30.2864, Books: Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes: Givón

Tue Jul 23 20:03:26 UTC 2019

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-2864. Tue Jul 23 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.2864, Books: Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes: Givón

Moderator: Malgorzata E. Cavar (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Student Moderator: Jeremy Coburn
Managing Editor: Becca Morris
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Everett Green, Sarah Robinson, Peace Han, Nils Hjortnaes, Yiwen Zhang, Julian Dietrich
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Jeremy Coburn <jecoburn at linguistlist.org>
================================================================

Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2019 16:03:13
From: Karin Plijnaar [karin.plijnaar at benjamins.nl]
Subject: Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes: Givón

Title: Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes 
Subtitle: Sex and sophistry in the Old Testament - A new English translation 
Publication Year: 2019 
Publisher: John Benjamins
	   http://www.benjamins.com/

Book URL: https://benjamins.com/catalog/z.222 

Author: T. Givón

Electronic: ISBN:  9789027262516 Pages:  Price: U.S. $ 128.00
Electronic: ISBN:  9789027262516 Pages:  Price: U.K. £ 71.00
Electronic: ISBN:  9789027262516 Pages:  Price: Europe EURO 85.00
Hardback: ISBN:  9789027203199 Pages: 159 Price: U.S. $ 128.00
Hardback: ISBN:  9789027203199 Pages: 159 Price: U.K. £ 71.00
Hardback: ISBN:  9789027203199 Pages: 159 Price: Europe EURO 90.10

Abstract:

This book is a new English translation of the two shortest, most controversial
and perhaps most vibrant books in the Hebrew Old Testament – Song of Songs
(Song of Solomon) and Qohelet (Ecclesiastes). The two books slipped into the
Jewish – and eventually Christian – Canon by a series of misrepresentations.
The first, Song of Songs, is linguistically the latest book along the Biblical
Hebrew dialect continuum, perhaps as late as 300–100 BC to judge by its
language, which closely resembles Mishnaic Hebrew (2nd Cent. AD). The book is
a lush, carnal poetic account of an illicit love affair, where lusty exchanges
between the female beloved and her male lover are interspersed with rustic
love songs. The ultimate provenance of the text may be older than the time it
was recruited into the Canon, or the time suggested by its late dialect.The
second book, Qohelet, is linguistically earlier on the Biblical Hebrew dialect
continuum, though still following the return from the Babylonian exile (ca.
550 BC). Unlike Song of Songs, which is linguistically coherent and bears all
the marks of having been produced by a native speaker (or speakers), Qohelet
is replete with non-native lexical and grammatical usage, and was most likely
produced by a speaker (or speakers) of Aramaic, the lingua franca of the
Persian empire and the returning exiles. Multiple English translations of the
two books exist. Nonetheless, in one way or another all previous translations
suffer from two main drawbacks: First, their interpretation of the grammar –
and on occasion also the vocabulary – of Biblical Hebrew is sometimes
questionable. And second, the poetic quality of their English leaves much to
be desired, paling in comparison with the stark beauty of the Hebrew
original.This book attempts to do justice to both the contents and form of
these two magnificent, deliciously subversive poetic works. The Hebrew texts
and their English translation are preceded by two scholarly chapters, the
first about the Biblical Hebrew dialect continuum , the second about the
science and art of translation.

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics
                     Translation

Subject Language(s): Hebrew, Ancient (hbo)

Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=136954

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***************************    LINGUIST List Support    ***************************
 The 2019 Fund Drive is under way! Please visit https://funddrive.linguistlist.org
  to find out how to donate and check how your university, country or discipline
     ranks in the fund drive challenges. Or go directly to the donation site:
               https://iufoundation.fundly.com/the-linguist-list-2019

                        Let's make this a short fund drive!
                Please feel free to share the link to our campaign:
                    https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-30-2864	
----------------------------------------------------------