Open-access textbooks & language primers

The AWOL (Ancient World Online) blog has brought together a selection of open-access text-books and primers of languages of the Ancient World, including a number relevant to the Near East  (Biblical Hebrew, Hittite, Manichaean Sogdian, Sumerian etc.)

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE AWOL LIST 

 ** For Akkadian, note Alan Lenzi's direction to his Reading Akkadian Hymns and Prayers: An Introduction, 

http://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/9781589835962.pdf


"It doesn't teach Akkadian, but it does help with rapid reading of 29 selected prayers and hymns".

A lost language rediscovered?

This report from the Independent newspaper examines recent discoveries at a dig at the Assyrian imperial governor's palace at Tushan (south-east Turkey) which seem to be evidence of a previously unknown language, probably spoken by a people from the Zagros Mountains of Iran

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE


A detailed analysis of the discovery has been published in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies Vol.71 (1) 2012 ("Evidence for a peripheral language in a neo-Assyrian tablet from the governor's palace in Tushan" John MacGinnis)
This is available from JSTOR Current collections. Click here to access the journal article