A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Languages E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1251

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Covers the major languages, language families, and writing systems attested in the Ancient Near East Filled with enlightening chapters by noted experts in the field, this book introduces Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) languages and language families used during the time period of roughly 3200 BCE to the second century CE in the areas of Egypt, the Levant, eastern Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Iran. In addition to providing grammatical sketches of the respective languages, the book focuses on socio-linguistic questions such as language contact, diglossia, the development of literary standard languages, and the development of diplomatic languages or "linguae francae." It also addresses the interaction of Ancient Near Eastern languages with each other and their roles within the political and cultural systems of ANE societies. Presented in five parts, The Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Languages provides readers with in-depth chapter coverage of the writing systems of ANE, starting with their decipherment. It looks at the emergence of cuneiform writing; the development of Egyptian writing in the fourth and early third millennium BCI; and the emergence of alphabetic scripts. The book also covers many of the individual languages themselves, including Sumerian, Egyptian, Akkadian, Hittite, Pre- and Post-Exilic Hebrew, Phoenician, Ancient South Arabian, and more. * Provides an overview of all major language families and writing systems used in the Ancient Near East during the time period from the beginning of writing (approximately 3200 BCE) to the second century CE (end of cuneiform writing) * Addresses how the individual languages interacted with each other and how they functioned in the societies that used them * Written by leading experts on the languages and topics The Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Languages is an ideal book for undergraduate students and scholars interested in Ancient Near Eastern cultures and languages or certain aspects of these languages.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

Notes on Contributors

Preface

PART I: WRITING SYSTEMS

CHAPTER ONE: The Decipherment of Ancient Near Eastern Languages

Introduction

Types of Decipherment

Processes in Decipherment

Accounts of Decipherment

REFERENCES

CHAPTER TWO: The Emergence of Cuneiform Writing

Introduction

The Context of Proto‐Cuneiform, Its Precursors and Origins

The Archaic Text Corpus and Cuneiform Script Characteristics

Structural Organization and Sign Types

Relationship with Sumerian

REFERENCES

CHAPTER THREE: The Development of Egyptian Writing in the Fourth and Early Third Millennium bce

Introduction

Working Definition of Script and its Relation to Other Graphic Communication Systems

The Rebus Principle and the Phoneticization of Pictures

Radical Phoneticization in Graphophonic Writing: Mono‐Consonantal Signs

Developmental Stages of the Early Script in the Nile Valley – a Historical Sketch of the First 500 Years

The Egyptian Script and its Relation to the Visual Mode of Gestural Communication

The Question of Language Versus Languages: Multilingualism in the Nile Valley in the Fourth Millennium BCE

and the Question of the Correlation Between Language – Culture – State(s):

Standardization and Formalization

Abandoned Innovations, Removal of Cultural Residue, Breaks in Traditions

Coda

REFERENCES

CHAPTER FOUR: The Emergence of Alphabetic Scripts

The Earliest Evidence for the Alphabet and its Iconic Models in Egyptian

The Broader Usage of Early Alphabetic in the Second Millennium

The Inventors of the Alphabet: Elite Semites Familiar with the Egyptian Writing System

The Transition from Early Alphabetic to Phoenician: The Center and the Periphery

Failed Attempts to Label Early Alphabetic Inscriptions as Hebrew or South Arabic

REFERENCES

PART II: ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN LANGUAGES

CHAPTER FIVE: Sumerian

Introduction

Sumerian Textual Evidence

Language Contact

Varieties of Sumerian

Sketch of Sumerian Grammar

Typological Features of Sumerian

Sumerian Phonology

Sumerian Morphology

Sumerian Syntax

REFERENCES

CHAPTER SIX: Egyptian

Historical and Cultural Context

Grammatical Sketch

Phonology

Morphology

Syntax

REFERENCES

CHAPTER SEVEN: Akkadian

Introduction

Akkadian Dialects and Textual Evidence

Language Contact

Sketch of Akkadian grammar

Akkadian Phonology

Akkadian Morphology

Syntax

REFERENCES

CHAPTER EIGHT: Eblaite

Introduction

Sketch of Eblaite Grammar

Eblaite Phonology

Eblaite Morphology

Syntax

REFERENCES

CHAPTER NINE: Elamite

Introduction

Textual Evidence

Language Contact

Sketch of Elamite Grammar

Phonology

Morphology

Syntax

REFERENCES

CHAPTER TEN: Amorite

Introduction

Phonology

Morphology

REFERENCES

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Hurrian

Introduction

The Hurrians

Hurrian Dialects and Textual Evidence

Distribution of Hurrian Texts

Sketch of Hurrian Grammar

Ergativity

Hurrian Phonology

Word Class

Relative Clauses

REFERENCES

CHAPTER TWELVE: Hittite

Introduction and Sociolinguistic Information

Grammatical Sketch

REFERENCES

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Luwian

Textual Evidence

Sociolinguistic Status of Luwian

REFERENCES

FURTHER READING

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Ugaritic

Introduction

Textual Evidence

Language Contact

Sketch of Ugaritic Grammar

Ugaritic Phonology

Ugaritic Morphology

Syntax

Lexicon

REFERENCES

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Ancient Hebrew

Introduction

Time of Attestation, Phases and Branches

Language Affiliation (Language Family, Sub‐Group)

