Learn Aramaic

  The unconnected form of the letter looks like that above. For example gamal connected with the letter alaph (below). Gamal can be connected from the right as well as from the left ,like beth does also.  Gamal connected from right. Gamal connected from left. Gamal connected from both sides. Gamal is pronounced as g after a vowel. In this case s dot is used over it called kushaya. On the other hand gamal is pronounced like a French r when it follows a consonant. So a dot is used underneath the letter (rukakha). Exercise Read and write.Try to the letters as they appear in the image below. The small letters above or below the letters are Syriac diacritics for vowels. Review Syriac vowels below. Syriac vowels. Other letters in Syriac Serto Alap Beth , Dalath , He

 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

This phrase was said to Christ by the brigand crucified next to him.  Luke 23:42  ܘܶܐܡܰܪ ܠܝܶܫܽܘܥ ܐܶܬ݁ܕ݁ܰܟ݂ܪܰܝܢܝ ܡܳܪܝ ܡܳܐ ܕ݁ܳܐܬ݂ܶܐ ܐܰܢ݈ܬ݁ ܒ݁ܡܰܠܟ݁ܽܘܬ݂ܳܟ݂ ܀   ᵓāmar lēh yešūᶜ ᵓamīn ᵓāmar nā lāḵ dəyawmānā ᶜam tehwe bəpardaysā Και στον Ιησού έλεγε: «Θυμήσου με, Κύριε, όταν έρθεις στη βασιλεία σου».  And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom

 The letter beth in Syriac can be connected from the right as well as from the left unlike the alaph . The Syriac beth represents the occlusive [b] and the spirant [v].  It is pronounced as [b] at the beginning of the word or the middle after a consonant (post-consonantal position). In this case the occulative pronunciation can be denoted with a dot above the beth (kusshaya). Beth is pronounced as [v] after a vowel. In this case a ruqqakha is used ,a dot under the letter. It should be taken into account that in many texts the kushaya and ruqakha dots are omitted which does not make clear how the beth is pronounced.  In these cases one should pay close attention to the letter that precedes beth . The letter beth is never silenced like many other consonants in the Syriac language.  Also beth is never softened after the [i] vowel retaining its hard pronunciation. Read and rewrite

אנא מוד Ána móde I'm thankful. Thank you. When a man is speaking. אנא מודיא Ána módia I'm thankful. Thank you. When a woman is speaking. אנחנא מודן AnáHna módan We are thankful. When men are speaking. אנחנא מודין AnàHna módian We are thankful. When women are speaking. ‌ לך LaH to you when speaking to a man. ‌ ליך LeH When speaking to a woman. לכון LeHon To you When speaking to men. לחינן léHen To you  When speaking to women. For example when a man wants to say thank to a woman would say: אנא מוד ליך Ána móde leH. I'm thankful to you. I thank you. Thank you. Or when a woman wants to thank women would say אנא מודיא לחינן ána módia léHen I (a woman) thank you (women). Back to short Aramaic lessons.

קשתא בשמיא qashta bishmaya rainbow in the sky קשתא qashta rainbow ב b in שמיא shmaya sky Kashta also means archer in Syriac Aramaic . The phrase Bishmaya -in the sky can also be found in the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic . Aboon de bishmaya ,our Lord in Heaven...

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 ...