Aaron Rubin's Homepage

Last updated: July 8, 2008

 

Aaron D. Rubin
Pennsylvania State University
221 Weaver Building
University Park, PA 16802
adr10   @   psu.edu


POSITION HELD
Mal and Lea Bank Early Career Professor of Jewish Studies and Assistant Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies.

Penn State University, July 2004-present.

EDUCATION
Ph.D. Semitic Philology, Harvard University, 2004.
M.A. Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, 1999.
B.A. Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, 1998.

COURSES TAUGHT
Language Courses:

Introduction to Biblical Hebrew (2005-06, 2007-08)

Advanced Biblical Hebrew (Fall 2004, Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2008, Spring 2009)

Rabbinic Hebrew (Fall 2004)
Modern Hebrew Songs (Spring 2005)

Targumic Aramaic (Spring 2005)
Readings in Aramaic Dialects (Fall 2005)

Yiddish Grammar and Reading (Fall 2005, Spring 2008)

Intermediate Literary Arabic (Fall 2006)

Judeo-Romance Dialects (Spring 2009)

 

Lecture/Seminar Courses:

Introduction to the Bible (Fall 2004)
Freshman Seminar: Literature of the Ancient Near East (Spring 2005)

Writing Systems of the World (Spring 2006, Fall 2008)


GRADUATE TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Teaching Fellow, Modern Hebrew, Harvard University (Fall 2000-Spring 2004)
Instructor, Advanced Biblical Hebrew, Temple Israel, Brookline, MA (Fall 2002-Spring 2003)
Teaching Fellow, Comparative Semitics (Fall 2003)

Instructor, Ethiopic (2nd semester) (Spring 2004)

 

BOOKS

Studies in Semitic Grammaticalization.  Harvard Semitic Series. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2005.

  • Review: John Engle, Review of Biblical Literature (2006).
  • Review: Guy Deutscher, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 69 (2006): 464-66.
  • Review: Eran Cohen, Bibliotheca Orientalis 63 (2006): 340-43.
  • Review: John Cook, Hebrew Studies 47 (2006): 433-36.
  • Review: Michael Waltisberg, Orientalische Literaturzeitung 101 (2006): 709-14.
  • Review: Alan S. Kaye, Journal of the American Oriental Society 126 (2006): 284-86.

Samuel David Luzzatto, Prolegomena to a Grammar of the Hebrew Language. Gorgias Press, 2005.

  • Review: Arian Verheij, Review of Biblical Literature (2007).
  • Review: J. Middlemas, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 31 (2007), 266.
  • Review: Clive Fierstone, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 71 (2008): 119-21.

 

ARTICLES
“A Note on the Conjugation of Lamed-Heh Verbs in the Derived Patterns.” Zeitschrift für Althebraistik 14/1 (2001): 34-41.

“An Outline of Comparative Egypto-Semitic Morphology.” In Egyptian and Semito-Hamitic (Afro-Asiatic) Studies in Memoriam Werner Vycichl, ed. Gábor Takács, pp. 454-86. Brill, 2003.

“Notes on Genitive Exponents in some Modern Arabic Dialects.” Folia Orientalia 40 (2004): 327-36 (appeared 2006).

“On Syriac hārkā and Aramaic r < *n.” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 66/2 (2007): 123-24.

“On the Third Person Preformative n- / l- in Aramaic, and an Ethiopic Parallel.” Ancient Near Eastern Studies 44 (2007): 1-28.

“The Mehri Participle: Form, Function, and Evolution.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Series 3) 17 (2007): 381-88.

“The Subgrouping of the Semitic Languages.” Language and Linguistics Compass 2 (2008): 61-84.

“Interrogatives in Mehri: Their Use and Etymologies.” Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik 48 (2008): 75-90.

“The Paradigm Root in Hebrew.” Journal of Semitic Studies 53 (2008): 29-41.

 

“Genesis 49:4 in Light of Arabic and Modern South Arabian.” Vetus Testamentum (forthcoming, 2008/09).

“The Functions of the Preposition k- in Mehri.” Journal of Semitic Studies (forthcoming, 2009).

“The Development of the Amharic Definite Article and an Indonesian Parallel.” Journal of Semitic Studies (forthcoming, 2010).

