We are pleased to report that National Endowment for the Humanities support fo rthe CAL project has been renewed through 9/98 Unfortunately, due to severe budget restrictions recently imposed by Congress on the budget of the NEH the CAL, like similar projects, is also experiencing reduced levels of funding so that we shall have to cut back yet again on the size of our staff. Our need for Volunteer contributors, of' both scholarly expertise and financial support, is now even greater than ever. Please contact us if you can help.
Meanwhile, our work continues This year saw the publication of the third volume in our series of reference works by the Johns Hopkins University Press: Palmyrene Aramaic Texts, by Delbert R. Hillers and Eleonora Cussini, consisting of a complete republication of all known Aramaic texts from Palmyra and environs; along with an extensive glossary of the texts incorporating translations and notes on difficult passages. As with our earlier publications—see the report on Matt Stolper’s work on p. 6— additions and corrections are most welcome and will be reported on these pages. Michael Sokoloff’s work on his Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic continues on schedule, He plans to spend the 97-98' academic year in Cincinnati, after which the volume should be ready for publication. Work in Cincinnati has been concentrated on analysis and lexical processing of all of the texts from the Jewish Literary Aramaic tradition in anticipation of producing a dictionary of that large corpus preliminary to the final CAL.
As for the Newsletter: having promised to make it into a scholarly contribution, we are dependent on your contributions in order to have something worthwhile to say. Please help!