L'Accadico di Emar.

• Author: FLEMING, DANIEL
• Position: Review

L'Accadico di Emar. By STEFANO SEMINARA. Materiali per il Vocabolario Sumerico, vol. 6. Rome: UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA "LA SAPIENZA," 1998. Pp. 644.

Anyone with an interest in the texts written in what is widely called "Western Peripheral Akkadian" will want to take advantage of the indispensable new grammar of Emar Akkadian by Stefano Seminara. The author has produced a volume of depth and competence, which devotes thoughtful attention to the broader historical issues that lie behind the details of scribal practice.

Ultimately both the advantages and limitations of this grammar originate in its inclusive text base. Unlike the studies of Ugarit and Amurru Akkadian by Huehnergard and Izre'el, Seminara incorporates every Akkadian text associated with the Emar finds, whether or not composed at this city, and whether recovered by the French excavations or in lots sold on the antiquities market. It is useful to find all possible evidence included, hut the picture of Emar Akkadian is less precise than it might be. This difficulty is mitigated by the fact that Seminara does discuss some separate categories, such as tablets from the Carchemish chancellery, and the evidence is not handled as an undifferentiated mass.

The grammar follows a conventional structure. After defining the body of texts and grouping them by type and origin, Seminara moves through detailed presentations, in chapters two through eight, of writing and phonology, pronouns, the noun, the verbal system, numbers, particles, and syntax. The volume ends somewhat abruptly, without any concluding discussion of how this evidence relates to the larger development of western Akkadian dialects. Treatment of these issues is incorporated, into the body of the grammar, where it is harder to find. Although Seminara provides many charts to help organize the data for individual points, the volume is devoid of indices. Most noticeable is the lack of any listing of the texts, whether by citation, tablet form, or by any other criterion.

Seminara's tome is nevertheless well worth the effort necessary to mine its intelligent analysis. The core of its originality lies in the detailed observation of grammatical patterns as they occur in sub-groups among the Emar texts. Seminara applies effectively the breakthrough discovery by Wilcke that the horizontal and vertical orientations of Emar legal texts signal constellations of scribal habits, and these represent the crucial evidence for historical...