Classical Syriac

This volume surveys the 'Syriac world', the culture that grew up among the Syriac-speaking communities from the second century CE and which continues to exist and flourish today, both in its original homeland of Syria and Mesopotamia, and in the worldwide diaspora of Syriac-speaking communities. The five sections examine the religion; the material, visual, and literary cultures; the history and social structures of this diverse community; and Syriac interactions with their neighbours ancient and modern. There are also detailed appendices detailing the patriarchs of the different Syriac denominations, and another appendix listing useful online resources for students. The Syriac World offers the first complete survey of Syriac culture and fills a significant gap in modern scholarship. This volume will be an invaluable resource to undergraduate and postgraduate students of Syriac and Middle Eastern culture from antiquity to the modern era. Chapter 26 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This book closes the gap for beginners who want to study the Amharic language and had difficulties in finding the right grammar for this purpose: The first grammar of Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia, was published by Hiob Ludolf in 1698. The Amharic grammar published by Praetorius in 1879 is based on Amharic religious texts and on scattered material, usually composed by missionaries. A milestone in the study of Amharic is Marcel Cohen's Traite de langue amharique (1936), but this grammar, too is not completely suited for beginners since the author's generalizations are at times aimed at linguists. The grammar that comes closest to the concept of a beginner's grammar is that of C.H. Dawkin (1960), yet this grammar is extremely short, does not give examples and does not introduce the student to the intricacies of the language.The new book gives all the grammatical forms and the sentences of the present grammar in Amharic script and in phonetic transcription. The illustrative examples have a free and a literal translation. This procedure should likewise prove to be useful for the Semitist as well as for the general linguist.

"Classical Syriac for Hebraists is intended for people who already have a basic knowledge of Biblical Hebrew and want to study Syriac, an important ancient Semitic language, a dialect of Aramaic ... The chrestomathy presents a selection of eleven documents including not only passages of the Bible, but also biblical commentaries and theological discussions, humorous fables, and a grammatical treatise, all original Syriac compositions. The texts are fully or partly vocalised, provided with grammatical annotations with constant cross referencing to the appropriate sections of the grammar. A glossary to facilitate studying of these texts is appended"--Back cover.

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Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World is an authoritative single-volume reference resource comprehensively describing the major languages and language families of the world. It will provide full descriptions of the phonology, semantics, morphology, and syntax of the world’s major languages, giving insights into their structure, history and development, sounds, meaning, structure, and language family, thereby both highlighting their diversity for comparative study, and contextualizing them according to their genetic relationships and regional distribution. Based on the highly acclaimed and award-winning Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, this volume will provide an edited collection of almost 400 articles throughout which a representative subset of the world's major languages are unfolded and explained in up-to-date terminology and authoritative interpretation, by the leading scholars in linguistics. In highlighting the diversity of the world’s languages — from the thriving to the endangered and extinct — this work will be the first point of call to any language expert interested in this huge area. No other single volume will match the extent of language coverage or the authority of the contributors of Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World. * Extraordinary breadth of coverage: a comprehensive selection of just under 400 articles covering the world's major languages, language families, and classification structures, issues and disputes * Peerless quality: based on 20 years of academic development on two editions of the leading reference resource in linguistics, Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics * Unique authorship: 350 of the world's leading experts brought together for one purpose * Exceptional editorial selection, review and validation process: Keith Brown and Sarah Ogilvie act as first-tier guarantors for article quality and coverage * Compact and affordable: one-volume format makes this suitable for personal study at any institution interested in areal, descriptive, or comparative language study - and at a fraction of the cost of the full encyclopedia

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.