Semitic languages

A first-year resource to guide introductory Hebrew courses, A MODERN GRAMMAR FOR BIBLICAL HEBREW is a complete revision of Duane Garrett's previous textbook A MODERN GRAMMAR FOR CLASSICAL HEBREW. Written with the student in mind, this new textbook provides an innovative overview of the essentials of grammar while moving the learning into the original text as early as lesson eight, providing first-hand experience in God's word. Some of the distinct features are as follows:
    -Completes all essential first-year material in 26 lessons.
    -Clarifies the rules for accent shift and vowel change very early.
    -Overviews the verbs within the first weeks of study.
    -Enables early mastery of weak verbs.
    -Initially introduces weak roots and derived stems first through principal parts.
    -Includes intermediate topics in the final chapters and appendixes.
A MODERN GRAMMAR FOR BIBLICAL HEBREW includes tables, charts, and "blackboards" for further emphasis and features a CD containing additional helps for the student and teacher. Flexible teaching plans guide the learner through the essentials, whether the goal is an understanding of only the rudiments of traditional first-year biblical Hebrew or an appreciation of intermediate issues like Masoretic cantillation, textual criticism, lexicography, or discourse grammar and literary structure in prose and poetry. Appendixes include introductions to the standard Hebrew text and use of a lexicon, as well as a glossary, vocabulary lists, and verb paradigms.

This study was an investigation of reading and spelling errors of dyslexic Arabic readers (n 1⁄4 20) compared with two groups of normal readers: a young readers group, matched with the dyslexics by reading level (n 1⁄4 20) and an age-matched group (n 1⁄4 20). They were tested on reading and spelling of texts, isolated words and pseudowords. Two research questions were the focus of this study: What are the reading and spelling profile errors of dyslexic native Arabic speakers? What is the effect of the Arabic orthography on these types of errors? The results of the reading error analysis revealed a clear contribution of the uniqueness of the Arabic orthography to the types of errors made by the three different groups. In addition, the error profiles of the dyslexic readers were similar to the error profiles made by the younger readinglevel-matched group in percentages and in quality. The most prominent types of errors were morphological and semiphonetic, which highlighted the contrib...

The present study evaluated the subjective happiness of Lebanese college youth using a multi-item rather than a single-item subjective happiness measure. An Arabic translation of the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) was administered to 273 Lebanese college youth from state- and private-run higher institutions of learning, as was the Arabic Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (Arabic PARQ). The reliability and validity of the Arabic SHS was tested in terms of factor analysis, internal consistency, and correlation with Arabic PARQ scores, as was the factorial invariance and relation of the scale across age, sex, marital status, birth order, and college campus. The Arabic SHS showed a reliable unitary structure similar to those found in other cultures, and factorial invariance across sex, marital status, birth order and college campus. While age, sex, marital status and birth order were independent of happiness scores, college students attending the private university reported greater happiness than those from the state-run academic setting. It was concluded that the Lebanese Arabic SHS is a reliable and valid measure of global subjective happiness, its factor structure is similar across other translated versions of the scale, and its scores are independent of age, sex, marital status and birth order.

This article deals with the loss of the affected possessor construction (external possessor construction, sympathetic dative) in the history of English. First it is shown that Old English made a formal and semantic distinction between coding the possessor noun-phrase externally in the dative and noun-phrase internally in the genitive, as all other old Indo-European languages do, and as German does to the present day. [Sie schlug ihm (dative) den Kopf ab ‘she cut off his head (he: a living person)’ vs. Sie schlug seinen (genitive) Kopf ab (he/it: a corpse, a statue, etc.)’. Then the loss of this distinction in Middle English is demonstrated. Several possible reasons for this development are discussed and rejected, and the fact is pointed out that the only other languages spoken in Europe (beside Lezgian and Turkish) not making the distinction are the Insular Celtic languages. This leads to the conclusion that English lost the distinction because the Celtic substrate population did not acquire it in the language shift to Anglo-Saxon. Finally the question how Insular Celtic itself lost the distinction is answered analogously, viz. by the Semitic substrate population’s not learning to make the distinction in the language shift to Celtic (which then still made the inherited distinction), all the old Semitic languages only knowing the internal genitive possessor construction.

