Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Chris and Nel" <wattswestmaas AT eircom.net>]

Hallo Members of the board,  I'm back again (though my absence was 
undoubtedly appreciated since I am known for constantly asking questions and 
never being able to give answers) Now I am looking for some insider 
information about a book which I am sure most of you have on your 
bookshelves.:

Introduction to the Semitic Languages
Text Specimens and Grammatical Sketches

by Gotthelf BergstrasserPaperback 276 pages (June 1995)
Translated by Peter T. Daniels ISBN: 093146417X

My question is simple, is this book full of linguistic science and detailed 
grammatical analysis - which is then very much a no-go area for me.  Or 
could it be well beneficial to someone at an elementary level who wants to 
familiarise himeself but not TOO deeply bogged down in masses of case ending 
variations and phoneme replacements in a complex array of different semitic 
dialects?  I understand that it is comparative semitic languages through 
charts and sketches (further information i can not find) and the only review 
I could find was that only people with certain linguistic knowledge would 
appreciate Gotthelf's analysis?!?!?.  Yet I am eager to find out more about 
the Minaean scripts and the "proto-semitic" scripts, and northwest semitics 
in general.  Unfortunately the web can only take me so far since I do not 
have access to all those university archives and papers written by so many. 
Looking at wadi el hol and serabet el Khadim all day is the best that I can 
find along with some phonecian (although I prefer to name it educated 
canaanite).

So any advice would be appreciated since this book is very expensive in 
England and you can not even buy it in Ireland.

Thanking you
Chris Watts
Ireland.