Die Personennamen der Texte aus Emar.

• Author: Fleming, Daniel E.
• Position: Book Review

Die Personennamen der Texte aus Emar. By REGINE PRUZSINSZKY. Studies on the Civilization and Culture of Nuzi and the Hurrians, vol. 13. Bethesda, Md.: CDL PRESS, 2003. Pp. lvii + 311, CD-ROM. $60.

Writing a book on personal names requires wide-ranging skills and particularly acute attention to detail. The pitfalls are myriad, and it is all too easy to find fault. Although I do have some fault to find, it is mitigated by appreciation for the important contribution this book will make to Emar and larger cuneiform studies. Regine Pruzsinszky has created a tool for future research that is full of valuable information, handled with intelligence and precision.

Pruzsinszky's volume is built around its collections of personal names, but these are accompanied by continuing commentary, both in the main text and in notes. This approach improves greatly the accessibility of the assembled information. A long introduction addresses essential issues of context and method, including Emar chronological and historical problems. A list of scribes is particularly useful and provides the raw material for all sorts of investigation. Pruzsinszky discusses the classification of Emar's local dialect among other Semitic languages, especially the earlier dialects called "Amorite." Unfortunately, she does not define in concrete terms her arguments for identifying specific personal names as "Akkadian" or "West Semitic," her two Semitic categories. The introduction concludes with well-documented charts for her readings of logograms and of the syllabary in personal names. This underpinning of convincing readings allows the book to serve even those who will disagree about the interpretation or classification of individual names.

The bulk of the volume is devoted to listing and commenting on the personal names themselves. A large majority of Emar's personal names are Semitic, and the chapters on Akkadian (chapter 2) and West Semitic (chapter 3) occupy the largest space. There are a considerable number of Hurrian names (chapter 4), and fewer "Anatolian" (not just Hittite) and Kassite Babylonian names (chapters 5 and 6). Any comprehensive list and interpretation of this sort will leave some loose ends, and Pruzsinszky addresses these in two final sections on Lallnamen or names chosen especially for their sound, and on names whose origin she considers unknown (chapters 7 and 8). A separate list of possible but uncertain Hurrian names (p. 252) extends these two difficult groups. Pruzsinszky closes with bibliography and indices, but she adds a marvelous tool in the form of a compact disk that makes available her raw data.

Pruzsinszky's study of Emar personal names is impressive on many levels. The book reflects an immense effort merely in the gathering, reading, and interpretation of the names themselves. This required work with a range of languages, not all related. Every name is normalized and translated, or at least discussed, and Pruzsinszky is committed to a precise interpretation wherever possible. The notes ensure that the reader will find some comment on almost any name in question. Where names or terms have been treated in previous literature, references are consistently provided. All of this is done with a competence that guarantees the value of the project for future research.

Recognizing Pruzsinszky's larger achievement, one should nevertheless use this book with caution. To her credit, the author declines to produce statistics with precise percentages for each class of name, whether counted by individual bearers or by the names themselves. The barriers to distinguishing separate individuals and to securing classification by language undermine the value of such numbers, never mind the question of what such information may or may not say about language use or ethnicity...