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zqafa-alaf I. In addition to the vowel zqafa and the combination zqafa-alaf ,the vowel [a] can be indicated with the vowel ptaha which has the following form: As you can clearly see, this vocalization schematically reproduces the letter A of the Greek alphabet. II. The ptaha diacritic marks the [а] sound which was a short vowel at an earlier stage of the language. Classical Syriac had no distinction between short and long vowels. So the diacritics ptaha and zqofo mark the same sound-[a]. A general rule to remember is that closed syllables- those ending in a consonant take a ptaha while open syllables- those ending in a vowel take a zqafa. A syllable in Syriac cannot have more than one vowel and cannot begin with more than two consonants. For example in the word bav-ga , the first syllable is closed and therefore ptaha  is used. The second syllable is open so the [a] sound is marked with a zqafa. bav-ga In some words , loanwords mainly an alaf is used after ptaha as in the word ...

ana KaTev I read at KaTev You read Ihu KaTev He read ihi KaTev She read anakhna KaTev We read atun KaTev You read Inun KaTev They read Female speaking ana KaTev I read at KaTev You read Ihu KaTev He read ihi KaTev She read anakhna KaTev We read atun KaTev You read There is a special plural for women in Aramaic dialects- a female plural. For example when we are talking about two sisters. Special female plural form anakhna KaTev We read atin KaTev You read Itin KaTev They read

During the Bar Kokhba Jewish revolt against Roman rule at the 1-2 century AD some coins were issued to commemorate it and the leader of the revolt Shimun Bar Kokhba. One of them was a silver tetradrachm or Shekel coin issued at about the first half of the second century with inscriptions in the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet Aramaic language. Hebrew was long gone a spoken language in the Holy Land. The spoken language was Aramaic which the Jews learned and shifted to after their exile to Babylon by the Persian Empire. For more on the exile read When did the Jews shift to Aramaic? First side reads Shimun as in Shimun Bar Kokhba- the head of the revolt. At first I thought that the two symbols on the right denote a date but it turned out that the word Shimun is broken up in two parts far apart from each other. Hence we got the letters  Shin, Mim, Vav, Nun ŠMWN Shimun The flip side reads  LHRT YRŠLM Leherut Yerushalem Freedom to Jerusalem Le- to,for Herut- Freedom Yerushalem- Jerusalem Lam...

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.

איהו  Ihu He איהי Ihi She In some dialects the above mentioned would be... הוא hu He היא Hi She Back to short Aramaic lessons.

Wild animals אנא חזי ית אריא Ana khaze yat ariya. I see a lion. (male speaking) אנא חזיא ית אריא Ana khaziya yat ariya. I see a lion. (When female talking) אנא Ana I חזי Khaze  to see ית Yat Shows that the following noun is in the accusative case. אריא  ariya  lion אנא חזי ית גמלא Ana khaze yat gamla. I see a camel. גמלא  gamla  camel תעלא  ta'ala  fox חמרא khmara  donkey יונא yona  pigeon קופא  kofa  monkey איהו אמר דבביתא אית קופא Íhu ámar de be béta it kofa. (He say that in/at house there is cat.) He says that there is a cat in the house. דובא  duba  bear דיבא  deva  wolf פּילא  píla  elephant זרפא  zarafa  Giraffe נישרא  nishra eagle Domesticated animals. עיזא  'iza goat ברחא Bárkha young Buck תישא tésha elderly buck תורתא Torta Cow תורא Tora Bull קתא qata cat סוסיא súsiya horse

  By Damien Cowl “Suriston” (JPA. סוריסטון), colloquially known in English as Galilean Dialect, formed as a variant of the Western Aramaic languages in the Levant around the time of Roman rule in the region. It was spoken by the people of Galilee in northern Judea, somewhat distinct from the Samaritans or the Jews from Jerusalem. Jesus and his followers spoke in this language, for He grew up and spent most of His life in Galilean towns such as Nazareth and Capernaum. Where it shares a great deal of core vocabulary and grammar with other Aramaic dialects (as all dialects do) there are a large number of quirks and differences that make it unique. The term Galilean dialect generally refers to the form of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic spoken by people in Galilee during the late Second Temple period, for example at the time of Jesus and the disciples, as distinct from a Judean dialect spoken in Jerusalem. Decades after Jesus' death, in the aftermath of the failed Jewish revolts against the...