Writing System

Textual Evidence: Genres, Approximate Number of Texts

Geographical Setting

Historical Setting and Language Contact

Historical and Cultural Factors: The Ancient Scholarly Shaping of Hebrew

Grammatical Sketch

REFERENCES

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Phoenician and Punic

Introduction

Textual Evidence

Language Contact

Sketch of Phoenician Grammar

Phoenician Phonology

Phoenician Morphology

Lexicon

Syntax

REFERENCES

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Old and Imperial Aramaic

Introduction and Wider Perspective

Historical Setting, Language Stages, Textual Evidence, and Text Types

Language Contact, Social Settings, and Language Use

Grammatical Sketch

Phonology and Orthography

Nominal Morphology and Morphosyntax

Verbal Morphology and Morphosyntax

REFERENCES

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Ancient South Arabian

Introduction

Linguistic Differentiation and Affiliation

Textual Evidence and Writing System

Language Contact

Sketch of Sabaic Grammar

Sabaic Orthography

Sabaic Phonology

Sabaic Morphology

Sabaic Syntax

Some Features of the Non‐Sabaic Languages

REFERENCES

PART III: ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN LANGUAGES USED AS ADMINISTRATIVE LANGUAGES OR LINGUAE FRANCAE

CHAPTER NINETEEN: Akkadian as a

Lingua Franca

REFERENCES

CHAPTER TWENTY: Aramaic as

Lingua Franca

General Introduction

Neo‐Assyrian Empire

Neo‐Babylonian Period (626–539 BCE

)

Achaemenid Empire (ca. 550–330 BCE

)

Post‐Achaemenid Period and the Decline of Aramaic as a

Lingua Franca

ABBREVIATIONS

REFERENCES

PART IV: LANGUAGE CONTACT IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Sumerian and Akkadian Language Contact

Introduction

Sources and Methodologies for Sumerian–Akkadian Contact

Language Use

Sociolinguistic History of Sumerian–Semitic Contact

Contact‐Induced Changes

Final Remarks

REFERENCES

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Language Contact of Ancient Egyptian with Semitic and Other Near Eastern Languages

Introduction

Egyptian–Near Eastern Language Contact Until the Middle Bronze Age

Late Bronze Age

The Iron Age

REFERENCES

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: Hebrew and Aramaic in Contact

Introduction: Divergence

Contact in Pre‐History

Iron Age Contacts

Persian Period

Hellenistic and Roman Periods

Early Rabbinic Literature

REFERENCES

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Multilingualism and Diglossia in the Ancient Near East

Introduction

Multilingualism in the Ancient Near East

Conclusion

REFERENCES

PART V: THE DEVELOPMENT OF LITERARY LANGUAGES AND LITERARY CONTACT

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: Standard Babylonian

Introduction

Early Standard Babylonian and the Late Bronze Age

Monumental Inscriptions in Babylonia

Middle Assyrian Developments

The Evolution of Grammatical Style

Stability and Change in the First Millennium

FURTHER READING

REFERENCES

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: Standardization in Egyptian

Introduction: Standardization as a Recursive Process

Egypt’s Language History

Establishing the Writing Standard

Standardizing the Language

Epilogue

REFERENCES

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: The “Influence” of Sumerian on Hittite Literature

Influence and Contact

The status of Sumerian in the Late Bronze Age

The Use of Sumerian Texts at Hattusa

Sumerian Literary Texts at Hattusa

Sumerian Literary Texts and Hittite Translations

Concluding remarks

REFERENCES

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: Ancient Near Eastern Literary Influences on Hebrew Literature and the Hebrew Bible

Introduction

The Problem of “Literature”

The Scribal Tradition

Mesopotamia

Egypt

Syro‐Anatolia

Conclusion

REFERENCES

Index

End User License Agreement

List of Tables

Chapter 1

Table 1.1 Decipherment Possibilities.

Chapter 5

Table 5.1 Chronological chart.

Table 5.2 Sumerian Four‐Vowel Reconstruction.

