Semitic Languages: An International Handbook, eds. Stefan Weninger, Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E. Watson (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2011). (original) (raw)

Comparative & Historical Semitic Linguistics.Part I (draft)

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.

2019 The Semitic Languages, 2nd ed.

The Semitic Languages, 2nd ed., 2019

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.

Reflections on the Classification of the Semitic Languages

Orbis, 1994

I once amused myself with making out a case why Ethiopic should be classified with Hebrew (on account of many startling lexical resemblances) or with Akkadian (by virtue of similarities in the vocalism of the imperfect-and phonetic developments in Akkadian and Amharic are surprisingly close) or with Syriac (for certain identical syntactical constructions) or Arabic (with like features in the sound pattern and the formation of internal plurals). ULLENDORFF (1961:13) 1 The fact that not all the languages under consideration in this article were spoken at the same time, and that another, temporal, classification exists, stemming to a considerable extent from the attempt to overcome this difficulty, should not concern us here. 2 I refrain from referring to specific studies, as the list is long, cannot and need not be exhaustive. The works and the views they express are basically well-known and need not be repeated.

Zewi, Tamar & Oren, Mikhal. 2015. “Semitic Languages in Contact - Syntactic Changes in the Verbal System and in Verbal Complementation.” In: Butts, A. M. ed. Semitic Languages in Contact. (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics 82). Leiden: Brill: 405-421.

Semitic Languages in Contact, 2015

Semitic Languages in Contact contains twenty case studies analysing various contact situations involving Semitic languages. The languages treated span from ancient Semitic languages, such as Akkadian, Aramaic, Classical Ethiopic, Hebrew, Phoenician, and Ugaritic, to modern ones, including languages/dialects belonging to the Modern Arabic, Modern South Arabian, Neo-Aramaic, and Neo-Ethiopian branches of the Semitic family. The topics discussed include writing systems, phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon. The approaches range from traditional philology to more theoreticallydriven linguistics. These diverse studies are united by the theme of language contact. Thus, the volume aims to provide the status quaestionis of the study of language contact among the Semitic languages. With contributions from A.