Linguistics (22)

• Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures
• Linguistics
• Literature

The Historical Depth of the Tiberian Reading Tradition of Biblical Hebrew

• Aaron D. Hornkohl

This volume explores an underappreciated feature of the standard Tiberian Masoretic tradition of Biblical Hebrew, namely its composite nature. Focusing on cases of dissonance between the tradition’s written (consonantal) and reading (vocalic) components, the study shows that the Tiberian spelling and pronunciation traditions, though related, interdependent, and largely in harmony, at numerous points reflect distinct oral realisations of the biblical text.

• Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures
• Linguistics

The Bible in the Bowls: A Catalogue of Biblical Quotations in Published Jewish Babylonian Aramaic Magic Bowls

• Daniel James Waller

The Bible in the Bowls represents a complete catalogue of Hebrew Bible quotations found in the published corpus of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic magic bowls. As our only direct epigraphic witnesses to the Hebrew Bible from late antique Babylonia, the bowls are uniquely placed to contribute to research on the (oral) transmission of the biblical text in late antiquity; the pre-Masoretic Babylonian vocalisation tradition; the formation of the liturgy and the early development of the Jewish prayer book; the social locations of biblical knowledge in late antique Babylonia and socio-religious typologies of the bowls; and the dynamics of scriptural citation in ancient Jewish magic.

• Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures
• Linguistics

Studies in the Masoretic Tradition of the Hebrew Bible

• Daniel J. Crowther
• Aaron D. Hornkohl
• Geoffrey Khan

This volume brings together papers on topics relating to the transmission of the Hebrew Bible from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern period. We refer to this broadly in the title of the volume as the ‘Masoretic Tradition’. The papers are innovative studies of a range of aspects of this Masoretic tradition at various periods, many of them presenting hitherto unstudied primary sources.

• Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures
• Linguistics
• Literature

Diachronic Variation in the Omani Arabic Vernacular of the Al-ʿAwābī District: From Carl Reinhardt (1894) to the Present Day

• Roberta Morano

In this monograph, Roberta Morano re-examines one of the foundational works of the Omani Arabic dialectology field, Carl Reinhardt’s Ein arabischer Dialekt gesprochen in ‘Oman und Zanzibar (1894). This German-authored work was prolific in shaping our knowledge of Omani Arabic during the twentieth century, until the 1980s when more recent linguistic studies on the Arabic varieties spoken in Oman began to appear.

• Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures
• Linguistics
• Literature

Neo-Aramaic and Kurdish Folklore from Northern Iraq: A Comparative Anthology with a Sample of Glossed Texts, Volume 1

• Geoffrey Khan
• Masoud Mohammadirad
• Dorota Molin
• Paul M. Noorlander

This comparative anthology showcases the rich and mutually intertwined folklore of three ethno-religious communities from northern Iraq: Aramaic-speaking (‘Syriac’) Christians, Kurdish Muslims and—to a lesser extent—Aramaic-speaking Jews.

• Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures
• Linguistics
• Literature

Neo-Aramaic and Kurdish Folklore from Northern Iraq: A Comparative Anthology with a Sample of Glossed Texts, Volume 2

• Geoffrey Khan
• Masoud Mohammadirad
• Dorota Molin
• Paul M. Noorlander

This comparative anthology showcases the rich and mutually intertwined folklore of three ethno-religious communities from northern Iraq: Aramaic-speaking (‘Syriac’) Christians, Kurdish Muslims and—to a lesser extent—Aramaic-speaking Jews.

• Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures
• Linguistics

The Neo-Aramaic Oral Heritage of the Jews of Zakho

• Oz Aloni

Aloni focuses on three genres of the Zakho community’s oral heritage: the proverb, the enriched biblical narrative and the folktale.

• Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures
• Linguistics

Points of Contact: The Shared Intellectual History of Vocalisation in Syriac, Arabic, and Hebrew

• Nick Posegay

This book investigates the theories behind Semitic vocalisation and vowel phonology in the early medieval Middle East, tracing their evolution to identify points of intellectual contact between Syriac, Arabic, and Hebrew linguists before the twelfth century.

• Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures
• Linguistics

A Handbook and Reader of Ottoman Arabic

• Esther-Miriam Wagner

This volume is the first linguistic work to focus exclusively on varieties of Christian, Jewish and Muslim Arabic in the Ottoman Empire of the 15th to the 20th centuries, and present Ottoman Arabic material in a didactic and easily accessible way.

• Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures
• Linguistics

New Perspectives in Biblical and Rabbinic Hebrew

• Aaron D. Hornkohl
• Geoffrey Khan

This volume contains peer-reviewed papers in the fields of Biblical and Rabbinic Hebrew that advance the field by the philological investigation of primary sources and the application of cutting-edge linguistic theory. These include contributions by established scholars and by students and early career researchers.

• Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures
• Linguistics

Studies in the Grammar and Lexicon of Neo-Aramaic

• Geoffrey Khan
• Paul M. Noorlander

The papers in this volume represent the full range of research that is currently being carried out on Neo-Aramaic dialects. They advance the field in numerous ways. In order to allow linguists who are not specialists in Neo-Aramaic to benefit from the papers, the examples are fully glossed.

• Education
• Linguistics

Simplified Signs: A Manual Sign-Communication System for Special Populations, Volume 1.

