An introduction to the grammar of the principal language of the Babylonian Talmud. Utilizes the inductive method, whereby grammar is learned directly as it is encountered in the text. The texts on which the manual is based are mainly non-legal, although legal texts are included in the later chapters of the book. Geared primarily for beginners in Talmud and Jewish studies, some knowledge of Hebrew is expected by the author.

This book is the first wide-ranging study of the grammar of the Babylonian Aramaic used in the Talmud and post-Talmudic Babylonian literature to be published in English in a century.

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.

This is a translation of the 1911 Biblisch-Talmudiesche Medizin , an extensively researched text that gathers the medical and hygienic references found in the Jewish sacred, historical, and legal literatures, written by German physician and scholar Julius Preuss (1861-1913).

In Targum Song of Songs and Late Jewish Literary Aramaic, Andrew W. Litke offers the first language analysis of Targum Song of Songs. The Targum utilizes grammatical and lexical features from different Aramaic dialects, as is the case with other Late Jewish Literary Aramaic (LJLA) texts. The study is laid out as a descriptive grammar and glossary, and in the analysis, each grammatical feature and lexical item is compared with the pre-modern Aramaic dialects and other exemplars of LJLA. By clearly laying out the linguistic character of this Targum in this manner, Litke is able to provide added clarity to our understanding of LJLA more broadly. Litke also provides a new transcription and translation of the Paris Héb. 110 manuscript.

This remarkable survey introduces critical knowledge and insights that have emerged over the past forty years, including targum manuscripts discovered this century and targums known in Aramaic but only recently translated into English. Prolific scholars Flesher and Chilton guide readers in understanding the development of the targums; their relationship to the Hebrew Bible; their dates, language, and place in the history of Christianity and Judaism; and their theologies and methods of interpretation.

Gunter Stemberger's revision of H. L. Strack's classic introduction to rabbinic literature, which appeared in its first English edition in 1991, was widely acclaimed. Gunter Stemberger and Markus Bockmuehl have now produced this updated edition, which is a significant revision (completed in 1996) of the 1991 volume. Following Strack's original outline, Stemberger discusses first the historical framework, the basic principles of rabbinic literature and hermeneutics and the most important Rabbis. The main part of the book is devoted to the Talmudic and Midrashic literature in the light of contemporary rabbinic research. The appendix includes a new section on electronic resources for the study of the Talmud and Midrash. The result is a comprehensive work of reference that no student of rabbinics can afford to be without.

As the title indicates, this unique resource is a manual on comparative linguistics, with the examples taken exclusively from Semitic languages. It is an innovative volume that recalls the earlier tradition of textbooks of comparative philology, which, however, exclusively treated Indo-European languages. It is suited for students with at least a year of a Semitic language. By far the largest component of the book are the nine wordlists that provide the data to be manipulated by the student. Says reviewer Peter Daniels, the wordlists "constitute a unique resource for all of comparative linguistics--a considerable quantity of uniform data from a host of related languages. They would be useful for any class in comparative linguistics, not just for those interested specifically in Semitic." Scattered throughout the text are 25 exercises based on the wordlists that provide a good introduction to the methods of comparativists. Also included are paradigms of the phonological systems of ten Semitic languages as well as Coptic and a form of Berber. A bibliography that guides the student into further reading in Semitic linguistics completes the volume.