The purpose of this study was to test whether the content and function word dichotomy of speech disfluency found in English-speaking adults who stutter (AWS) was evident in a language other than English. A group of adult Arabic-speaking AWS were sampled across spontaneous speaking, oral reading, and single-word naming tasks. Moments of disfluency were identified and examined in regard to lexical category. Results indicated no significant differences in the amount of disfluency occurring on content and function words. The production of combined content-function words, a unique feature of the Arabic language, was associated with a high level of disfluency. The linguistic bases of stuttering are discussed in regard to language-specific influences.

Research indicates a strong relationship between phonological awareness and reading success. Phonemic intervention programs clearly show the benefits of explicitly teaching phonological awareness skills. Phonological awareness skills vary in nature and degree of difficulty and appear to follow a developmental progression. This study examined a developmental hierarchy of four Arabic phonological awareness tasks. The participants were 140 native Arabic speaking students from elementary grades one to three. They were administered four different phonological awareness tasks. One-way ANOVA and multiple comparisons were used to analyze the data of the study. The results revealed differences across phonological awareness tasks among different grade levels. Results of this study indicated that the four phonological awareness tasks ranged from easy to difficult in the following; rhyme, initial sound identification, syllable deletion and phoneme segmentation. Significant differences were foun...

The discovery at Zincirli of an inscribed stele belonging to Katumuwa, servant of Panamuwa, touches upon several longstanding issues concerning the mean-ing of the word nbš (Hebrew נפש). Although the inscription was dedicated dur-ing the lifetime of Katumuwa, the continued provision of his “nbš that is in this stele” raises questions regarding not only the term’s nuance within a postmortem context, but also the nature of feeding the dead. These issues can be addressed by carefully examining the manner by which the term’s abstract and substantive forms relate to concepts of identity. The analysis of Katumuwa’s stele along with a new interpretation of Hos. 9:4 will show that nbš/נפש is a ritually centered object that marks identity. In other words, postmortem identity is reified in the nbš /נפש through ritual actions that include feeding the dead. This interpretation sheds new light on the substantive meaning of nbš/#$pene in inscriptions and in biblical literature, where the term signifies either a stele or a corpse.

This study is concerned with the properties, structural representation and derivational patterns of deverbal nouns (DNs) in Modern Hebrew. A recurring question arises in the context of such 'hybrid' formations: precisely how similar or far-apart are these derivatives from the verbs from which they originate? Enlisting Hebrew, a language with rich morphological marking on both verbs as well as DNs, several loci of divergence between verbs and respective DNs in the domain of argument-and eventstructure are eliminated. Taking as a point of reference the influential view which equates the processes of nominalization and passivization, this study scrutinizes syntactic structure and its interaction with nominalization, showing that behaviours typical of passives are absent from DNs. Most notably, the 'demoted' status of external arguments, and rejection of unaccusative and unergative verbs as inputs to nominalization, are not intrinsic to Hebrew DNs, a finding which weakens long-standing beliefs bearing on this class. A novel area of exploration offered in this study is the examination of morpho-syntactic factors and their interaction with nominalization, a domain where inconsistencies do arise. What emerges from a comparison of some 3000 verbs based on verb-class (templatic) morphology is a significant asymmetry between DNs carrying Middle (intransitive) marking and DNs marked as Active, wherein Middle forms are found to be less productive in two well-defined syntactic contexts. Not entirely absent, however, the same roots which fail to surface with Middle morphology are perfectly licit when derived from the corresponding Active verb (in case of alternating roots). Building on the notions of competition and markedness, such paradigmatic gaps are analysed not as grammaticallydetermined incompatibilities, but as a consistent preference for less-marked forms (Active-marked DNs) over more complex ones (Middle-marked DNs), a trend which lies within the realm of performance. As such, Hebrew DNs constitute a case study of the interrelations between the syntactic and morphological modules, and pragmatics.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of some aspects of the Arabic phonological system on spelling English words. In Study 1, the spelling performance of Arabic students from grades four and six was compared with English students in cognate phoneme pairs which exist across both languages (/d/ and /t/), and pairs in which only one of the phonemes exists in Arabic (/b/ and /p/, /f/ and /v/) using a spelling test which contained words with the target phonemes. The findings showed that the Arabic participants performed similarly to the English participants on the phonemes /t/ and /d/, but they tended to spell the phonemes /b/, /p/, /f/, and /v/ using their cognate pairs more often than the English participants did. In Study 2, the spelling performance of Arabic students was compared across grades 4, 6, 8, and 10 for the same target phonemes. The analyses showed no difference between the Arabic participants in how often they confused the target phonemes with their cognate pairs across the different grade levels, except for the phonemes /p/ and /v/, for which the effect size was small. The findings of this study demonstrate the importance of phonology in spelling, as well as the influence of the first language on spelling in a second language. They also indicate that Arabic students continue to be dependent on phonological processes when spelling English words even as they grow older.

