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at Austin October, 2012 Contents Introduction General surveys of Ancient Near Eastern Languages Afro-Asiatic Semitic Languages Works on the Semitic family as a whole Akkadian and Eblaite Northwest Semitic: general studies Amorite Amarna Canaanite Ugaritic Hebrew Phoenician Other Canaanite languages (Ammonite, Edomite, Moabite) Aramaic Other Northwest Semitic languages attested in biblical-period inscriptions Ancient South Arabian Ancient North Arabian Arabic (classical) Ethiopic (classical; Geez) Egyptian Classical (hieroglyphic) Egyptian Coptic Indo-European languages Hittite Luvian (hieroglyphic) other ancient Anatolian Indo-European languages Old Persian Language isolates Sumerian Elamite Hurrian and Urartian Introduction Writing began in the Near East, almost simultaneously in ancient Sumer in Mesopotamia and in Egypt in the late fourth millennium, and the texts of those societies constitute humanitys earliest written records. The languages covered in this bibliography span the period from the beginning of writing up to the creation of the biblical canon around the first century CE. Most of these languages are extinct, although a few, such as Aramaic, Hebrew, and Arabic continue to be spoken in parts of the modern Middle East. The languages are grouped according to language family, beginning with the most widely attested of the families, Afro-Asiatic, and its two ancient branches, the Semitic languages and Egyptian; these are followed by the Indo-European languages for which there is documentation in the ancient Near East; finally a few well-attested ancient languages that are not part of any known language family are presented. Some of the languages are very well attested; there are, for example, about a million cuneiform tablets in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages, in a wide range of genres. Other languages, such as Phoenician, are more sparsely attested, their grammar and vocabulary correspondingly less well known. General surveys of ancient Near Eastern languages In most of the books listed here (Gzella 2009, Kaltner and McKenzie 2002, Postgate 2007, Streck 2005, Woodard
Dictionaries Brown, Francis, S.R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, eds. 1907. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament with an Appendix containing the Biblical Aramaic based on the Lexicon of William Gesenius as translated by Edward Robinson. London: Oxford. Despite its age, still one of the most reliable and useful reference dictionaries of biblical Hebrew. Entries are arranged by root. Etymological comparisons with other Semitic languages are judicious, but outdated by much subsequent work in lexicography in Akkadian and other important languages, and the discovery of closely-related languages such as Ugaritic. Clines, David J.A., ed. 1993. The Dictionary of Classical Hedbrew. 7 vol. of 8 appeared. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. This costly dictionary also includes entries from non-biblical sources up to ca. 200 CE. Entries are presented alphabetically rather than by root, and are organized internally according to their usage and syntactic function (verbs, for example, are organized according to their arguments). Etymologies are explicitly rejected as irrelevant to an understanding of Hebrew. Kaddari, Mena em Zevi. 2006. Oar Leon ha-Miqra me-Alef ad Taw (A Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew). Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press. A recent and reliable dictionary of biblical Hebrew in modern Hebrew, with references to recent scholarship for difficult words. Arranged by words rather than roots. Comparisons with other Semitic languages are frequently given. Koehler, Ludwig, W. Baumgartner, et al. 196795. Hebrisches und aramisches Lexikon zum Alten Testament. 3rd ed. 5 vol. Leiden: Brill, 196795. English translation A Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, by M.E.J. Richardson. 5 vol. Leiden: Brill, 19952001; 2-vol. edition, 2005. The English translation is most recent comprehensive dictionary available in English. The two-volume Students Edition is an affordable reproduction of the entire original five-volume work. Etymologies are given, but must be used with caution as they are frequently overly speculative. The entries for the last few letters of the alphabet are unwieldy in their length. Meyer, R., H. Donner, and U. Rterswrden. 19872010. Gesenius hebrisches und aramisches Handwrterbuch ber das Alte Testament. 18th ed. 6 vol.. Berlin: Springer. The most recent comprehensive dictionary of biblical Hebrew, unfortunately too expensive for most scholars and students. Includes the most recent scholarship on Hebrew lexicography and semantics. The etymologies unfortunately rely too heavily on KoehlerBaumgartner 196795. Phoenician Phoenician is the name given to a group of Canaanite dialects spoken in what is now Lebanon and Northern Israel. The variant of the language spoken in North Africa and along the Mediterranean coast of Europe is called Punic. These dialects are attested 1000BCE - 400 BCE. Most of the textual evidence comes from official and religious inscriptions. The 22-letter Phoenician writing system is the basis for most European and Semitic scripts, including Epigraphic Hebrew. Surveys Gzella, Holger. 2009. Phnizisch. In idem, ed., Sprachen aus der Welt des Alten Testaments. Stuttgart: WBG, 4864. See *General surveys of ancient Near Eastern languages*. Hackett, Jo Ann. 2004. Phoenician and Punic. In Roger D. Woodard, ed., The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Worlds Ancient Languages. Cambridge: CUP, 36585. Reprinted in Roger D. Woodard, ed., The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia, Cambridge: CUP, 2008, 82102. See *General surveys of ancient Near Eastern languages*. Pardee, Dennis. 2004. Canaanite Dialects. In Roger D. Woodard, ed., The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Worlds Ancient Languages. Cambridge: CUP, 38690. Reprinted in Roger D. Woodard, ed., The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia, Cambridge: CUP, 2008, 1037. See *General surveys of ancient Near Eastern languages*. Segert, Stanislav. 1997. Phoenician and the Eastern Canaanite Languages. In Robert Hetzron, ed., The Semitic Languages. London/New York: Routledge, 17486. See *General surveys of ancient Near Eastern languages*.
