2017-2018

In this course, we will read Akkadian letters from the correspondence found at Tell el-Amarna, Egypt, that date to the 14th century BCE. We will read letters from various locations, including Babyonia, Assyria, Mitanni and Hatti, although the main focus of the class will be on the letters sent from Canaan. In all these corpora we will look at features that mark the language as different from core Babylonian and that reveal substrate influence from the native languages of the scribes.

This course consists of readings in cuneiform texts on therapeutic prescriptions, incantations, and rituals, pharmacopoeia, the Diagnostic Handbook, medical commentaries, and medical astrology, along with scholarly articles on various ancient medical topics. 

Readings from the Code of Hammurapi, in the Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian.

Advanced Readings in Hittite (Letters)

This three-quarter sequence covers basic grammar and cuneiform writing system of the Hittite language. It also familiarizes the student with the field's tools (i.e. dictionaries, lexica, sign list). Readings come from all periods of Hittite History (1650 to 1180 B.C.).

Third quarter of Advanced Turkish / Elementary Ottoman

Third Quarter of Intermediate Modern Turkish.

An introductory sequence in the written language of the Orkhon Inscriptions, dating back to the fifth-to-eighth-century Kök Türk State of Central Eurasia, and of related inscriptions from the Yenisei River area, Mongolia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe. The language of the inscriptions is considered to be the ancestor of the majority of Turkic languages spoken today and uses a distinctive alphabet sometimes known as the Old Turkic Runiform Alphabet. The sequence covers a brief historic overview, basic grammar, reading selections from the inscriptions in the original and in translation, and familiarization with the alphabet itself. An introductory sequence in the written language of the Orkhon Inscriptions, dating back to the fifth-to-eighth-century Kök Türk State of Central Eurasia, and of related inscriptions from the Yenisei River area, Mongolia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe. The language of the inscriptions is considered to be the ancestor of the majority of Turkic languages spoken today and uses a distinctive alphabet sometimes known as the Old Turkic Runiform Alphabet. The sequence covers a brief historic overview, basic grammar, reading selections from the inscriptions in the original and in translation, and familiarization with the alphabet itself.

Third Quarter of 1st Year Modern Turkish

This course is intended for those students who have learned Persian well enough to start enjoying Persian poetry in the original language. Starting from the Constitutional Revolution of 1906, each session several new poems by one or more poets will be discussed against the socio-political background of the time. The poets will include some women poets also, and the poems range in form, style and subject matter from traditional to modern, from satirical to prison poems and issues of human/women’s rights. The students are expected to prepare for each session, participate actively in discussions, be ready for short presentations based on the assigned secondary literature, and write an essay.