PROF. ALEXANDER BORG
Date & Place of Birth January 15, 1941, Malta
Address
Department of Hebrew Language
The Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Beersheva
84105Israel
email: aborg@bgu.ac.il
Education
B.A. 1958.62 UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, England. Bachelor of Arts
Degree in English, French, and Latin.
Teacher fs Cert. 1961.62 UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER, England.
M.A. 1969.71 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, USA. M.A. in
Linguistics and the TESOL Certificate.
Ph.D. 1972.78 THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM,
Institute of Asian and African Studies.Supervisor: Prof. Haim Blanc, Thesis: A Historical and Comparative
Phonology and
Morphology of Maltese.
1978Ph.D. awarded summa cum laude.
Habilitation 1981.83 UNIVERSITAT ERLANGEN-NURNBERG,
Germany.
Sponsor: Professor Dr. Wolfdietrich Fischer.
Thesis: Cypriot Arabic: A Historical and
Comparative Investigation into the Phonology
and Morphology of the Arabic Vernacular
Spoken by the Maronites of Kormakiti
)N.W.Cyprus.(
Habilitation awarded after public
examination held in German at the Faculty of
Arts of the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg
in May 1984.
.3Employment history
1969.1972UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, USA,
Department of Linguistics (Teaching Assistant.(
-21978.1981TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY, Ramat Aviv. Department of
Linguistics (Lecturer.(
1983.1987TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY, Ramat Aviv. Department of
Arabic (Senior Lecturer.(
Feb.July 1987 Sabbatical leave at the INSTITUT FUR ARABISTIK
DER FREIEN UNIVERSITAT, Berlin.
Feb.July 1988.89 UNIVERSITY OF MALTA. Department of Arabic (Senior
Lecturer.(
1989.1990THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM. Director of
Publications at the Institute of Asian and African
Studies.
1991.1994THE JACOB BLAUSTEIN FOR DESERT RESEARCH, Sede
Boqer, Israel. I was employed as a researcher in the
dialectology and linguistic anthropology of the Negev
Bedouin. Concurrently, I taught 2hrs a week at the Ben Gurion University fs (Department of Behavioral
Sciences.(
1991.1993TEL -AVIV UNIVERSITY , Ramat Aviv. Aranne School of
History. Taught 2 hrs a week a course entitled
gLanguage and culture in the Mediterranean h
)Senior Lecturer.(
From April 1994 THE JACOB BLAUSTEIN FOR DESERT RESEARCH, Sede
Boqer, Israel and the Department of Behavioral
Sciences of the Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva.
Sept 97.Jan 98 UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN, Guest Professor at
the Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Oriental Languages.
Taught two courses: (i) the Structure of Maltese for
Arabists; (ii) Arabic in Spain: A linguistic appraisal.
Feb 98-July 99 UNIVERSITY OF STOCKHOLM, Guest Professor at the
Department of Arabic.
From Sept 99 BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV. Associate
Professor at the Department of Hebrew and at the
Department of Middle Eastern Studies.
.4Professional activities
Teaching
Undergraduate courses in Arabic and general linguistics taught at Tel-Aviv
University (1978.1981:(
An introduction to Arabic dialectology
Classical Arabic for intermediate students
The syntax of Palestinian Arabic
The history of linguistic thought (linguistics in Ancient Greek and Rome(
The history of the Italian language
Selected themes in the historical and comparative grammar of the Arabic component
of Maltese
-3Undergraduate courses taught at the Dept of Arabic of the University of
Malta (1988.89(
An introduction to Pre-Islamic Arabic poetry
The Structure of Classical Arabic: phonology and morphology
Towards a history of vernacular Arabic
MA course taught at Tel-Aviv University fs Aranne School of History (1991-3(
Selected topics in the area of language and culture in the Mediterranean
Undergraduate course taught at Ben-Gurion University fs Department of
Behavioral Sciences
From 1993: An introduction to anthropological linguistics.
