Comparative Semitic Linguistics : : A Manual / / Patrick R. Bennett.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn State University Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2014
• VerfasserIn: Bennett, Patrick R.,
• MitwirkendeR: Daniels, Peter T.,
• Place / Publishing House: University Park, PA : : Penn State University Press, , [2021]; ©1998
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (288 p.)

As the title indicates, this unique resource is a manual on comparative linguistics, with the examples taken exclusively from Semitic languages. It is an innovative volume that recalls the earlier tradition of textbooks of comparative philology, which, however, exclusively treated Indo-European languages. It is suited for students with at least a year of a Semitic language. By far the largest component of the book are the nine wordlists that provide the data to be manipulated by the student. Says reviewer Peter Daniels, the wordlists "constitute a unique resource for all of comparative linguistics-a considerable quantity of uniform data from a host of related languages. They would be useful for any class in comparative linguistics, not just for those interested specifically in Semitic." Scattered throughout the text are 25 exercises based on the wordlists that provide a good introduction to the methods of comparativists. Also included are paradigms of the phonological systems of ten Semitic languages as well as Coptic and a form of Berber. A bibliography that guides the student into further reading in Semitic linguistics completes the volume.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Tables -- List of Exercises -- Shukran -- To the Reader -- Part 1: Basics of Descriptive Linguistics -- Part 2: A General Introduction to the Semitic Language Family -- Part 3: An Outline of Comparative Linguistics -- Part 4: Lexicostatistics: Some Alternatives -- Part 5: Linguistic Reconstruction: Comparative and Internal -- Part 6: Various Less-Common Techniques -- Part 7: Onward and Beyond -- Conclusion -- Paradigms A: Phonology -- Paradigms B: Morphology: Nouns and Pronouns -- Paradigms C: Morphology: Verbs -- Bibliography -- Wordlist A: Cognates and Skewed Re˘exes -- Wordlist B: Pair-Referenced Lexicostatistics and Subgrouping -- Wordlist C: Norm-Referenced and Pair-Referenced Lexicostatistics -- Wordlist D: Diglossia and Language Contact -- Wordlist E: Isoglosses -- Wordlist F: Berber and Semitic -- Wordlist G: Proto-Semitic A -- Wordlist H: Proto-Semitic B -- Wordlist I: Proto-Semitic C -- Appendix: Classical Semitic Scripts -- Index 1: Languages of Glosses -- Index 2: Glosses