Gramatica Fenicia Elemental.

• Author: SEGERT, STANISLAV
• Position: Review

Gramatica Fenicia Elemental. By JESUS Luis CUNCHILLOS and JOSfi-ANGEL ZAMORA. Banco de Datos Filologicos Semiticos Noroccidentales, vol. 2.1. Madrid: CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIEICAS, 1997. Pp. xv + 170, maps, illus.

Several volumes devoted to Ugaritic philology were published since 1993 in. the first part of this series. The grammar under review is the first book in the second part, dealing with Phoenician and Punic data.

In the prologue are discussed the project of investigating the Northwest Semitic languages and the goals of this Phoenician grammar (pp. xiii-xv). Because in an interdisciplinary project philology is connected with "informatics," this grammar tries to accommodate scholars who are active in such research. The undertaking is characterized by the neologism Hermeneumdtica, "informatic interpretation," the automatization of the process by which texts are critically interpreted. While the stated principies differ from those espoused in most grammars, this elementary grammar of Phoenician nevertheless appears traditional.

Section I (pp. 1-16) informs the reader about Bronze Age Canaanites and Iron Age Phoenicians on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. As concerns the settlements in the West, the term "expansion" is preferred over the traditional "colonization" (p. 10). The chapter on epigraphy (pp. 17-27) is introduced by a brief history of research, followed by a survey of the inscriptions. Additional space is devoted to the methodology of epigraphy, inasmuch as it differs from that of philology or hermeneutics.

The section on grammar (pp. 29-104) begins with elementary information about the Phoenician script and language (pp. 31- 42). In the chapter on the verb (pp. 43-70) the structuring of words and forms from mostly triconsonantal roots and additional modificators is clearly explained with the help of suitable diagrams. The conventional term "tense" is retained, but the concept of verbal "aspect" is preferred, "acabado" ("accomplished") for qtl ("perfect"), "inacabado" ("unaccomplished") for yqtl ("imperfect") (pp. 44--45) Verbal paradigms are presented in consonant letters, and often also in reconstructed vocalized forms. Numerous forms attested in texts are quoted in transliteration, with translations and explanations, but without references to sources.

Nouns and adjectives (pp. 71-87) are presented in a corresponding arrangement. Also verbal substantives. infinitives, and participles are included...