Maria Maddalena Colasuonno

Maria Maddalena Colasuonno is a Researcher at the University of Naples 'L'Orientale', affiliated with the School of Asia, Africa and Mediterranean Studies. Her work focuses on sociolinguistics, Semitic languages, and Hebrew linguistics with particular emphasis on Judeo-Italian dialects and Biblical Hebrew syntax. She contributes to Prof. Nili Samet's research project on Late Biblical Hebrew Syntax, analyzing syntactic features through comparative and diachronic approaches.

• Research interests: Sociolinguistics, Arabic and Hebrew linguistics, comparative Semitic studies, Judeo-Italian dialectology.
• Key projects: Co-authoring entries for the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics, studying diglossia in Biblical Hebrew, and investigating Modern Hebrew's sociolinguistic terminology.

Her publications challenge traditional assumptions about linguistic variation (e.g., diglossia in Biblical Hebrew) and explore morpho-syntactic innovations in Modern Hebrew's technolect. She has also examined the sociolinguistic legacy of Aron TERRACINI through Judeo-Italian studies.

Current collaborations include the Late Biblical Hebrew Syntax project at Tel Aviv University, aiming to catalog syntactic features with biblical and extrabiblical examples.