Graduate courses taught at Ben-Gurion University fs Department of Middle
Eastern Studies
:(1999)Readings of Classical Arabic texts
:(2001)The history of the Arabic language
:(2001.2)Anthropological aspects of language and culture in the Arab world
:(2001.2)An introduction of genres of Bedouin folk poetry
Graduate courses taught at Ben-Gurion University fs Department of Hebrew
:(1999)An introduction to Neo-Aramaic (The .uroyo language(
(2000.1)Selected topics on Comparative Semitic linguistics
(2000.1)An introduction to the Maltese Language
(2001.2)Language contact in the Semitic Sprachraum
Awards, honors, research fellowships:
)a) The Lucius Littauer Foundation (New York:(
August.September 1999: $3400 for research on the Bedouin Arabic lexicon;
)b) The Swedish Research Council (Humanistisk-Samhaltsvetenskapliga For
skningsradet), Stockholm:
Feb 1999: a subvention of 22,000 Kronor towards the publication of my
anthology, The Language of Color in the Mediterranean
)Almkvist/Wiksell, Stockholm;(
)c) Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Bonn:(
E Jan.Feb 1998: Visiting scholar at the Oriental Institute of Universitat Freiburg;
E Nov 1993: a lecture tour of former E.German Universities (Leipzig and Halle;(
E Feb.July 1987: visitor at the Institut fur Arabistik der Freien Universitat Berlin
for a research project on Arabic dialectology;
E Feb 1981-Jan 1983: Stipendiat at the Orientalisches Seminar der Universitat
Erlangen-Nurnberg for a research project on the special Arabic dialect of Cyprus;
)d) Lady Davis Scholarship at the Hebrew University:
E Oct 1976-Sept 1977: received financial aid towards my doctoral dissertation.
)e) Faculty of Humanities, University of Pittsburgh, U.S.A: .
-4E Oct 1969-July 1972: Teaching assistant at the Department of Linguistics.
.6Scientific publications
)a) Books
.1Cypriot Arabic.A historical and comparative investigation into the phonology
and morphology of the Arabic vernacular spoken by the Maronites
of Kormakiti village in the Kyrenia district of N.W. Cyprus. Appeared in
.1985Publisher: Franz Steiner (Stuttgart) for the German Oriental Society:
204pp. (Thirteen reviews of this work have appeared.(
.2The Language of Color in the Mediterranean. An anthology of 13 articles
on linguistic and ethnographic aspects of color terms: Prologue (Alexander
Borg) | Basic color terms: Twenty-five years after (Robert MacLaury| (
The vocabulary of color with particular reference to Ancient Greek and
Classical Latin (Sir John Lyons) | The emergence of basic color lexicons
hypothesis: A comment on eThe vocabulary of color with particular reference
to Ancient Greek and Classical Latin, f by John Lyons | Les termes
fondamentaux de couleur en francais (Barbara Schafer) | Color terms in
Egyptian Arabic (Devin J. Stewart) | Linguistic and ethnographic observations
on the color categories of the Negev Bedouin (Alexander Borg| (
|ini ebleu f and burtuqali eorange f: A historical note on early Chinese coffee
cups (David Warburton) | The historical background of two non-basic
terms for eblue f in the Arabic dialect of the Negev Bedouin (Sylvia Powels(
|Berber color terms (Karl-G. Prasse) | Quelques observations sur le role
de la couleur bleue dans le Maghreb traditionnel (Pessah Shinar) | On
color and the sacred in the Hebrew Bible (Athalya Brenner) | Elements
pour une etude des couleurs en judeo-espagnol (Christine Varol) | Colors
and the social order: Symbolic classification in Central Africa (Anita
Jacobson-Widding). Appeared in August 1999. Publisher: Almkvist/ Wiksell,
Stockholm.
.3Alexander Borg, A Comparative Glossary of Cypriot Maronite Arabic.
Appeared in 2004 (514 pp): Publisher: E.J.Brill, Leiden.
