Overview

This volume is the first of its kind to offer a detailed, monographic treatment of Semitic genealogical classification. The introduction describes the author's methodological framework and surveys the history of the subgrouping discussion in Semitic linguistics, and the first chapter provides a detailed description of the proto-Semitic basic vocabulary. Each of its seven main chapters deals with one of the key issues of the Semitic subgrouping debate: the East/West dichotomy, the Central Semitic hypothesis, the North West Semitic subgroup, the Canaanite affiliation of Ugaritic, the historical unity of Aramaic, and the diagnostic features of Ethiopian Semitic and of Modern South Arabian. The book aims at a balanced account of all evidence pertinent to the subgrouping discussion, but its main focus is on the diagnostic lexical features, heavily neglected in the majority of earlier studies dealing with this subject. The author tries to assess the subgrouping potential of the vocabulary using various methods of its diachronic stratification. The hundreds of etymological comparisons given throughout the book can be conveniently accessed through detailed lexical indices.

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9781614517269

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"""[...] this is an immensely important and long-overdue piece of scholarship [...] a major contribution to the field. [...] an exceptional book in its coverage and accessibility. It is well written, well organized and fully and coherently transliterated."" Na'ama Pat El in: Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 2017; 112(2): 153-157"

[...] this is an immensely important and long-overdue piece of scholarship [...] a major contribution to the field. [...] an exceptional book in its coverage and accessibility. It is well written, well organized and fully and coherently transliterated. Na'ama Pat El in: Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 2017; 112(2): 153-157

Author Information

Leonid Kogan, Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies, Russian State University for the Humanities Moscow, Russian Federation.

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