28) Introductory Lessons in Aramaic

in IntroductoryLessons Aramaic:Introduction
Introduction for in The following pages intended any individualwho is interested learning are It I for of thebasics BiblicalAramaic. is based lessons created an introductory on in whereI teach. should It class Aramaicat thelJniversity Michigan, of be considered work in progress. a Partof the fundingfor the onlineversion the lessons provided a grant was of by from the Lecturers' Professional Development Fund. Althoughtherearemanygrammars providean introduction Biblical that to purports be an introduction presumes prior Aramaic, only oneof these no to that knowledge another language. grammar, of This FranzRosenthal's,4 Semitic o.f for Grammar BiblicalAramaic,is useful, especially the graduate student. grammar However, Rosenthal's depends muchon a reader too beingfamiliarwith phonological grammatical principles serve a helpful technical and to as introduction the student reader to or who haslittle familiaritywith otherlanguages, (For languages. example, especially Semitic within the first l0 pages the of "spirantization," grirmmar proper,thereareseveral references to thoughno is.) Furthermore, grammar description whatthis of Rosenthal's doesnot include gramma"rs do includeexercises students presume anyexercises. Those that for all (see, example, thatthe student a prior knowledge BiblicalHebrew has of for AndrewE. Steinmann's Fundamental BiblicolAramaic,Frederick E. An Greenspahn's Introduction Aramaic,andAlger F. Johns's ShortGrammor to A of BiblicalAramaic). I havetriedto render sometimes the obscure descriptions comprehensible as as possible readers to with little experience grammar linguistics. this with For and reason, explanations seem the may redundant those for with a knowledge of linguistics and/or otherlanguages. is especially for the descriptions the This true of pronunciation Aramaic.It is hopedthat afterhavinggonethroughthe following of lessons, student the will, should or shesodesire, he moveon to moresophisticated grammars, Rosenthal's, linguisticsummaries Stuart like or like Creason's The in Cambridge Encyclopedia the World'sAncientLanguages. of Oneothercaveat: last several the lessons on the student learnvocabulary rely to on passages lookingup wordsin the glossary. his or herown,by reading and This mimicsthe situation onewill be facedwith whensittinsdownwith theBible that andan Aramaicdictionarv.
Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond
Preliminaries: Some Thealphabet is used represent western that to the Aramaiclanguage in publications onethatis identical the alphabet contemporary is to usedto represent Hebrew, bothclassical modern. originsof this alphabet interesting, and The are though describe to these originswouldtaketoo muchspace here.Sufficeit to say thatthe alphabet its origin is Aramaic, is oftendescribed "AramaicBlock in and as Script."For thisreason, will simplyreferto the alphabet theAramaicalphabet. I as Thisalphabet, anywriting system, be represented Romanletters like (that can with is, thealphabet we useto write English). process turningthe Aramaic that This of alphabet Romanletters calledtransliteration. into is Thus,for example, Biblical the :l?F, *d in the Aramaicword for king is represented theAramaicalphabet in as Roman alphabet melek.(Aod,of course, Roman as the alphabet not special is in this;the Aramaicalphabet alsorepresent otherwriting system. the can any So, Englishword "king" canbe hansliterated the Aramaicalphabet: into llj?.) This actof transliteration an advantage is it because allowsus to moreeasily represent Aramaic programs in emailmessages. wordsin word-processing and It alsohelpsto indicate whatthe pronunciation theword wouldbe.And, especially of important a grammar, forces student choose for it the to multiplepossible between pronunciations, thusto demonstrate muchof the grammar or he has and how she absorbed. Transliteration not aim to represent does explicitlyhow the word should be pronounced. operates a series conventions haveto be learned. It by of that Sometimes transliteration a word will represent the of marksthataregraphically present the Aramaicword,but arenot pronounced. example, the Aramaic in For in "he wordthatcorresponds theEnglishphrase let you know,":JV-'l.l;'T to h6*,{e'ek, the superscript in thetransliteration not pronounced indicates presence w is but the of whatcanbe described a "vowel-marker." as Representationspronunciation be madein several of can ways.I will represent pronunciations with recognizable Romanletterswithin slashmarks:/ /. This is for the sakeof makingthe pronunciations readilycomprehensible thebeginner. for A morescientific method to usetheInternational is Phonetic Alphabet; with its many curious symbols signs and this is sometimes confusing non-specialists. for
