PIAMENTA, MOSHE

PIAMENTA, MOSHE (1921– ), linguist and Orientalist, professor emeritus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Arabic language and literature. Piamenta distinguished himself in the research of colloquial Arabic and its dialects (chiefly of the syntax of Jerusalem Arabic) as well as of socio-anthropological aspects of Arab linguistics. Noteworthy, also, are his investigations of the Judeo-Arabic of Yemen and Baghdad, of expressions of the Islamic religion in Arabic words, terms, and ways of expression. He received the Jerusalem Award (1994) and Israel Prize for scholarship in Oriental Studies in 1996. Among his main works are Shimmush ha-Zemannim, ha-Aspektim ve-ha-Derakhim ba-Lahag ha-Aravi ha-Yerushalmi 2 (1964); Studies in the Syntax of Palestinian Arabic (1966); Islam in Everyday Arabic Speech (1979); The Muslim Conception of God and Human Welfare as Reflected in Everyday Arabic Speech (1983); Dictionary of Post-Classical Yemeni Arabic (1990–91); Jewish Life in Arabic Language and Jerusalem Arabic in Communal Perspective: Lexico-Semantic Study (2000). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Rosenhouse and A. Elad-Bouskila (eds.), Linguistic and Cultural Studies on Arabic and Hebrew. Essays Presented to Moshe Piamenta (2001); Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 29 (2005), ii–iv.