI'M, that in Arabic means “a kind of gazelle”, is comparable with Egyptian im3t “female ibex”, and also female of any wild animal. Both examples show the presence of the metathesis that occurs in the Egyptians roots.

Yahweh nyilai

by András László Gér

Arrows of Yahweh – demons in the Deut. 32:19-25 in: Vallástudományi szemle, 2011/4: 20-37. (Title in Hungarian: Yahweh nyilai – démonok az 5Mózes 32:19-25-ben)

Salm nevek

by András László Gér

Ṣalm-names in the Old Testament in: Theologiai Szemle 2011/3: 132-137. (Title in Hungarian: Ṣalm-nevek az Ószövetségben)

41. Neo-Mandaic

by Chuck Haberl

Published in Weninger, Stefan et al. 2011. The Semitic Languages. An International Handbook. De Gruyter Mouton, Berlin, pp. 724-37. This version has been updated to reflect recent reviews of my grammar.

Neo-Mandaic is the modern reflex of Classical Mandaic, the liturgical language of the Mandaean religious community of... more Neo-Mandaic is the modern reflex of Classical Mandaic, the liturgical language of the Mandaean religious community of Iraq and Iran. Severely endangered, it survives today as the first language of a small number of Mandaeans (possibly as few as 300-500 speakers) in Iran and in the Mandaean diaspora. All Neo-Mandaic speakers are bi- or even tri-lingual in the languages of their neighbors, Arabic and Persian, and the influence of these languages upon the grammar of Neo-Mandaic is considerable, particularly in the lexicon and the morphology of the noun. Nevertheless, Neo-Mandaic is more conservative even in these regards than most other Neo-Aramaic dialects. As the only known surviving modern reflex of any literary dialect of Aramaic, it has one of the longest continuous histories of attestation of any Aramaic dialect and is therefore potentially of great interest to scholars of Aramaic.

Information Structure and the Development of -Vn in Arabic Dialects from Original Case Markings

by Alexander Magidow

Delivered at the 40th Meeting of the North American Conference on Afroasiatic Linguistics

Much of the modern scholarship on Arabic dialectology has taken for granted a relationship between morphemes of the... more Much of the modern scholarship on Arabic dialectology has taken for granted a relationship between morphemes of the type /-Vn/ in modern (largely Bedouin) Arabic  dialects, which I will argue represent a marker of incipient topics, and the original Early Arabic case markers in /-Vn/. While there is obviously a clear similarity in the phonological forms of these two morphemes, little work has actually been done to determine whether this relationship can indeed be supported with linguistic evidence, and some (Owens 2006) have argued that there is actually no relationship at all between the two morphemes.

In this talk, I will argue that the two morphemes are indeed related, with a breakdown of the case system, attested in the written record, resulting in a reinterpretation of the remaining morpheme, the accusative indefinite marker /-an/, as marking secondary topics (per the framework of Dalrymple and Nikolaeva 2011). However, since this marker could only be used with indefinites, while topics are typically definite, it was further reinterpreted as a marker of incipient topics, that is newly introduced referents that will be topical further on in the discourse (Lambrecht 1994's "brand-new anchored" referents).

Finally, I give a historical overview of the development of this morpheme, from its rise around early Islamic period to its fall in the late medieval-early modern period. The fall, I argue, was likely the result of the loss of the morpheme in major population centers, with an urban-hierarchical pattern of diffusion, probably accelerated by the recasting of the morpheme as a marker of rural identity. Finally, I argue that the modern conception of this feature as being "Bedouin" in nature is a result of the folkloric orientation of studies of Bedouin language, particularly the focus on quantitative metrical poetry which tends to preserve archaic features.

1998 The Aramaic of the Dead Sea Scrolls

by Edward Cook

A grammatical sketch of the Aramaic texts from Qumran. A grammatical sketch of the Aramaic texts from Qumran.

No Flight of Peace, No Lover of Wisdom A Reconsideration of Two Phrases in Phoenician and Punic

by Michael Jursa

co-authored with Arne A. Ambros, published in 'Journal of Semitic Studies' 61 (2006), 257-265