Anatolian Historical Phonology

This study represents the first comprehensive treatment of the sound system of the Hittite language and its historical development in a quarter-century. It is the very first attempt at a systematic description of the sound systems of all the ancient Indo-European languages of Anatolia. It codifies the results of a generation of collective scholarship which has made some dramatic advances, offers a number of new hypotheses, and frames the problems which remain to be solved. The contents will be of interest to Indo-Europeanists for the new perspectives on the crucial Anatolian subgroup and to scholars of second-millennium Anatolia for the up-to-date descriptions of the extant Indo-European languages of that era.

A Dictionary of the Lycian Language by H. Craig Melchert is the first and only comprehensive dictionary in English of the Anatolian language Lycian, and represents the author's thoroughgoing revision of his originally self-published and limitedly available Lycian Lexicon. A Dictionary of the Lycian Language includes every form of every word (including proper names) preserved in our inscriptional corpus of both Lycian A and Lycian B (Milyan). Each entry contains, besides a gloss, all the attested inflectional forms of the lemma; a complete list of the inscriptional citations; grammatical and etymological notes; and references to secondary literature. Introducing the work is a grammatical sketch of Lycian and a bibliography, and rounding it off are a glossary of personal names and a glossary of Milyan. A Dictionary of the Lycian Language, with its clear organization, thorough treatment, and many important new interpretations will be an indispensable reference tool for scholars in numerous fields of research, including Anatolian and Indo-European linguistics, comparative philology, and Ancient Near Eastern history.

This book presents the most comprehensive coverage of the field of Indo-European Linguistics in a century, focusing on the entire Indo-European family and treating each major branch and most minor languages. The collaborative work of 120 scholars from 22 countries, Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics combines the exhaustive coverage of an encyclopedia with the in-depth treatment of individual monographic studies.

Beyond Babel provides a general introduction to and overview of the languages that are significant for the study of the Hebrew Bible and ancient Israel. Included are essays on biblical and inscriptional Hebrew, Akkadian, Northwest Semitic dialects (Ammonite, Edomite, and Moabite), Arabic, Aramaic, Egyptian, Hittite, Phoenician, postbiblical Hebrew, and Ugaritic. Each chapter in the volume shares a common format, including an overview of the language, a discussion of its significance for the Hebrew Bible, and a list of ancient sources and modern resources for further study of the language. A general introduction by John Huehnergard discusses the importance of the study of Near Eastern languages for biblical scholarship, helping to make the volume an ideal resource for persons beginning an in-depth study of the Hebrew Bible.

This volume focuses on contacts between Anatolian languages within and outside Anatolia. The selected essays, written by members of ongoing research projects on Anatolian languages, present case studies from both the first and second millennia. These include etymological and morphophonological investigations within the framework of Graeco-Anatolian contacts, as well as a critical essay on the possible Anatolian-Etruscan contacts. Alongside strictly linguistic analysis, the essays cover different aspects of cultural contacts (the origin of the word for ‘salt’ in Luwian), toponyms (in Lycia), and religion (the god called King of Kaunos), and are introduced with a detailed overview of the origins of the Anatolian linguistic landscape.

An entirely new follow-up volume providing a detailed account of numerous additional issues, methods, and results that characterize current work in historical linguistics. This brand-new, second volume of The Handbook of Historical Linguistics is a complement to the well-established first volume first published in 2003. It includes extended content allowing uniquely comprehensive coverage of the study of language(s) over time. Though it adds fresh perspectives on several topics previously treated in the first volume, this Handbook focuses on extensions of diachronic linguistics beyond those key issues. This Handbook provides readers with studies of language change whose perspectives range from comparisons of large open vs. small closed corpora, via creolistics and linguistic contact in general, to obsolescence and endangerment of languages. Written by leading scholars in their respective fields, new chapters are offered on matters such as the origin of language, evidence from language for reconstructing human prehistory, invocations of language present in studies of language past, benefits of linguistic fieldwork for historical investigation, ways in which not only biological evolution but also field biology can serve as heuristics for research into the rise and spread of linguistic innovations, and more. Moreover, it: offers novel and broadened content complementing the earlier volume so as to provide the fullest available overview of a wholly engrossing field includes 23 all-new contributed chapters, treating some familiar themes from fresh perspectives but mostly covering entirely new topics features expanded discussion of material from language families other than Indo-European provides a multiplicity of views from numerous specialists in linguistic diachrony. The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, Volume II is an ideal book for undergraduate and graduate students in linguistics, researchers and professional linguists, as well as all those interested in the history of particular languages and the history of language more generally.