Abbreviations For PerfectandImperfectVerbalForms 3ms third person masculine singular 3fs third person femininesingular person 2ms second masculine singular person 2fs second feminine singular lcs first person common singular
plural 3mp thirdperson masculine plural 3fp thirdperson feminine person plural 2mp second masculine person plural 2fp second feminine
lcp
plural first person common
For Imperatives Participles and m.s. masculine singular f.s. feminine sinzular plural m.p. masculine plural f.p. ferninine
ForNouns sing. singular pl. plural
Introductory Lessonsin Aramqic by Eric D. Reymond
Bibliography Bartelt,Andrew H. and Andrew E. Steinmann. FundamentalBiblical Hebrew/ FundamentalBiblical Aramaic. St. Louis: Concordia,20A4. Bauer,Hans and PontusLeander.GrammatikdesBiblisch-Aramciischen.Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1927 . Biblia Hebroica Stuttgartensia.3'o Edition. Eds. A. Alt, et al. Stuttgart:Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1987 . Brown, Francisand S.R.Driver and CharlesA. Briggs. TheBrown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon: With an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic.Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. Creason, Stuart."Aramaic." In The CambridgeEncyclopediaof the World's AncientLanguages. RogerD. Woodard.Cambridge: Ed. Cambridge University,2004,391-426 . FrederickE. An Introduction to Aramaic.2noEdition. Atlanta: Society Greenspahn, of Biblical Literature. 2003. Alger F. A ShortGrammarof Biblical Aranaic. BerrienSprings, Johns, Mich.: Andrews University, 197 2. Rosenthal,Franz. Grammar of Biblical Aramaic. Th Edition. Wiesbaden: A Harrassowitz,2006. Stevenson, William B. Gramntar of Palestinian JewishAramaic. Oxford: Oxford University,1924. Waltke, Bruce and Michael O'Connor.An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Swfiax. WiononaLake.Ind.: Eisenbrauns. 1990.
1: Lesson Consonants form, with their transliterated The consonants Aramaicaregivenhere,together of pronunciation: (and name, approximate conventional) and N ' 'aleph in pronounced thepause like between syllables the . pronunciation "sweater" "better" lswe'erl, or of Cockney lbe'erl by it Conventionally is not pronounced Englishspeakers. 3) Lesson lbl (or lvl, see are lgl (or lghl,butthe two sounds not shed) conventionally distingui ld/ (or ldh/,thesoundof th in the pronunciation of theEnglishword "that") this lwl or /v/ Somepeoplepronounce letterllke lwl, which decide like should others lvl. A student pronounciation or he is comfortable with and she pronounce way. everywawin the same lzl pronunciation "Bach"or asin of lcW,asin the German (or, of thepronounciation the Yiddishword "Chutzpah" "Hutzpah"). is no conventionally distinction emphatic though t, madein pronunciation between t andthe tow,listed this below. lyl 3) lW (or /ch/,seeLesson l\l lml lnl lsl no approximate soundin English,somesaylike just the sound beforevomiting,somesaylike the to up, sound a camelgetting bothof which seem of reflecta biasagainst phoneme. this it Conventionally, is not pronounced.
f ) '1
b g d
beth gimmel doleth
nhhethl ''l w
wow
I n
z h
zayin het
fl ' : , n ) D lJ
tet
y k I m n s '
yodh kaph lomed mem nun samekh 'ayin
I ? -l tD U n
s q r 3 3 t
sadeh qoph reslt sin shin tuw
llke conventionally ltzl emphatic pronounced s: like k: conventionally kaph emphatic pronounced lrl /s/, pronounced like conventionally samekh /sU asin theEnglishword shine ltl (or lthl, thesound th in "these"[compare of to thepronunciation dqlethasidhl listedabovel; of see Lesson 3)
pronunciations, will be letters, beth,havetwo different like Some these of as in 3. with explained Lesson Despite this,theyarealways transliterated the same Roman letter.Thus,evenin cases like where! is pronounced lvl,I is still letterb. with transliterated theRoman In addition these letterforms,five letters haveformsthatoccuronly at the end to of a word: :T k kaph(Notethe two dotsthat arealwayswritten with the final kaph.)
Emmem 'J n nun .'l p peh sadeh s Y Notethe similarities between certain forms.Thebeth(3) andkoph(!) letters look similar.Thesin (tlJ) shin(W)letters distinguished a singledot above and are by (O). them.And, the final mem(D) looksllke samekh -l Practice transliterating followingwords.For example, Jn -- mlk. (Notethat the thetransliterated word in theRoman alphabet writtenandreadfrom left to right is the [m+l+k], although Aramaicscriptis written andreadfrom right to left
Exercise: la.
t-l-, +-nl.)
Introductory Lessons Aramaicby Eric D. Reymond in
N: tb
("theking")
I'Pn
F.trl tt.j
j'!'Pn
("strong"in the singular in theplural) and
Nn'l
rrtFt
lirJ
N'nl
("house,""the house,""houses,"and "the houses")
JI i-J iJ
) t-jl
("he wrote"and"shewtote") -INN 'l-lnN ("he said"and"they said")