• John D. Bonvillian
• Nicole Kissane Lee
• Tracy T. Dooley
• Filip T. Loncke

Simplified Signs presents a system of manual sign communication intended for special populations who have had limited success mastering spoken or full sign languages. It is the culmination of over twenty years of research and development by the authors. The Simplified Sign System has been developed and tested for ease of sign comprehension, memorization, and formation by limiting the complexity of the motor skills required to form each sign, and by ensuring that each sign visually resembles the meaning it conveys. Lucid and comprehensive, this work constitutes a valuable resource that will enhance the communicative interactions of many different people, and will be of great interest to researchers and educators alike.

• Education
• Linguistics

Simplified Signs: A Manual Sign-Communication System for Special Populations, Volume 2.

• John D. Bonvillian
• Nicole Kissane Lee
• Tracy T. Dooley
• Filip T. Loncke

Simplified Signs presents a system of manual sign communication intended for special populations who have had limited success mastering spoken or full sign languages. It is the culmination of over twenty years of research and development by the authors. The Simplified Sign System has been developed and tested for ease of sign comprehension, memorization, and formation by limiting the complexity of the motor skills required to form each sign, and by ensuring that each sign visually resembles the meaning it conveys. Lucid and comprehensive, this work constitutes a valuable resource that will enhance the communicative interactions of many different people, and will be of great interest to researchers and educators alike.

• Law
• Linguistics
• Reference Books

A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law

• Jeffrey Love
• Inger Larsson
• Ulrika Djärv
• Christine Peel
• Erik Simensen

'A Lexicon of Medieval Nordic Law' is an indispensable resource for scholars and students of medieval Scandinavia. This polyglot dictionary draws on the vast and vibrant range of vernacular legal terminology found in medieval Scandinavian texts – terminology which yields valuable insights into the quotidian realities of crime and retribution; the processes, application and execution of laws; and the cultural and societal concerns underlying the development and promulgation of such laws.

• Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures
• Linguistics

Studies in Semitic Vocalisation and Reading Traditions

• Aaron D. Hornkohl
• Geoffrey Khan

This volume brings together papers relating to the pronunciation of Semitic languages and the representation of their pronunciation in written form. The papers focus on sources representative of a period that stretches from late antiquity until the Middle Ages. A large proportion of them concern reading traditions of Biblical Hebrew, especially the vocalisation notation systems used to represent them. Also discussed are orthography and the written representation of prosody.

• Education
• Linguistics

Creative Multilingualism: A Manifesto

• Katrin Kohl
• Rajinder Dudrah
• Andrew Gosler
• Suzanne Graham
• Martin Maiden
• Wen-chin Ouyang

Creative Multilingualism: A Manifesto is a welcome contribution to the field of modern languages, highlighting the intricate relationship between multilingualism and creativity, and, crucially, reaching beyond an Anglo-centric view of the world. Intended to spark further research and discussion, this book appeals to young people interested in languages, language learning and cultural exchange. It will be a valuable resource for academics, educators, policy makers and parents of bilingual or multilingual children.

• Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures
• Linguistics

Studies in Rabbinic Hebrew

• Shai Heijmans

This volume presents a collection of articles centring on the language of the Mishnah and the Talmud – the most important Jewish texts (after the Bible), which were compiled in Palestine and Babylonia in the latter centuries of Late Antiquity. Despite the fact that Rabbinic Hebrew has been the subject of growing academic interest across the past century, very little scholarship has been written on it in English.

• Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures
• Linguistics

The Tiberian Pronunciation Tradition of Biblical Hebrew, Volume 1

• Geoffrey Khan

This book presents the current state of knowledge of the Tiberian pronunciation tradition of Biblical Hebrew and a full edition of one of the key medieval sources, Hidāyat al-Qāriʾ ‘The Guide for the Reader’, by ʾAbū al-Faraj Hārūn. There is also an accompanying oral performance of samples of the reconstructed pronunciation by Alex Foreman.

• Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures
• Linguistics

The Tiberian Pronunciation Tradition of Biblical Hebrew, Volume 2

• Geoffrey Khan

This book presents the current state of knowledge of the Tiberian pronunciation tradition of Biblical Hebrew and a full edition of one of the key medieval sources, Hidāyat al-Qāriʾ ‘The Guide for the Reader’, by ʾAbū al-Faraj Hārūn. There is also an accompanying oral performance of samples of the reconstructed pronunciation by Alex Foreman.

• Anthropology, Archaeology and Religion
• Linguistics

The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya

• Selma K. Sonntag
• Mark Turin

This highly original and timely collection brings together case studies from salient areas of the Himalayan region to explore the politics of language contact. Promoting a linguistically and historically grounded perspective, The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya offers nuanced insights into language and its relation to power in this geopolitically complex region.

• Linguistics
• Reference Books

Dictionary of the British English Spelling System

• Greg Brooks

This book will tell all you need to know about British English spelling. It’s a reference work intended for anyone interested in the English language, especially those who teach it, whatever the age or mother tongue of their students. It will be particularly useful to those wishing to produce well-designed materials for teaching initial literacy via phonics, for teaching English as a foreign or second language, and for teacher training.

• Anthropology, Archaeology and Religion
• Linguistics

Why Do We Quote? The Culture and History of Quotation

• Ruth Finnegan

This book combines a down-to-earth account of contemporary quoting with an examination of its comparative and historical background. Drawing from anthropology, cultural history, folklore, cultural studies, sociolinguistics, literary studies and the ethnography of speaking, Ruth Finnegan’s fascinating study sets our present conventions in cross-cultural and historical perspective. She traces the curious history of quotation marks, examines the long tradition of quotation collections, and explores the uses of quotation in literary, visual and oral traditions. By tracking the changing definitions and control of quoting over the millennia, Finnegan sheds new light on ideas such as ‘imitation’, ‘allusion’, ‘authorship’, ‘originality’ and ‘plagiarism’.