This paper examines an ongoing cooperative project between the National Museum of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, undertaken within the framework of the International Partnership Among Museums (IPAM) program of the American Association of Museums. The project— Written in Stone: Epigraphy from the National Museum of Saudi Arabia —is a virtual Web exhibition of inscriptions dating from the late second millennium B.C. to the nineteenth century A.D. It is undoubtedly representative of many special-purpose cooperative projects (for exhibitions, research, or other purposes) that are taking place across international boundaries between pairs or groups of museums in various countries. Such collaborations provide examples of how partner institutions can take advantage of the opportunities that globalization and standardization of museum practices offer.

The optimal language for literature and educational materials is not the same for all Zay areas. The data gathered during the current study points to Zay as optimal for the islands on Lake Ziway and Oromo as optimal for the lakeshores. However, the Zay people living on the islands would probably be well served by Amharic literature and educational materials until most of them immigrate to the shore or the Oromo educational system causes a shift in preference to Oromo. Zay’s case is one of an endangered language that could prove to be a development success story, but only if the level of motivation for a language development project is high enough to initiate and sustain the effort.

Although the sound change w>y in Biblical Hebrew is well -
known, it has not received significant attention until now. This
paper provides a synchronic analysis to this phenomenon. The shift
is partly morphologically, partly phonologically conditioned.
Focusing on the phonological conditioning, the author describes the
exact environments of the change and suggests an explanation.
While weakening of w appears between vowel and consonant, w>y
occurs in the complementary set of environments: initial,
postconsonantal and possibly between vowels. This conditioning
and other phonological facts suggest that w>y is a strengthening. It
is thus necessary to distinguish this process from the regular
syncope of w which is morphologically, rather than
morphophonologically, conditioned.

The study of the Samaritan version of Saadya Gaon’s translation of the Pentateuch (the tafsīr), mainly based on MS London BL OR7562, shows that a Saadyan version in Arabic Characters was adopted by the Samaritans and adapted to the Samaritan Hebrew Pentateuch. The transmission of this version in MS London BL OR7562 continued after the early Samaritan Arabic translation of the Pentateuch and perhaps also its later revision had already been created, since many of their translations were preserved in MS BL OR7562, mixed with its Saadyan basic text. As MS London BL OR7562 also contains numerous words and phrases paralleled only in Christian Arabic translations of the Pentateuch and Saadyan adaptations, mainly related to the Peshitta tradition, it is reasonable to assume that these were the sources of this Samaritan Saadyan version and possibly also of the other Samaritan Arabic translations. The Samaritan version of Saadya’s translation of the Pentateuch also reveals some parallels to tenth- and eleventh-century Karaite translations and it contains prominent Aramaic and Islamic vocabulary, unfamiliar in other versions of Saadya’s tafsīr.