-\ F\rtr
irtqF-trt
I lJl
lJ
("he writes" and "they write")
Exercise: 1b.
Now try puttingthesetransliterated wordsinto Aramaicscript.Remember you that mustreverse orderof the letters. the Thus,rb' is rendered AramaicscriptN:-.l. in ktb krbt ("he wrote" and"shewrote") k'n ("now") '1 ("over,""above")
'dyn ("then")
ptgm' ("message") mdh ("tribute") 5lm "well-being") ("peace," ,r,

tr''
("land" and "the land")
Exercise: lc.
Try transliterating full Aramaicsentence this fiom thebookof Ezra(4:20):
E)ut-r' ttn l'!'pn l':)n )u

N-ln: -tlIJ ):: j'b')tDl
lrn)rn'nn lbnrr): ntnr

"StrongkingswereoverJerusalem and(theyhad)authorityin all Abar-Nahara' andtribute,tax,andtoll wasgivento them."
Exercise: d. I
Now try transliterating sentence this from Ena 5:4 (slightlyaltered the sakeof for consistency coherency): and
j'rn) 'l-lnN Nn:: j"]$ 'i':l N:':: n:"1 N"ll: nilnu'i'r:N 'J ]b
Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond 8
"Then,accordingly, saidto them, they 'Whatarethenames the menwho arebuildingthis structure (literally:who,this of structure, building)?"' are
Exercise: Le.
passage Now, write in Aramaicscriptthe followingtransliterated from Ezra5:5 (again for slightlyaltered consistency): w'yn 'lhhn hwt 'l Sbyyhwdy' wl' btlw hmw "The eyeof theirGodwasoverthe elders theJudaeans of andthey(i.e.,theelders) not stopthem(i.e.,thebuilders)." did
Exercise: 1f.
N.B.(//o/alJene:Notewell): Thedoubling a consonant indicated is of through dot placed the center the a in of : b, but I : bb; ln: : ktb, but lFll : kttb. letter.Thus,I Transliterate belowthefollowingpassage Ena 5.6 and5:17,noting from where thedoubled consonants are:
Nf )n lD''ln"'t'T )ls ...':Fln n)u n-lNn-lr$JltD-l!

"A copy of the letterthat Tattenaisent . . . to Dariusthe king."
):::
'-Ti'Tnn N:)n 'J N:T:ln'll
-tr)fn'
"Let a search madein the house records theking therein Babylon." be of of
2: Lesson Vowels above as Vowelsareindicated throughcertainconsonants well as signsthat appear may someconsonants serveeitherasa true andbelowthe letters.Therefore, are or consonant, asthe markerof a vowel.Usuallywhenconsonants usedto mark vowels, vowelstheyaremarkingare"long vowels."But, not every"long the that Consonants markvowelshelp with vowel" is represented sucha consonant. and makethe pronunciation a word moreobviousto a reader theseconsonants of lectionis, Latin for "mothers reading." of are,therefore, calledmatres it is from motres-consonants, helpfulto In orderto distinguish consonants true lettersin transcription. represent matres-consonantssuperscript the as Althoughthe vowelsarelabeled either"long" or "short,"this nomenclature does The in not describe length theirpronunciation. vowels BiblicalAramaic of are the not distinguished the lengthof time it takes pronounce to them,but rather by by Thus,we will speak a "shortla/" andthis describes sound theirdistinctsounds. of a quantity, lengthof i.e., distinctfrom "long la/",but bothwouldhavehadthe same pronunciation. into Like the Aramaicconsonants, vowelsmaybe transliterated theRoman the i.e., Long vowelsaredistinguished from shortvowelsby a macron, a line alphabet. : a;longlal : a). overthem(short lal Partl: Belowarethe vowelsignsandthe consonallts sometimes that accompany them.In this list, thevowel signsa"re represented or the beneath above letterbeth;their pronunciation follow. forms,andtheir approximate, transliterated conventional I a pronounced thea in the like marksshortlal, conventionally Englishword "mat." pronounced thea in the markslong lal, conventionally like word "pa," or "father."Sometimes, especially at Englishcolloquial theendof a word,it is alsorepresented i'Tl or Nl (ban ba ). as , Thesame svmbolalsomarksa short/o/: seebelow. pronounced thee marksthe short/e/ sound, like conventionally "Ed," or in theword"less." in theEnglish name
l0
-1
e, e
marks a shortor long /e/ sound.In either case,the vowel is pronounced like the ay in say, or like the ey in convey. conventionally it as'l eY, Nl e', e', andiJJ eh,eh. EY; Sometimes is alsorepresented Distinguishingbetweenthe shortand long e is often difficult. For the beginningstudent,it will be helpful to transliterate this symbolwith e universallyand subsequently learnthoseplaceswherethe symbol to represents e.
-l
pronounced the I in marksthe short/i/ sound, conventionally like "pit."

