Complete Babylonian

Complete Babylonian

Complete Babylonian: A Teach Yourself Guide Complete Babylonian: A Teach Yourself Guide provides you with a clear and comprehensive approach to Babylonian, so you can progress quickly from the basics to understanding and writing Babylonian with confidence.

Within each of the 24 thematic chapters, important language structures are introduced through life-like dialogues. You'll learn grammar in a gradual manner so you won't be overwhelmed by this tricky subject. Exercises accompany the texts and reinforce learning in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This program also features current cultural information boxes that reflect recent changes in society.

Features:

One and five-minute introductions to key principles to get you started Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience Tests in the book and online to keep track of your progress Extra online articles at www.teachyourself.com to give you a richer understanding of the basics of the language Table of contents

INTRODUCTION / The Language’s Relatives and Development / What about Assyrian? / A note on Sumerian / Pronunciation / About the exercises / THE CUNEIFORM SCRIPT, TRANSLITERATION AND NORMALIZATION / Phonetic writing / Sumerographic writing and phonetic complements / Determinatives / The cuneiform script: how it evolved / Transliteration / Which sign is being used to write a syllable? / Normalization / SOME GENERAL FEATURES OF THE LANGUAGE / Roots and patterns / Position of the verb within the sentence / Articles / Pronouns as subjects of verbs / Sound changes / Syllables and division into syllables (‘syllabification’) / Sound change 1: vowel elision / Sound change 2: vowel contraction / Sound change 3: assimilation of consonants / OVERVIEW OF NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES / Case / Gender / Number / Words functioning as nouns / NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES, SINGULAR / The second millennium BC / The first millennium BC / NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES, PLURAL / The second millennium BC / Masculine nouns: / Masculine adjectives: / Feminine nouns and adjectives: / The first millennium BC / HOW TO SAY ‘OF’: THE ‘CONSTRUCT STATE’ / Origin of ‘construct’ forms / Formation of the ‘construct state’ in the singular / Formation of the ‘construct state’ in the plural / Use of the singular and plural construct forms / ADVERBS AND LOCATIVES / OVERVIEW OF VERBS / The four verb systems / The sub-systems: tn and t / ‘Weak’ verbs / Verbs with ‘a’ and verbs with ‘e’ / Tenses / Pronouns and gender / Summary / THE PRESENT / Forming the present for non-weak verbs s / Forming the present for weak verbs / THE PRETERITE / THE PERFECT / THE STATIVE / VERBAL FORMS FOR ALL PERSONS / HOW TO EXPRESS WISHES AND COMMANDS / SUBORDINATE CLAUSES / VERBS AND THE DIRECTION OF MOTION / PRONOUNS / THE DUAL / A FEW TRICKS OF THE TRADE / Sandhi spellings / Puns / Unorthodox syllable divisions / Special sign readings / Alphabetic influence / Rebus writings / Scribal errors resulting from copying / Scribal errors resulting from dictation / The structure of poetic lines / Structural parallelism / FURTHER READING / APPENDIX: GLOSSED CUNEIFORM READINGS / GLOSSARY