.4Ron Barkai & Alexander Borg, An Andalusi Arabic Morisco Text on Folk
Medicine. Publisher: E.J. Brill (accepted for publication;(
.5Alexander Borg, A Historical and Comparative Grammar of Maltese. An
updated and expanded version of my doctoral dissertation (in preparation.(
)b) Chapters in collective volumes
.1Alexander Borg, gSome Maltese toponyms in historical perspective. h Appeared
in Studia Linguistica et Orientalia Memoriae Haim Blanc Dedicata (Paul Wexler,
ed.): Wiesbaden (1989): 63.85.
.2Alexander Borg, gOn some Mediterranean influences on the lexicon of Mal
tese. h (Invited article). Appeared in Romania Arabica: Festschrift fur Reinhold
-5Kontzi zum 70. Geburtstag (ed., Jens Ludtke, Heidelberg): Publisher: Gunter
Narr Verlag, Tubingen (1996): 129.150.
.3Alexander Borg, gOn some levantine linguistic traits in Maltese. h Appeared in
Studies in Modern Semitic Languages (Israel Oriental Studies 16: 1996), ed.
Shlomo Izre.el and Shlomo Raz eds.(.
.4Alexander Borg, gMaltese Phonology. h (Invited article). Appeared in Phonologies
of Asia and Africa, (Alan Kaye, ed.). Publisher: Eisenbrauns, Winona
Lake, IN. USA, 1997:245.285.
.5Alexander Borg, gCypriot Arabic Phonology. h (Invited article). Appeared in
Phonologies of Asia and Africa, (Alan Kaye, ed.). Publisher: Eisenbrauns, Winona
Lake, IN. USA, 1997:219.244.
.6Alexander Borg, gLinguistic and ethnographic observations on the color catego
ries of the Negev Bedouin. h Appeared in The Language of Color in the Mediter
ranean (A.Borg ed.(.
.7Alexander Borg, gSome observations on the Yom ha-shishi syndrome in the
Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls. h Appeared in Diggers at the Well. Proceedings of
a Third International Symposium on the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Ben
Sira (T.Muraoka & J.F.Elwolde eds.). Leiden: E.J.Brill 2000:26.39.
.8Alexander Borg, gEncoding the boundary between the secular and the sacre: A
phonological note on the Prophet fs name in the dialect of the Negev and Sinai
Bedouin. h Appeared in Linguistic and Cultural Studies on Arabic and Hebrew
)J.Rosenhouse and Ami Elad-Bouskila eds.):49.59.
.9Alexander Borg, gAramaic substrata with special referemce to Cypriot Arabic. h
Appeared in: Yaakov Bentolila Jubilee Volume (Daniel Sivan & Pablo Itshak
Halevy-Kirtchuk). Beer Sheva.
.10Alexander Borg, gThe lexicon at the periphery . The case of Cypriot Arabic. h
To appear in: Festschrift for Sasson Somekh.
.11Alexander Borg, Translations into English of 75 legal documents from the
Libyan Sharia courts. Appeared in: Aharon Layish, Legal Documents on Libyan
Tribal Society in Process of Sedentarization. Publisher: E.J.Brill, Leiden.
.12Alexander Borg, gOrality, language, and culture in Arabic juridical discourse. h
in Aharon Layish, Legal Documents on Libyan Tribal Society in Process of Seden
tarization. Publisher: E.J.Brill, Leiden: 317.351.
.13Alexander Borg. gTowards a history and typology of color categorization in
colloquial Arabic. h In Anthropology of Color (Robert E.MacLaury, Galina
Paramei, & Don Dedrick eds.). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Com
pany:263.294.
.14Alexander Borg. 2008. gLexical Aramaisms in Nomadic Arabic Vernaculars. In:
Prochazka, Stephan & V. Ritt-Benmimoun: Neue Beiheft zur Wiener Zeitschrift fur
die Kunde des Morgenlandes:89.111.