l'
r-l
pronounced thee in marksthe long/ii sound, conventionally like thename"Pete,"or like the i in theword "latrine"and"saline".Note theextrayodh.Thisconfirms thatthe i-vowelis long. marksthe short/o/ vowel,conventionally pronounced theaw like of theword "paw." Notethatthisvowel is very closeto the a. When these vowelsymbols wereinvented applied the consonantal and to text,theremightnot havebeena distinction between o anda the All sounds. the same, is conventional distinguish vowelsin it to two transliteration pronunciation. and Learning where , representsand a whereit represents is not easy. havetriedto disambiguate o I befween thetwo vowelsin transliteration.
-t J O
i'r
-w
marksthe long/o/ vowel,conventionally pronounced theoa like of "coat,"or like theo of "rote."It is sometimes written also : o. withoutthewawcomplement: I marksthe short/u/ vowel,conventionally pronounced theoo like of "cook."
ju
I -'l
-w
marksthe long/u/ vowel,conventionally pronounced theoo like of "noon,"or the u of "fune." Thisis the shewa symbolandmarksa mufinured vowel, pronounced thea in "above."Theshewa conventionally like symbol alsomarksthe absence a vowel.Determining of which of these two alternatives shewa the represents sometimes provedifficult. will
- vl - r
11
$Fr Nd Nd These represent like threesymbols ultra-short vowels,essentially the munnured vowelin nature, eachhavinga slightlydistinctquality. but (i.e., Typicallythese underguttural vowelsappear consonants N, lJ, JJ, andl'l; sometimes beforeor after) andp andsometimes also before ),), andl). Unliketheshewa, whichonly sometimes should be pronounced, these threesymbols always represent presence a the of pronounced vowel.
irt
:-
ay
Occasionally, findsa vowelandconsonant arepronounced one that The together. mostcommon BiblicalAramaicis the short/a/ + in yodh,whichis pronounced theEnglishword "eye."Notethatin like this case shewa the symbolmarks absence a vowel. the of
-l Notethatwhena kaphappears in a word it hasthis form: , it is conventional last to write this with a shewa symbol(l), though this shewa symboldoesnot represent vowelsound. a Also important understanding Armaicwordswerepronounced, how to is falls.Usually,it falls on the lastsyllable a word. understanding wherethe stress of Occasionally falls on the next-to-last it in syllable, which case stressed the syllable :lll-lf is indicated an accent mark(. ): by
Exercise 2a.
Now, try transliterating followingwordsincluding the theirvowelsandtranslating for thewordsnot translated you.Determining which letters trueconsonants are and which arematre,s-consonants become will muchclearer you beginto understand as the formsof nounsandverbs. -j?b --' melek("king") -'la: ("silver")(Because shewa the first vowelof theword,it is the is pronounced.)
ll-
Ftr-t
ttFt Ir
lrrJ
I2
-FJ I - I:J
1-j\ - rJ :
j'f n)ul:. )tJitn 'i'!'i?n )D n;il! :l! ):: 'i'E')u1

l't;]7 l;'T'nn 1?n]
I i " : : | -:-
''l7t;]'ln:l
: T '
Part2 As mentioned a above, distinguishing between shewa representsmurmured the that rather vowel,andthe shewa represents absence a vowel is sometimes that the of whena shortvowel(lal _ ,lel .. ,lil ., lol , , lul ...) comes difficult.In general, beforea shewa, shewa represents absence a vowel;whena longvowel the the of ' (/il , , l1l , hl . ,loll ,lil 1) comes represents before shewa, shewa a the a munnured vowel.For example, because denotes shortvowel,the shewa a _ followingit in N!?D (",tl. king") represents absence a vowel.Similarly the of with the shortlil in lt.-l:l ("he writes").On the otherhand,in lIJ"li;1 ("he let you know")thei representslongvowelandthusthe shewa followingit is a pronounced. (There exceptions, this holdstrue,by-andJarge most for are but words.)
Exercise 2b.
from Distinguish shewas represent the murmured-vowels those thatrepresent that the absence vowelsby transliterating of these words. N?Ol ("the silver") :l|]'f n ("he let you know" or "he caused to know") you pluralentities) lf n!|! ("you" for masculine (The , symbol j'-lnS ("those representshere.) who aresaying") d 'i]l! ("building")
n]l? ("The onewho is building")(The , symbol representshere,as a il,.) does

