The Brill Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics online is a fascinating product. Its title seems off putting, as it may appear to create the perception that a thorough knowledge of the Hebrew language, its literature and linguistics is necessary to use it. On the contrary, it is a marvelous and on-the-whole user-friendly online guide and resource to those very subjects. Once online access has been achieved, and this proved not to be too complicated once the appropriate password and user name had been established, three guides appear alongside one another: Index Terms; Prelims; Notes. The Prelims contain short clear explanatory guides to the Need for an Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics, its Scope and Approach and Notes to these two. In Scope and Approach, we learn that the Encyclopedia contains overview “articles that provide a synopsis of current knowledge of the major periods and varieties of Hebrew and of the various approaches to its linguistic analysis”. The entries are organized by themes that include “the Hebrew of various sources (texts, manuscripts, inscriptions, reading traditions) and locations, grammatical features (of phonology, morphology, and syntax), script and paleography, aspects of linguistic thought from medieval to modern times, the relation of various neighboring languages to Hebrew, the influence of other languages on Hebrew, and Hebrew elements in various other languages”. The references found at the end of the individual entries are enumerative and alphabetically arranged.
The topics are divided into three main periods – Biblical Hebrew, Rabbinic Hebrew and Modern Hebrew – with more than 850 entries and around 400 contributors. There is full-text search functionality that uses both the Hebrew character set in addition to English. At the end of each entry is an alphabetically arranged enumerative bibliography. The contents are alphabetically arranged beginning with “Letter A: -a/-ah - Azulai H.J.D.” and concluding with “Letter Z: zayin - Zwicky, Arnold”. Searching is straightforward and an advanced search capability is included. A search for the name Cohen produced 134 results, but nothing on the origins of the name. An advanced Boolean search for “Cohen, origins of the name” resulted in 108 entries but nothing on the name's origin. The search did, however, reveal that there are individual entries on subjects ranging from Drama, Modern Hebrew, Bumper Stickers and, to take one other instance, the names of Musical Instruments Pre-Modern Period. A search for George Eliot produced no results. On the other hand, a search under the name Zunz, the last name of an important nineteenth-century German–Jewish historian, Leopold Zunz (1794-1886), produced six results. These were nothing directly to do with his life, career and achievements but did direct the searcher to a wonderfully erudite and illustrated with titles pages and pages from Hebrew books entry under Printing by Brad Sabin Hill in an essay of over 11,000 words. Another search using the name of the great twentieth-century poet, the Israeli W.B. Yeats, Uri Zvi Greenberg (1896-1981), produced nothing on him individually. He was briefly mentioned in a most informative entry of 4,696 words by Amindav Dykmar on Poetry, Modern Hebrew.
According to the section on the need for such a reference work, its “major aim […] is to unite the research of scholars working on different periods of the language and with different disciplinary approaches in a single reference tool that represents the field as a whole”. Easy to use, replete with fascinating information, clearly expressed and a clearly stated purpose, emphasizing post-Biblical and modern forms of Hebrew rather than Biblical Hebrew, The Brill Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics online is strongly recommended for all institutional and public libraries.
