Grammatical Changes in Semitic

Grammatical Changes in Semitic
Author: Girma A. Demeke
Publisher: Wibtaye Publishers/Institute of Semitic Studies
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2013
Genre: Amharic language
ISBN: 9780989831307

The Semitic Languages

The Semitic Languages
Author: Stefan Weninger
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 1298
Release: 2011-12-23
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110251582

The handbook The Semitic Languages offers a comprehensive reference tool for Semitic Linguistics in its broad sense. It is not restricted to comparative Grammar, although it covers also comparative aspects, including classification. By comprising a chapter on typology and sections with sociolinguistic focus and language contact, the conception of the book aims at a rather complete, unbiased description of the state of the art in Semitics. Articles on individual languages and dialects give basic facts as location, numbers of speakers, scripts, numbers of extant texts and their nature, attestation where appropriate, and salient features of the grammar and lexicon of the respective variety. The handbook is the most comprehensive treatment of the Semitic language family since many decades.

Historical Aspects of Standard Negation in Semitic

Historical Aspects of Standard Negation in Semitic
Author: Ambjörn Sjörs
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 494
Release: 2018-01-09
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9004348557

In Historical Aspects of Standard Negation in Semitic Ambjörn Sjörs investigates the grammar of standard negation in a wide selection of Semitic languages. The bulk of the investigation consists of a detailed analysis of negative constructions and is based on a first-hand examination of the examples in context. The main issues that are investigated in the book relate to the historical change of the expression of verbal negation in Semitic and the reconstruction of the genealogical relationship of negative constructions. It shows how negation is constantly renewed from the reanalysis of emphatic negative constructions, and how structural asymmetries between negative constructions and the corresponding affirmative constructions arise from the linguistically conservative nature of negative vis-à-vis affirmative clauses.

A Grammar of Neo-Aramaic

A Grammar of Neo-Aramaic
Author: Geoffrey Khan
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 608
Release: 2015-11-02
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 9004305041

Being direct descendants of the Aramaic spoken by the Jews in antiquity, the still spoken Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialects of Kurdistan deserve special and vivid interest. Geoffrey Khan’s A Grammar of Neo-Aramaic is a unique record of one of these dialects, now on the verge of extinction. This volume, the result of extensive fieldwork, contains a description of the dialect spoken by the Jews from the region of Arbel (Iraqi Kurdistan), together with a transcription of recorded texts and a glossary. The grammar consists of sections on phonology, morphology and syntax, preceded by an introductory chapter examining the position of this dialect in relation to the other known Neo-Aramaic dialects. The transcribed texts record folktales and accounts of customs, traditions and experiences of the Jews of Kurdistan.

Language Processing and Acquisition in Languages of Semitic, Root-Based, Morphology

Language Processing and Acquisition in Languages of Semitic, Root-Based, Morphology
Author: Joseph Shimron
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2003-04-28
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027296685

This book puts together contributions of linguists and psycholinguists whose main interest here is the representation of Semitic words in the mental lexicon of Semitic language speakers. The central topic of the book confronts two views about the morphology of Semitic words. The point of the argument is: Should we see Semitic words’ morphology as “root-based” or “word-based?” The proponents of the root-based approach, present empirical evidence demonstrating that Semitic language speakers are sensitive to the root and the template as the two basic elements (bound morphemes) of Semitic words. Those supporting the word-based approach, present arguments to the effect that Semitic word formation is not based on the merging of roots and templates, but that Semitic words are comprised of word stems and affixes like we find in Indo-European languages. The variety of evidence and arguments for each claim should force the interested readers to reconsider their views on Semitic morphology.

Semitic Languages

Semitic Languages
Author: Edward Lipiński
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
Total Pages: 792
Release: 2001
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9789042908154

The first comparative grammar of the Semitic languages, by H. Zimmern, was published a hundred years ago and the last original work of this kind was issued in Russian in 1972 by B.M. Grande. The present grammar, designed to come out in the centenary of the completion of Zimmern's work, fills thus a gap. Besides, it is based on both classical and modern Semitic languages, it takes new material of these last decades into account, and situates the Semitic languages in the wider context of Afro-Asiatic. The introduction briefly presents the languages in question. The main parts of the work are devoted to phonology, morphology, and syntax, with elaborate charts and diagrams. Then follows a discussion of fundamental questions related to lexicographical analysis. The study is supplemented by a glossary of linguistic terms used in Semitics, by a selective bibliography, by a general index, and by an index of words and forms. The book is the result of twenty-five years of research and teaching in comparative Semitic grammar.