Biblical Hebrew Forum

["James Spinti" <JSpinti AT Eisenbrauns.com>]

Now that is opening a real can of worms! You will doubtless get a food
fight here, as each person lists their own favorite languages. Of
course, others will claim all you need is biblical Hebrew; all other
languages need not apply :)

Personally, I would recommend Aramaic--Imperial through it's Syriac
incarnation, Ugaritic, at least a first year of Akkadian (the signs
would be great, but for your purposes unnecessary). If you can learn at
least enough Arabic to use a lexicon, you might find it useful. Read
some Hebrew inscriptions, too, to get a feel for the language outside
its literary appearance in the Hebrew Bible.

Once you've done that, grab a comparative Semitic grammar (Moscati comes
to mind). Or, to get an idea of why handling a few "extra" languages is
helpful, grab the comparative grammar before you know anything else :)

Let the fight begin...

James

________________________________
James Spinti
Marketing Director, Book Sales Division
Eisenbrauns, Good books for more than 30 years
Specializing in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies
jspinti at eisenbrauns dot com
Web: http://www.eisenbrauns.com
Phone: 574-269-2011 ext 226
Fax: 574-269-6788 

-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Matthew
Johnston
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 4:55 PM
To: B-Hebrew
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ugaritic Studies

To everyone who took the time to answer my questions on Ugaritic.  The 
responses were a warm welcome to the list.  I am feeling much more sure
of 
my course of study.  Now all I need are the finances to purchase all of
the 
volumes that were so kindly recommended.

A few follow up questions concerning semitic languages:

If the goal ultimately goal is to better understand the Hebrew Bible,
what 
other semitic languages are essential to know and or helpful and why?
What would be there commended course of study?  (e.g. Hebrew > Aramaic >

Ugaritic)?

Thanks again,

Matt Johnston
Student The Expositors Seminary

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Donald R. Vance, Ph.D." <donaldrvance AT mac.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 3:23 PM
To: "James Spinti" <JSpinti AT Eisenbrauns.com>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ugaritic Studies