 

 “Two Peculiarities of Niphal Participles in Biblical Hebrew.” (under review).

 

“Samuel Archivolti and the Hebrew Vowel Point Controversy.” (in progress).

“Temporal Conjunctions in Mehri.” (in progress).

“On the Etymology of Hebrew pen.” (in progress).

“The Hebrew Language in Samoa.” (in progress).

 

REFERENCE ARTICLES

“Hebrew.” Co-authored with Jeremy M. Hutton. In New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 2, ed. Katharine D. Sakenfeld et al, pp. 768-78. Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 2007.

“Hebrew Language and Literature.” In Encyclopedia of the Modern World, ed. Peter N. Stearns., vol. 4, pp. 1-2. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

“Linguistics and Biblical Studies.” In New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 3, ed. Katharine D. Sakenfeld et al., pp. 667-68. Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 2008.

“Hieroglyphs.” In Encyclopedia of World History. Vol. 1: Ancient World, 8000 BCE to 600 CE, ed. Mark F. Whitters. New York: Facts on File. (forthcoming, July 2008)

 

BOOK REVIEWS

M. Sokoloff, A Dictionary of Judean Aramaic. Hebrew Studies 46 (2005): 387-89.

A. Dotan, The Awakening of Word Lore: From the Masora to the Beginnings of Hebrew Lexicography. Hebrew Studies 47 (2006): 460-62.

L. Jiménez Patón and A. Sáenz-Badillos, Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Sefer Moznayim. Journal of Semitic Studies 52 (2007): 166-68.

M. Ángeles Gallego, El judeo-árabe medieval: Edición, traducción, y estudio lingüístico del Kitāb al-taswi’a de Yonah ibn Ğanāh. Collectanea Christiana Orientalia 4 (2007): 412-15.

E. Ruiz Gonzalez and A. Sáenz-Badillos, Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Safah Berurah: La Lengua Escogida. Journal of Semitic Studies 52 (2007): 399-400.

A. Sáenz-Badillos, Storia della lingua ebraica. Journal of Near Eastern Studies (forthcoming).

J.N. Postgate, ed., Languages of Iraq: Ancient and Modern. Bulletin of the American Schools for Oriental Research (forthcoming).

R. Voigt, ed., From Beyond the Mediterranean: Akten des 7. Internationalen Semitohamitistenkongresses. Journal of Semitic Studies (forthcoming).

M. Gómez Aranda, Dos comentarios de Abraham ibn Ezra al libro de Esther. Journal of Semitic Studies (forthcoming).

Alan S. Kaye, ed., The Morphologies of Asia and Africa. Journal of the American Oriental Society (forthcoming).

 

TALKS

“The Definite Article in Central Semitic,” Harvard University Semitic Workshop, December 5, 2003.

“The Definite Article in Central Semitic,” Penn State University, March, 2004.

“A Short History of the Hebrew Language,” Harvard University, May 5, 2006.

“The Preformative n- / l- in Aramaic, and Parallels,” Meeting of International Group for Comparative Semitics, Sitges, Spain, June 1, 2006.

“The Development of the Amharic Definite Article.” American Oriental Society Annual Meeting, Chicago, March 14, 2008.

“The Mehri Language of Oman.” Penn State Institute for the Arts and Humanities, March 20, 2008.

 

ADDITIONAL PROJECTS

Editorial Assistant for J.F. Coakley, Robinson’s Paradigms and Exercises in Syriac Grammar, Oxford University Press, 2002.

Coordinator, Harvard University Workshop in Semitic Philology, 2003-2004.

Faculty Advisor, Jewish Awareness Diversity Education (JADE), Penn State University, 2004-present.


AWARDS AND GRANTS
Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching: Fall 2000, Spring 2001, Fall 2001, Spring 2002, Fall 2003, Spring 2004.

IAH Individual Faculty Grant for Fall, 2007.

RESEARCH INTERESTS
Comparative Semitic Linguistics
Biblical and Modern Hebrew Historical Grammar

History of the Field of Hebrew Studies
Mehri Morphology and Syntax

Aramaic Historical Grammar and Dialectology

Masoretic Studies

Targumic Studies

Historical Linguistics


Links