Amharic

Addis Ababa; WikiCommons

Amharic is one of the semitic languages of Ethiopia, and is currently the second most spoken semitic language in the world (Arabic is #1).  Over 20 million people speak Amharic, and it currently serves as the official language of Ethiopia.

We don't have any ancient writings in Amharic, with our earliest extant Amharic texts possibly coming out of the 14th century.  So in a sense it might be an odd language to feature on this blog.  Nevertheless, there are several good reasons to learn some Amharic:

• It's a fascinating and beautiful language spoken by over 20 million people.
• As a Semitic language it is relevant for those with an interest in comparative semitics.  
• It is relevant for those who work with Ge'ez, as we can identify Amharic influences on the Ge'ez language and literature.
• For those, like myself, who have interest in the history of scriptural interpretation in the Ethiopian tradition, Amharic is significant as the language of the andemta commentaries.
• It's way more interesting than learning French.

Unfortunately it is not easy to find courses in Amharic.  CARLA lists the following institutions that offer Amharic in North America: Foreign Service Institute, Harvard U, Michigan State U, U of Florida, Boston U, National Foreign Affairs Training Center, Stanford U, U of Kansas, U of Pennsylvania, New School University, and World Mentoring Academy.

As far as scholarship goes, there is a plethora of resources on Amharic.  Here I just offer a few resources that might be helpful:

Ethnologue entry.

OLAC Resources in and about the Amharic Language.

Selected Annotated Bibliography on Amharic from Grover Hudson (MSU).

Isenberg, Charles William.  Dictionary of the Amharic Language. [downloadable]

Amharic course from the Foreign Service Institute.   [follow the link to Indiana University for the remaining audio files.  The audio files can be found a few other places on the web too].

Appleyard, David. Colloquial Amharic. [the audio files can be downloaded for free]

Amharic at Deutsche Welle.

National Bibliography of Ethiopia.

Meyer, Ronny.  "Amharic."  Pages 1178-1211 in The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook.  Edited by Stegan Weninger et al.

Writing the Amharic Script.

Ge'ez Grammars Online

One can easily fit all of the Ge'ez grammars that have ever been published in European languages on one shelf.  Or, if you want to save some of that shelf space for your Wheel of Time novels, you can put most of those grammars on a flash drive/memory stick instead.  Here are some of the Ge'ez grammars that are available as PDFs (or in the google books reader) online:

Chaîne, Marius.  Grammaire éthiopienne. 1907.

Dillman, August & Carl Bezold. Trans. James A. Chrichton.  Ethiopic Grammar.  1907.

Dillman, August. Grammatik der äthiopischen Sprache. 1857.

Dillman, August & Carl Bezold. Grammatik der äthiopischen Sprache. 1899.

Ludolf, Hiob. Grammatica aethiopica. 1661.

Mercer, Samuel. Ethiopic Grammar, with Chrestomathy and Glossary. 1920.

Praetorius, Franz.  Aethiopische Grammatik. 1886.

Praetorius, Franz.  Grammatica Aethiopica. 1886.

Vittorio, Mariano.  Chaldeae, seu Aethiopicae linguae institutiones. 1630.

1 Enoch Reading Guide (15:1-16:4)

I've posted another Ethiopic reading guide, this time for 1 Enoch 15:1-16:4, a particularly interesting portion of the Book of the Watchers.  Enoch and other Second Temple Jewish texts are of course worthy subjects of study in their own right, but this particular text might be especially relevant for understanding some bits of the New Testament, for example offering a possible answer to the question "who in the world are those demons and why do they keep trying to possess human bodies?" or providing some background for Luke's version of Jesus' response to the Sadducees (Luke 20:34-36).

You can download the reading guide here.


Or if you're not too interested in Ge'ez and want to take a peek at an English translation, you can go here.

Ethiopic Jubilees Reading Guide: The Creation, Part I

I've added another reading/vocabulary guide for Ethiopic Jubilees, based on the data from the concordance I'm creating for the book (which is coming along!).  You can download it here.  From my Academia.edu profile you can also download two other Jubilees reading guides and one for Ethiopic 1 Enoch.

