ABSTRACT

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-by-word 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.

chapter 2|27 pages

Semitic and Afro-Asiatic

chapter 3|31 pages

Proto-Semitic

chapter 4|15 pages

The Semitic language family

A typological perspective

chapter 5|22 pages

Akkadian

chapter 7|29 pages

Tigre of Gindaʕ

chapter 8|28 pages

Tigrinya 1

chapter 9|25 pages

Amharic

chapter 10|30 pages

Gurage (Muher) 1

chapter 11|23 pages

Mehri

chapter 12|41 pages

Soqotri

chapter 13|21 pages

Ancient South Arabian

chapter 14|25 pages

Safaitic

chapter 15|36 pages

Classical Arabic

chapter 16|30 pages

Levantine Arabic

chapter 17|25 pages

Egyptian Arabic

chapter 18|24 pages

Moroccan Arabic

chapter 19|28 pages

Ugaritic 1

chapter 20|24 pages

The Canaanite languages

chapter 21|38 pages

Pre-modern Hebrew

Biblical Hebrew

chapter 22|40 pages

Modern Hebrew

chapter 23|21 pages

Samaritan Aramaic

chapter 24|21 pages

Modern Western Aramaic

chapter 25|26 pages

Syriac

chapter 26|32 pages

Mandaic

chapter 27|37 pages

Northeastern Neo-Aramaic

The dialect of Alqosh 1