Robert D. Hoberman

Professor
Ph.D. 1983, University of Chicago
Email: robert.hoberman@stonybrook.edu

Robert Hoberman works on the morphologies and phonologies of Semitic languages, focusing on Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic in both their classical and modern, colloquial varieties. He has studied several modern Aramaic languages through fieldwork with speakers from Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran. He has also worked on Maltese, which, like Aramaic and modern Hebrew, is a Semitic language that has undergone radical structural change in intimate contact with Indo-European languages. His work progresses in three distinct but mutually enhancing modes: the formal analysis of language structure, documenting moribund languages, and providing grammatical descriptions of little-examined languages to make them accessible to linguists and others. He also works on historical aspects of these languages, especially on topics in which historical patterns can be elucidated by an understanding of the modern, spoken varieties. Other interests include (in various overlapping circles) writing systems, comparative Semitic linguistics, the phonological history of Yiddish, Jewish interlinguistics, and ethnic, linguistic, and religious minorities in the Middle East.

Selected Publications

Semitic. In The Afroasiatic languages, ed. by Zygmunt Frajzyngier and Erin Shay, 145-235. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. (with Gene B. Gragg)
Sandhi. In the Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, ed. by Kees Versteegh, vol. 4, pp. 115-118. Leiden: Brill, 2009.
Semitic triradicality or prosodic minimality? Evidence from sound change. In Studies in Semitic and Afroasiatic Linguistics Presented to Gene B. Gragg, ed. by Cynthia L. Miller, 139-154. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2007.
Maltese morphology. In Morphologies of Asia and Africa, ed. by Alan Kaye, 257-281. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 2007.
Pausal forms. In the Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, ed. by Kees Versteegh, vol. 3, pp. 564-570. Leiden: Brill, 2007.
The Western study of non-Western languages: From orientalism to universality. In Conference on Orientalism: Dialogue of cultures, ed. by Sami A. Khasawnih, 340-350. Amman: University of Jordan, 2004.
The verbal morphology of Maltese: From Semitic to Romance. In Language processing and acquisition in languages of Semitic, root-based, morphology, ed. by Joseph Shimron, 61-78. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2003. (with M. Aronoff)
Sephardic scansion and phonological theory. Journal of the American Oriental Society 119 (1999): 211-217. (with A. Manaster Ramer)
Modern Aramaic phonology. In Phonologies of Asia and Africa, ed. Alan S. Kaye, 313-335. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1997.
Subtractive morphology and morpheme identity in Arabic pausal forms. In Yearbook of morphology 1995, ed. Geert Booij and Jaap van Marle, 161-174. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1996.
Current issues in Semitic phonology. In A handbook of phonological theory, ed. by John Goldsmith, 839-847. Oxford, U.K., and Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1995.
Local spreading. Journal of Afroasiatic Languages 3 (1992-93): 226-254.
Formal properties of the conjugations in Modern Aramaic. In Yearbook of morphology 1991, ed. Geert Booij and Jaap van Marle, 49-64. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1992.
Parameters of emphasis: Autosegmental analyses of pharyngealization in four languages. Journal of Afroasiatic Languages 2 (1989): 73-97.
The syntax and semantics of verb morphology in Modern Aramaic: A Jewish dialect of Iraqi Kurdistan. American Oriental Series, 69. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1989.
Initial consonant clusters in Hebrew and Aramaic. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 48 (1989): 25-29.
Local and long-distance spreading in Semitic morphology. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 6 (1988): 541-549.
Emphasis harmony in a Modern Aramaic dialect. Language 64 (1988): 1-26.
The history of the Modern Aramaic pronouns and pronominal suffixes. Journal of the American Oriental Society 108 (1988): 557-575.
The phonology of pharyngeals and pharyngealization in pre-modern Aramaic. Journal of the American Oriental Society 105 (1985): 221-231.