A computer-aided analysis of the Semitic of the Ebla tablets (Syria).

摘要

Uncovered in 1975, the Tell-Mardikh-Ebla archive was the first large collection of cuneiform tablets discovered in the age of the personal computer. Starting with the Ebla texts of Cybernetica Mesopotamica , and using the software program WordCruncher, I modified the format in which the digital texts were presented, added more texts and information about the shape, size, color, and find spots of each tablet, and inserted scanned images of the photographs of the tablets. I created an electronic corpus of 1696 texts. To demonstrate the usefulness of the resulting tool for Ebla scholarship, I produced four studies: (1) A basic comprehensive lexicon of the non-onomastic Semitic. (2) An examination of the personal names which are incomplete due to lacunae. I compared the context in which these names appear to the context in which similar complete names appear. By this process I have been able to suggest a number of restorations for these partial names. (3) A statistical analysis of the words that co-occur with each Semitic word that appears in the corpus more than one hundred times (including personal and geographic names). This analysis reveals interesting relationships between these words. (4) An analysis of the corpus of the administrative texts of the Ebla archive based on part of speech and semantic categories.