Graduate

Second quarter of Classical High Intermediate Arabic

This course is an introduction to Arabic linguistics, the scientific study of language and its structure.

The second quarter of Intermediate Arabic

Colloquial Levantine Arabic is a proficiency-based course designed to develop the linguistic skills necessary for personal day-to-day life. The course focuses on spoken rather than Standard written Arabic, and will therefore target primarily the oral/aural skills. Through the knowledge of Modern Standard Arabic and the introduction of colloquial vocabulary, expressions, and grammar, the course will build the students’ competence in spoken Arabic. Students will also be introduced to the Levantine culture.

Colloquial Egyptian Arabic Language and Culture

This sequence concentrates on the acquisition of speaking, reading, and aural skills in modern formal Arabic.

The seminar offers an exploration of religion and literature at the Neo-Assyrian court in the 8th and 7th c. BCE, through selected readings from the original cuneiform texts (in copy and photograph) in three different genres of textual production: 1) Hymns to the Gods; 2) Elegiac Poetry produced by court scholars for the enjoyment and benefit of the Assyrian king and other members of the court; and 3) Queries to the Sun-God that were produced by court diviners as part of the daily activities of the Assyrian state. By exploring in parallel literary genres that are traditionally studied independently, the course offers a unique approach to the way Assyrians conceived the relationship between the human and divine realms in the conduit of military, political and social life.

This course is the second quarter of the annual introductory sequence to the Babylonian language and the Cuneiform script. Students will further explore the grammar of Babylonian in its Old Babylonian dialect (19th-16th c. BCE) and read ancient inscriptions (especially the Laws of Hammu-rabi) in the Old Babylonian monumental script. They will also be introduced to the Old Babylonian cursive used in letters and the documents of everyday life.

In this course we will read Hittite cuneiform texts that refer to the Mycenean Greeks and their civilization. The goal of this course will be for students to gain a better understanding of the historical interactions between the Hittites, the Myceneans, and the other populations of Late Bronze Age western Asia Minor, and to prepare them to incorporate Hittite textual evidence into their own historical research on this region.

Advanced Readings in Hittite historical texts