Table 5.3 Reconstructed Sumerian consonantal inventory.

Table 5.4 Hypothetical mid/late third millennium Sumerian consonantal invento...

Table 5.5 Sumerian noun phrase case marking.

Table 5.6 Sumerian independent pronouns.

Table 5.7 Sumerian bound possessive pronouns.

Table 5.8 Outer aspect distinctions in the Sumerian verb.

Table 5.9 Basic morphological structure of the Sumerian verb.

Table 5.10 Distribution of Sumerian indexing morphs.

Table 5.11 Sumerian indexing morphs.

Chapter 6

Table 6.1 System of Earlier Egyptian consonantal phonemes.

Table 6.2 System of Coptic consonantal phonemes.

Table 6.3 Vowels in Earlier Egyptian.

Table 6.4 Vowels in Sahidic Coptic.

Table 6.5 Earlier Egyptian syllabic structures.

Table 6.6 Coptic syllabic structures.

Table 6.7 Nouns in Earlier Egyptian.

Table 6.8 Personal pronouns in Earlier Egyptian.

Chapter 7

Table 7.1 Akkadian dialect division.

Table 7.2 Akkadian vowels.

Table 7.3 Akkadian consonantal inventory.

Table 7.4 Akkadian nominal inflection.

Table 7.5 Conjugation of the predicative verbal adjective.

Table 7.6 Old Babylonian independent pronouns.

Table 7.7 Old Babylonian pronominal suffixes.

Table 7.8 Conjugation of finite verbal forms.

Table 7.9 Old Babylonian imperative.

Table 7.10 Old Babylonian precative.

Table 7.11 Basic forms of the D‐, Š‐ and N‐stems.

Table 7.12 Akkadian t‐stems.

Table 7.13 Akkadian tan‐/tn‐stems.

Chapter 8

Table 8.1 Eblaite vowels.

Table 8.2 Eblaite consonantal inventory.

Table 8.3 Eblaite inflection of the noun.

Table 8.4 Eblaite predicative adjective.

Table 8.5 Eblaite independent pronouns.

Table 8.6 Eblaite pronominal suffixes.

Table 8.7 Eblaite relative‐determinative pronoun.

Table 8.8 Conjugation of the strong verb in Eblaite.

Table 8.9 Eblaite imperative.

Table 8.10 Eblaite precative.

Table 8.11 Basic forms of the D‐, S‐, and N‐stems in Eblaite.

Table 8.12 Eblaite t‐stems.

Table 8.13 Eblaite tn‐stems.

Chapter 9

Table 9.1 Elamite consonontal inventory.

Table 9.2 Elamite nominal classifying suffixes.

Table 9.3 Examples of use of classifying suffixes.

Table 9.4 Elamite independent pronouns of the 1st and 2nd person.

Table 9.5 Elamite resumptive pronoun used as 3rd person independent pronoun.

Table 9.6 Elamite demonstrative pronouns.

Table 9.7 Elamite possessive pronouns.

Table 9.8 Elamite enclitic possessive pronouns.

Table 9.9 Elamite verbal conjugation.

Table 9.10 Verbal conjugation: examples.

Table 9.11 Elamite k‐conjugation.

Table 9.12 Elamite k‐conjugation: examples.

Table 9.13 Elamite n‐conjugation.

Table 9.14 Elamite n‐conjugation: examples.

Table 9.15 Elamite m‐conjugation.

Table 9.16 Elamite m‐conjugation: examples.

Chapter 10

Table 10.1 Amorite consonantal inventory.

Table 10.2 Amorite verbal forms.

Table 10.3 Weak verbs in Amorite.

Chapter 11

Table 11.1 Use of CV signs in Mittani Letter.

Table 11.2 Hurrian consonants.

Table 11.3 Possessive morphemes.

Table 11.4 Valence‐marking morphemes.

Chapter 12

Table 12.1 The Phonological System of Hittite (tentative reconstruction).

Table 12.2 Indicative Endings of Old Hittite Active Verbs.

Table 12.3 Old Hittite Nominal Declension.

Chapter 13

Table 13.1 Luwian phonemic inventory.

Table 13.2 Luwian nominal inflection.

Table 13.3 Luwian demonstrative pronouns.

Table 13.4 Luwian relative‐interrogative pronouns.

Table 13.5 Luwian orthotonic personal pronouns of 1st and 2nd person.

Table 13.6 Luwian enclitic personal pronouns.

Table 13.7 Inflection of finite verbs in Luwian.

Chapter 14

Table 14.1 Ugaritic consonants (traditional transcription in italics, hypothe...