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond 13
Remember: pronounced. vowels($ A,!f d, S d) arealways Theultra-short
2c. Exercise
in embedded thebiblicalbookof Ena (a:11). of Thisis thebeginning a letter, it: Transcribe
'ni)! rn?u "T Nf-t.i*jltD-lg ;T:"7 - N??D )! *nluurnr_i-l$ i1?iTl-11! :T'Ju tD;s '-'t N"ll;t] ":t R?)* N'lil) !'-1] nlJj:l
"This (is) a copyof the letterthattheysentto him: 'To: Artaxerxes, king -- (From:)your servants, people Avar-Naharah. the of the who Now, let it be knownto theking thatthe Jews/Judaeans . . ."'
Part3: Syllabification Vowels and with a vowel.There A neverbegins Eachsyllable begins with a consonant. syllable * a vowel(called thathaveonly a consonant those aretwo kindsof syllables, * "open"syllables) thosesyllables havea consonant a vowel+ a and that (called"closed"syllables). consonant ("he let you know") the first syllable is In theword:j{l'f n (h6*-de-'ak) "open"because begins not it with a consonant, does havea but considered is syllable with the longd vowel.Thesecond at consonant its end,ratherit ends it is syllable because However, lastsyllable a closed the alsoan opensyllable. begins endswith a consonant. and in ( it o]) occur only Short vowels _, .., ., ., and, [when represents typically within a word: two places 1) In a closed syllable, (eitherthelastsyllable a word or in a syllable of syllable ar 2) in an accented ' mark( ): lfi!) with an accent ( i , ' ' 1 , a n d , [ w h e nt r e p r e s e n t]sm o s t f t e n c c u irn i o o a ) L o n gv o w e l s' . . , ' , no the of syllables, matter position the but opensyllables, canalsooccurin closed in (This,incidentally, distinguishes vowelpatterns Aramaicfrom those the stress. only in opensyllables in stressed or in BiblicalHebrew, wherelongvowelsappear
I4
longvowelsdo NOT occurin closed, unstressed i.e., closed syllables; in Hebrew, syllables, theyDO in Aramaic.) but for Givena form like :l{'1li'.T,it is impossible a beginning student know whether to is it or whether should pronounced a be as or not the first syllable closed open, word l*hod-'-ak/. correct The three-syllable word /hd-de-'ak/ asa two syllable or pronunciation in fact,difficult to know with certainty. is easiest beginning is, It if students unless simplyassume all longvowelsarein opensyllables, that otherwise This assumption results thetransliteration in ho*de'ak. indicated. 'ilt'i!13, Thewords tt??B ,N??:, above, and'i]!1,each begin with a closed Eachof these syllable. closed syllables contains short a vowel. Thewords:JfTli1, T"''lF$,andN')l begin with anopensyllable. Eachof these opensyllables contains longvowel.Thismeans the followingshewa each in a that wordrepresentsmurmured a vowel.
mr r ltqi
Anothercharacteristic Aramaicsyllabification thatwhentwo shewas of is occur such side-by-side, asin theword jlln:l the of , thefirst represents absence a vowelwhilethe second representsmurmured a vowel. Remember manyAramaic that wordshavea shewa theirfirst syllable. almost in In in everycase, shewa appears the first syllable a wordrepresents the that of a murmured vowelandshould pronounced. be
Exercise 2d.
Transliterate following passage the basedonEzra (5:4):
r:F$ NFi:'il'tlr lin) N:':l ;111 $illl nirFu jD jrftr "l T:l?
Then,thus,theyasked them: "What arethenames themenwho arebuildingthis building(lit., who this of buildingarebuilding)."
Introductorv Lessonsin Aramaic bv Eric D. Revmond t5
2e. Exercise
Transcribe following(from Ena 5.5) into Aramaicscript: the 'dldhdhdn yehu*dayc' hdwdt'al SdbEv wo'eYn wela'baltilu* himm6* "The eyeof their Godwasoverthe elders the Judaeans of did andthey(i.e.,theelders) not stopthem(i.e.,thebuilders)."
Vocabulary: Prepositions: 2 :"to" or "for"
: TD "from"
I -.
)9_: "to" or "against" "over" or "according or to" Adverbs: N, : thisparticle negates verbs trllt : "also" Short words: : "then" ]]llt tit$ : "thereis" Nl;'l : "he" : Nti.T "she" 'l : "and" "but" or !t'l] : "known" N]il? : "let it be" Qrlote the first syllable that contains shortlel vowelin an open a syllable. This is the exception therule pointed above. ultra-short to The out vowel beneath hehis secondarv: olderform of thewordwouldhavebeenllehthe the
we't.l
l6
Pronouns Lesson Further Nicetiesof the Writins Svstem. 3: Part1. pronunciation the consonants, of A furtherdistinctionis madein the conventional peh, andtawhavetwo pronounced forms: daleth, kaph, suchthat thebeth,gimmel, like Thus,bethis pronounced b (l), or asv (l) a hardanda softpronunciation. is This distinction pronunciation marked a dot in the middleof theAramaic in by letter: letter,or a line beneath Roman the
=
b like b (pronounced v)
o
"l
g (conventionally, distinctionis madein pronunciation) no
'':T 'l
;)K
tt
d like or is d (pronounced theth in"that," nodistinction made)
k (pronounced like the ch in"Chutzpah," identicalto I-l)
5p 5
flt n
p (pronounced ph in "phone") like
like ! (pronounced the th in"thick" or "these")
In otherwords,the letterwith the dot is pronounced hard,while the letterwithout is pronounced Thisprocess whicha "hardpronunciation" turnedsoft is is soft. by The calledspirantization. "soft consonants" referred asfricatives,spirants, are to or consonants, while the "hard consonants" be referred as stopsor spirantized can to unspirantized consonants. lettersor bgdkptletters. Collectively,the consonants calledbegadkephal are Whether not a letteris pronounced or softdepends, part,on the placeof hard in or In if the letterwithin a word or within a sentence. general, a vowelprecedes a precedes thenit is hard.For example, begadkephat letterit is soft,if a consonant it it lvarl,or ll theword for sonis bar, or lJ. However, mayalsobe pronounced
17
a or whenit is preceded a prefix,suchasa preposition in this case conjunction: by -1:l 'l]:l ("and-a-son"). like by Although is pronounced /tvar/ it is transliterated word thatendsin a vowelcan ii*bar.Sometimes evena preceding convention makingit soft. consonant, affectthe nextword's begadkephal in lists.in the exercises. when and For the sakeof consistencv. the vocabularv
individual words, I haverenderedall begadkephatconsonants stand that discussing
first in a word asstops. Being cognizant whethera begadkephat letteris pronounced hardor soft is of important it reveal whether preceding because will often(butnot always) a shewa represents absence a vowelor a murmured the of vowel.Thus,in the case of peh x:,ggests the shewa $?Ol thehard that represents underthesamekh the absence a vowel,whichalsomeans thewordbegins of that with a closed syllable. If the shewa representedmurmured vowel,thenthatwouldresultin a softpeh a andthe absence a dot in thepeh, Another of is example provided Nf"lfN ; in by this case, shewa the beneath reshmustrepresent absence a vowel sincea the the of munnured plural vowelwouldresultin a softtaw. Consider the masculine also participle j'l|l? ; the shewa absolute mustrepresent murmured a vowel since the bethis soft. Part2. A complication this system distinguishing from softhegadkephat to of hard is consonants thatthe same markcanalsoindicate a consonant, consonant that any (N, fromgutturals lJ, n, JJ)andr (l), is doubled. example, aside For IFi! represents problem this well. Thefirst dot,insidethekoph,indicates the that "hard" (since occurs is consonant to be pronounced it first in theword),while the (andthusalso second insidethe taw, indrcates the consonant doubled dot, that is pronounced "hard") We wouldtransliterate 3FlJ askatteh. Notethetwo rules: l) Whenever consonant a appears twice in a row, with no intervening vowel, pronounced it is always hard. 2) A murmured vowelneveroccurs beforea doubled consonant.
l8
Exercise 3a.
passage Ezr:a Transliterate following from the 5.6,5.17:
N?)FrDllll )y .':nDn2us'-TNFlll\]lu-19
l'qq'.. rqt q'.F '
/JJJ
1 ? : ' t
I t{;J_i s t
\!)b
I
'T NrT)I n'lr

