Prof. Rafi Talmon (1948-2004)
Publications

Books | Articles | Encyclopedic Entries | Book Reviews

Research Areas

All aspects of Arabic linguitics; The relations between Arabic grammatical thinking and other Islamic sciences, especially philosophy; The infiltration of Greek sciences into early Islam; Qur'anic syntax; Arabic dialectology, especially the study of Palestinian dialects.
Books

(not finished). publication of H. Blanc's 1953 dissertation "Studies in North Palestinian Arabic: Linguistic Inquiries among the Druzes of Western Galilee and and Mt. Carmel". Including the Phonoloy, Morrphology and Texts parts. To be published as part of the Semitica Viva series.

(2003). Eighth-Century Iraqi Grammar: A Critical Exploration of pre-Halilian Arabic Linguistics (Harvard Semitic Studies Series 53. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns), xiv+ 346 pp.

(2003). (together with H. Bar-Itzhak Popular Tales from Galilee: 30 texts with linguistic, historical and folkloristic notes and analysis (will be submitted to Bloomington)

(2000). A Hebrew translation of W. Fischer & O. Jastrow, Handbuch der Arabischen Dialekte (Wiesbaden 1980). Magnes Press.

(1997). Arabic Grammar in its Formative Age: Kitab al-'Ayn & its Attribution to Halil ibn Ahmad. Leiden: E.J.Brill. 437pp.

(1980). Problems in the Syntax of Sentence Theory in Sibawaihi's 'al-Kitab' (in Hebrew). Approved by the Senate of Tel Aviv University: Nov. 1980. Instructor: Prof. Gideon Goldenberg. 258 pp.

Articles

(2007). "Schacht's Theory in the Light of Recent Discoveries concerning the Origins of Arabic Grammar", in Ramzi Baalbaki (ed.), The Early Islamic Grammatical Tradition, USA: Ashgate Publishing Company, pp. 101-120. (2005). "Gaya, sifa, and al-kalam al-wasif in Ibn Muqaffa's Manual of Logic -Some New Considerations about the Beginning of Arabic Grammar". Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 30, 506- 520.

(Nov 2004). "Morphological Analysis of the Qur'an." together with Shuly Wintner, Yehudit Dror and Dudu Shaharabani. Journal of the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing 19: 4, 52-431.

(2004). "19th Century Travelers on Palestinian Arabic: Western travellers' testimony", Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 29, 210- 280. (2003). "Rediscovery of the Morphology Part of H. Blanc's 1953 Dissertation", in J. Aguadé and I. Ferrando (eds.), Proceedings of the 5th Interantional Conference of the International Arabic Dialectology Association (AÏDA), Cadiz, Sept. 25-28, 2002.
(2003) "Two Studies in Arabic Tamyiz", Proceedings of the Workshop in Memory of H. J. Polotsky: Ancient Egyptian, Neo-Semitic, Methods in Linguistics (Jerusalem July 2001).
(2002). "Some Observations on the Genitive Exponent and Palestinian Dialects", in: W. Arnold and H. Bobzin (eds.),"Sprich doch mit deinen Knechten aramäisch, wir verstehen es!" 60 Beiträge zur Semitistik. Festschrift für Otto Jastrow zum 60. Geburtstag. Wiesbaden. 713-718.
(2002). "Preparation of the North Israeli Arabic Sprachatlas: A Report", in A. Youssi et alii (eds.), Aspects of the Dialects of Arabic Today. Proceedings of the 4th Interantional Conference of the International Arabic Dialectology Association (AÏDA), Marrakesh, Apr. 1-4 2000, 68-77.
(2001). Translation of Noeldeke, Th, "Stylistische und syntaktische Eigentuemlichkeiten der Sprache des Korans" with introduction on the author, in: Jama'a (Ben-Gurion University), 7, 116-149. (in Hebrew).
(2001). "Some Syntactic and Stylistic Features of Interest in Galilean Arabic Folk-Tales". in: J. Rosenhaouse and A. Elad-Bouskila (eds.), Linguistic and Cultural Studies on Arabic and Hebrew: Festschrift for Professor Moshe Piamenta on his 80th Birthday. Wiesbaden, 213-232
(2000). "The Syriac Grammatical Tradition, Foreign Influence in the Syriac Grammatical Tradition", History of the Language Sciences. Handbuecher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft. S. Auroux, K. Koerner, H. -J. Niederehe and K. Versteegh (Eds.), Walter de Gruyter: Berlin-New York. Vol. I, 337-341.

