Winter

The first quarter of High Intermediate Modern Standard Arabic

The first quarter of High Intermediate Modern Standard Arabic

ARAB 20102 is the winter quarter continuation of the Intermediate Arabic course that began with ARAB 20101 last fall. We are working through the central chapters of Al-Kitaab Part 2. As in any language class, we address all four of the fundamental skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. A particular focus this quarter is making sure that students have a solid, comprehensive understanding of the rules of Arabic syntax. In addition to readings and exercises from the textbook, we often look at articles from Arabic-language news media.

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.

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

In this course, we will read Akkadian letters from the correspondence found at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt, that date to the 14th century BCE. We will read letters from various locations, including Babyonia, Assyria, Mitanni and Hatti, although the main focus of the class will be on the letters sent from Canaan. In all these corpora we will look at features that mark the language as different from core Babylonian and that reveal substrate influence from the native languages of the scribes.

This course consists of readings in cuneiform texts on therapeutic prescriptions, incantations, and rituals, pharmacopoeia, the Diagnostic Handbook, medical commentaries, and medical astrology, along with scholarly articles on various ancient medical topics. 

Readings from the Code of Hammurapi, in the Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian.

Advanced Readings in Hittite (Letters)

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.).