.15Alexander Borg, gBetween typology and diachrony: Some linguistic parallels in
Hebrew and Maltese. h Appeared in ZAPHENATH-PANEAH . Linguistic Studies
Presented to Elisha Qimron On the Occasion of His Sixty-Fifth Birthday (eds. Daniel
Sivan, David Talshir, and Chaim Cohen): *15.*98.
-6)c) Refereed articles in scientific journals
.1Alexander Borg, gThe segmental phonems of Maltese. h Appeared in Linguistics
.5.11:(1970) 109
.2Alexander Borg, gMaltese numerals. h Appeared in Zeitschrift der Deutschen
Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, Band 124 (1974), Heft 2: 291.305.
Some Maltese toponyms in historical perspective. h Appeared in Studia
Linguistica et Orientalia Memoriae Haim Blanc Dedicata (Paul Wexler, ed:(.
Wiesbaden (1989): 63.85.
.3Alexander Borg, gMaltese morphophonemics. h Appeared in Journal of Maltese
Studies 10 (1975):11.28.
.4Alexander Borg, Review of Manuel d farabe algerien moderne (N.Tapiero.(
Appeared in Linguistics 113 (1976):81.86.
.5Alexander Borg, gThe imala in Maltese. h Appeared in Israel Oriental Studies
)Tel-Aviv University) VI:191.223.
.6Alexander Borg, gReflexes of pausal forms in Maltese rural dialects? h Appeared
in Israel Oriental Studies (Tel-Aviv University) VII (1977):211.225.
.7Alexander Borg, gHistorical aspects of auxiliary vowels in Maltese. h Appeared in
Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes, 70. Band (1978): 1.34.
.8Alexander Borg, gKormakiti Arabic: Phonological notes and texts. h Appeared in
Zeitschrift fur Arabische Linguistik 13 (1984):68.85.
.9Alexander Borg, gSome evolutionary parallels and divergences in Cypriot Arabic
and Maltese. Appeared in Mediterranean Language Review 8 (1994):41.67.
.10Alexander Borg and Gideon Kressel, gBedouin Personal names in the Negev
and Sinai. Appeared in Zeitschrift fur arabische Linguistik 40 (): 33.70.
.11Alexander Borg, gThe enigma of SLM-names among the Negev and Sinai
Bedouin. h Appeared in Mediterranean Language Review 13 (2001):175.193.
.12Review of Arne Ambros, Boncornu, kif int? Einfuhrung in die maltesische
Sprache (Wiesbaden 1998). Appeared in Zeitschrift fur arabische Linguistik 14
.87.92:(2002)
.13Alexander Borg, gTowards an ethnography and dialectology of a glassmaking
community: The work words of the glassblowers of Altare (Liguria, Italy). h To
appear.
.14Alexander Borg, gThe basic colour terms of Maltese. To appear in Zeitschrift
fur arabische Linguistik (2011.(
)d) Unrefereed professional articles
.1Review (in Hebrew) of Yakov Mansur, Dictionary of Jewish Baghdadi Arabic.
Appeared in Peamim 21 (1984):147.150.
.2gIntroduction to the Maltese language. h (Invited article). Appeared in Malta:
Culture and Identity (Henry Frendo and Oliver Friggieri eds.) Malta, 1994:190.
.209
.3Review of Clinto Bailey fs Bedouin Poetry from Sinai and the Negev (1991:
Clarendon Press, Oxford). Appeared in Ariel 96 (1994):91.94.