Grammars Friedrich, Johannes, Wolfgang Rllig, and M. Amadazi Guzzo. 1999. Phnizisch-Punische Grammatik. 3rd ed. Rome: PBI. A large and detailed reference grammar, this book provides a thorough description of the language. It provides relevant biblical references throughout and includes an extensive word and subject indices. Segert, Stanislav. 1976. A Grammar of Phoenician and Punic. Munich: Beck. A small reference grammar, this book is a convenient tool. Occasional biblical references are provided in transliteration. The book includes some texts and a glossary. Dictionaries Hoftijzer, Jacob, and K. Jongeling. 1995. Dictionary of the North-West Semitic Inscriptions. 2 vol. Handbuch der Orientalistik, 31. Leiden: Brill. Currently this is the standard dictionary for Phoenician. The order of entries follows the Phoenician alphabet. Since it covers other languages it provides comparative evidence. The work contains basic bibliographical references and only a small selection of Phoenician and Punic examples. Tombak, R. S. 1974. A Comparative Semitic Lexicon of the Phoenician and Punic Languages. New Haven, Yale University Press. In this old but still useful dictionary each entry is followed by Semitic (and sometimes Egyptian) cognates and a list of examples from Phoenician and Punic. Every word is transliterated and translated. The order of entries follows the Phoenician alphabet. Other Canaanite languages (Ammonite, Edomite, Moabite) Moabite is attested primarily in the Mesha inscription, a long text dating to the mid-9th century BCE., and in two other small fragments; the language is very similar to biblical Hebrew. Ammonite is known from a few short inscriptions dating to the 9th through the 6th centuries BCE, and a large number of seals with Ammonite personal names. Edomite is attested in even fewer texts on ostraca and a few seals, from the 8th to the 6th centuries BCE. Beyer, Klaus. 2009. Die Sprachen Transjordaniens. In Holger Gzella, ed., Sprachen aus der Welt des Alten Testaments. Stuttgart: WBG, 89103. See *General surveys of ancient Near Eastern languages*. Pardee, Dennis. 2004. Canaanite Dialects. In Roger D. Woodard, ed., The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Worlds Ancient Languages. Cambridge: CUP, 38690. Reprinted in Roger D. Woodard, ed., The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia, Cambridge: CUP, 2008, 1037. See *General surveys of ancient Near Eastern languages*. Parker, Simon B. 2002. Ammonite, Edomite, and Moabite. In John Kaltner and Steven L. McKenzie, eds., Beyond Babel: A Handbook for Biblical Hebrew and Related Languages. Resources for Biblical Studies, 42; Atlanta: SBL, 4360. See *General surveys of ancient Near Eastern languages*. Aramaic Aramaic is a Northwest Semitic branch, which includes a number of dialects. It is attested as early as 850 BCE and is still spoken today in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. In the ancient world it is attested in Syria and Mesopotamia, but as it was the lingua franca of both the Assyrian and Persian empires it spread with them all the way to China. Aramaic dialects are divided to Old, Official, Middle, Late and Modern. The following survey includes only works, which are of direct interest to biblical scholars. For a more extensive reference list see *Aramaic* in OBO Jewish Studies. Surveys Beyer, Klaus. 1986. The Aramaic Language. Its Distribution and subdivisions. Translated J.F. Healey. Gttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Appeared in German as the rst part of Die aramischen Texte vom Toten Meer, Gttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1984. A short but very detailed description of the Aramaic dialects, which a list of distinguishing features. The division of the language is based on political affiliation and was generally not accepted, but the data are still relevant. The book concludes with a brief description of the development of the Aramaic script.