At the end of the course, the student must demonstrate the following skills:
None.
As this is an introductory course, the lessons will primarily be lectures. However, the active participation of the students and their involvement in the discussion of the proposed topics will be encouraged from the very beginning.
The exam consists of an oral test in which the candidate will answer three to four questions related to the program. The evaluation will take into account the level of acquired skills, the use of the appropriate terminology, and the ability to grasp the essential points of the issues discussed during the course. The exam can be held in Italian, English, French, or German at the student's choice.
The material will mostly be provided by the teacher.
As a reference text, one can refer to the concise compendium A.D. Rubin, A Brief Introduction to the Semitic Languages, Gorgias Press 2010.
With their five thousand years of written attestation, Semitic languages constitute one of the best-documented language families and offer the opportunity to engage with a linguistic and cultural heritage of chronological and geographical breadth that has few parallels in human history. Today, Arabic is the best-documented and most widely spoken Semitic language, but there are (or there were) numerous other languages of this family attested between Southwestern Asia and North and East Africa, e.g. Assyro-Babylonian, Phoenician, Hebrew, Aramaic, South-Arabian, and Ethiopian languages. The course includes a general introduction to Semitic languages: when and where they are attested, how they are classified, which texts they offer, which writing systems are used to write them (the Phoenician alphabet is the basis of the Greek alphabet and all modern alphabets), which are their main characteristics, as well as their major developements.
Italian.
Students unable to attend are kindly asked to contact the teacher as soon as possible to establish an alternative program.
