Preliminary Material /A. MURTONEN -- FOREWORD /A. MURTONEN -- GENERAL INTRODUCTION /A. MURTONEN -- PROVISIONAL LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS /A. MURTONEN -- BIBLIOGRAPHY to Section A /A. MURTONEN -- TRANSLITERATION KEY /A. MURTONEN -- INTRODUCTION TO SECTION A: SECTIONAL SYNOPSIS AND COMMENTS ON THE NAME LIST /A. MURTONEN -- THE LIST OF NAMES /A. MURTONEN.

This is the third and final volume of the lexical part of the work. Section Bb contains comparative material to the root system from cognate languages, including sixteen Semitic and three Cushitic fairly well represented languages as well as Tuareg, Hausa, old Egyptian and Coptic quoted systematically; Omotic; Berber other than Tuareg, and Chadic other than Hausa likewise as groups; other Semitic and Cushitic less regularly; etymological and semantic comments follow dictionary entries; phonological discussion, including an attempt at the determination of pre-Semitic phonemes on the basis of actual attestation, is mainly concentrated in the introduction. Sections CDE contain the numerals (under 100), pronouns and particles, Hebrew material together with the comparative one and discussion after the entries.

This is the third and final volume of the lexical part of the work. Section Bb contains comparative material to the root system from cognate languages, including sixteen Semitic and three Cushitic fairly well represented languages as well as Tuareg, Hausa, old Egyptian and Coptic quoted systematically; Omotic; Berber other than Tuareg, and Chadic other than Hausa likewise as groups; other Semitic and Cushitic less regularly; etymological and semantic comments follow dictionary entries; phonological discussion, including an attempt at the determination of pre-Semitic phonemes on the basis of actual attestation, is mainly concentrated in the introduction. Sections CDE contain the numerals (under 100), pronouns and particles, Hebrew material together with the comparative one and discussion after the entries.

This work is a comprehensive survey of non-Masoretic Hebrew dialects and traditions against the background of the related, primarily other West Semitic lanugages, but also the less close East and South Semitic and non-Semitic branches of the Semito-Hamitic phylum are taken into account. The previously published Part One contains Hebrew and comparative lexical material. Part Two contains a systematic phonetic and phonological discussion including an historical survey. Part Three contains a discussion of morphological and syntactical aspects as well as a comprehensive statistical synopsis of the entire language structure compared with selected related languages.

In 1961 William L. Morgan published "The Hebrew Language in Its Northwest Semitic Background", in which he presented a state-of-the-art description of the linguistic milieu out of which Biblical Hebrew developed. Moran stressed the features found in earlier Northwest Semitic languages that are similar to Hebrew and he demonstrated how the study of those languages sheds light on Biblical Hebrew. Since Moran wrote, our knowledge of both the Hebrew of the biblical period and of Northwest Semitic has increased considerably. In the lights of new epigraphic finds and the significant advances in the fields of Biblical Hebrew and Northwest Semitic in the past four decades, the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem convened an international research group during the 2001-2002 academic year on the topic "Biblical Hebrew in Its Northwest Semitic setting: Typological and Historical Perspectives." The volume presents the fruits of the year-long collaboration and contains twenty articles based on lectures given during the year by members of the groups and invited guests. A wide array of subjects are discussed, all of which have implications for the study of Biblical Hebrew and Northwest Semitic.

The handbook The Semitic Languages offers a comprehensive reference tool for Semitic Linguistics in its broad sense. It is not restricted to comparative Grammar, although it covers also comparative aspects, including classification. By comprising a chapter on typology and sections with sociolinguistic focus and language contact, the conception of the book aims at a rather complete, unbiased description of the state of the art in Semitics. Articles on individual languages and dialects give basic facts as location, numbers of speakers, scripts, numbers of extant texts and their nature, attestation where appropriate, and salient features of the grammar and lexicon of the respective variety. The handbook is the most comprehensive treatment of the Semitic language family since many decades.