T-:'
-lirfn.'
: ':
.'
Part3. Thepronouns Aramaic in havethe followingforms:

Sinzular lcs "f" 2ms"you" 2fs"vou" 3ms"he"
3fs "she" Plural
;']iN ffl$ tnl$ ll:1;1

$tiJ
lcp "we"
if;nl$
2mp"you"
2fp "you"
El:lt|!/ l''lfl)|!
]DlS I'lN
+ "they" 'l:l)N (E.:'lnn / D.:'J]bil) 3mp

3fp"they"
Theyareused manyrespects English in pronouns. like Notice, however, that Aramaic, unlikeEnglish, genders distinguishes masculine feminine between and in gender the2nd 3'dpersons. and These distinctions the 2nd 3'dpersons for and will alsobe foundin the verbforms.
Exercise 3b.
Basedon what you know of Aramaic orthography and syllabification,transliterate the pronounsfrom the precedingchart:
Singular 1cs "I" 'ant 2ms "you" (Bothshewas thisformrepresent absence a in the of
vowel.)
Plural lcp "we"
2mp"you" 2fp "you" 3mp"they"

3fp "they"
2fs"you"
3ms "he"
3fs"she"
Introductory Lessonsin Arqmaic by Eric D. Reymond
t9
Part4. Syntax NominalExpressions of In manylanguages, including Aramaic, does always not need verb"to be" one the whencreating sentences the sort:"The king is good."In cases this sort of of juxtaposes noun(N?)D) with theadjective (lp), sometimes Aramaic simply the (a with the adjective predicate adjective, be precise) to comingbeforethe noun.
S? :P ?B
This sentence be distinguished "the goodking" by theword can from thephrase (absolute, is, withoutthelt , - ending). orderandthe state the adjective of that In "the goodking" the adjective thephrase alwaysfollowsthe nounandagrees with thenounin its gender, number state. ancl
rf'rr. l'!-iu
ttT:-
rr:hn l--)/l)
Sometimes, sentence juxtaposetwo nouns,suchas in the sentence am the a will "I king," which if translated word-for-word from Aramaic would be "I king." In these cases, word that functionsas the subjectof the clauseusually comesfirst. The the word that follows is considered predicate(eventhough in Aramaic it is not a the verb).
: N]?F ;'Ut_t I amtheking.

Here "the king" is technicallythe predicateof the phraseand comessecond. Sometimes, howeverthe predicatecan come first and the subjectsecondand this can lead to confusion.For example,one can imaginea sentence the type below of in which eithernoun could function as the subjector predicate.In thesecases, contextis the only guide as to which shouldbe considered subjectand which the the predicate.
-T)F il:tt! : A lion is a king or A king is a lion. In cases wherethepredicate a prepositional phrase, prepositional is phrase the usuallyappears preceded the subject. second, by N! )b Eg ;1:N : I amwith thekine.
20
Exercise 3c.
Translate followingsentences Aramaic, the into utilizingthe vocabulary that followsthe exercise: 1.He is theking. 2.He is in thehouse. 3. We arein thehouse. 4. Theyarebeforetheking. 5. Accordingly, arethere. all 6. Beforetheywerethere, werebefore king. we the Vocabulary: Prepositions. ! (or l) : "in" or "by" ! (or l) : "aS"or "like" trlP : before (referring place) to nElP ]n / nD-li?n : before (referring time) to Adverbs: ]! , NFi! "thus"or "accordingly"
ilFn : "there"
Conjunction: t'l,t-''l "and","or", "but". Thesingleconjunction be translated a number : can in I, of waysbased the context a passage. on of Sometimes conjunction the does not need be translated. to Its pronunciation variesaccording a number variables to of outlined below: :l ; Whenit is followedby !/1, EE, andD it becomes whenit is followedby a consonant*murmured vowel,it alsoturnsto:l ; ' thevodhloses shewa the letters whenit is followedbv its and 'i. together written. ; are whenit is followedby anultra-short vowel,thecorresponding full -N +'] : -NJ. -$ +'] : -qql) vowelreplaces (e.g., it and
Nouns:
: nll|i : "letter"(Nqf-UN "theletter") f. ntl : "house" two bay-!a') m. $n:l : "thehouse"; syllables
[ntroductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond
2l
bl, )! : "all" (kol) (alsospelled kol;
m. T ?n : "king"(N??D: "theking") 'iltDlP: "copy" m.

