Peer-Reviewed Articles • Hebrew Language Resources 25

thorough list of corrections.5 Murtonen’s Hebrew in Its West Semitic Setting has the most exhaustive comparative Semitic lexicon of Biblical Hebrew roots, as well as a thorough discussion of non-Masoretic Hebrew dialects.6

There has been much work on comparative Semitics since the publication of Brockelmann’s Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik. Nevertheless, Brockelmann’s still remains the most comprehensive and systematic look at comparative Semitics.7 A modern and thorough introduction to each of the Semitic languages is presented in Weninger’s edited collection, which includes a host of essays surveying the grammar of ancient and modern Semitic languages. It also provides introductory essays to the different Semitic language groups, as well as different periods for some of the more broadly attested languages.8 Similarly, the collections of essays edited by Woodard and Hetzron, respectively, provide short grammatical sketches of Semitic languages.9 The essays in these collections are of varying quality. All provide adequate surveys of the essential grammatical features, but some provide surprising depth, given their brevity. Particularly noteworthy is Pardee’s essay on Ugaritic. Two more theoretical works on comparative Semitics are Lipinski’s and Moscati’s books, respectively.10 A work that combines the theoretical nature of Lipinski’s and Moscotti’s is Bergstrasser’s Introduction.11 The additions of Peter Daniels make this book an excellent resource for students of comparative Semitics.

Resources for the Languages Most Closely Related to Hebrew

Ugaritic

Ugaritic was discovered and deciphered in the 1930s, and comparative consideration of this language has revolutionized the study of Biblical Hebrew and scholars’ understanding of the cultural context of the Bible’s creation. Ugarit was a city in modern Northern Syria, close to Turkey. The texts discovered there attest to a language that is closely related to Biblical Hebrew, and the study of this language has provided a wealth of insight into Hebrew grammar and its lexicon. The greatest problem with Bauer and Leander’s Historische Grammatik work is that it was written before the deciphering of Ugaritic. It speaks to their mastery of the field, that even after the deciphering of Ugaritic, the work continues to have value. The most essential reference work for Ugaritic is Josef Tropper’s Ugaritische Grammatik.12 The second edition is a complete re-writing of the grammar in light of new texts, as well as a response and reflection on Pardee’s 400-page review of Tropper’s first edition.13 Pardee’s review is nearly a reference grammar in its own right. Because it is a paragraph-by-paragraph response to Tropper’s first edition, however, it is not a reference tool that can stand on its own.14

5 Na’ama Pat-El, “Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrew,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 131, no. 1 (January 2011): 139–41; David Steinberg, “A Review of Johsua Blau’s Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrew,” Houseof-david.ca, 2012, http://www.houseofdavid.ca/anc_heb_Blau_rev.pdf.

6 A. Murtonen, Hebrew in Its West Semitic Setting: A Comparative Survey of Non-Masoretic Hebrew Dialects and Traditions (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1986).

7 Carl Brockelmann, Grundriss Der Vergleichenden Grammatik Der Demitischen Sprachen (Reprint of the Berlin edition: Von Reuther & Reichard 1908-13.) (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1999).

8 Weninger et al., The Semitic Languages.

9 Woodard, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World’s Ancient Languages; Hetzron, The Semitic Languages.

10 Edward Lipiński, Semitic Languages: Outline of a Comparative Grammar, 2 nd ed., Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta (Leuven: Peeters, 2001); Sabatino Moscati et al., An Introduction to the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages: Phonology and Morphology, 2 nd ed., Porta Linguarum Orientalium 6 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1969).

11 Gotthelf Bergsträsser, Introduction to the Semitic Languages: Text Specimens and Grammatical Sketches, 2 nd ed., trans. Peter T Daniels (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1995).

12 Josef Tropper, Ugaritische Grammatik, 2 nd ed., Alter Orient Und Altes Testament 273 (Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2012).

13 Dennis Pardee, “Review Ugaritische Grammatik by Josef Tropper,” Achiv Fur Orientalistik 50 (2003): 1–404, http://orientalistik.univie.ac.at/publikationen/archiv-fuer-orientforschung/.

14 For a good recent bibliography of Ugaritic, see Gregorio Del Olmo Lete, “A Bibliography of Semitic Linguistics - Aula Orientalis,” 2012, http://www.aulaorientalis.org/semiticbibliography/index.html.