(2000). "Mixa'il Sabbag's Manual of Arabic Dialectology (Paris, 1812): A Systematic Description of its Grammatical Material", in: Oriente Moderno (Roma), 19 (80), 183-208

(2000). "The First Beginnings of Arabic Linguistics", History of the Language Sciences. Handbcheruzur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft. S. Auroux, K. Koerner, H.-J. Niederehe and K. Versteegh (Eds.), Walter de Gruyter: Berlin-New York, vol 1, 245-252.

(2000). "Arabic as a Minority Language in Israel", in J. Owens (ed.), Arabic as a Minority Language. Proceedings of a colloquium on "Arabic as a Minority Language". Berlin and New York, 199-220.

(1999). "A Note on the Kufan-Basran Controversy and the Attibution to Halil of Kitab al-'Ayn", Al-Karmil: Studies in Arabic Language and Literature20, pp. 189-200 (in Arabic).

(1999). "From the History of the Study of Qur'anic Syntax", in: L. Edzard and M. Nekroumi (eds.), Tradition and Innovation: Norm and Deviation in Arabic and Semitic Linguistics. Wiesbaden: Harrassawitz. 71-77. (Proceedings of a Panel held in the frameword of the 27th Deutscher Orientalistentag (Bonn, Sept. 1998) = Linguistique arabe et semitique I (2000) 227-234.

(1999). "The Syntactical Category maf'ul mutlaq - A Study in Qur'anic Syntax", in Arabic Grammar and Linguistics. Proceedings of the Colloquium on Arabic Grammar and Linguistics (ed. Y. Suleiman). Surrey: Curzon, 107-129.

(1998). "A Reappraisal of the List of Ancient Hebrew Terms and the Affiliation between Hebrew and Arabic', Ever and 'Arav: Contacts between Arabic Literature and Jewish Literature in the Middle Ages and Modern Times, 27-51 (in Hebrew)

(1997 - 1998). "Salha and the Emir Mu'dad An Edition and Linguistic Analysis of a Contemporary Druze Poem". Al-Karmil: Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 18, 259 - 283 (in Arabic).

(1997). "The Hebrew Grammarians' Phonetical Term musawwitat - Reconsideration of its Origin, Massorot 9-11, 209-224 (in Hebrew).

(1996). "A New Outlook on the Beginning of Arabic Phonetics", Proceedings of the Colloquium on Arabic Linguistics. Part II, Bucharest, 151-162 (in Arabic).

(1995). "An Elegy from Lower Galilee", Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Arabic Dialectology. Cambridge. 10-14 September 1995. 237-242. (inner circulation)

(1994). Kinberg Naphtali & R. Talmon, "Learning of Arabic by Jews and the Use of Hebrew among Arabs in Israel", Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 37 - 54.

(1994). "The maf'ul mutlaq in Arabic Grammatical Thinking Reconsidered", Al-Karmil: Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 15, 133-158 (in Arabic).

(1993). "Two Early "non-Sibawaihian" Views of 'amal in Kernel-Sentences. Zeitschrift fur arabische Linguistik 25, 278-288.

(1993). "The Term Qalb and its Significance for the Study of the History of the Early Arabic Grammar", Zeitschrift fur Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften 8, 71-113.

(1993). "Hatta+impf. and Chapter 239 in Sibawayhi's Kitab: A Study in the Early History of Arabic Grammar", Journal of Semitic Studies 38, 71-95.

(1991). "A Reconsideration of the 'Parts of Speech Division': A Study of Ibn Muqaffa''s Book of Logic", Al-Karmil: Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 12, 43-67 (in Arabic).

