Home Open Access Publications Other Publications Languages of Iraq: Ancient and Modern

Languages of Iraq: Ancient and Modern

Languages of Iraq: Ancient and Modern

2007

Editor: Nicholas Postgate

Format: pp. viii, 187. 32 b/w maps and illustrations. Size 240 x 160mm

ISBN: 978-0- 903472-21-0

Price: £15

For all five thousand years of its history Iraq has been home to a mixture of languages, spoken and written, and the same is true today. In November 2003, to celebrate the country’s rich diversity and long history as a centre of civilisation, BISl presented a series of talks by experts on each of the major languages of Iraq and their history, and this illustrated volume brings these now to a wider public.

Iraq’s languages come from different linguistic families – Semitic, Indo-European, and agglutinative languages like Sumerian, Hurrian and Turkish. Some, although long dead, have a prime place in the history of the Old World: Sumerian, probably the first language to be written and the vehicle of cuneiform scholarship for more than two millennia, and Akkadian, the language of Hammurapi and the Epic of Gilgamesh, and used across the Near East for administration and diplomacy. The history of Aramaic is even longer, stretching back to overlap with Akkadian before 1000 BC. It survives, precariously, in both written and spoken forms, being one of four languages spoken in Iraq today. Of these Arabic as a major world language has often been described, but here we have an account of the vernacular Iraqi Arabic dialects, and the descriptions of Iraqi Kurdish and Turkman are unique, detailed and authoritative.

Printed by Cambridge University Press.

Iraq Journal

IRAQ, the BISI journal

IRAQ is an academic periodical founded in 1934 and appearing annually. It publishes articles on the history, art, archaeology, religion, economic and social life of Iraq.

Access to the journal and all back issues are available by subscription to BISI members. Everyone can become a member of BISI, wherever you live in the world. Joining BISI means that you support our work to promote research and education about the history, society and culture of Iraq.