Table 14.2 The Proto‐Semitic lateral series, and their presumed reflexes in U...

Table 14.3 Ugaritic etymological vowels, inherited from Proto‐Semitic.

Table 14.4 The Ugaritic nominal inflection.

Table 14.5 The Ugaritic suffixing conjugation.

Table 14.6 Ugaritic PC (indicative).

Table 14.7 Ugaritic PC (jussive).

Table 14.8 Ugaritic PC (volitive forms in

‐a

).

Table 14.9 The Ugaritic imperative.

Table 14.10 Verbal bases of the principle stems.

Table 14.11 Verbal bases for stems with an internal passive (hypothetical).

Table 14.12 Verbal bases for the stems with the infix

‐ta‐

.

Table 14.13 Ugaritic independent pronouns (nominative forms).

Table 14.14 Ugaritic independent pronouns (oblique forms).

Table 14.15 Ugaritic suffixed pronouns.

Table 14.16 Forms of the relative pronoun in Ugaritic.

Chapter 15

Table 15.1 Hebrew independent pronouns and pronominal suffixes.

Table 15.2 Nouns with pronominal suffixes.

Table 15.3 Hebrew verbal stems.

Table 15.4 Hebrew verbal conjugations.

Chapter 16

Table 16.1 Phoenician consonants (traditional transcription in italics, hypot...

Table 16.2 The Proto‐Semitic lateral, interdental, and velar‐fricative series...

Table 16.3 A plausible reconstruction of the Phoenician vowel phonemes.

Table 16.4 The markings of the nominal inflection in Phoenician, shown using ...

Table 16.5 The suffixing conjugation in Phoenician, with the verb KTB “to wri...

Table 16.6 The prefixing conjugation in Phoenician, with the verb KTB “to wri...

Table 16.7 The imperative in Phoenician, with the verb KTB “to write” as a pl...

Table 16.8 Hypothetical reconstruction of the verbal bases of the principle s...

Table 16.9 Reconstructed paradigm of the independent personal pronouns in Pho...

Table 16.10 Reconstructed paradigm of the suffixed personal pronouns in Phoen...

Chapter 17

Table 17.1 Old Aramaic consonantal inventory.

Table 17.2 Old and Imperial Aramaic vowels.

Table 17.3 Old and Imperial Aramaic nominal declension.

Table 17.4 Old and Imperial Aramaic independent pronouns.

Table 17.5 Old and Imperial Aramaic pronominal suffixes.

Table 17.6 Old and Imperial Aramaic demonstrative pronouns.

Table 17.7 Numbers 1‐10 in Old and Imperial Aramaic.

Table 17.8 Conjugation of the perfect in Old and Imperial Aramaic.

Table 17.9 Conjugation of the imperfect in Old and Imperial Aramaic.

Table 17.10 Imperial Aramaic verbal stems.

Chapter 18

Table 18.1 Periodization of Sabaic.

Table 18.2 Transliteration conventions of sibilants.

Table 18.3 Sabaic nominal inflection.

Table 18.4 Sabaic personal pronouns.

Table 18.5 Sabaic verbal stem formation.

Table 18.6 Sabaic verbal inflection in the base stem 0

1

.

Chapter 27

Table 27.1 Sumerian Literary Texts found at Hattusa, after Viano 2016, 133 (s...

List of Illustrations

Chapter 1

Figure 1.1 Rosetta Stone: an early lithograph.

Figure 1.2a The decipherments by Barthélemy and Silvestre de Sacy.

Figure 1.2b The decipherments by Barthélemy and Silvestre de Sacy.

Figure 1.2c The decipherments by Barthélemy and Silvestre de Sacy.

Figure 1.2d The decipherments by Barthélemy and Silvestre de Sacy.

Figure 1.3 The chart of cuneiform signs used by Hincks.

Figure 1.4a The decipherment of Himyaritic (South Arabian).

Figure 1.4b The decipherment of Himyaritic (South Arabian).

Figure 1.5a The earliest Ugaritic charts. Assyriologists organized the lette...

Figure 1.5b The earliest Ugaritic charts. Assyriologists organized the lette...

Figure 1.5c The earliest Ugaritic charts. Assyriologists organized the lette...

Figure 1.5d The earliest Ugaritic charts. Assyriologists organized the lette...

Chapter 2

Figure 2.1 This text (OIM A2515; 5.9 × 3.4 × 1.6 cm) from the Uruk III perio...

Figure 2.2 Administrative precursors of cuneiform.

Figure 2.3 In the Uruk III texts, incising is replaced by impressing the tri...

Figure 2.4 The evolution of cuneiform signs.

