Between the 11th and the 13th of January 1999, Tel Aviv University hosted a sympoium titled Semitic Linguistic: The State of the Art at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century. The symposium was conceived and organized by the editor of Israel Oriental Studies, an Annual of The Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities at Tel Aviv University.
Israel Oriental Studies (IOS) is an annual devoted to the study of the Near East in various disciplines. Appearing under the auspices of the Faculty of Humanities at Tel Aviv University, it began publication in 1971, and quickly earned a reputation for its contribution to scholarship, with major concentrations in the study of Near Eastern languages, philology, history and religions.
For the year 2000, the editorial board of IOS have planned an ambitious project, and volume 20 of this annual will be devoted to the state of the art of Semitic linguistics at the turn of the 21st century. What we would like to convey are the achievements, the drawbacks and the desiderata in the wide and diverse field of Semitic linguistics, i.e., to emphasize progress, conservatism and current gaps in research.
The symposium held in January was designed to serve as a preparatory meeting for the publication of this volume. The symposium has provided an opportunity for contributors to the volume, many of whom are involved in large research projects, to offer oral presentations in the investigated areas and to discuss matters of mutual interest. Special emphasis has been drawn on pinpointing desiderata and on raising suggestions for future research. This symposium has been convened in order to help make the outcome of our joint effort a coherent statement.
Semitic linguistics has always been associated with philology rather than with linguistics, with the decipherment of dead languages rather than with the study of modern living languages, and with diachronic and comparative linguistics rather than with synchronic analyses of languages. Volume 20 of IOS has been designed in order to step out of this traditional view, and to present a different look at Semitic Linguistics.
The organization of the symposium, which will eventually be
reflected
in the resulting publication, was designed in a way which reflects this
new look at Semitic Linguistics. The opening lecture has addressed the
overall interest of this meeting, viz., the relationship between
Semitic
Linguistics and the general study of language. Then followed issues
which
have been the concern of Semitic Linguistics since its debut in the
Middle
Ages, issues which have been to various degrees the concern of scholars
in this century, and issues which have mounted on the stage of research
only recently and with the last lecture � issues regarding the future
of
Semitic Linguistics. Thus we have learned about research in ancient
languages
and comparative issues; we have heared about different schools in the
study
of Semitic languages; we have explored various domains within the study
of linguistic structure; we have move on to the study of geographical
linguistics;
we have been asking some questions regarding the relationship between
the
linguistic study and other human capacities; and we have been asking
what
can be the relationship of the linguistic study to machines. The three
days symposium
concluded with a general discussion, which has tried to raise some
questions with regard to Linguistics and Semitic Linguistics, some
which
had beenraised in the individual lectures, some in the
discussions
which followed specific presentations.
The following presentations were given: