Spring

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

This course consists of readings in cuneiform sources and scholarly literature on the classification of astronomical tablets, measurement of celestial time and space, invention of the zodiac, astronomical omen series and reports, the Mul-apin star compendium and astrolabes, astronomical diaries, goal year texts, horoscopes, and mathematical astronomy. 

The third quarter of the Elementary Akkadian sequence continues with the learning of the Akkadian language and the cuneiform script. As in the previous quarters, readings and exercises are from John Huehnergard, A Grammar of Akkadian (3rd edition), Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2011.

<p>This course explores the ways linguistic theory can be used in the study of extinct languages.</p><p>We will investigate how to use typological data and the predictive force of modern theories to critically assess claims regarding grammatical issues in extinct languages. In case of a conflict between general linguistics and grammatical descriptions arising from the philological tradition, students will be expected to indicate how to remedy this situation, or even to solve the issue.</p><p>We will also start developing a method for fact-finding in extinct languages. In the absence of native speakers it becomes nearly impossible to judge the ungrammaticality of a sentence, because the absence of a construction may simply be an accident of transmission. So, instead of using form to arrive at judgments regarding structure, meaning, or use (the semasiological approach), we will reverse the process and start with well-defined concepts from the fields of morpho-syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Through this onomasiological approach we will be able to detect phenomena that may have gone unnoticed in the philological tradition.</p><p>The course will focus on three topics that are known to be relevant for several extinct languages of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern area, covering many extinct languages ((near)-isolates, Sumerian, Elamite, Hurrian, Semitic (Akkadian, Ugaritic, Phoenician, Hebrew Aramaic), Indo-European (Hittite, Indo-Iranian, Greek, Latin, etc. etc.), Egyptian:<ol><li>Ergativity (typology, morpho-syntax, semantics)</li><li>Topic and Focus (morpho-syntax, information structure)</li><li>Lexical and grammatical aspect (semantics, morphology, discourse grammar)</li></ol>This list of topics may be modified depending on the interests of the students. Students have worked on Chukchi (N-E Russia), Kiriri (Amazon), Old French, Ancient Greek, Egyptian, Old Persian, Hittite, and Sumerian.</p>

After an introduction to Lydian and Carian history, the position of Lydia and Caria in Anatolia and the relation of the Lydian and Carian language to each other as well as to other languages in the same area, we will go over the Lydian and Carian (alphabetic) scripts, their grammar, and we will read a number of relevant texts.

This three-quarter sequence covers basic grammar and cuneiform writing system of the Hittite language. It also familiarizes the student with the field's tools (i.e. dictionaries, lexica, sign list). Readings come from all periods of Hittite History (1650 to 1180 B.C.).