Chapter 3

Figure 3.1 Systematic pair production from the time of the Memphite reform o...

Figure 3.2 Utilization of the human body as source of signs in the Memphite ...

Chapter 4

Figure 4.1 Serabit el‐Khadem Inscription.

Figure 4.2 Wadi el‐Hol Inscription.

Figure 4.3 Bronze Dagger from Lachish.

Figure 4.4 Incised Jerusalem Pithos.

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

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A Companion to EuripidesEdited by Laura K. McClure

A Companion to SpartaEdited by Anton Powell

A Companion to Greco‐Roman and Late Antique EgyptEdited by Katelijn Vandorpe

A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern LanguagesEdited by Rebecca Hasselbach‐Andee

A COMPANION TO ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN LANGUAGES

Edited by

Rebecca Hasselbach‐Andee

This edition first published 2020© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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9781119193296 (Hardback)

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List of Tables

1.1

Decipherment Possibilities.

5.1

Chronological chart.

5.2

Sumerian Four‐Vowel Reconstruction.

5.3

Reconstructed Sumerian consonantal inventory.

5.4

Hypothetical mid/late third millennium Sumerian consonantal inventory suggested by Jagersma (201, 33).

5.5

Sumerian noun phrase case marking.

5.6

Sumerian independent pronouns.

5.7

Sumerian bound possessive pronouns.

5.8

Outer aspect distinctions in the Sumerian verb.

5.9

Basic morphological structure of the Sumerian verb.

5.10

Distribution of Sumerian indexing morphs.

5.11

Sumerian indexing morphs.

6.1

System of Earlier Egyptian consonantal phonemes.

6.2

System of Coptic consonantal phonemes.

6.3

Vowels in Earlier Egyptian.

6.4

Vowels in Sahidic Coptic.

6.5

Earlier Egyptian syllabic structures.

6.6

Coptic syllabic structures.

6.7

Nouns in Earlier Egyptian.

6.8

Personal pronouns in Earlier Egyptian.

7.1

Akkadian dialect division.

7.2

Akkadian vowels.

7.3

Akkadian consonantal inventory.

7.4

Akkadian nominal inflection.

7.5

Conjugation of the predicative verbal adjective.

7.6

Old Babylonian independent pronouns.

7.7

Old Babylonian pronominal suffixes.

7.8

Conjugation of finite verbal forms.

7.9

Old Babylonian imperative.

7.10

Old Babylonian precative.

7.11

Basic forms of the D‐, Š‐ and N‐stems.

7.12

Akkadian t‐stems.

7.13

Akkadian tan‐/tn‐stems.

8.1

Eblaite vowels.

8.2

Eblaite consonantal inventory.

8.3

Eblaite inflection of the noun.

8.4

Eblaite predicative adjective.

8.5

Eblaite independent pronouns.

8.6

Eblaite pronominal suffixes.

8.7

Eblaite relative‐determinative pronoun.

8.8

Conjugation of the strong verb in Eblaite.

8.9

Eblaite imperative.

8.10

Eblaite precative.

8.11

Basic forms of the D‐, S‐, and N‐stems in Eblaite.

8.12

Eblaite t‐stems.

8.13

Eblaite tn‐stems.

9.1

Elamite consonontal inventory.

9.2

Elamite nominal classifying suffixes.

9.3

Examples of use of classifying suffixes.

9.4

Elamite independent pronouns of the 1st and 2nd person.

9.5

Elamite resumptive pronoun used as 3rd person independent pronoun.

9.6

Elamite demonstrative pronouns.

9.7

Elamite possessive pronouns.

9.8

Elamite enclitic possessive pronouns.

9.9

Elamite verbal conjugation.

9.10

Verbal conjugation: examples.

9.11

Elamite k‐conjugation.

9.12

Elamite k‐conjugation: examples.

9.13

Elamite n‐conjugation.

9.14

Elamite n‐conjugation: examples.

9.15

Elamite m‐conjugation.

9.16

Elamite m‐conjugation: examples.

10.1

Amorite consonantal inventory.

10.2

Amorite verbal forms.

10.3

Weak verbs in Amorite.

11.1

Use of CV signs in Mittani Letter.

11.2

Hurrian consonants.

11.3

Possessive morphemes.

11.4

Valence‐marking morphemes.

12.1

The Phonological System of Hittite (tentative reconstruction).

12.2

Indicative Endings of Old Hittite Active Verbs.

12.3

Old Hittite Nominal Declension.

13.1

Luwian phonemic inventory.

13.2

Luwian nominal inflection.

13.3

Luwian demonstrative pronouns.

13.4

Luwian relative‐interrogative pronouns.

