A historical relationship has long been suspected between the Northwest Semitic existential particles like Biblical Hebrew יֵשׁ and Biblical Aramaic אִיתַי , negative existentials like Syriac layt ... Show moreA historical relationship has long been suspected between the Northwest Semitic existential particles like Biblical Hebrew יֵשׁ and Biblical Aramaic אִיתַי , negative existentials like Syriac layt and Akkadian laššu, the Arabic negative copula laysa, and the East Semitic verbs i-ša-wu “to exist” (Eblaite) and išû “to have” (Akkadian). But due to various formal and semantic problems, no Proto-Semitic reconstruction from which all these words can regularly be derived has yet been put forward. This article argues that the Akkadian sense of “to have” is typologically the oldest and reconstructs a Proto-Semitic grammaticalization of *yiyθaw “it has” to *yθaw “there is/are”. Also in Proto-Semitic, a negative counterpart was formed through contraction with the negative adverb “not”, yielding *layθaw and *laθθaw. Show less
My dissertation examines the sociocultural underpinnings of name-giving by speakers of Semitic languages, focusing on the component of the onomasticon derived from animal names. The study deals... Show moreMy dissertation examines the sociocultural underpinnings of name-giving by speakers of Semitic languages, focusing on the component of the onomasticon derived from animal names. The study deals with three language groups: (1) Akkadian, (2) Northwest Semitic (i.e., Amorite, Hebrew, Ugaritic, Aramaic, and Phoenician), and (3) Arabic (classical and modern sources). The main findings of this study can be summarized as follows: (1) The occurrence of animal names in every corpus points to a common Semitic background imbued with metaphoric, affective, and apotropaic aspects. There is, however, no evidence for totemism. (2) Whereas names of herbivorous animals (wild and domestic) are found in every language examined, names of venomous animals, predators, and raptors are much more attested in West Semitic, especially Arabic, than in Akkadian, and this is apparently related to the symbolic nature of names within the social ideology of a society. (3) The survival of animal names in modern Arabic practices, specifically among nomads, points to an adherence to ‘pre-Islamic’ naming methods vis-à-vis normative Islamic views. These findings contribute to the discussion about naming in general and in the context of Semitic linguistic in particular. Show less
A diachronic survey of the Sumerian ideas about Beginnings __ cosmogony, theogony and anthropogeny __ is described. Third millennium Sumerian texts describe the 'marriage' of the primaeval pair an... Show moreA diachronic survey of the Sumerian ideas about Beginnings __ cosmogony, theogony and anthropogeny __ is described. Third millennium Sumerian texts describe the 'marriage' of the primaeval pair an and ki __ Heaven and Earth, thereafter the sky god An and the mother goddess Nin__ursa_a __ and the birth of their children: gods. From the second millennium onwards the Sumerian culture disappeared, except from the scribal schools; there was an increasing Semitic influence. The beginning became a primaeval ocean, Namma who gave birth to an-ki. Later the pair Aps_ and Ti'amat produced heaven and earth __ not yet in their final form __ and the ancestors of An. Aps_ and Ti'amat were killed. Marduk gave heaven and earth their final appearance with both halves of Ti'amat's body. In the Sumerian myth 'Enki and Ninma__', man is created with the aid of clay (Enki's idea), and borne by Namma. In the Akkadian text atra-__as_s a god is killed; with his flesh and blood together with clay man was created. The purpose of the creation of man was always the same: the gods do not want to provide for themselves; the maintenance of the gods is man's daily duty. Show less
