SEMITIC PHILOLOGY

Offering a general survey of the Semitic languages and a concise exposition of their comparative grammar, this course is useful to the acquisition of basic skills in order to describe and interpret the main features of Semitic linguistics.

This course offers a general survey of the Semitic languages (their geographic position, chronology, documentation, and most important features for comparative purposes and internal subgrouping of the Semitic language family) and a concise exposition of their comparative grammar (writing systems, phonology, morphology, a short account of their main lexical and syntactic traits). A specific ancient Semitic language is closely examined, by reading a fair selection of texts of different typologies with a careful philological analysis.

Part A) Basic notions of comparative Semitic philology.

Part B) 1) Introduction to ancient aramaic dialects (history and classification); 2) Brief grammatical outline of language; 3) Philological and linguistic analysis of ancient aramaic inscriptions, particularly: ancient international treaty of Sefire.

Parte A)

1) A.D. Rubin, A brief introduction to the Semitic languages, Gorgias Press, Piscataway, NJ, 2010.

2) Aa. D. Rubin: “The Subgrouping of the Semitic Languages”, pp 61-84 in Language and Linguistics Compass 2 (2008).

3) J. Huehnergard: “Comparative Semitic Linguistics”, pp 119-150 in Israel Oriental Studies XX (2002).

4) J. Huehnergard: “Arabic in Its Semitic Context”, pp 3-34 da Ahmad Al-Jallad, Arabic in Context. Celebrating 400 Years of Arabic at Leiden University, Leiden-Boston. Brill, 2017.

5) A. Zaborski: “Comparative Semitic Studies”, pp 9-15 in Aula Orientalis 23 (2005).

6) R. Garr: “The Comparative Method in Semitic Linguistics”, pp 17-21 in Aula Orientalis 23 (2005).

7) Stephan Weninger, Geoffrey Khan, Michael Streck, and Janet Watson, The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook (Handbücher Zur Sprach- Und Kommunikationswissenschaft 36). Boston-Berlin. De Gruyter Mouton, 2011.

8) P.T. Daniels, Scripts of Semitic languages, in R. Hetzron (a c.), The Semitic languages, Routledge, London, 1997, pp. 16-45.

9) G. Graffi – S. Scalise, Le lingue e il linguaggio. Introduzione alla linguistica, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2002 [lettura consigliata].

Parte B)

1) E. M. Borobio, Arameo antiguo. Gramática y textos comentados, Barcelona 2003.

2) F. M. Fales, Istituzioni a confronto tra mondo semitico occidentale e Assiria nel I millennio a.C.: il trattato di Sefire, in L. Canfora, M. Liverani, C. Zaccagnini (a c.), I trattati nel mondo antico. Forma, ideologia, funzione, Roma 1990, pp. 149–173.

3) J. A. Fitzmyer, The Aramaic Inscriptions of Sefire, 2nd ed. Roma 1995.

4) W. S. Morrow, The Sefire Treaty Stipulations and the Mesopotamian Treaty Tradition, in P.M. M. Daviau, J. W. Wevers, M. Weigl (a c.), The World of the Aramaeans III. Studies in Language and Literature in Honour of Paul-Eugène Dion (JSOT Supplement Series), Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield 2001, pp. 83–99.