Ethiopic Enoch Reading Guide: Chapters 1-5

I've put together and posted another Ethiopic reading guide, this one for the first five chapters of 1 Enoch.  The first six pages include a transcription of Charles' Ethiopic text with plenty of space between lines and a large margin for taking notes.  The remaining pages have an alphabetical vocabulary list with English glosses, a list of verses where the words occur in these chapters, and a page number for the entry in Leslau's concise lexicon.

1 Enoch 1-5 is an interesting unit of the text that serves as an introduction to the Book of the Watchers and the corpus as a whole.  Lots of theophany language -- if you've ever wanted to know how to talk about mountains melting and shaking in Ge'ez, this is the text for you.

You can download the reading guide here.

You can also download two other Ethiopic reading guides for the Book of Jubilees on my Academia.edu page.

Happy translating!

Using Book Reviews

As a student I have found academic book reviews to be a really helpful resource.  Academic book reviews are just what they sound like: reviews of academic books often found in academic journals.  Academic books go through a peer review process before they are published and hit the shelves to help ensure their quality, but book reviews provide an opportunity for the academic community to begin publicly assessing these works.

As I student, I have found book reviews to be useful in a couple ways:

(1) As companions to a book you're working through.  By reading reviews of a book you're engaging you can get some insights into how the work has been received, and can also find some helpful analysis and critiques of the argument.  In working on my thesis I interacted with a lot of Dennis Macdonald's work on the influence of Homer on the New Testament and other early Jewish and Christian texts.  Book reviews (and MacDonald's response to some of those reviews) were helpful for me, as they alerted me to some of the aspects of MacDonald's work that had not been well received by some scholars.  Since I was making positive use of some of MacDonald's work this allowed me to address some of the criticisms of his work and draw distinctions between what he had argued and the argument I was making.
I have found book reviews to be especially helpful when I am working through a book that is outside of my field.  When you're reading within your field you are better able to critically engage a book.  Sometimes when a work is outside your field you don't really have the background information to weigh the merits of an author's arguments.  And in some cases, you don't have the time to familiarize yourself with a wide range of literature and opinions in that field.  In this case book reviews can alert you to different perspectives on the topic or potential weaknesses in the author's argument (although it seems some reviewers are sheepish about offering criticisms).  They can help you from being unduly influenced by a single work.

(2) As a way of taking the pulse of scholarship and staying abreast of developments.  Book reviews are nice and short.  Reading them is a great way to stay familiar with what is being published, what kinds of arguments are being made and what kind of work is being done.  I find this can be really helpful when it comes to cognate disciplines, for which you don't have the time to read lots of books, but you'd still like to keep an eye on what's going on.

(3) Research paper ideas.  When you're trying to develop a topic for a research paper book reviews can be a helpful source of inspiration.

(4) Finding stuff to read!  One of the big reasons book reviews of all kinds exist is to help people decide what to read.  With so many books and so little time book reviews can help you sift through the many options and decide which books to add to your list.

How to find them: You can look through print journals in your library.  But the best way to find them is to use your library's full text databases.  Your librarian can help you find the right database for what you're looking for.  The databases I use give you the option to limit your search results to book reviews.  If you have a particular book you'd like to read reviews on, you can just search for the title.  If you're looking for reviews on a particular subject, you can enter your search terms and narrow the results to reviews.  So, I am currently doing some research on the Book of Jude: I simply typed "Jude" in the search field and narrowed the results to book reviews.

For the areas this website focuses on, two great, free, online sources for book reviews are the Society of Biblical Literature's Review of Biblical Literature and the Bryn Mawr Classical Review. 

Ge'ez (Classical Ethiopic) Video Resources

I just discovered two videos that Endangered Language Alliance Toronto uploaded last year on the Ge'ez language (classical Ethiopic).

