Learn Aramaic

 The unconnected Dalat is written like this below. Dalat is only connected from the right just like alaph. Here is the connected form of the letter. Notice that the connected form of Dalat is smaller than the unconnected form. The letter Dalat represents two consonants: [d] at the beginning of the word and after consonants [th] as in 'this' after vowels. The qushshaya for [d] and ruqqakha for [th] dots are used to distinguish between the two.   [th]         [d]    Read about more letters Dalat

The letter alaph takes various forms in the Syriac Serto script depending on its position in a word as do many other letters. Alaph takes three different forms, initial unconnected, middle or final unconnected and connected.  You can see the various forms in the image below. The letter doesn't represent a particular sound by itself. It is used before vowels that can be denoted with diacritics.  These diacritics can be written above or below the letter. In the image above we also got the alaph zqofo which is read as 'a' and the alaph rboso which is read as 'e' pronounced as [ε],in IPA.

The Arabic alphabet is a descendant of the Nabatean script which ultimately derived from the Syriac script ,the Serto version.Thus the transliteration from Arabic to Syriac and vice versa presents little difficulties. As  you can see in the table below the letters are quite similar. Arabic letters in comparison to Syriac Serto. Take a look at the Arabic-Estrangelo table also.

After the dissolution of the Persian Empire by Alexander the Great as a result Greek influence and culture spread all over the Middle East.It was then that Aramean scholars first became familiar with the Greek alphabet which already had a fully developed and quite accurate vowel system. On the other hand the Aramaic script indicated basically consonants and its weakness was thus exposed due to this contact.So Arameans thought they could use vowels to the benefit of their own script. The result was the development of two vowel systems the Eastern and Western after the split of the Syriac church into the Western branch under Byzantine rule and Eastern branch under Sassanid Persia. The Western borrowed directly the Greek vowels themselves which were written above the letter.The second used one or two dots above or below the letter to indicate vowels.Later appeared a combined system of the two. The Estrangela script originally made no use of vowels and these two systems initially dev...

Serto is one of the Syriac scripts for Aramaic used to write West Syriac.Its name comes from the word serta (ܣܪܛܐ) which means line. It was a cursive,easier to write evolution of the Estrangela script. The letters are simpler and go with the flow. The Serto script developed under Byzantine rule. This is also evident in its vowel diacritics which were adopted directly from Greek  writing. The letters are Α,Ο,Ε,Η,ΟΥ or a,o,e,i,u respectively. While the Eastern Madnkhaya developed under the Sassanids. Table of Serto letters Serṭā Transliteration IPA ʾ [ʔ] or silent hard: b soft: ḇ (also bh, v) hard: [b] soft: [v] or [w] hard: g soft: ḡ (also gh, ġ) hard: [ɡ] soft: [ɣ] hard: d soft: ḏ (also dh, ð) hard: [d] soft: [ð] h [h] consonant: w mater lectionis: ū or ō (also u or o) consonant: [w] mater lectionis: [u] or [o] z [z] ḥ [ħ], [x], or [χ] ṭ...