Book
A Comparative-historical Study of Cul-tural Terms for Building Materials and Metals in the Lan-guages of the South Arabia
Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Москва, 2008, 168 p.
The system of building terms in the ancient and modern South Arabian languages presents a complicated picture: it reflects the changes (shifts) which the civilizations and lan-guages on this territory undergo. Thus, in South Arabia one can observe the process that is also typical for the regions of the ancient cultures: pre-existent populations and newcomers inherit an important part of the ancient local terms relating to the local cultural and economic traditions. The monograph examines names for “stone” and its kinds; names of “clay/mud”; terms for “brick” and its kinds (“sun-dried Brick”; “burnt/baked Brick”); names for “mortars”, “wood” and names for metals: “gold” and “silver”. The etymological study of the terms under consideration is based on the analysis of various sources: data of archaeological research, data of written sources, comparative data of Semitic and Afro-Asian lan-guages; data of local modern languages and dialects. In con-clusion it should be said that among the cultural names col-lected one can distinguish local terms originating from com-mon Semitic roots, local terms originating from non-Semitic substratum, and also Yemenite-Ethiopian and Yemenite-Cushitic Isoglosses. This monograph is one of the stages in preparing the Arabic etymological dictionary and is of interest for comparative linguists – arabists and semitologists, as well as for historians and archaeologists engaged in the South Arabian studies.
Content
РУССКАЯ ВЕРСИЯ: Культурная лексика Южной Аравии в сравнительно-историческом аспекте (термины материальной культуры – названия стройматериалов и металлов)