AS 19. The Akkadian Influences on Aramaic Stephen Kaufman
This book primarily examines the difference in lexical stock between the two languages. It naturally concentrates on etymology and on what the author calls “Mesopotamian Aramaic” — allied to Imperial Aramaic and corresponding the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian periods. The sources comprise all published Aramaic endorsements, dockets, and texts, including letters originating in Babylonia and comparisons range from Old Aramaic to Babylonian Talmudic, Targum, and Syriac. There is some difficulty in trying to isolate West Semitic contacts and in deciding whether borrowings come through Amorite or provincial centers of Mesopotamian learning. Dr. Kaufman is restrained in his judgments and gives fair space to dissenting voices. He is aware that by necessarily concentrating on loan-words through intimate borrowing and finding his best results in Imperial Aramaic he is dealing with a period in which the political and economic situation was again one in which Mesopotamia was a center of influence throughout the ancient Middle East. [From a review by D. J. Wiseman in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 40 (1977) 144]
- Assyriological Studies 19
- Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974
- Pp. xiii + 196
- Out of Print