(1990). "Halaf al-Ahmar's 'Muqaddima fi l-Nahw' - A Terminological Index and a Critical Introduction", Al-Karmil: Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 11, 129-199 (in Arabic).

(1990). "The Philosophizing Farra': An Interpretation of an Obscure Saying Attributed to the Grammarian Ta'lab", in Proceedings of the Second Workshop on the History of Arabic Grammar, ed. by C.H.M. Versteegh and M.G.Carter, Studies in the History of the Language Sciences 56, Amsterdam&Philadelphia, 265-279.

(1988). "Al-Kalam Ma Kana Muktafiyan bi-Nafsihi wa-Huwa l-Gumla - A Study in the History of Sentence Concept and the Sibawaihian Legacy in Arabic Grammar", Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft 138, 74-97.

(1988). A Review Article on G.H.A. Juynboll, Muslim Tradition, Cambridge University Press, 1983, in Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 11, 248-257.

(1988). "Marginalia on the 'Mas'ala Zunburiyya'", Al-Karmil: Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 9, 75-86 (in Arabic).

(1987). "Schacht's Theory in the Light of Recent Discoveries concerning the Origins of Arabic Grammar", Studia Islamica 65, 31-50.

(1987). "Musnad, Musnad ilayhi and the Early History of Arabic Grammar - A Reconsideration", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 208-222.

(1986). "The 'Mas'ala Zunburiyya' and the Authenticity of ahbar about the Early Controversies between the Basran and Kufan Schools of Grammar", Al-Karmil: Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 7, 131-163 (in Arabic).

(1985). "An Eighth Century Grammatical School in Medina - The Collection and Evaluation of the Available Material", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 48, 224-236.

(1985). "Who Was the First Arab Grammarian - A New Approach to an Old Question", Zeitschrift fur Arabische Linguistik 15, 128-145.

(1984). "Arabic Grammatical Thinking before Sibawaihi's Kitab", Al-Karmil: Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 5, 37-53 (in Arabic).

(1984). "A Problematic Passage in Sibawaihi's Kitab and the Authenticity of ahbar about the Early History of Arabic Grammatical Thinking", Journal of the American Oriental Society 104, 691-701.

(1983). "Arab Historiographers on the Emergence of Arabic Grammar", Al-Karmil: Studies in Arabic Language and Literature 4, 93-115 (in Arabic).

(1982). "nahwiyyun in Sibawaihi's Kitab", Zeitschrift fur Arabische Linguistik 8, 12-38.

(1981). "Appositival 'atf - An Inquiry into the History of a Syntactic Category", Arabica 28, 278-292.

Encyclopedic Entries

(2001, 2002). Two entries for Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an. J. D. McAuliffe (ed.). E.J. Brill: Dialects (Vol. I 529-31), Grammar and the Qur'an (Vol. II 346-69).

(1999). The entry Yunus b. Habib (Grammar). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

The entry sifa (Grammar). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

The entry sila (Grammar). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

Book Reviews

(2003). Nasir Basal, Kitab al-Nutaf by Judah Hayyuj. A Critical Edition. Tel Aviv 2001. Jewish Quarterly Review.
(1996). K. Versteegh, Arabic Grammar & Qur'anic Exegesis in Early Islam. Leiden 1993. Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 20, 287-292.

(1992). J. Owens, Early Arabic Grammatical Theory. Heterogeneity and Standardization. Studies in the History of the Language Sciences 53, 1990. Linguistics 30, 816-820.

(1991). A. Bloch, Studies in Arabic Syntax and Semantics. Zeitschrift fur Geschichte Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften 6, 296-301.

(1990). J. Owens, The Foundations of Grammar: An Introduction to Medieval Arabic Grammatical Theory, Studies in the History of the Language Sciences 45, 1987. Linguistics 28, 617-620

(1986). C.H.M. Versteegh et al. (Eds.), The History of Linguistics in the Near East, Studies in the History of Language Sciences, vol. 23, Amsterdam&Philadelphia, 1983. Zeitschrift fur Arabische Linguistik 16, 134-138.