Lexicography is necessarily both a solitary and a collaborative business. The actual work of writing a lexicon advances only through the solitary efforts of the lexicographer, even when working in a team. However, the decisions that are made, and the insights derived from this process result from and contribute to a larger conversation with the lexicographical community. One subset of this community has organized itself around the International Syriac Language Project (ISLP), and this volume, with one exception, contains papers originally presented at the 2007 and 2008 annual meetings of this research group. The papers from these two meetings provide an opportunity to reflect on general issues, dive into specific case studies and consider the benefits of comparative analysis—a salutary telescopic collection generating both perspective and concrete data for the lexicographical enterprise.

This volume is the fourth published colloquia of the International Syriac Language Project (ISLP). In this volume, editors Kristian Heal and Alison Salvesen present papers from an international team of authors working to develop contemporary, interdisciplinary approaches to linguistics and lexicography.

This volume includes articles by Frederick William Danker, Terry C. Falla, Jonathan Loopstra, Wido van Peursen and Dirk Bakker, Beryl Turner, Craig E. Morrison (O. Carm), Paul S. Stevenson, Percy S. F. van Keulen, and Janet Dyk, bringing together the latest research in Syriac linguistics and lexicography in a way that would also benefit those working in Greek and other Semitic languages.