13.5

Luwian orthotonic personal pronouns of 1st and 2nd person.

13.6

Luwian enclitic personal pronouns.

13.7

Inflection of finite verbs in Luwian.

14.1

Ugaritic consonants (traditional transcription in italics, hypothetical IPA values in brackets).

14.2

The Proto‐Semitic lateral series, and their presumed reflexes in Ugaritic.

14.3

Ugaritic etymological vowels, inherited from Proto‐Semitic.

14.4

The Ugaritic nominal inflection.

14.5

The Ugaritic suffixing conjugation.

14.6

Ugaritic PC (indicative).

14.7

Ugaritic PC (jussive).

14.8

Ugaritic PC (volitive forms in

‐a

).

14.9

The Ugaritic imperative.

14.10

Verbal bases of the principle stems.

14.11

Verbal bases for stems with an internal passive (hypothetical).

14.12

Verbal bases for the stems with the infix

‐ta‐

.

14.13

Ugaritic independent pronouns (nominative forms).

14.14

Ugaritic independent pronouns (oblique forms).

14.15

Ugaritic suffixed pronouns.

14.16

Forms of the relative pronoun in Ugaritic.

15.1

Hebrew independent pronouns and pronominal suffixes.

15.2

Nouns with pronominal suffixes.

15.3

Hebrew verbal stems.

15.4

Hebrew verbal conjugations.

16.1

Phoenician consonants (traditional transcription in italics, hypothetical IPA values in square brackets).

16.2

The Proto‐Semitic lateral, interdental, and velar‐fricative series, and their presumed reflexes in Phoenician.

16.3

A plausible reconstruction of the Phoenician vowel phonemes.

16.4

The markings of the nominal inflection in Phoenician, shown using the (unchanging) nominal base

*sōpir “scribe”

as a placeholder example.

16.5

The suffixing conjugation in Phoenician, with the verb KTB “to write” as a placeholder.

16.6

The prefixing conjugation in Phoenician, with the verb KTB “to write” as a placeholder.

16.7

The imperative in Phoenician, with the verb KTB “to write” as a placeholder.

16.8

Hypothetical reconstruction of the verbal bases of the principle stems in Phoenician, with the dummy verb QTL.

16.9

Reconstructed paradigm of the independent personal pronouns in Phoenician.

16.10

Reconstructed paradigm of the suffixed personal pronouns in Phoenician.

17.1

Old Aramaic consonantal inventory.

17.2

Old and Imperial Aramaic vowels.

17.3

Old and Imperial Aramaic nominal declension.

17.4

Old and Imperial Aramaic independent pronouns.

17.5

Old and Imperial Aramaic pronominal suffixes.

17.6

Old and Imperial Aramaic demonstrative pronouns.

17.7

Numbers 1‐10 in Old and Imperial Aramaic.

17.8

Conjugation of the perfect in Old and Imperial Aramaic.

17.9

Conjugation of the imperfect in Old and Imperial Aramaic.

17.10

Imperial Aramaic verbal stems.

18.1

Periodization of Sabaic.

18.2

Transliteration conventions of sibilants.

18.3

Sabaic nominal inflection.

18.4

Sabaic personal pronouns.

18.5

Sabaic verbal stem formation.

18.6

Sabaic verbal inflection in the base stem 0

1

.

27.1

Sumerian Literary Texts found at Hattusa, after Viano 2016, 133 (see for detail).

Notes on Contributors

Françoise Briquel Chatonnet is Senior Researcher in the team “Orient et Méditerranée” at CNRS (Paris). She works on Ancient History of the Levant, Semitic epigraphy and the history of the Semitic alphabet, the history of the Hebrew Bible, and also on Syriac manuscripts and the history of Syriac Christianity.

Dennis R.M. Campbell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at San Francisco State University. He specializes in the history and languages of the Ancient Near East with particular focus on Hittite, Hurrian, and Urartian. He has further worked on the administrative material written in Elamite from the Achaemenid Period.

Amalia Catagnoti currently is an Associate Professor of Assyriology at the University of Florence (Italy). She specializes in the study of the 3rd millennium Ebla Texts, publishing administrative and chancery documents. She has written the first comprehensive grammar of the Ebla language.

C. Jay Crisostomo is Assistant Professor of Assyriology at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on Mesopotamian scribal practices and language, in particular Sumerian‐Akkadian multilingualism and translation practices.

Peter T. Daniels is an independent scholar living in New Jersey specializing on writing systems and their typology. He received his advanced degree from the University of Chicago and has taught at the University of Wisconsin‐Milwaukee and Chicago State University.