-7.7Invited lectures and presentations at meetings and seminars
December 1990: Universidad Complutense, Madrid
February 1992: The Mediterranean Institute of the University of Malta
E The Mediterranean as a unified language and culture area
E The language if a medieval guild in contemporary Italy: A report on fieldwork
among the glassmakers of Altare (Liguria.(
March 4, 1992: Institutionen for orientaliska sprak, Goteborgs Universitet, Goteborg
E The evolutionary process that yielded present-day Maltese
March 5-6, 1992: Institut for Orientalsk Filologi of the University of Copenhagen
E Introduction to the Maltese language
E Color categorization among the Negev Bedouin
November 4, 1992: Institut fur Romanische Philologie der Freien Universitat Berlin
E Les elements romans en maltais
November 13, 1992: Seminar fur Arabistik, Islamwissenschaft und Semitistik der
Martin-Luther-Universitat Halle-Wittenberg
E Einfuhrung in die maltesische Sprache
November 11, 1992: Fachbereich Orientalistik und Afrikanistik, Universitat Leipzig
E Die Stellung des Malta-Dialekts unter den arabischen Dialekten
December 7, 1993: Seminar fur Semitistik und Arabistik der Freien Universitat
Berlin
E Religion and language: The case of the Arabic-speaking Maronites in Cyprus
December 21, 1993: Orientalisches Seminar der Universitat Tubingen
E Der Charakter der maltesischen Sprache
November 2, 1994: Volkerkundemuseum der Universitat Zurich
E Die Sprache der Farben bei den Negev Beduinen
February 17.18, 1997: Carsten Niebuhr Institute for the Languages of the Middle
East, University of Copenhagen
E Maltese phonology
E The significance of personal names among the Negev Bedouin
May 12, 1997: Institut d fEthnologie Mediterraneenne et Comparative; C.N.R.S-.
Universites de Marseilles I et III: Colloque organise par l fIDEMEC:
L fanthropologie de la Mediterranee: Unite, diversite et perspectives
E The semiotics of linguistic form in the Middle East and the Mediterranean
November 26, 1998: Volkerkundemuseum der Universitat Zurich
E Beduinische Personennamen
November 28, 1998: Swedish Oriental Institute, Istanbul, Turkey.
E Eschatological aspects of name-giving among the Negev and Sinai Bedouin
March 19, 1999: Seminaire du Prof. David Cohen. Annee 1998-99, Ecole Pratique
des Hautes Etudes (E.P.H.E.) . Section IV, Universite de la Sorbonne, Paris
E Bedouin Personal names
March 22, 1999: Dynamique du Langage, M.R.A.S.H. Universite Lumiere, Lyon
E Aspects of iconicity in Arabic phonology
-8.8Editorships
Until 1997 I co-edited the linguistic journal Mediterranean Language Review published
by Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, Germany, which I founded in 1983
in collaboration with Paul Wexler (Tel-Aviv University). I am also co-editor of two
monograph series.
)a) MEDITERRANEAN LANGUAGE REVIEW
Volume One: 1983
Volume Two: 1986
Volume Three 1987
Volume Four-Five: 1989
Volume Six-Seven: 1993 (co-editor Prof. Marcel Erdal, Universitat
Frankfurt(
Volume Eight: 1994
Volume Nine 1995.7
)b) MEDITERRANEAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE MONOGRAPH SERIES:
founded in 1985 and co-edited by Alexander Borg, Paul Wexler, and Sasson
Somekh (Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden). Fourteen volumes have appeared so
far.
)c) STUDIES IN ARABIC LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
A monograph series founded in 1991 and co-edited Sasson Somekh and Alexander
Borg. Eight volumes have appeared so far.
.12Areas of research:
Comparative Semitic Grammar; Arabic dialectology and language history; Anthropological
linguistics; Mediterranean Studies. Research in progress:
)i) An etymological and comparative dictionary of Bedouin Arabic comprising the
dialects of the Negev and other vernaculars attested in the literature;.
)ii) A revised edition of my Comparative Glossary of Cypriot Maronite Arabic.
.13Additional information
Research Students: Mr. Muhammad al-Athamin, a doctoral candidate currently
writing a dissertation on eLanguage and Culture among the Bedouin. f
Ms. Letizia Cerqueglini, University of Pisa. Projected dissertation: The Cognition of
Space in the Language of the Negev Bedouin.
Languages known: Maltese, English, Italian, French, German, Hebrew,
Arabic, Latin, Greek, and Neo-Aramaic.