The papers collected in this volume cover topics from the theoretical perspectives on Semitic linguistics to the practical application of philological methods to various texts. Michael G. Carter opens with some deliberations on Arabic linguistics in its Islamic context. Jan Retso reinvestigates the question of the origins of Arabic dialects. Werner Arnold offers some glimpses of the Arabic dialects in the Tel Aviv region. Janet Watson, Bonnie Glover Stalls, Khalid al-Razihi and Shelagh Weir describe aspects of Razihit, a language variety spoken in north-west Yemen. Sven-Olof Dahlgren presents some statistics on sentential negation in Quranic Arabic. Rosmari Lillas-Schuil deals in-depth with the stylistic . gure hendiadys in Biblical Hebrew. Geoffrey Khan sheds new light on compound verbal forms in north-eastern Neo-Aramaic. Kjell Magne Yri examines the grammaticalization of nouns as postpositions in Amharic. Lutz Edzard analyzes various types of compound formations in Modern Semitic. Pernilla Myrne offers some thoughts on the gender-specific use of sexual vocabulary by women in Classical Arabic. Judith Josephson investigates the Hellenistic heritage of the zan diqa 'heretics'. Gunvor Mejdell gives an overview of the use of the vernacular in modern Egyptian literature. Finally, Tetz Rooke looks at cross-cultural issues in connection with translation problems from Arabic into European languages.