Notwithstanding its early origins and its importance for the history of Hebrew linguistics, the Karaite grammatical tradition has received insufficient scholarly attention, mainly due to the scarcity of reconstructed primary sources emanating from this school of Hebrew grammar. This book reconstructs from unpublished manuscripts a medieval Karaite treatise on the grammar of Biblical Hebrew in Judaeo-Arabic Kitāb al-ʿUqūd fī Taṣārīf al-Luġa al-ʿIbrāniyya and studies verbal morphological theories expressed in this and related Karaite works. Furthermore, the book examines Karaite approaches to the verbal classification as well as didactic tools used in Karaite pedagogical grammars.

This book studies verbal morphological theories expressed in medieval Karaite grammars of Biblical Hebrew, in particular Kit?b al-?Uq?d f? Ta??r?f al-Lu?a al-?Ibr?niyya. Furthermore, it examines Karaite approaches to the verbal classification and didactic tools used in Karaite pedagogical grammars.

Revision of the author's thesis (master's)--Tel Aviv University, 1987.

"During the past century, numerous books and articles have appeared on the verbal system of Semitic languages. Thanks to the discovery of Ugaritic texts, Akkadian tablets, Canaanite letters found at Tell el-Amarna in Egypt, Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, our understanding of the phonology, morphology, and syntax of the Semitic languages has increased substantially. Dallaire focuses primarily on prose texts in Biblical Hebrew and Amarna Canaanite in which the verbal system (morphemes, syntax) expresses nuances of wishes, desires, requests, and commands. According to her, volitional concepts are found in every language and are expressed through verbal morphemes, syntagmas, intonation, syntax, and other linguistic means. The Syntax of Volitives in biblical Hebrew and Amarna Canaanite prose attempts to answer the following questions: do volitives function in a similar way in biblical Hebrew and Amarna Canaanite? Where and why is there overlap in morphology and syntax between these two languages? What morphological and syntactical differences exist between the volitional expressions of the languages? In attempting to answer these questions, the author bears in mind the fact that, within each of these two languages, scribes from different areas used specific dialectal and scribal traditions (for example, northern versus southern, peripheral versus central)"--

This volume presents a comprehensive study of Arabic morpho-phonology with its basics and intricacies, by making available a wide range of material from the 8th century A.D. until our days and exploring the main topics that arise. It uses as its point of departure an unused source: the end of the 13th century Marāḥ al-arwāḥ by Aḥmad b. ‘alī Mas‘ūd, which is critically edited and provided with an introduction, an English translation and an extensive commentary. It offers an analysis of many grammatical theories, paradigms, qur'anical citations, verses of poetry, dialectal variants and Semitic words and concludes with various indices that make the enormous body of information easily accessible.