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  • From: Donald Vance <donaldrvance AT mac.com>
  • To: James Spinti <JSpinti AT Eisenbrauns.com>
  • Cc: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Cognate languages (was Ugaritic Studies)
  • Date: Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:55:20 -0600

Ditto here. Here at ORU, we offer a MA in Bib Lit with a concentration in advanced languages and for that I offer Akkadian (we work through Caplice and read the Code of Hammurapi), Syriac (we use Georgias Press' Leshon Syriayoo or whatever the heck it's name is: nice chrestomathy in the back), Bib Aramaic, Ugaritic, and also Coptic (great fun--read out of the Gospel of Judas), Middle Egyptian (but I don't plan on teaching that again, complete waste of my time given my biblo-centric interests), and the occassional LXX Greek class. Quranic Arabic would be quite fruitful. All of these would make reading Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions easier. All of these languages gives you the cultural
and linguistic millieu in which you can better understand Classical Hebrew and the Bible. From this you'll learn that the Masoretic pointing is a genuine development of the language and not some artificial encrusting as some on this list seem to believe. Just couldn't help that last dig. :-)

Sent from my iPhone

Donald R. Vance
donaldrvance AT mac.com

On Jan 5, 2010, at 4:06 PM, James Spinti <JSpinti AT Eisenbrauns.com> wrote:

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
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