36.476, Calls: Historical Linguistics / Germany

Wed Feb 5 03:05:05 UTC 2025

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-476. Wed Feb 05 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.476, Calls: Historical Linguistics / Germany

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Date: 04-Feb-2025
From: Benjamin Suchard [benjamin.suchard at kuleuven.be]
Subject: 35th Deutscher Orientalistentag (2025) Panel: Semitic reading traditions

Full Title: 35th Deutscher Orientalistentag (2025) Panel: Semitic
reading traditions

Date: 08-Sep-2025 - 12-Sep-2025
Location: Erlangen, Germany
Web Site: https://www.dot2025.fau.eu/

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics
Subject Language(s): Ancient Hebrew (hbo)
                     Classical Mandaic (myz)
                     Jewish Babylonian Aramaic (ca. 200-1200 CE) (tmr)
                     Samaritan (smp)
                     Standard Arabic (arb)
Language Family(ies): Central Semitic; Northwest Semitic; Semitic

Call for Papers:
Panel on Semitic reading traditions
35th Deutscher Orientalistentag, 8–12 September 2025, Erlangen
Conveners: Benjamin Suchard (KU Leuven), Harald Samuel (University of
Tübingen)
Semitic alphabets are largely consonantal in nature. Before the
invention of explicit vocalization systems, readers necessarily relied
on one of two things: knowledge of either the language in which the
text was written or, especially in the case of sacred writings, a
traditionally transmitted pronunciation—a reading tradition.
Prestigious reading traditions feature prominently in the history of
Judaism (Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic, Rabbinic Hebrew, Jewish
Babylonian Aramaic), Samaritanism (Biblical Hebrew), Islam (Qur’anic
Arabic), Middle Eastern Christianity (Syriac), and Mandaism (Mandaic),
and have recently been subject to a wave of renewed scholarly
investigation (e.g. Suchard 2021; Van Putten 2022; Hornkohl 2023).
This panel aims to bring together scholars working on these different
traditions to discuss methodological approaches to their study,
explore parallels in their transmission and standardization, and
examine their role in preserving historical linguistic features. Key
questions include:
 • How can we detect linguistic differences between a reading
tradition and the original language(s) of the associated consonantal
text?
 • How did readers deal with conflicts stemming from dialectal and
diachronic differences in language, theological or other
content-related difficulties, or scribal error?
 • How can the study of (dis)agreements between consonantal texts and
their reading traditions inform our understanding of the history of
religion?
We invite submissions from scholars at all career stages working on
these topics. Please submit a title and abstract (max. 250 words, two
to three references) to benjamin.suchard at kuleuven.be by 23 February
2025.
References
Hornkohl, Aaron D. 2023. The Historical Depth of the Tiberian Reading
Tradition of Biblical Hebrew. Semitic Languages and Cultures 17.
Cambridge: Open Book.
Suchard, Benjamin D. 2021. ‘The Origins of the Biblical Aramaic
Reading Tradition’. Vetus Testamentum 71 (1): 105–19.
Van Putten, Marijn. 2022. Quranic Arabic: From Its Hijazi Origins to
Its Classical Reading Traditions. Studies in Semitic Languages and
Linguistics 106. Leiden: Brill.

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LINGUIST List: Vol-36-476
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