This book offers a thorough, authoritative account of the branches of Semitic. These include some of the world's oldest attested languages, among them Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, and Ethiopic, as well as various modern languages. Gideon Goldenberg describes their history, geographical distribution, writing systems, and genetic classification. He examines their main features and distinctive characteristics, including their phonology, morphemes, derivational morphology, verbal systems, syntactic relationships, and their typological significance. He also discusses the pioneering work and achievements of medieval Arabic and Hebrew scholars in theoretical and descriptive aspects of grammar, lexicography, and philology. Professor Goldenberg's balanced, undogmatic account presents the fruits of a lifetime of original research: it will be widely welcomed by scholars and advanced students of the Semitic languages and linguistic typology.

About the Author
Gideon Goldenberg is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been a Member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities since 1996 and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy since 1999. He has published extensively on Neo-Ethiopian languages, Syriac, Hebrew, and Neo-Aramaic, syntactic relations and typology, and on the history of linguistics in the Middle East.

Reviews
Gideon Goldenberg's Semitic Languages:Features, Structures, Relations, Processes is a very valuable introduction to the Semitic languages and their grammatical peculiarities. * Christian Stadel, BiOr no. LXXI 3/4 *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199644919
Author Gideon Goldenberg
Format Hardback
Page Count 384
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 828g
Dimensions(mm) 252mm * 186mm * 27mm