Margaretha Folmer is a Lecturer at the University of Leiden (Netherlands) and associate professor of Biblical Hebrew at the Vrije Universteit Amsterdam, working on Aramaic language and linguistics, with special focus on Imperial and Qumran Aramaic, Targumic and Biblical literature, language contact, bilingualism, and ancient Jewish Magic.

Viktor Golinets is Professor for Hebrew Linguistics at the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien, Heidelberg (Germany). His main research interests are the philological investigation of Northwest Semitic languages, especially Amorite and Hebrew, with focus on their epigraphic attestations and onomasticon.

Rebecca Hasselbach‐Andee is Associate Professor of Comparative Semitics at the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on the reconstruction of the Semitic language family and individual Semitic languages, especially Akkadian, from a historical linguistic and typological perspective. In more recent work, she has also incorporated socio‐linguistic approaches to Semitic languages.

Robert Hawley holds the chair (directeur d’études) in “Religions and cultures of the ancient Levant” at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, France. His research and teaching touch on various aspects of Northwest Semitic epigraphy, philology, and the history of Levantine scribal traditions, with a special focus on Ugaritic studies.

Christian W. Hess is assistant at the department of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin (Germany). He specializes in the linguistic and literary analysis of Akkadian, in particular the structure and use of the Akkadian literary dialect known as “Standard Babylonian”.

Aaron Koller is professor of Near Eastern and Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University, where he is chair of the Beren Department of Jewish Studies. His is the author of Esther in Ancient Jewish Thought (Cambridge University Press) and Unbinding Isaac: The Akedah in Jewish Thought (JPS/University of Nebraska Press), and numerous studies in Semitic philology. Aaron Koller has served as a visiting professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and held research fellowships at the Albright Institute for Archaeological Research and the Hartman Institute. He lives in Queens, NY with his wife, Shira Hecht‐Koller, and their children.

Antonio Loprieno is Professor of Egyptology at the University of Basel (Switzerland), where he also acted as president from 2006‐2015. His main research foci are on Egyptian and Semitic linguistics, Egyptian literature and higher education leadership.

Craig Melchert is the A. Richard Diebold Emeritus Professor of Indo‐European Studies and Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles. His work focuses on Anatolian Linguistics, including studies on Hittite, Luwian, Lycian, and other Anatolian languages.

Piotr Michalowski is the George G. Cameron Emeritus Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations at the University of Michigan, where he taught for thirty‐five years. He is the author of numerous articles and books on all aspects of early Mesopotamian cultures, on literature, history, historiography, magic, and languages.

Ludwig Morenz is Professor of Egyptology at the University of Bonn. His research focuses on early Egyptian writing, Ancient Egyptian literature (especially literature of the Middle Kingdom), and ancient Egyptian society.

Matthias Müller is a research associate for Egyptology and Ancient History at the University of Basel (Switzerland). His focus is on Coptic and Ancient Egyptian, although he has also worked on Akkadian and its grammar in texts from Egypt.

Christopher Rollston is Professor of Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures at George Washington University. His expertise includes Northwest Semitic epigraphy, literacy in the ancient world, ancient scribal practices and scribal education, and the origins and early usages of the alphabet.

Seth Sanders is Professor of Religious Studies at UC Davis and focuses on the Hebrew Bible, Hebrew, and comparative religion. One of his recent projects is a comparison between ancient Babylonian, Hebrew, and Aramaic scholarship.

Thomas Schneider is Professor of Egyptology and Near Eastern Studies at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He has published widely on Egyptian interconnections with the Levant and the Near East, Egyptian history and chronology, Egyptian historical phonology, and the history of Egyptology in Nazi Germany.

Christian Stadel is Senior Lecturer in the department of Hebrew language at the Ben‐Gurion University of the Negev (Beer Sheva, Israel). His research focuses on the Aramaic language of various periods, in particular Old and Imperial Aramaic as well as Middle and Late Aramaic dialects such as Qumran Aramaic and Samaritan Aramaic.

Peter Stein is Associate Professor for Semitic Studies working in the Faculties of Theology at the Universities of Jena and Erfurt (Germany). His research focuses on the Arabian Peninsula in Antiquity, in particular on the epigraphic documentation in the Ancient South Arabian languages and in Aramaic.

Jan Tavernier is Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium). His research focus includes Elamite and Old Iranian linguistics, Ancient Near Eastern (esp. Old Iranian, Akkadian and Elamite) onomastics, and the linguistic history of the Achaemenid Empire.

Juan Pablo Vita is a researcher at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in Madrid. He works on Northwest Semitic languages (especially Ugaritic) and Akkadian, in particular peripheral Akkadian dialects such as those from Ugarit and Emar, the Akkadian of the Amarna period (Canaano‐Akkadian), and language contact.

