Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jonathan Bailey <jonathan.bailey AT gmx.de>]

I know this seems quite a bit off the topic of Hebrew, particularly biblical 
Hebrew, but I 
am looking for recommendations for an Akkadian Grammar or Lehrbuch. I am 
getting 
into Paleohebrew Epigraphy, and the more I nose around in Reichsaramaic, 
Ugaritic, 
Paleohebrew, and the real theoretical areas of the origins and relations of 
the oldest 
semitic scripts, the more I find that Akkadian comes into play.

So I am wondering if any of you semitists know about a good grammar. All I 
can find in 
the stores here is Von Soden's book, and will have to rely on Amazon.com or 
some 
other sort of mail order, so won't be able to do my own shopping. I will have 
to trust 
what I am recommended. As complete a description of whatever grammars you are 
working with would be appreciated. I am absolutely not prepared at this point 
to make 
a heavy study of the langauge or actually learn it to fluency, but am more 
interested in 
being able to take a look at the various morphological patterns and concepts 
within 
the language so that I can see where all these suppositions about Hebrew and 
Aramaic are coming from. Preferably a book that has a strong latinized 
rendition, so I 
would not have to learn the many cuneiform signs to use the book, though I 
would like 
one that has cuneiform signs, so I would not have to buy another grammar if I 
really 
fall in love with the language and/or find the time to really learn it 
fluently. I would prefer 
more of a "Lehrbuch" with a gradiated introduction to concepts, with example 
sentences, perhaps excercises to do, and a glossary if possible, but if I 
must buy a 
reference grammar, I would be willing to do that too. Lastly, I would be 
interested in 
something modern, and printed with the latest technology. Some of these 
lexicons, 
grammars, etc, which are reprints of works from early in the century or 
earlier, with 
the various vocalizations, alphabets, and signs scribbled in by hand are 
hardly legible. I 
can imagine the situation with Akkadian could get horrible.

I know this is not the best place to go hunting for this sort of info, but I 
am betting on 
the chance that maybe someone here will have some information or be able to 
refer 
me further. I notice a list of books on amazon.com, but they provide 
virtually no 
information about them. Also, though I am aware of the most basic aspects of 
Akkadian history (old middle and late assyrian and babylonian dialects) I am 
not too 
aware of exactly which archaeological finds correspond to which dialect, and 
therefore 
cannot pick a dialect with the best literary corpus.

I can read English, German, and Modern Hebrew. Any recommendation for a 
grammar 
in Hebrew would require an ISBN, as I am not aware of how to order Israeli 
books from 
the internet.

Thanks for the help.



Jon