> Matt,
> I, too, studied under Pardee at UoC and his reputation is stellar.
> I've used all the grammars that have been suggested (all excellent
> suggestions, btw) and Bordeuil & Pardee is the most useful. Having the
> photographs of the texts is extremely useful. I used it in the French
> and just acquired the English revision. I strongly recommend the
> vocalization of texts because it forces one to deal with the details
> of grammar that are too easily glossed over when one merely
> translates. B&P's grammar works from this perspective as well and will
> help in that regard. This process also helps your Hebrew and other
> semitic languages as well. Get SBL Writings from the Ancient World
> volume on Ugaritic poetry and you will have a transcription and an
> accessible translation as well. Use it as a sort of key. Sivan's big
> grammar is a reference grammar (Brill). The others are introductory
> grammars.
>
> My two cents,
>
>
> Donald R. Vance, Ph.D.
> Professor of Biblical Languages and Literature
> Oral Roberts University
> dvance AT oru.edu
> donaldrvance AT mac.com
>
>
> On Jan 5, 2010, at 8:06 AM, James Spinti wrote:
>
>>
>> Matt,
>>
>> That's a loaded question for two reasons: 1. I studied under Pardee
at
>> the U of Chicago, so I am more than a little biased. And 2. I work
for
>> Eisenbrauns, so anything I say is suspect :)
>>
>> But, in all honesty, I would suggest the Bordeuil & Pardee for a
>> couple
>> of reasons: 1.  High quality photos of the tablets on the CD. 2. Up
to
>> date--just released in November. 3. It's cheaper than most of the
>> other
>> ones.
>>
>> Rolf's suggestion to read--especially KRT--is excellent.
>>
>> James
>> ________________________________
>> James Spinti
>> Marketing Director, Book Sales Division
>> Eisenbrauns, Good books for more than 30 years
>> Specializing in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies
>> jspinti at eisenbrauns dot com
>> Web: http://www.eisenbrauns.com
>> Phone: 574-269-2011 ext 226
>> Fax: 574-269-6788
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
>> [mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Matthew
>> Johnston
>> Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 10:31 PM
>> To: James Spinti; b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
>> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ugaritic Studies
>>
>> James,
>>
>> Thanks for taking the time to respond.  It was helpful.
>>
>> If you had to recommend I get one other text to use after/in
>> conjunction
>>
>> with Schniedewind would it be Bordreuil & Pardee?
>>
>> Matt Johnston
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------
>> From: "James Spinti" <JSpinti AT Eisenbrauns.com>
>> Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 5:35 PM
>> To: "Matthew Johnston" <MatthewJay AT hotmail.com>;
>> <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
>> Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] Ugaritic Studies
>>
>>> Matt,
>>>
>>> Since nobody has responded yet, I'll take a stab at it.
>>>
>>> Vowel reconstruction: largely an academic exercise in historical
>>> linguistics. It also allows people to see how you are parsing the
>> word.
>>>
>>> Vocab: being that you have a basic Hebrew vocabulary, you will
>> probably
>>> just acquire the Ugaritic one by reading.
>>>
>>> Schniedewind is fairly good. There are others out there, as well:
>>> Sivan, A Grammar of the Ugaritic Language (Brill--expensive)
>>>
>>> Sivan, Ugaritic Grammar (Bialik--in modern Hebrew)
>>>
>>> Tropper, Ugaritisch: Kurzgefasste Grammatik mit Ubungstexten und
>> Glossar
>>> (Ugarit Verlag--German) He also has an exhaustive grammar...
>>>
>>> Segert, A Basic Grammar of Ugaritic Language with Selected Texts and
>>> Glossary (U of California)
>>>
>>> Bordreuil & Pardee, A Manual of Ugaritic (Eisenbrauns--translation &
>>> correction of their French version)
>>>
>>> Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook (Pontifical Biblical Institute--very dated
>> and
>>> not at all user friendly)
>>>
>>> Online resources:
>>> http://jimgetz.org/ has some good posts on the KRT epic
>>> www.dailyhebrew.com has a long bibliography of resources
>>> http://www.itanakh.org/languages/ugaritic/index.htm
>>>
>>> I'm sure there are others, but that should get you started.
>>>
>>> James
>>> ________________________________
>>> James Spinti
>>> Marketing Director, Book Sales Division
>>> Eisenbrauns, Good books for more than 30 years
>>> Specializing in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies
>>> jspinti at eisenbrauns dot com
>>> Web: http://www.eisenbrauns.com
>>> Phone: 574-269-2011 ext 226
>>> Fax: 574-269-6788
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
>>> [mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Matthew
>>> Johnston
>>> Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2010 10:06 PM
>>> To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
>>> Subject: [b-hebrew] Ugaritic Studies
>>>
>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>> I am new the list and have some questions concerning Ugaritic (I am
>>> pretty sure this is an appropriate topic).  I am just looking for
any
>>> advice or digital resources anyone might have concerning the study
of
>>> the Ugaritic language.  I have studied Biblical Hebrew for about 2
>> years
>>> and and been studying (to the best of my ability) Ugaritic for 2
>>> weeks
>>> or so.  I have A Primer on Ugaritic: Language, Culture and
Literature
>> by
>>> William M. Schniedewind and Joel H. Hunt and have found it helpful
so
>>> far, but am feeling like a little more direction would be helpful.
>> With
>>> that background in mind here are some questions I have been having
>> (any
>>> help with all or some would be greatly appreciated):
>>>
>>> How important is it to learn how to reconstruct vowel (the whole
>> process
>>> seems so subjective)?
>>> Should I be memorizing vocabulary (right now I have just memorized a
>> few
>>> words and the rest I just figure out based on my Hebrew/look up)?
>>> Does anyone have any digital vocabulary cards (if people even make
>>> flashcards for Ugaritic vocabulary)?
>>> Is the book I have (mentioned above) the best for self-teaching?  Do
>> I
>>> need to be using something in conjunction with it?
>>> Are there any online/digital resources that are useful (I've only
>>> come
>>> across Quartz Hill School of Theology, which looks less than
>>> helpful)?
>>>
>>> Any other tips/secret keys to unlocking the language are welcome.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Matt
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> b-hebrew mailing list
>>> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
>>> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
>>>
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