Introduction to Classical Ethiopic (GE'ez) (Harvard Semitic Studies) [Paperback]

Thomas Oden Lambdin (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 462 pages
• Publisher: Amer Oriental Society (March 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575069253
• ISBN-13: 978-1575069258
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #602,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #70 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > African > Instruction

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great and innovative grammar of Ge'ez., February 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Introduction to Classical Ethiopic (Ge'ez) (Hardcover)

Lambdin's reclassification of Ge'ez verbs is only one of the fantastic contributions this book makes. The only drawback is that the grammar is transliterated. Consequently, when one reaches the stage of translating actual text, he or she will receive the worst kind of confusion: the disorientation of shifting mindsets. Otherwise, Lambdin's grammar is the best avaliable.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent grammar, July 27, 2003

By 

J. E. S. Leake "sailor and scholar" (Offshore, Persian Gulf) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Introduction to Classical Ethiopic (Ge'ez) (Hardcover)

Like the next reviewer, I think that the transcription in this case is a good thing - with two-hundred-and-fifty-odd characters, it would be hard to keep things clear at the basic level. Lambdin's own suggestion that the student copy out the vocabulary list - and indeed the exercises - in the Ethiopic script helped me a lot when using this book. But a friend who really found the transliteration an issue found Mercer's now out-of-print grammar a help (I prefer Lambdin's approach).

Do look for Dillmann's Chrestomathia Aethiopica from which many of Lambdin's texts have been extracted (it is reprinted together with another anthology in 'Anthologia Aethiopica', published by Olms in Germany and available from amazon.de. It's also now downloadable from the Internet Archive site). This chrestomathy does have a Latin glossary, so for the texts outside Lambdin, a Ethiopic-English dictionary might be neccessary, probably Wolf Leslau's.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the definitive grammar for Classical Ethiopic, June 20, 2003

By 

Ian (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Introduction to Classical Ethiopic (Ge'ez) (Hardcover)

The volume listed here is the second publishing of the book, and it repairs several mistranslations and errors found in the first. Lambdin's grammar is the definitive grammar for Ge'ez, presenting a remarkably thorough grounding in the language in addition to organizing its study within modern Semitic philology. The book's introduction is dated now (many Afro-Semitic scholars now place Ge'ez in a different language group), but the rest of the work is not.

Lambdin's grammar is presented in transliteration, but this is far from a negative. The Classical Ethiopic script does not have a means of distinguishing between a consonant without a vowel and one with a shewa, and it also lacks the ability to demonstrate if a letter is doubled. Though this does create one of the most dizzing effects when a student makes the transition from transliteration to the script itself, any good class in which the language is taught will slowly introduce the script in during the second half of the course.