Program

Preservation and Access: Humanities Collections and Reference Resources

Period of Performance

7/1/2008 - 6/30/2009

Funding Totals

$25,000.00 (approved)
$25,000.00 (awarded)


Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon [CAL]

FAIN: PW-50002-08

Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion (Cincinnati, OH 45220-2404)
Stephen A. Kaufman (Project Director: July 2007 to January 2010)

Technical consultation for publishing and maintaining an online, citation-based dictionary of all dialects of ancient Aramaic from the 10th century B.C. to A.D. 1400.

The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project was launched in 1986, its target a traditional citation-based academic lexicon. The project has been supported by generous private and public grants, and has already produced many acclaimed interim reference publications in the area of Aramaic studies and has become the major online research site in this important field. Aramaic language and literature are of great significance for humanistic and religious studies, particularly for ancient history, biblical studies, Judaism, the development of Islamic science and philosophy, church history, history of religions, folklore, the history of law, and Gnosticism. This application is for a two year project to complete the systematic formatting and arrangement of all of our lexical data. At the end of that period it is planned that the complete dictionary itself will be available online as a "live" database.