Robert Hoberman
I received my Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Chicago in 1983. I taught at Cornell University, then came in 1981 to the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where I am now Associate Professor of Linguistics and a member of the programs in Judaic Studies and Middle Eastern Studies.
My fields of specialization are the morphologies and phonologies of Semitic languages, and I have worked on classical and modern colloquial varieties of Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic. I have studied several modern Aramaic languages through fieldwork with speakers from Iraqi Kurdistan living in Israel, the West Bank, and the U.S. I see my work as progressing 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. I have also worked on historical aspects of these languages, especially on topics in which historical patterns can be elucidated by data from the modern, spoken varieties. In various overlapping or concentric circles I have interests in writing systems, comparative Semitic and Afroasiatic linguistics, the history of Yiddish, Jewish interlinguistics, and ethnic, linguistic, and religious minorities in the Middle East. Most recently I have been looking at Maltese, which, like Aramaic, is a Semitic language that has changed its structure radically in intimate contact with Indo-European languages.
telephone: 631-632-7462
fax: 631-632-9789
e-mail: robert.hoberman@sunysb.edu