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More on the Lexicon and Grammar of the Ebla Chancery Texts

  • Ilya Arkhipov EMAIL logo and Leonid Kogan
Published/Copyright: May 23, 2025
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Abstract

In the present study the authors continue their previous work analyzing difficult lexemes attested in the so-called “chancery texts” from the Early Dynastic city-state of Ebla (in modern Syria). The newly suggested interpretations are important not only for one’s understanding of the earliest forms of East Semitic, but also for a proper comprehension of the exceedingly difficult texts in which they appear. For each lexeme, an exhaustive list of translated and annotated text attestations is provided. It is our hope that this and related studies scheduled for the future will lay robust foundations for an eventual dictionary of Eblaite.

Acknowledgements

This article is an output of the research project “Semitic lexicography in synchrony and diachrony”, conducted as part of the Fundamental Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University), Laboratory for Middle Eastern and North African Languages and Cultures. The database “Ebla Digital Archives” (www.ebda.cnr.it) was an indispensable tool of this research.

Abbreviations

BDB F. Brown/S.R. Driver/Ch.A. Briggs (1906): A Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford.

CDG W. Leslau (1987): Comparative Dictionary of Geʿez (Classical Ethiopic), Wiesbaden.

DRS D. Cohen (1976–): Dictionnaire des racines sémitiques, The Hague.

du. dual number

DUL G. Del Olmo Lete/J.A. Sanmartín (2015). A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition. 3rd rev. ed., Leiden.

HALOT L. Koehler/W. Baumgartner/J.J. Stamm (1994–2000): The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, Leiden.

Lane E.W. Lane (1867): Arabic-English Lexicon, London.

SD A.F.L. Beeston/М.A. Ghul/W.W. Müller/J. Ryckmans (1982): Sabaic Dictionary (English‒French‒Arabic), Louvain-la-Neuve.

SED I A. Militarev/L. Kogan (2000): Semitic Etymological Dictionary. Vol. 1: Anatomy of Man and Animals, Münster.

SL M. Sokoloff (2009): A Syriac Lexicon, Winona Lake.

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Published Online: 2025-05-23
Published in Print: 2025-05-15

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