This book explores the relationship between the so-called ventive morpheme in Akkadian (-am) and the related suffixes -n and -a in other Semitic languages, including Amarna Canaanite, Ugaritic, Hebrew, and Arabic. Using formal reconstructions of the various morphemes and a functional analysis of their different usages, Ambjörn Sjörs convincingly argues that these endings are cognate morphemes that were formally and functionally related to the ventive morpheme in Akkadian. Sjörs provides a systematic description of non-allative ventive verbs in Old Babylonian, the energic and volitive in Amarna Canaanite, the energic and lengthened prefix conjugation in Ugaritic, the lengthened imperfect consecutive in Biblical Hebrew, and the subjunctive and energic in Classical Arabic. Sjörs explains how these verb forms were used within the framework of grammaticalization theory and demonstrates how the suffixes are historically related. Clearly and persuasively argued, Motion, Voice, and Mood in the Semitic Verb sheds valuable light on the Akkadian ventive and its relationship to the other related morphemes. It will be welcomed by linguists specializing in Akkadian, Amarna Canaanite, Ugaritic, Hebrew, and Arabic.

This book explores the relationship between the so-called ventive morpheme in Akkadian (-am) and the related suffixes -n and -a in other Semitic languages, including Amarna Canaanite, Ugaritic, Hebrew, and Arabic. Using formal reconstructions of the various morphemes and a functional analysis of their different usages, Ambjörn Sjörs convincingly argues that these endings are cognate morphemes that were formally and functionally related to the ventive morpheme in Akkadian. Sjörs provides a systematic description of non-allative ventive verbs in Old Babylonian, the energic and volitive in Amarna Canaanite, the energic and lengthened prefix conjugation in Ugaritic, the lengthened imperfect consecutive in Biblical Hebrew, and the subjunctive and energic in Classical Arabic. Sjörs explains how these verb forms were used within the framework of grammaticalization theory and demonstrates how the suffixes are historically related. Clearly and persuasively argued, Motion, Voice, and Mood in the Semitic Verb sheds valuable light on the Akkadian ventive and its relationship to the other related morphemes. It will be welcomed by linguists specializing in Akkadian, Amarna Canaanite, Ugaritic, Hebrew, and Arabic.

The consecutive tenses are fundamental in all descriptions of Classical Hebrew grammar. They are even basic to the textbooks on Biblical Hebrew. Being fundamental in the verbal system, and part of any beginner’s grammar, they pose a serious problem to a linguistic understanding of the verbal system, since grammars describe an alternation of ‘forms’ or ‘tenses’ in double pairs: wayyiqṭol alternates with its ‘equivalent’ qaṭal, and wə-qaṭal alternates with its ‘equivalent’ yiqṭol. This ‘enigma’ in the verbal system is handled in the book by recognising that the alternation of the consecutive tenses with other tenses, in the reality of the text, represents a linking of clauses. The ‘consecutive tenses’ are clause-types with a natural language connective wa- directly followed by a finite verbal morpheme, a type of clause that expressed continuity in the earliest stage of Semitic. The commonly held assumption that there is a special ‘consecutive waw’ is unwarranted. The use of the ‘consecutive’ clause-types in order to express discourse continuity indicates that Classical Hebrew has retained the old unmarked declarative word order of Semitic syntax. Seen in the light of recent research on the Tiberian reading tradition, the ‘consecutive’ wayyiqṭol can be analysed as a retention of the old Semitic past perfective *wa-yaqtul, which was pronounced wa-yiqṭol in Classical Hebrew. The ‘consecutive’ wə-qāṭal (pronounced wa-qaṭal in the classical language) constitutes the result of an internal Hebrew development into a construction (in the sense of Joan Bybee) already foreshadowed in the earliest Northwest Semitic languages. The book understands the ‘consecutive tenses’ as discourse continuity clauses, which typically form chains of main line clauses. Such chains can be interrupted by other types of clauses. This interruption is a clause linking that receives special attention in the interpretation of the Classical Hebrew verbal system. Chapter six presents a regenerated text linguistics founded on the new terminology. A clause linking approach is the central methodological procedure in this book. To this must be added diachronic typology in a comparative Semitic setting. The linguistic examples of clause linking are gathered from a large Classical Hebrew corpus, the Pentateuch and the Book of Judges, and made searchable in a database of 6559 non-archaic text records.

Since its publication in 2008, A Grammar of the Hittite Language has been the definitive Hittite reference and teaching tool. This new edition brings Hoffner and Melchert’s essential work up to date, incorporating the dramatic progress achieved in the field over the past fifteen years. Heavily revised and expanded, the second edition recasts the discussion of topics to better serve the linguistically informed reader. A reorganized presentation of the synchronic facts makes them accessible to both Hittitologists and linguists interested in Hittite for historical or typological purposes. Part 1 provides a thorough overview of Hittite grammar that is grounded in abundant textual examples. Part 2 is a tutorial that guides students through a series of graded lessons with illustrative sentences for translation. The tutorial is keyed to the reference grammar and includes extensive updated notes. Taken together with Part 2: Tutorial, which guides students through a series of graded lessons keyed to this reference grammar, the work remains the most comprehensive and detailed Hittite grammar ever produced.

A Glossary of Old Syrian: l–z is the second of two volumes that aim to map the lexicon of Old Syrian as it can be extracted and reconstructed from the (Old Akkadian) Eblaite through the Old and Middle Babylonian corpora. Referring to a continuum of dialects spoken in the Syrian-Levantine and Syrian-Mesopotamian regions through the third and second millennia BCE, “Old Syrian” is a diachronically conservative, geographically pluricentric, and pragmatically multilayered linguistic cluster. As such, the Glossary pays special attention to the distribution of lexical data along diachronic, diatopic, and diastratic criteria. Given the extent and widely dispersed nature of this data, entries are supported by the most representative corpora of the Old Syrian linguistic landscape. Each entry is headed by an etymon, a kind of prelinguistic consonantal skeleton, and further information about different lexemes, their roots, and their derivations is provided in subentries. As the lexicography of Old Syrian remains uncertain, the Glossary includes leading interpretative opinions alongside the most relevant Semitic material to corroborate the lexical choices it adopts. Bibliographical references are succinct and restricted, as a rule, to texts easily found in any Assyriological or Semitic library. Intended as a reference work in support of future study, A Glossary of Old Syrian offers a clear view of the state of the field.

This is the first major study of the Biblical Hebrew verbal system of a prophetic book. It is also the first book-length study in over 60 years to focus on how genre affects the Hebrew verbal system. It advances a data-driven argument that Biblical Hebrew verb forms do not function one way in prose and another way in poetry. Lastly, the author addresses the diachronic development of Hebrew between the destruction of the First Temple and the writing of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

In this magnum opus, N. J. C. Kouwenberg presents a thoroughgoing, modern analysis of the Akkadian verbal system, taking into account all of the currently available evidence for the language during the course of the long period of its attestation. The book achieves this goal through two strategies: (1) to describe the Akkadian verbal system, as comprehensively as the data permit; and (2) to reconstruct its prehistory on the basis of internal evidence and reconstruction, comparison with cognate languages, and typological evidence. Akkadian has one of the longest documented histories of any language: data from nearly two-and-one-half millennia are available, even if the stream of data is sometimes interrupted and not always as copious as we would like. During the course of this history, numerous developments took place, illustrating how languages change over time and offering parallels for reconstruction of changes that occurred in poorly documented periods. As a result, this book will be of great interest, in the first place, for all students of Akkadian, both the language and the literature that is documented in that language; and in the second place, for all students of language and linguistics who are interested in the study of how languages are shaped, develop, and change during the course of a long history.