Read the summary and the most important questions on Linguistic History of the Middle East

• 1 Week 1: Introduction

• 1.1 Lecture

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• What is the Middle East?

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• 2 Week 2: The Semitic Languages I

• 2.1 Lecture

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• What does a tree in genetic linguistics represent?

  The evolution of languages analogous to the concept of a family tree, particularly a phylogenetic tree in the biological evolution of species (wikipedia).  
  
  Phylogenetic trees depict the evoltution of a set of taxa from their most recent common ancestor (sciencedirect). 
  
  - Daughter Languages
  - Various intermediate stages 
  - Proto-Languages
  
  The Goal = To reconstruct the missing steps and, eventually the proto-language.

• What is a proto-language?

  In the tree model of historical linguistics, a proto-language is an unatteested once-spoken ancestral language from which a number of attested languages are believed to have descended by evolution. Proto-languages are usually unattested, or in some cases only partially attested. 
  
  -> Een vooroudertaal is elke taal die aan wortel ligt van een stamboom waaruit zich een of meer levende en geattesteerde talen hebben ontwikkeld, de dochtertalen.
  
  - Wikipedia

• What aspects of the Semitic languages are difficult to capture using only the family tree model?

  For example: similarities in vocabulary and grammar. 
  Not everyone agrees on all branchings.

• What are some popular ideas about where the proto-Semitic may have originated?

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• How was cuneiform written? Why is it called cuneiform?

  It was written on a clay tablet using a reed stylus cut to make a wedge-shaped mark. That is also why it is called cuneiform; the word originates from the Latin cunea which means "wedge" (khan academy+slides).

• What was the relationshop between Sumerian and Akkadian? How does this reflect some aspects of social life in Ancient Mesopotamia?

  Slides:
  - Heavily influenced in all ways by non-Semitic Sumerian
  * Loanwords
  * Some grammar
  - Sumerian is a prestige language in the region 
  * "Symbolic capital" (Bourdieu) 
  - It is also a "liturgical language" 
  * Used in religious ceremony/scripture
  - Also corresponding influences in: 
  * Religion 
  * Art
  * Culture
  * Writing system
  
  - Influence goes both ways 
  - As number of Akkadian speakers increases, more mixed marriages, more people switch from Sumerian to Akkadian 
  - Spoken Sumerian is then influenced by Akkadian
  - Some of this makes it into the literary language
  
  > This is typical of most language contact situations, but to differing degrees based on social dynamics & population numbers.

• What are the major structural divisions made when analyzing types of common writing systems?

  ??? Slides:
  - Classification based on:
  * Form 
  * Function 
  * Family (not language family! Scripts can be transmitted independently)

• 3 Week 3: The Semitic Languages II: The Languages of Arabia

• 3.1 Lecture

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• Where is the Arabian Peninsula?

  Arabian Peninsula is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. 
  
  The Arabian Peninsula formed as a result of the rifting of the Red Sea between 56 en 23 million years ago, and is bordered by the Red Sea to the west and southwest, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to the northeast, the Levant and Mesopotamia to the north and the Arabiab Sea and the Indian Ocean to the southeast (wikipedia).

• What is the relationship between these sets of languages:- Arabic and the attested Old North Arabian languages?- Arabic and the attested Old South Arabian languages?- Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic?- The Old South Arabian languages and the New South Arabian languages?

  Slides:
  These sets of languages are "Arabian" languages; whose early history has been mostly associated with the Arabian Peninsula. 
  * Not a genetic designation! ... Just a convenient one.