Oct 20 2008
Geek city, or Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages
Yep, it’s another Book Without ISBN, this time a 1923 hard cover called Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages.
How do I happen to have such a book? you may wonder. Well…I don’t know. I can’t remember exactly when I bought it, but it’s got a stamp saying “Book Sale” on the corner of the inside cover. So I suspect it came from a University of Calgary library sale when I was a student there, a few years ago.
You will gradually discover that I love languages. I’ve got a gazillion books on language: the Russian textbooks I mentioned in the last post, textbooks for classical Greek, Latin (Wheelock!), French, German, Hebrew… I took French all through school, studied Russian in university, as well as biblical Hebrew… I audited a German reading course and a French reading course in university… I even have a textbook on Tolkien’s Elvish, a Klingon dictionary, Budge’s two volumes on Egyptian hieroglyphics, and a teach-yourself Sanskrit book. (I do not, however, to my great grief, have a book of cuneiform.)
And some day, by golly — I’m gonna learn them all!
Meanwhile, when I see a book like Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages on sale, especially a really old book — oh boy, am I going to buy it!
The very first section alone - “The Semitic Languages” - just gives me goosebumps. Chapters entitled “The Semitic Group,” “Babylon and Assyria,” “Canaan,” “Aramaic,” “Arabic,” “Abyssinian.” The reason isn’t just linguistic, but also stems from my love of ancient history.
There’s a reason why I’ve learned more Latin from my books (I’ve gotten to chapter 7 in Wheelock at least three times) than I’ve learned Italian. It’s the same reason why I’m way more interested in ancient Babylonian battles than the first World War. I sum it up with the phrase: “the deader the better.” I just love the ancient stuff. You got a language that isn’t spoken any more? I am positively avid. You’ve dug up some ancient tomb that might house the remains of Hatshepsut or Nebuchadnezzar? I am all. over. it. You find a book that talks about the Indo-European roots of a language or a mythology? Lock it up when I visit, or you’ll probably never see it again.
So while I don’t remember actually buying this book, I can tell you why I bought it: there is history of language in here. On top of, well, just language stuff! And - bonus! - non-English script!
I mean, on page 28, there is a chart called “The Consonant Sounds,” showing the way they are written in Arabic, Hebrew/Aramaic, and Abyssinian. I love going down the columns, finding out where the letters resemble each other and where they look totally unrelated. I just love stuff like that.
Then you get things like the bit on page 76, in the “Assimilation of labials” section, that go like this: “Arabic and Syriac tend to soften f/p to b before a voiced consonant…Assyrian shows hardening of b to p before t, s, k, h…” I read that, and I swoon.
So yeah. I live in Geek City, and I admit it. Which makes a book like this another one of my treasures. Again, without an ISBN.
That’s awesome!
Hahahaha! Now, that’s a realm of script I haven’t even begun to gather the courage to think of collecting yet — never mind the language itself. It would probably be the most logical to take, given the way the world’s going, but…
You’ve got courage, I tell ya. Heehee!
Meanwhile - hi, greenninja! I’m glad you stopped by!
A few years ago I came across a primer on Cherokee and now regret not getting it. It’s the only language I can think of that has a verb form that separates “I know this is/was because I saw it/experienced it” from “I think this is/was true because lots of other people say it is/was”. Languages are fun!
Oh my gosh. How wonderful! Now, that sort of distinction in a linguistic convention makes a lot more sense to me than the really old one distinguishing a pair of things from more than two. (e.g. the word “elder” properly meaning the older of TWO people).
Doesn’t it make you wanna weep, now, that you lost the chance to have that book?
As always, you manage to make a subject I might not have considered investigating in the past into something alluring & fascinating. I want to know more!
“Arabic and Syriac tend to soften f/p to b before a voiced consonant…
Yes — in modern Arabic there’s even no letter for ‘p’ (the letter for ‘b’ is given a couple extra diacritical marks when the sound is called for, usually in transliterated foreign words). Likewise for ‘f’ and ‘v’ (the latter being a foreign letter and sound).
So in Cairo the locals who do speak English will be offering to take ya to the Byramids for x number of Egyptian bounds, if you blease.
This reminds me of a joke I heard from an American residing in Egypt in the late ’80s: Mubarak had recently made his first trip to the US, an official visit, and was pleased with the official welcome by Bush41 — and duly impressed by much, but in awe of one particular thing he saw everywhere and was determined to have the same in Egypt. So as soon as he returned to Cairo he set his staff to drafting an official decree — every glass door in the country must henceforth bear the word “Mubarak”