Abstract

Edward Ullendorff (1920-2011) was one of the most distinguished scholars in the field of Semitic philology in the second half of the twentieth century. The Ullendorff lectures in Semitic philology have been made possible by a generous donation from his widow, Dina Ullendorff.

The speaker in this year’s lecture, Professor Simon Hopkins, will discuss the general approach of the late Professor Edward Ullendorff to the study of Semitic languages and will describe several aspects of the subject in which he took a particular interest and about which he wrote.

Examples will be given of the way Semitic philology has been applied in the field of Biblical translation and exegesis, using textual material from the world of the medieval Middle East (in Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic) and from Ethiopia (in Ge’ez and Amharic).

The lecture will sketch some of the changes that have occurred in the study of Semitic languages since the 1930s when Professor Ullendorff was a student in Jerusalem.