Studies in Semitic and Afroasiatic Linguistics Presented to Gene B Gragg

edited by Cynthia L. Miller

Book cover: Studies in Semitic and Afroasiatic Linguistics Presented to Gene B Gragg

Extent: 216 pages

Publisher: Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures

Subjects: Ancient Near East, Language & Linguistics

Series: Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization

Series volume number: 60, 60

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(March 2008)

ISBN: 9781885923417

Price: $60.00

In stock

Professor Gene B Gragg’s intellectual curiosity and rigorous linguistic method served as a bridge between the often disparate fields of Semitic philology and linguistics, between the various sub-disciplines that study the ancient Near East, and more. Essays presented at a symposium at the Oriental Institute on 2004 to honour of his retirement.


Professor Gene B Gragg’s unbounded intellectual curiosity and rigorous linguistic method have served as a bridge between the often disparate fields of Semitic philology and linguistics, between the various sub-disciplines that study the ancient Near East, between the study of ancient languages by means of scribal corpora and modern languages by means of language helpers, and between users and developers of computer programs for linguistic and text analysis. In so doing he has inspired a generation of students and colleagues to new vistas and greater horizons. All but one of the essays in this volume were originally presented at a symposium at the Oriental Institute on May 21-22, 2004, in honour of his retirement. The symposium was centered around Semitic and comparative Semitic linguistics, the areas of inquiry of most of Professor Gragg’s students; two other papers at the symposium (those by Bender and Militarev) directed our attention to his comparative Afroasiatic interests. An additional paper by Rebecca Hasselbach, who was recently hired to teach Comparative Semitics at the Oriental Institute, rounds off the volume.

Foreword. Gil J. Stein
Preface. Cynthia L. Miller The Research of Gene B. Gragg. Cynthia L. Miller Bibliography of the Publications and Communications of Gene B. Gragg. Charles E. Jones Gene B. Gragg as a Teacher. Robert D. Hoberman Dissertation Committee Service. Gene B. Gragg Chapter 1. The Afrasian Lexicon Reconsidered. M. Lionel Bender Chapter 2. PQD Revisited. Stuart Creason Chapter 3. May the Gods Preserve You! The Variability of Injunctive *la in Epigraphic South Arabian and Its Relation to Jussive Forms within South Semitic. Joseph L. Daniels II Chapter 4. Littera ex occidente: Toward a Functional History of Writing. Peter T. Daniels Chapter 5. The Story of Mem u Zine in the Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Bohtan. Samuel Ethan Fox Chapter 6. Prenasalization in Aramaic. W. Randall Garr Chapter 7. A New Masoretic "Spell Checker" or, a Practical Method for Checking the Accentual Structure and Integrity of Tiberian-Pointed Biblical Texts. Richard L. Goerwitz III Chapter 8. External Plural Markers in Semitic: A New Assessment. Rebecca Hasselbach Chapter 9. Semitic Triradicality or Prosodic Minimality? Evidence from Sound Change. Robert D. Hoberman Chapter 10. Akkadian-Egyptian Lexical Matches. Alexander Militarev Chapter 11. Constraints on Ellipsis in Biblical Hebrew. Cynthia L. Miller Chapter 12. The Ugaritic Alphabetic Cuneiform Writing System in the Context of Other Alphabetic Systems. Dennis Pardee Chapter 13. West Semitic Perspectives on the Akkadian Vetitive. David Testen Index

  • Edited by Cynthia L. Miller