Sat. Sep 5th, 2026

Matthew Saunders

Matthew Saunders is a PhD student in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He researches the languages and literatures of the ancient Near East, especially Aramaic studies, Ugaritic studies, historical Hebrew grammar, and comparative Semitics.
VS in PS Verbal Substantives in Proto-Semitic 9 min read

Verbal Substantives in Proto-Semitic

Matthew Saunders April 13, 2026
TL;DR: This post explores several Proto-Semitic verbal substantive patterns and argues that vowel quality was associated with distinct semantic tendencies (active, passive/resultative, stative/resultative). Tracing their reflexes across daughter languages, it situates these forms along a continuum of nominality, from participles and agent nouns to gerunds and infinitives.... Read More
Strasbourg PPT, First Slide An Academic Pilgrimage: Germany Summer 2025 13 min read

An Academic Pilgrimage: Germany Summer 2025

Matthew Saunders June 26, 2025
TL;DR: For the past few weeks, I’ve traveled to Stuttgart, Tübingen, Berlin, Wittenberg, Erfurt, Heidelberg, Strasbourg, Göttingen, and Hamburg, including the following three conferences: Semitic Dialectology (Berlin); Studying Hebrew in Sixteenth-Century Strasbourg (Strasbourg); and Current Research and Challenges in Ugaritic Studies (Göttingen). Here's an overview of the talks I attended.... Read More
PTS Image 2025 JHU-PTS Doctoral Symposium 3 min read

JHU-PTS Doctoral Symposium

Matthew Saunders February 23, 2025
One week ago, I presented a lecture at the first annual Johns Hopkins-Princeton Theological Seminary Doctoral Symposium for Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and Northwest Semitics. My lecture focused on Aramaic-based code-alternation in the Hebrew Bible, categorizing its motivations and functions. It was an honor to engage with faculty like Mark S. Smith and F.W. “Chip” Dobbs-Allsopp and to share insights from my ongoing dissertation research. A more focused version of this talk is in progress for a future conference.... Read More