The first one, Ge'ez conversation, has a nine minute conversation between M.H. Haregewoin and Fisseha Tadesse in Ge'ez!  It includes subtitles in Ge'ez and English translation.  This is a great resource if you want to learn how Ge'ez is pronounced.

The second one, Ge'ez: Life of a Dead Language, is a seven minute documentary with Fisseha Tadesse on the Ge'ez language.  It includes some readings of Ge'ez, and some discussion of how the language continues to be studied and live on as a liturgical and literary language.

These are two really fantastic resources.  If you have interest in learning more about Ge'ez, feel free to check out my resource page.

iTunes U: Courses in Classics and Biblical Studies

Every time class registration rolled around I would pore over the course listings for the many different departments at the university, wishing I had an endless amount of electives I could take.  Now with things like iTunes U I can sit in on lectures in some of those classes outside of my major that I just wasn't able to fit into my degree program, whether its psychology, history, or physics.  This interdisciplinary online buffet also includes some good resources in my areas of focus, the ancient world and religious studies.  Below are a few that you might want to check out.  I've broken them down into four categories: (1) Biblical Studies, (2) Ancient Greece, (3) Rome, and (4) Religious Studies.  When you're done with all of these, why not move on to learn about Quantum Mechanics?

Biblical Studies

RLST 145: Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible)

Christine Hayes

Open Yale course

[Check out Hayes' openyalecourses book Introduction to the Bible)

The Hebrew Scriptures in Judaism and Christianity

Shaye J.D. Cohen

Harvard, iTunes U

RLST 152: Introduction to the New Testament History and Literature

Dale B. Martin

Open Yale course 

[Check out Martin's openyalecourses book New Testament History and Literature)

Historical Jesus

Stanford, iTunes U

Beginning Hebrew: Ruth

Steven Schweitzer

AMBS, iTunes U

The Basics of New Testament Textual Criticism

Daniel B. Wallace

The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, iTunes U

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece: Myth, Art, War

Gillian Shepherd

LaTrobe, iTunes U

Ancient Greece: City and Society

Gillian Shepherd

LaTrobe, iTunes U

A GRE Quantitative Prep Strategy

I have not had time to post much of interest here lately, as I've been using any spare time to study like a madman for the GRE.  But I thought I'd take a very short break to share one of the preparation strategies I have been using, in case others find it helpful.  Even though modern test prep has nothing to do with the ancient world and might be an odd fit for this blog, it is relevant for those of us who want to study the ancient world in graduate programs!

For some of us in the humanities the quantitative reasoning portion of the GRE can pose a challenge, unless you are that rare person who majored in philosophy and minored in mathematics.  Here is a strategy that I have been finding helpful:

(1) Manhattan Prep offers a number of GRE resources, including 6 full online practice tests.  You can take one for free and buying one of their test prep books gives you access to the other 5.  ETS, the company behind the GRE, has two practice tests of their own.  Taking these tests is a great way to get a feel for the kinds of problems that show up on the GRE and the amount of time you have to work through them.  It is also a great way to identify your weaknesses.  After taking these tests I go back through and look at which problems I got wrong, read the explanations, and do them again the right way.

(2) Sometimes I get a quantitative question wrong because of a silly mistake.  But sometimes it is because I am a bit fuzzy on the mathematical concepts needed to answer it.  In these cases I have been making use of Khan Academy.   Several friends recommended I check this site out, and it has proved very helpful.  There are video tutorials on arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and just about anything else you will encounter on the GRE.  If I don't understand a concept that comes up on the practice test I go to Khan, search for the video that addresses it, and then perform the practice problems they provide on the website.

This two phase approach of reviewing missed questions on the practice test followed by some time watching the relevant resources at Khan Academy has helped me bump my quantitative score up a few points in the practice tests.  Consider giving it a try!      

