This book provides a diverse exploration of multilingualism in contexts of migration, conflict, and inequality. Covering Eurasia, North America, the Middle East, and South Africa, it examines aspects of language, identity, literature, linguistic landscapes, cognition, and education in these regions. Chapters address the relationship between languages in politically conflicted areas, and how migration and economic factors influence multilingualism and the acquisition of polyglot abilities. Finally, the book explores the impact of multilingualism on literature, street signs, and graffiti, as well as its challenges for education systems.

The IOS Annual Volume 21: “Carrying a Torch to Distant Mountains”, brings forth cutting-edge studies devoted to a wide array of fields and disciplines of the Middle East. The three sections—the Ancient Near East, Semitic Languages and Linguistics, and Arabic Language and Literature—include sixteen articles. In the Ancient Near East section are studies devoted to Babylonian literature (Gabbay and Wasserman; Ayali-Darshan), history (Cohen and Torrecilla), and language (Zadok). The Semitic Languages and Linguistics section contains discussions about comparative Semitics—Egyptian and Modern South Arabic (Borg; Cerqueglini), Aramaic dialects (Khan; Stadel), Palestinian Arabic (Arnold; Procházka), and Tigre and Ethiosemitic languages (Voigt). The final section of Arabic Language and Literature is devoted to ʿArabiyya and its grammarians (Dror, Versteegh, Sheyhatovitch, Kasher, and Sadan).

This book provides a diverse exploration of multilingualism in contexts of migration, conflict, and inequality. Covering Eurasia, North America, the Middle East, and South Africa, it examines aspects of language, identity, literature, linguistic landscapes, cognition, and education in these regions. Chapters address the relationship between languages in politically conflicted areas, and how migration and economic factors influence multilingualism and the acquisition of polyglot abilities. Finally, the book explores the impact of multilingualism on literature, street signs, and graffiti, as well as its challenges for education systems.

The IOS Annual Volume 21: “Carrying a Torch to Distant Mountains”, brings forth cutting-edge studies devoted to a wide array of fields and disciplines of the Middle East. The three sections—the Ancient Near East, Semitic Languages and Linguistics, and Arabic Language and Literature—include sixteen articles. In the Ancient Near East section are studies devoted to Babylonian literature (Gabbay and Wasserman; Ayali-Darshan), history (Cohen and Torrecilla), and language (Zadok). The Semitic Languages and Linguistics section contains discussions about comparative Semitics—Egyptian and Modern South Arabic (Borg; Cerqueglini), Aramaic dialects (Khan; Stadel), Palestinian Arabic (Arnold; Procházka), and Tigre and Ethiosemitic languages (Voigt). The final section of Arabic Language and Literature is devoted to ʿArabiyya and its grammarians (Dror, Versteegh, Sheyhatovitch, Kasher, and Sadan).