Mark Weeden is Senior Lecturer in Ancient Near Eastern Studies at SOAS, University of London, where he works on and teaches Ancient Near Eastern languages, literature, history, and scribal practices with special focus on Anatolia and Hittite.

Michael Wingert is a Lecturer in the department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research focus is on the Hebrew and Aramaic biblical traditions, as well as on Iron Age Mesopotamia from a philological, historical, and socio‐linguistic perspective.

Christopher Woods is the John A. Wilson Professor of Sumerian at the University of Chicago and currently the director of the Oriental Institute (Chicago). His research focuses on Sumerian writing and language, as well as early Mesopotamian religion, literature, and mathematics.

Ilya Yakubovich holds research appointments at the Russian Academy of Sciences and the University of Marburg (Germany). His main academic interest is the linguistic and philological study of ancient Indo‐European languages, in particular, those belonging to the Anatolian and Iranian groups. In addition, he made contribution to the study of language contact in ancient societies.

Preface

The current volume serves as an introduction to a representative sample of Ancient Near Eastern languages and language families attested during the time period of roughly 3200 BCE to the second century CE. This time‐frame reflects the time from the beginning of writing (around 3200 BCE) to the end of cuneiform writing in the second century CE. The geographical scope selected reaches from Egypt through the Levant, Anatolia, northern Syria, Mesopotamia, all the way to southern Arabia and thus reflects all major cultures attested in the Ancient Near East during this time period. Although it was impossible to include a description of all languages attested in this wide geographical area throughout more than three millennia due to limitations in space, at least the majority of language families are represented, such as Egyptian, Sumerian, Semitic, Indo‐European, Elamite, and Hurrian.

As the reader will notice, this volume differs in various aspects from other existing overviews of Ancient Near Eastern languages. Although it contains chapters that include grammatical descriptions of individual Ancient Near Eastern languages, the focus of this volume is not so much on the detailed representation of the grammatical features of these languages, but rather on their context within Ancient Near Eastern societies and cultures, that is, on their socio‐linguistic contexts. The language chapters thus also contain sections on language contact and related phenomena whenever it was possible to include such information – in some cases, as for example concerning Amorite, no sufficient data exist for describing such socio‐linguistic features so far. The descriptions of the languages themselves are meant to provide the reader with a general idea of how they looked like and what kind of evidence there is for each of them and should not be taken as a comprehensive overview of the languages’ grammar.

In addition to the chapters on individual languages, the volume includes various sections on socio‐linguistic phenomena such as the use of various languages as administrative languages in the second and first millennia BCE (Akkadian and Aramaic), a section on language contact between various Ancient Near Eastern languages, such as Sumerian and Akkadian, Egyptian and Northwest Semitic, Hebrew and Aramaic, and a general chapter on multilingualism and diglossia in the Ancient Near East. Another section addresses the creation and use of literary languages and the influence of scribal cultures on each other that are attested in the broader Ancient Near East, such as the creation of a literary variant of Egyptian and Akkadian, the literary and scribal influence of Sumerian on Anatolia and the Ancient Near Eastern literary influence on the Hebrew Bible. These chapters are meant to give an introduction to the complex interactions that Ancient Near Eastern societies and cultures, and thus their languages, had with each other. Ancient Near Eastern languages did not exist in a vacuum, as overviews of these languages that solely deal with grammatical descriptions often seem to suggest, but they were in constant contact with each other and thus influenced each other. Although research into Ancient Near Eastern language contact, bilingualism, etc. has become popular in recent years, the field is still in its infancy and much is still unknown which languages or language varieties people in these societies actually spoke and how exactly the languages interacted. This volume attempts to bring together the work of scholars in different sub‐branches of Ancient Near Eastern studies in order to provide a starting point for further research and research questions.

Lastly, four chapters are devoted to the emergence and development of the major writing systems used in the Ancient Near East and the story of their decipherment, including cuneiform writing, Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, and alphabetic writing.

The chapters of the volume are meant to interconnect, but also to serve as ‘stand‐alone’ chapters, meaning they can be read without reference to other chapters in the volume. This approach has resulted in a few minor repetitions between the language and other chapters, which were necessary for the overall concept of the book and which I hope will not detract from the value of each contribution.

I am very thankful to all the contributors who have so graciously lent their time and expertise to making this volume possible, which, I hope, might be of interest to a broad variety of scholars and readers in general. Thanks should also go to the team at Wiley Blackwell for bringing the book to Production.

Rebecca Hasselbach‐AndeeChicago, December 2019

PART IWRITING SYSTEMS