Classical Numismatic Group

The Classical Numismatic Group website is a great place to purchase a variety of ancient coins, but it can also be a useful tool for those researching the ancient Greco-Roman world.  The site includes high quality colour photographs of both current and historical auction items, allowing you to get a better look at coins than you often get in coin catalogues.  Because the auction items are searchable, the site can also help you find coins from a particular location or with a particular figure/symbol on them.  The listings naturally give you the information you need to then track the coins down in a catalogue.  In addition to the auction items there are a number of historical articles and some general information on Greek and Roman coins as well as historical coin collecting.   One of the things that I appreciate the most about the site is that it allows you to republish their coin photographs, provided you cite the website as the source.  Their FAQ page states:

Can I use a photograph from CNG's website?

Any of our photographs may be reproduced as long as credit is given to CNG as the source of the photographs. Please include our site's URL, www.cngcoins.com, in any citation. 

I'll give an example of how the website has been useful in my own research.  I'm currently researching boars in Greco-Roman iconography, and wanted to identify Greco-Roman coins with a boar on them.  My friend Ted Erho told me about the CNG website, so I went to check it out.  I used their research page which allows me to search historical auctions.  I typed "boar" in the search field and got 1,543 hits, 6 of which were historical articles.  Not all of these hits were useful for my purposes, but a great deal of them were.  I was able to find some very interesting and helpful specimens, like this beautiful coin from Apulia with a boar on the reverse: 

www.cngcoins.com

Ancient Numismatic Mythology

Heads or Minotaur?  

Coins are an essential piece of evidence in the ancient historian's toolbox, and fortunately there are some Internet resources that make it easier to find and explore some of this evidence.  A website I am finding interesting is Ancient Numismatic Mythology, which can be found at http://ancientcoinage.org  The site is "dedicated to ancient coins that depict popular themes from Greek and Roman mythology."  Coins are divided up based on theme, such as: the Trojan War, Theseus and the Minotaur, Labors of Hercules, or King Midas and the golden touch.  Each page is filled with colour photographs of coins from that category.  

Check it out, and see what interesting things you find!

 

Eumaios: a collaborative website for Early Greek epic

An embyronic digital variorum.  This is not the name of a Brave New World style reproductive facility or a reference to the National Library of Medicine's cool new app, but the self-description of the helpful Eumaios website.  If you took our advice in an earlier post and picked up Eleanor Dickey's volume Ancient Greek Scholarship then you may find Eumaios a particularly interesting tool, as it gives you easy access to Homeric scholia.  It does more than this, however.  The homepage lists the following elements the site offers:

1. Information that is tied to specific lines of text, in particular:
   1. Papyrus readings for the Iliad and Odyssey, gathered from Dana Sutton's list, now maintained by the Center for Hellenic Studies, but displayed differently here
   2. Scholia from Hartmut Erbse's edition of the Scholia
   3. Correspondences between the Iliad and the Aeneid, based on the lists in Georg N. Knauer's Die Aeneis und Homer. Studien zur poetischen Technik Vergils mit Listen der Homerzitate in der Aeneis (Göttingen, 1964)
   4. Bibliographical items gathered from volumes 35-63 (1964-92) of L'Année Philologique
2. Bibliographical information about lemmata, wordforms, and repeated phrases gathered from volumes 35-63 (1964-92) ofL'Année Philologique
3. A report by Martin Mueller About Homeric repetitions: facts, figures, and hypotheses as well as notes on some 300 interdependent repetitions in the first and last books of the Iliad . 

The Chicago Homer

When I first started studying Homer's Iliad I quickly made a digital best friend: The Chicago Homer.  TCH allows you to read and search Homer, Hesiod, and the Homeric Hymns.  There are several different display options, including one that allows you to display the Greek lines and the English (or German) translation together.  The Greek can also be displayed in transliteration.  The Greek words are hyperlinked, allowing you to learn the parsing and lexical form of a particular word, find other occurrences of that word (in inflected or lexical form) in the corpus, and access the Liddell, Scott, Jones lexicon entry at Perseus.  One of the things I love the most about TCH is that it tags common phrases and collocations, allowing you to easily find other places where they occur in Homer.

TCH is a powerful tool -- take the time to play around with it!