N.B. "the Nf:], contains vowel-consonant a TheAramaicexpression house," -ay- (pronounced thecommon like in calleda dipthong, this case combination letterasif it were affects followingbegadkephat the word "eye");this dipthong of simplya vowel,makingthepronunciation taw soft.
22
4: Lesson The Noun root. Due to the fact that with EachAramaicword is associated a threeconsonant is the identifiiing root consonants mostAramaicwordshaveonly threeconsonants, -l the Thus, e.g., word1)n hastheroot ?n. eeingableto easy. oftenrather allowsyou to it because (usually) the recognize root of a word is important field of the word andallowsyou to predicthow the the understand basicsemantic to are whensuffixes added it. Additionallyit will word'spronunciation change are sincesomedictionaries allowsyou to look theword up in a dictionary, to according root. organized the we For ourpurposes will consider four mostbasictypesof roots: -T, =,),D,), ;'J, n, 13, T, (i.e., "solid"consonants N, l, l, three 1. strong having
lD, n). S, D,JJ,5, ir,-1, lD,
n,:, as a 2. firstweak* having "weak"(''1, N) consonant thefirst consonant. consonant. as 3. middleweak- havinga "weak" (.1,') consonant the second n, N) consonant thethird consonant. as 4. final weak- havinga "weak" (''1, 'alepft relativelystable themiddleof a root,andthat,similarly, in is Noticethat in nunts stable themiddleandat theendof a root. the rootswill not be difficult.Identifuing weakoneswill strong Identifoing provetricky. sometimes roots from these and will Typically,theweakconsonants disappear verbsderived when roots.Therefore, formsthanthoseof the strong will haveslightlydifferent roots of the to we the we describe verbs, will need describe morphology these separately.
NounsandAdjectives Part1: Simpler are and them,nouns adjectives very Aramaicamong languages, In manySemitic oftencan in overlapping form andfunction.So,e.g.,adjectives similar,sometimes gicalpatterns nouns. as morpholo be usedlike nounsandhavethe same maleandfemale. havetwo genders: Nounsandadectives and singular plural. Theyhavetwo numbers: the (thebasicform of thenoun/adj.), construct absolute Theyhavethreestates: or aod form, commonto the Semiticlanguages), the emphatic state(a shortened example: through These bestexplained are state. determined
ZJ
lFD : book absolute: -i!D : bookof construct: -; emphatic/determined:NJ?D : thebook

form marksthebasicform of theword,the onelistedin dictionaries. Theabsolute -lFD in the marksa connection a followingword. So,e.g., to state Theconstruct mightbe followedby theword I )n "krng" to givethe expression construct state : "abook of a king",or "aking's book".Such connection between a l'F lED (based analogous from constructions relationship on wordscanbe calleda genetive The state languages). emphatic/determined marksa nounwith a Indo-European like word "the". of degree specificity, theEnglish precedes state, word in the absolute state another Whena word in the construct with and bothwordslack specificity canbe translated the English"a" or "an". word in the another stateprecedes Whena word in the construct of and state, emphatic/determined bothwordscarrythis nuance specificity both word"the".Thus, with canbe translated theEnglish -l rn :ED : "abook of a king", ar "aking's book" N?)D :!F : "thebookof theking",or "theking'sbook". are and state list You will notethatin the above the fonnsof the absolute construct E.g.,consider word the the identical this word,but this is not always case. for --Lu, ;f?:D (queen, feminine noun): a
t l) /(): OUeen absolute: I r) /Q : queenoI construct: trr hq .1 emphatic/determined:N l r J ) E : T n eO U e e n
I
rr
bq
T::-
24
illustrated to according the followingparadigm, are Nounsandadjectives inflected "l'llIJ ("ready","destined"): hereby the adjective singular abs.: const.: emph./det.:
masc.
-.l ri ?l
I tl)J
fem.
ilJ'nP
F-|!n lt ttt tt,/
- ' - i
-?r Fl lt
tltJ
r$-?.l n ?t t\ | )t,
t'-i
$F"l' nIJ (' a-1ly{-ta')

(Note the long vowel ftl in a closed, syllable.) unaccented
plural abs.: const.: emph./det.:
masc.
lr-!Fr?t I tttt/ I
fem.
!-.tFft
JI
I rr|,
F lt tt,
t -,r Fr tt ItD/
t-t-r ttt
N:-T'fiij
T--l
Nn'l'nl
The distinctivefeaturesof eachof theseforms are indicatedin the followine chart: singular abs.: const.: emph./det.:
-]'rl! N
t\t I
masc.
fem.
;'1
tl
"l'n!
tl
plural abs.. const.: emph.idet.:
masc.
tt
fem.
i rrrY
I lT
t-' I
ltFtt I il,v
I li)/
fl , Nn
t'nu -'l'iu
Nt
I'nIl
25
Exercise Fill in thefollowi 4a:

Noun/adj. abs./cstr. si
emph./det.
chafi for masculine nouns/adi ectlves:

pl. emph.idet
P'n! ("old")
!p ("good", root:3 I ll) -a. The :
-t
1'yl za-e'r
tai
. -v
1"liitie")
. t a -\
'fi:1 ('Judgment", t) root: i l:ll!("mountain.") Et!l_'l ("wise")