The art of Italian craftsmen Cosmati, who created unique mosaic production at XII and XIII centuries in Rome and its environments, had delighted people over centuries. The filigree technique of the stonework, polychrome, and diversity of geometrical figures and difficulties of composition demonstrate their undoubted ecstatic value. From the beginning of the 19th century, however, the opinions, that craftsmen Cosmati used not only abstract formation but also enciphered language of symbols, were firstly express. Author of this work investigates style elements of Cosmatesque as sole system, trying to answer on the question about the possibility of existence of symbolic Cosmati language, representing important religious meanings, or this is just the part of art of the decoration of space. In addition, if it exist, is it any possibility to read it. By the starting point of work, there was the writing on the mosaic floors of Cosmatesque in Westminster Abbey, creating in 1272 year, which contains the exact date of the end of the world.
Keywords: intercultural communication, Cosmatesque, craftsmen Cosmati, mosaic, bricklayers, mosaicists, Middle Ages, Medieval Italy, architectural style, Rome, Montekassino, the history of art, terminology, the history of religion, early Christianity, Catholicism, symbolism, semantics of religious symbols, semiotics, semiology

Column: Intercultural Communication and Problems of Globalization: Psycho-, Socio- and Ethnolinguistics

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17759/langt.2016030210

par Jean-Claude Haelewyck.
—
Le but de l’étude comparée des langues sémitiques est de retrouver les traits (phonologiques, morphologiques et syntaxiques) les plus primitifs du sémitique, à partir de l’étude des formes attestées dans chaque langue, pour mieux préciser la position historique de chaque langue dans l’ensemble, et obtenir une meilleure compréhension des phénomènes de transformation.

Langues

Les principales langues concernées sont l’accadien, l’ugaritique, l’hébreu, l’araméen dans toute sa variété, l’arabe, le sud-arabe épigraphique, le sud-arabique moderne et l’éthiopien. Pour autant, le paléo-syrien, l’amorite, le phénicien et le moabite ne sont pas en reste. Tous les textes sont en transcription et accompagnés d’une traduction.

Public cible

Rédigé dans un style clair qui évite tout jargon, l’ouvrage est destiné à tous ceux qui s’intéressent aux langues sémitiques, qu’ils soient enseignants, chercheurs, étudiants ou curieux passionnés.

L'auteur

Jean-Claude Haelewyck, diplômé de l'Ecole Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jérusalem, est Directeur de Recherche au Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique et professeur à l'Université de Louvain. Il y a d'abord enseigné l'hébreu, puis l'araméen, le phénicien, l'ougaritique, ainsi que la grammaire comparée des langues sémitiques.
Il est connu au niveau international par ses éditions de textes syriaques : il a publié dans le Corpus Christianorum quatre volumes des versions syriaques des œuvres de Grégoire de Nazianze, et dans Le Muséon des éditions de textes apocryphes. On le connaît aussi par ses travaux d'édition des vieilles versions latines de la Bible (en collaboration avec le Vetus Latina Institut, Beuron, Allemagne) : il a achevé celles du livre d'Esther et a entamé celles de l'évangile de Marc.

Détails et table des matières sur http://www.safran.be/proddetail.php?prod=LCA24

The present article delves into the syntactic role of Biblical Hebrew verb forms with an inflected prefix and the suffix final nun. In the research literature, there are two central arguments concerning this phenomenon. As per the first camp, the final nun underwent a process of erosion. Consequently, its distinction vis-à-vis the suffix final -0 lapsed to the point where the two became free variants. The other school of thought claims that there remains a functional syntactic difference between the two suffixes in the Biblical Hebrew. By formulating a new analytical framework, the author builds on the second hypothesis. Aside for the final nun’s prevalent uses in dependent clauses marked by a subordinating conjunction, this suffix appears in a wide array of clauses in which it signifies the verb as a non-innovative element in the sphere of the message. In this paper, the nexus between these two usages is theoretically bolstered by a typological comparison of the various fields that host different subjunctive categories in different Semitic languages.