Fields of interest:
My main field of specialization and interest within Semitic languages is West Semitic comparative and diachronic philology. My main approach is within a sociolinguistic framework seeing Semitic languages as languages in contact among each other and other non-Semitic languages. In addition to my interest in the languages, culture and history of the Near East I follow discussions on subjects as ethnicity, nationalism, continuity and change, cultural exchange and Eastern Christianity.

Specialized in following languages:
Studied in depth:
- Arabic: Lebanese/dialects, Modern Standard, Classical
- Aramaic: Biblical, other Official Aramaic, Targumic, Talmudic
- Hebrew: Biblical, Mishnaic/ Rabbinical
- Literary Syriac
- Phoenician

Other languages:

- Akkadian - Aramaic: Modern Aramaic - Ethiopic: Geez - Hebrew: Modern

- Koine Greek - Latin - Ugaritic

Main project:
- Lebanese Arabic dialects at the turn of the Millennium
In continuation of my work on Lebanese place-names, I have begun to collect samples of the different variants of Lebanese Arabic from the different regions of Lebanon. Given that during the 20th century the world has witnessed unprecedented change, both in quality and in speed. Most of the world has basically moved from the Middle Ages to the Cyber Age. This project is intended to complete and update the works of Fleisch (inter alia 1975) and Bertsträßer (1915). In addition to the recordings made during my fieldwork on Lebanese place-names, summers 1996-1999, I have summer 2000 conducted a pilot project making sample recordings from the villages of Antoura, Mijdel Tarshish, Souret, Akkar el-Atiqa, Akroum, Hadshit and Bsharre. Summer 2002 I have conducted interviews with informants from Bsharre, Tal Sougha and Tripoli.

Other projects:
- On the Jargon – Pidgin Continuum: The Arabic spoken by the Armenian and Sri Lankan Communities in Lebanon
With this project, I aim, as a first stage, to describe the Arabic used by the Armenian and Sri Lankan communities in Lebanon within the framework of Pidgin studies. As a second stage, I will compare these Arabic based Pidgins to similar languages in other Arabic speaking countries, especially Iraq and the Gulf States. Summer 2002 I have begun collecting the data. I have conducted interviews with two Armenian families and a Sri Lankan informant.

- Levantine Place-Names: Lebanon and Northern Jordan
This project extends the areas covered in my work on Lebanese place-names to cover all the territories of Lebanon. Through a cooperation with Dr. Hani Hayajneh of Yarmouk University in Irbid, the project will cover the northern parts of Jordan.

Long term project:
- A comparative analysis of Aramaic-Akkadian, Aramaic-Ethiopic and Aramaic-Hebrew contact in a sociolinguistic framework
A sociolinguistic and comparative analysis of Aramaic-Akkadian, Aramaic-Ethiopic and Aramaic-Hebrew contact is fruitful for at least two reasons: 1) most of that which is written on the contact of Aramaic with other languages is restricted to the lexicon; 2) Aramaic-Akkadian contact is quite different from Aramaic-Ethiopic and Aramaic-Hebrew contact. A comparative analysis of these different cases would shed light both on the development of the languages involved and on more theoretic questions related to language contact.
This project is part of a larger diachronic study of Aramaic where the focus will be on the contact of Aramaic over time with other languages, especially Akkadian, Canaanite, Greek, Ethiopic and Arabic.


Publications:
2002 - Lebanese Place-names (Mount Lebanon and North Lebanon): A Typology of Regional Variation and Continuity. Leuven: Peeters Publishers.

2001 - A Glimpse of Yesterday: A Typology of Regional Variation and Continuity in Lebanese Place-Names (Mount Lebanon and North Lebanon). Oslo: Faculty of Arts, University of Oslo; Acta Humaniora 101.

2000 - Job, gjendiktet av Gro Dahle etter en oversettelse fra hebraisk ved Elie Wardini, Oslo, Tiden Norsk Forlag. (Job, retold by Gro Dahle based on a translation from Hebrew by Elie Wardini).

1999 - Neologisms in Modern Literary Syriac (Part Two). Pp. 151-308 in Mélanges de L'Université Saint-Joseph, vol. LIV 1995-1996, Beirut: al-Mashreq 1999.

1999 - Proficiency, functionality and prestige: Arabic and Aramaic in symbiosis. Pp.243-256 in Brendemoen, B., Lanza, E. and Ryen, E. (eds.): Language encounters across time and space. Oslo: Novus Forlag. 1999.

1998 - Modern Literary Syriac: A Case of Linguistic Divorce. Pp. 517-525 in René Lavenant (ed.) 1998: Symposium Syriacum VII: Uppsala University, Department of Asian and African Languages 11-14 August 1996. Roma: Pontificio Istituto orientale, (Orientalia Christiana analecta; 247).

1997 - Neologisms in Modern Literary Syriac (Part one). Pp. 400-566 in Mélanges de L'Université Saint-Joseph, vol. LIII 1993-1994, Beirut: al-Mashreq 1997.

1997 - An Assyrian Letter, Chirstiania Anno 1872. Pp.306-308 in Elie Wardini, ed. Built on Solid Rock: Studies in Honour of Professor Ebbe Egede Knudsen on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday April 11th 1997, Oslo.

1995 - Neologisms in Modern Literary Syriac: Some Preliminary Results. Dissertation: Oslo.

1993 - “Norway”, in G. Roper ed. World Survey of Islamic Manuscripts, Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundations, London; vol. 2, pp. 431-437.