This book, derived from the acclaimed Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages, describes the ancient languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Aksum, for the convenience of students and specialists working in that area. Each chapter of the work focuses on an individual language or, in some instances, a set of closely related varieties of a language. Providing a full descriptive presentation, each of these chapters examines the writing system(s), phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon of that language, and places the language within its proper linguistic and historical context. The volume brings together an international array of scholars, each a leading specialist in ancient language study. While designed primarily for scholars and students of linguistics, this work will prove invaluable to all whose studies take them into the realm of ancient language.

本书源自广受赞誉的《剑桥世界古代语言百科全书》，描述了美索不达米亚、埃及和阿克苏姆的古代语言，以方便在该领域工作的学生和专家。该作品的每一章都侧重于一种单独的语言，或者在某些情况下，侧重于一组密切相关的语言品种。每一章都对该语言的书写系统、语音、形态、句法和词汇进行了全面的描述，并将该语言置于其适当的语言和历史背景中。本卷汇集了一批国际学者，每一位都是古代语言研究领域的顶尖专家。虽然这本书主要是为语言学的学者和学生设计的，但对于所有研究古代语言的人来说，这本书将被证明是非常宝贵的。