Introduction
Acknowledgements
Notes on the contributors

1. Chineses linguistics, Goran Malmqvist
1.1 Introduction
1.2 The period prior to the Qin (-221BC)
1.3 The periods of Qin and Han (221 BC-220 AD)
1.4 The periods of Wei, Jin and Nanbeichao (220-581)
1.5 The periods of Sui, Tang and Song (581-1279)
1.6 The periods of Yuan and Ming (1260-1644)
1.7 The period of Qing (1644-1912) up to the end of the nineteenth century

2. Indian Linguistics, George Cardona
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Early work on phonetics and phonology
2.3 Etymology
2.4 Panini
2.5 Panini and later commentators
2.6 Interest in dialects
2.7 Developments of a philosophy of language
2.8 Summary

3. Linguistics in the ancient Near East, Erica Reiner
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Ancient Egyptian linguistics, Janet H. Johnson
3.3 Sumerian, Miguel Civil
3.4 Akkadian, Erica Reiner

4. Hebrew linguistics, Raphael Loewe
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Time concepts
4.3 Language and metaphysics: Torah, Hebrew and Babel
4.4 Late antiquity. Languages in Palestine and in the Jewish diaspora
4.5 Jewish language-satellites
4.6 Philological, philosophical and theological interests
4.7 The cabbalistic transformer
4.8 Renaissance illusions: Haskalah and Auf Kl™rung
4.9 The handmaiden of nineteenth-century nationalism
4.10 The dethronement of tradition
4.11 Master and servant

5. Arabic linguistics, Henri Fleisch
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Classical Arabic
5.3 The Holy Book
5.4 The 'Grammarians'
5.5 Linguistic analyses of the grammarians
5.6 Greek influences

Index