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LINGUISTIC STUDIES -Approaching the ANE Languages From LINGUISTIC STUDIES -A pproaching the ANE Languages from the Oriental Mind Jun IKEDA* Schools of Linguistics in Japan The first department of linguistics in Japan was inaugurated in 1886 at the Tokyo Imperial University (today's University of Tokyo)(1). In 1890, Kazutoshi Ueda, one of the first students of the department, went to Germany to study historical-comparative linguistics at the University of Leipzig. He came back to Japan in 1894, and taught German-style linguistics at the Tokyo Imperial University(2). In 1908, the second school of linguistics was established at the Kyoto Imperial University (today's Kyoto University). Izuru Shimmura, one of Ueda's disciples, became its first chair(3). His student Hisanosuke Izui became one of the authorities on comparative linguistics in Japan, and taught at his alma mater. These are the only universities that had a department devoted to linguistics before the World War II, so they naturally became the cradles of studies in the Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) languages in Japan. Most of the scholars whom we mention below are actually graduates of these universities or their students. In1938, the Linguistic Society of Japan was established with Shimmura as the first president, and the first issue of Journal of Linguistic Society of Japan was published in the same year. In Vol. 4 (1939), we find an article written by Toshihiko Izutsu, a renowned scholar of Islamic studies: "On the Accadian Particle -ma." This is most probably the first academic paper ever written about an ANE language by a Japanese scholar. Izutsu also wrote reviews of R. Dussaud's Les decouvertes de Ras Shamra et l'Ancient Testament (vol. 1, 128- 131), A. H. Gardiner's Some Aspects of the Egyptian Language (vol. 1, 131- 136), and Z. S. Harris' A Grammar of Phoenician Language (vol. 2, 123-126), which shows the range of his interest and expertise. After the World War II, new laws for higher education were enacted. This * Assistant Professor, University of Tsukuba © 2001 by the Society for Near Eastern c Studies in Japan Vol. XXXVI 2001 129 led to the birth of some new departments of linguistics. Two of them are especially important with regard to the ANE languages: the Tokyo University of Education and Hiroshima University. In the former, the late Prof. Masao Sekine(4), a graduate of University of Tokyo and a prominent scholar of Biblical studies, taught from 1954 till 1975. Among his students are Takamitsu Muraoka, Hirokazu Oikawa, Akio Moriya and Akihiro Tsukamoto. In Hiroshima University, Mamoru Yoshikawa, a graduate of Kyoto University and one of the most important scholars of the Sumerian grammar in the world, taught from 1965 till 1995. He has trained scholars such as Terumasa Oshiro, Mitsuo Kowaki, Setsuko Abe, Masashi Mine, and Soichi Mikami. The Hiroshima school of linguistics publishes the bulletin Nidaba, which was named after the Sumerian goddess of letters. The Tokyo University of Education was closed in March 1978. To replace it, a new university was built on a new location, the University of Tsukuba. Since most of the faculty of the Department of Linguistics did not move to this new university, virtually a new school of linguistics started in the new campus. Toshio Tsumura (better known as David T. Tsumura), who had finished his Ph.D. at Brandeis University in the U.S., started to teach Semitic languages at the University of Tsukuba in 1974. In 1983, Katsumi Matsumoto became the chair of the general linguistics course, and taught historical-comparative linguistics as well as various IE languages. Fumi Karahashi, J. Ikeda and Shigeo Takeuchi studied ANE languages from them. Matsumoto and Tsumura left the university several years ago, and Ikeda currently teaches Semitic linguistics there. Kyoto Sangyo University, where T. Oshiro and S. Takeuchi teach, is worthy of mention. Since the time this school of linguistics was established by H. Izui after he retired from Kyoto University, it has formed a center for ANE linguistic studies (especially Hittite) together with Kyoto University, where Kazuhiko Yoshida, a graduate of Kyoto University and a Ph.D. of Cornell University, teaches Hittite language and comparative linguistics. Oshiro and Yoshida organize meetings for the study of Western Asian Languages, where many of the scholars mentioned in this paper get together twice a year. Several other universities have noteworthy programs. At Kyushu University, Isaku Matsuda, a graduate of University of Tokyo, taught Hebrew, and trained students such as A. Tsukamoto, who further studied under Sekine at the Tokyo University of Education, and Yasuhiro Osato. Besides, at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and Osaka University of Foreign Studies, courses 130 ORIENT LINGUISTIC STUDIES for various Near Eastern languages are offered. Naturally more weight is laid on modern languages at these latter institutions, yet they serve as important centers for linguistic training in the ANE languages through academic exchange with neighboring schools of linguistics. Akio Nakano, former professor of Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and Kosai Ban, former professor of Osaka University of Foreign Studies, played an important role in fostering Semitic linguistics in Japan. Semitic Languages Hebrew(5) Masao Sekine is the most important figure in the early development of Hebrew linguistics in Japan. He is the first Japanese scholar to publish academic papers on the Hebrew language in international journals, and has earned the esteem of scholars abroad. He not only trained his able disciples at the Tokyo University of Education, but also contributed to the progress of Biblical studies in Japan beyond the limit of one university by becoming the director of the Japanese Biblical Institute in 1958. His important papers in the field of Hebrew Linguistics were published in Gengogaku Ronso (Journal of the Linguistic Circle of the Tokyo University of Education) as well as in international journals. These papers have been collected (in Japanese translation) in Selected Works of Masao Sekine, Vol. 7 (Sekine 1980). His most important contribution to the Hebrew linguistics is, in my opinion, his paper on the Biblical Hebrew verbal system, "Das Wesen des althebraischen Verbalausdrucks" (Sekine 1940/41 = Sekine 1980, 217-228), in which he criticized the approach to Biblical Hebrew "tenses" through European logic . To approach the Hebrew language from a non- European mind was indeed the methodology he practiced himself and taught his students. His student Takamitsu Muraoka (Leiden University), known worldwide for his translation (into English) and revision of P. Jouon's Grammaire de l'hebreu biblique (Jouon-Muraoka 1993), is undoubtedly one of the most productive Semitic linguists in the world. As I cannot refer to all his works for lack of space, let me just cite here his three most important contributions to Hebrew linguistics. 1) His most important work, in my opinion, is Emphatic Words and Structures in Biblical Hebrew (Muraoka 1985), a revised version of his Ph.D. dissertation submitted to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1969. This is a Vol. XXXVI 2001 131 monumental work in Hebrew syntax, and contributed to arousing wider interest in this then somewhat neglected field in Semitic linguistics. 2) In the 1990's, he produced a series of papers about the Hebrew nominal clause (Muraoka 1990a, 1990b, and 1999b), which is one of the most intricate issues in Semitic syntax. He dealt with this issue both synchronically and diachronically. 3) He is one of the organizers of the symposium "The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Ben Sira in Relation to Biblical Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew" held every two years since 1995. Together with J. F. Elwolde, he has edited the three proceedings of the symposium and contributed an article to each of them (Muraoka 1997b, 1999a, 2000). He thus plays a leading role in the study of Qumran Hebrew worldwide. We can mention works by other scholars only in passing. In the field of Hebrew phonology, T. Tsumura (Japan Bible Seminary) produced a general survey (Tsumura 1993) as well as a specific study on vowel sandhi (Tsumura 1997). A. Tsukamoto (Saga University) published two papers on the stress placement rules (Tsukamoto 1982, 1983). In the field of syntax, I. Matsuda's contributions (1975, 1977) were among the first, and from the 1980's on, Tsumura delved into the question of adjacency and dependency through the analysis of "AXB" and related patterns (Tsumura 1981, 1983, 1986a, 1988, 1996). There are three popular subjects in Hebrew syntax among Japanese scholars: the "tenses," 'et (nota accusativi), and the Niphal stem. The question of "tenses" has been discussed by Setsuko Abe (Notre Dame Seishin University; Abe 1983, 1984, 1985a, 1985b), S. Takeuchi (1992) and J. Ikeda (1986), in addition to the work by M. Sekine mentioned above. The particle 'et has been discussed by S. Mikami (1995a, 1995b, 1997), Takeuchi (1993, 1995, 1998) and Ikeda (2000a), and the Niphal stem by Tsumura (1986b) and Mikami (1992, 1999). Other notable works in the field of Hebrew syntax are Kyoji Tsujita 1991, on the use of resumptive pronouns in the relative clause, Takeuchi 1991, on the use of the infinitive absolute, and Takeuchi 1999, on the word order in Genesis and the book of Esther. In the field of Semantics, I. Matsuda produced a series of papers in the 1970's (Matsuda 1972, 1973, 1976), and his student Yasuhiro Osato (Nagasaki Wesleyan Junior College) analyzed the verbs bw' and hlk (Osato 1988). Besides, Muraoka introduced an international joint research project, the Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database, to Japanese scholars (Muraoka 1998b), and K. Nao gave insights into Hebrew semantics through his massive Hebrew-Japanese lexicon (Nao 1982). Note also that the orthography 132 ORIENT LINGUISTIC STUDIES and grammar of the Isiah scroll A from Qumran was examined by K.
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