A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian

REVIEWS Journal of Semitic Studies XLIX/1 Spring 2004 © The University of Manchester 2004. All rights reserved

REVIEWS JEREMY BLACK, ANDREW GEORGE AND NICHOLAS POSTGATE, with the assistance OF TINA BRECKWOLDT, GRAHAM CUNNINGHAM, MARIE-CHRISTINE LUDWIG et al., A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian (SANTAG: Arbeiten und Untersuchungen zur Keilschriftkunde 5). Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 1999. Pp. xxiv + 450. Price: DM 58.00 paperback. ISBN: 3-447-04225-7. Semitists struggled through much of the twentieth century with the lack of an adequate dictionary of Assyrian and Babylonian until the third volume of Wolfram von Soden’s Akkadisches Handwörterbuch was completed in 1981. The more comprehensive Assyrian Dictionary of Chicago’s Oriental Institute has still four letters in preparation (P, T, ™, U). Neither work is within the financial reach of the ordinary student, nor of those who only occasionally turn to the Akkadian lexicon but want one to hand, and for many today the German of von Soden is a barrier. In 1989, therefore, Nicholas Postgate conceived this single volume work in English, obtained the blessing of the late W. von Soden, and carried it out with his two coeditors and several other Assyriologists, both British and German. The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary has the Oxford English Dictionary as its model, while in many ways von Soden’s work may be compared to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary and the Concise Dictionary of Akkadian is like the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. The last comparison fails inasmuch as all Akkadian words are included in the CDA, not a selection. Each word is followed by variant spellings, meaning(s), period(s) of use and logogram, and by direction to derivatives or words from which they may be derived. Where verbs occur in several themes and sub-themes the respective meanings are carefully indicated. The basis is von Soden’s work, augmented and improved where appropriate from the Chicago volumes and from more recent publications. Thus it is the most up-to-date conspectus of the Akkadian lexical stock, including words known only from lexical texts and numerous foreign loanwords, duly identified. Interests of brevity caused omission of the brief notes of Semitic cognates von Soden presented and of the often instructive information drawn from the lexical texts. The entries are given in forms of the Old Babylonian period, which means those with initial w appear under that letter, although derivatives attested only in later periods when the w had been dropped usually appear under the appropriate vowel, mostly a, thus warhu(m), ‘month’, but Arahsamna, ‘eighth month’. Cross-references ensure the user can find the right entry. The period when a word was in use is marked by abbreviations, following von Soden, retaining jB (jungbabylonisch) for the ‘literary’ dialect, but adopting NB (Neo-Babylonian) for his spätbabylonisch and Chicago’s ‘Late Babylonian’ to mark non-literary texts written after 625 BC. Following von Soden’s example, an index of verbal roots is provided, not at the commencement of each letter, but at the start of the whole. This is useful for anyone wanting to know if a particular root is used in Akkadian, offering help to students puzzled by forms of ‘weak’ verbs and linguists comparing cognates, although the range of phonetic equations has to be kept in mind, the introductory note pointing to the use of ’aleph or simply a vowel for all weaknesses except initial w. Semitists should note that ‘aleph…does not count as a “letter” for alphabetization purposes, and does not have a position in the alphabetical sequence’ (p. x). 131

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German Assyriologists have carried von Soden’s work forward by compiling a reverse index (K. Hecker, Rücklaufiges Wörterbuch des Akkadischen, 1998) and a 589page German-Akkadian dictionary (T.C. Kämmerer, D. Schwiderski, DeutschAkkadisches Wörterbuch, Alter Orient und Altes Testament vol. 255, 1998). A brief English equivalent of the latter would have been welcome, set in small type, like the index of roots and it could have been accommodated in relatively few pages; the Babylonisch-assyrisches Glossar of Carl Bezold (1926) included a simple ‘Deutsches Wörterverzeichnis’ of 46 pages in three columns per page which proved its value, for anyone knowing Arabic or Hebrew who wants to find Akkadian words without prior knowledge of Akkadian might seek the verb ‘to write’ under the root ktb, unaware that they should look for s†r The pace of discovery has not slackened and various discoveries since von Soden’s work was completed have expanded the range of the Akkadian lexicon (e.g. the evidence from Mari for a verb Ìaparum, ‘to decamp, become a vagrant’ from which the well-known hapirum ‘(class of ) vagrant’ can be derived). Some of the information has been incorporated, mainly where the attestations through time can be broadened. However, attestations of some words found in the texts from Late Bronze Age Emar are not included (e.g. kubatu ‘veneration’ j/NB, NA; ‘honorific ceremony’, where jB is unspecific), nor from the tablets written a thousand years earlier at Ebla (e.g. ebeÌu, ‘to gird’ occurs there: Edzard, Archivi reali di Ebla, Testi V. 49, but is noted only for the Old Babylonian period onwards). Inevitably minor quibbles can be made: under daltu may be included the meaning ‘column or leaf of a writing tablet’ in Neo-Assyrian (see S. Parpola, JNES 42.1ff); despite the pronouncements of von Soden and CAD, saparu does not mean ‘to write’, in the reviewer’s opinion, but simply ‘to send’, the means of transmission being oral or written — the notable fact that sa†aru ‘to write’ occurs only once in the El-Amarna Letters (in 362:42 from Byblos; Rainey, El Amarna Tablets 359–79, AOAT 8 93 perhaps in 150:34, although Moran, The Amarna Letters 237 took it from (w)ataru, with Knudtzon), whereas saparu is very frequent, may indicate that western scribes attributed the West Semitic meaning of spr, ‘to write’, to the Akkadian verb. Another question that arises concerns representation of the Neo-Assyrian dialect. Strictly, the CDA is correct in reporting very few NeoAssyrian forms as they are rare in the historically written cuneiform texts, although there are sufficient indications to prove their presence. However, Aramaic and Hebrew transcriptions make it clear that phonetic shifts had taken place, resulting in, among others, Istar becoming Issar, saknu sagnu, sa resi sa resi. The CDA has proved its worth through two years of elementary Akkadian classes and will be widely welcomed in the English-speaking world. A second impression was quickly issued, containing minor corrections and inserting sisitu ‘cry, announcement, etc.’ omitted by error. The originator and his colleagues have put all Semitists, students and experts alike, in their debt. UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL

ALAN MILLARD

PHILIPPE CASSUTO AND PIERRE LARCHER (eds), La sémitologie, aujourd’hui. Actes de la journée de l’École doctorale de l’Université de Provence du 29 Mai 1997 (Cercle linguistique d’Aix-en-Provence, Travaux 16). Publications de l’Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence 2000. Pp. 187. Price: /18.29. ISBN: 2-85399-459-7. Recent years have witnessed a revival of both comparative studies in Semitic linguistics and collections of articles on specific features in individual Semitic languages, most of which come forth with an explicit ‘state-of-the-art’ claim. The work 132