Introduction to the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages - ASJ500025

• Title: Introduction to the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages
• Guaranteed by: Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies (21-USPV)
• Faculty: Faculty of Arts
• Actual: from 2025
• Semester: summer
• Points: 1
• E-Credits: 4
• Examination process: summer s.:
• Hours per week, examination: summer s.:1/1, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: unlimited / unlimited (unknown)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment
• Guarantor: prof. PhDr. Petr Zemánek, CSc.
• Teacher(s): prof. PhDr. Petr Zemánek, CSc.
• Class: A - Mezioborová nabídka VP: Lingvistika; A – Mezioborová nabídka VP: Ostatní; Exchange - 09.3 Linguistics; Exchange - 09.9 Others-Lang. & Philolog. Sciences

Annotation

Overview of the attested Semitic languages, basics of classification
Introduction to the main problems of the reconstruction of the proto-Semitic phonological system
Problems of individual phonological correlations
Basic methods of the reconstruction of the vowel system.
Maximalist vs. minimalist concept of reconstruction.
The root system and its development within Semitic
Overview of the morphological system of proto-Semitic
Reconstruction of the Semitic verbal system (perfect / stative, imperfect)
Verbal extension (derivation) in Semitic
Basic grammatical categories in Semitic.

Last update: Zemánek Petr, prof. PhDr., CSc. (27.11.2025)

Literature

Igor M. Diakonoff, Afrasian Languages. Moscow (: Nauka) 1988, 141 s.

Giovanni Garbini, Le lingue semitiche. Studi di storia linguistica. Napoli (: IUON) 1972, 184 s. (1984, 274 s.).

Sabatino Moscati - Stefan Spitaler - Edward Ullendorff - Wofram von Soden, An Introduction to the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages. Wiesbaden (: Harrassowitz) 1964, 185 s.

Aimo Murtonen, On Proto-Semitic Reconstructions. In: Alan S. Kaye (ed.), Semitic Studies in honor of Wolf Leslau. Wiesbaden (: Harrassowitz) 1991, s. 1119-1130.

Karel Petr??ek, Le systčme de l'arabe dans une perspective diachronique. Arabica 28, 1981, s. 162-177.

Karel Petr??ek, ?vod do hamitosemitské (afroasijské) jazykov?dy. Praha (: SPN) 1990, 534 s.

André Roman, De la langue arabe comme une mod le général de la formation des langues sémitiques et de leur evolution. Arabica 28, 1981, s. 127-161.

Last update: Zemánek Petr, prof. PhDr., CSc. (26.05.2005)

Syllabus

Rubin, A. 2010. A Brief Introduction to the Semitic Languages, Piscataway, NJ, USA: Gorgias Press. https://doi.org/10.31826/9781463224936

Weninger, Stefan. 2011. The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110251586

Huehnergard, John, and Na’ama Pat-El. 2019. The Semitic languages, 2nd edn. New York: Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429025563

Last update: Zemánek Petr, prof. PhDr., CSc. (27.11.2025)