Undena Publications - Böcker

This catalogue contains descriptions of Persian medical manuscripts in the collection at UCLA; Persian texts in predominantly Arabic MSS are also listed, without descriptions. “Numerically, UCLA’s collection of Persian medical manuscripts ranks among the first in Western countries. In this catalogue, 135 Persian and two Arabic titles are discussed [ . . . ] Nearly the whole period during which the Persian language has been used for writing on medical subjects is covered by the collection [ . . . ] The earliest author represented is the oculist ‘Zarrindast’ of the late fifth/eleventh century, approximately 100 years after the first appearance of medical writing in Neo-Persian.” [from the Preface]

The present study adopts a generative theoretical approach and analyzes a number of phonological and morphological rules in Akkadian, especially: a- EPENTHESIS, i - ADD , VOWEL DELE TION, VOWEL SHORTENING , VOWEL LENGTHENING , and FEM ININE SUFFIX SELECTION. Where necessary, the rules are motivated, described in detail, and reformulated. It is shown that all these rules are subordinated to constraints on Akkadian syllable structure. The Akkadian syllable may have no more than three segments (with the possible ex ception of a word-final syllable having a long vowel), and phonological rules eliminate overweight syllables, or produce well- formed ones. Sumerian influence seems to have engendered VOWEL DELETION in Akkadian, but the constraints on syllable structure curtail its applica tion. Related issues such as stress, orthography, and Assyrian VOWEL HARMONY are also treated.

This paper is a preliminary attempt to reconstruct the consonant system of Proto-East-Cushitic (PEC)one of the four branches of the Cushitic family. Data are taken from some twenty-odd languages including unpublished material on a variety of hitherto little known languages. After discussing a number of general problems raised by the phonological comparison of the East Cushitic languages, 23 consonants are reconstructed for the inventory of the proto- language and the evidence for the reconstructions is presented in the form of cognate sets and correspondence rules which map the proto-phonemes onto the individual reflexes. The method employed is that of comparative linguistics as traditionally employed in Indo-European linguistics.

The famous programmatic article by Benno Landsberger, "Die Eigenbe grifflichkeit der Babylonischen Welt," was a manifesto which "insisted on the necessity of studying Mesopotamian culture for its own sake, in its own terms, and within its own system of values": as Jacobsen notes it was "under the banner of Eigenbegrifflichkeit thatLandsberger... may be said to have made Assyriology for the first time an autonomous discipline." The article is here made available in a masterly translation by Jacobsen, based on two initial drafts by Foster and Von Siebenthal: it provides an accurate and sensitive reading by another intellectual giant in the field, who was himself a long time personal friend of the author. The introduction, published originally as an obituary, gives a brief and penetrating assessment of Landsberger's life work.

The primary objectives of this research were to (1) establish an overall orientation and framework for future analysis of this type at Terga and (2) to determine on a preliminary basis the relationship of ceramics and soils of two sites in the Near East: ancient Terga (modern Ashara in Syria) and Dilbat (modern Tell Deylem in Iraq). The long-term objective of this sourcing was to contribute data toward the reconstruction of social, political and economic trends. A truly interdisciplinary effort was required , as several universities and analytical techniques were utilized-atomic absorption, optical emission, thin section, botanical and computer analyses. A general attempt was made to suggest and formulate a continuum of research standards, from the original field collection of samples to the actual laboratory analysis; this standardization would establish an overall climate of reproducibility and credibility. The most important substantive results are found in the areas of ceramic composition, ceramic clay / (soil) relationships, atomic absorption and computer refinement for archaeological analysis.