.r.iL,.,
jp r ("ton$ue) ("voice"; root:
/ l ?) : The
a.
lltU ("remnant") -a. The :
Notice that the two words with waw as a middle consonant their root (lF and of )p;, harre similarforms.
Exercise4b: Fill in the followin chartfor feminienouns/adi trves:

cstr.slng.
NijP'F!
il-1t
1"good", root:! 1 lf)
"little"
Introductory Lessonsin Arqmqic by Eric D. Reymond
26
nJ'n
("animal"; root: lil 11)
-l'\r
t'-
n Nn.lt
?:
-1F?
("wise")
;1i?-'i3
("charity")
Ntli?'ls
(sidqatd')
r?.:i slppar ("bird")
N-IEg
t:
It shouldbe apparent thereare certainconsistencies that between thesewords.E.g.,
pattern. ni?'F! ,;1?'ll-1, and;l?'i?nall have same thewords the vocalic i1]i'iil!,;1'l'tJi and;'T?l:nhave forms, Similarly, words the similar the though
long middle vowel of eachis different.Recognizingthesepatterns helpsto make the acquisition new wordseasier. of The exceptionto theseconsistencies that in the emphaticforms when the is adjectivehas a long-Ethen the following tsw hasno dot and is pronounced soft, whereasif the vowel is a long-[, long-a,or long-r vowel then the taw rs pronounced hard. Note that somefeminine words do not bear the characteristici'l , ending, words -lET (Sippar). like Their inflectionis identicalto that of masculine nouns. Note also that the pronunciationof the feminine adjectivein the absolutestateis identicalto that of the masculineadjectivein the emphatic/determined state.The only differencein theseforms aboveare the endings,iJ , - on the feminine adjective(the typical marker of femininity) and N , - on the emphatic/determined masculinenoun. Because pronunciationof thesetwo morphemes so similar, the is they were often confused;it is commonto find femininenounswith the endingN , - and masculineemphaticidetermined nounswith the ending i'T, - . For the purposes pedagogy, will consistently I of renderthe feminine absoluteendingwith heh, andthe masculineemphaticidetermined form with an 'aleph. Par12.More ComplexNouns and Adjectives Many nounsand adjectivesin Aramaic witnessmore complexchanges their in inflection. A good,basicexampleof thesechanges seenwith the masculineword is for money or silver, 1Q!, and the feminineword for a letter or missive,i1]lN
27
singular abs.: const.: emph./det.:
masc.
nn-1
t-:
fem.
nJ$
nll$
ItFl-]lN
E1n=t
t-:
N?O! (kaspa')
masc.
'?r5n-l | +-<
fem.
'ill$
I1-lIN
rE:]---1 ":-
It',EDl (kaspayya )
NFll$
pronunciation, accent a word is typically of the to According therulesof Aramaic preceding accented the immediately The on thelastsyllable. vowelof a syllable vowel(la/, lel .., lil ., lol,, lul . ) in anopen if reduces it is a short syllable form for "silver" is EIQ!, we wouldnever the Thus,although absolute syllable. this form to be *N?Q?, since wouldleavea shortvowelin an the expect absolute redttce. (*ke-sa-pa Such vowelwouldalways a syllable unaccented open, ). *N?D! in Aramaicis alsointolerable; theresultof these so, a However, form like of the sees emergence a full vowel.In this case, is tendencies thatthe first syllable in underthe first syllable the emphatic/determined thelalvowel thatemerges to produces formthatis muchcloser theword'setymological a singular state origin:kaspu. the by mightfurtherbe illustrated examining Theprocess vowelreduction of (in, history thepluralformfor "kings",jn;?8. fn earlyAramaic e.g.,the800sof of nor 500sBCE) vowelsdid not reduce, wastherespirantization begodkephat takingeffect spirantizatron (Bothphenomena later,presumably began consonants. Thismeans thepluralfor "king" was that reducing.) beforevowelsstarted But, afterseveral on pronounced molakTn, the accent the final syllable. with and years, word hada muchdifferentform: thekaphwas spirantized the hundred a Althoughtherewasperhaps reduced. immediately beforethe accent the syllable vowel, as periodof transitionwherethe vowel waspronounced a murmured mightbe This transformation it eventually waslostaltogether. hypothetical illustrated below:
l. *malakTn--+2. *malak\n --- 3.*malaktn --+4. mqlk1n
28
Oneshould notethatbecause kaph(l) no longeris preceded a vowel,one the by "hard";however, memory the originalvowel wouldexpect to be pronounced it a of preserved the "sofl" pronunciation thekaph.(Seealsoj'liJf "gold" hasbeen in of below).Unexpectedly, pronunciation thepluralof "silver" (j'EQ?) reflects the of no suchmemoryof a vowelbeneath second consonant. root the A voweldoes NOT reduce it is a longvowel,or if it is in a closed if Thus, syllable. lb thevowelof the adjective does reduce not because hererepresentslong a , vowel,andsimilarlythe longlil vowelin'l'119 does reduce. the syllable not If preceding accented is an syllable closed, vowelalsodoes reduce. not the Thisis in seen wordslike lll "great",whichhastheemphatic form N+:l (rabba'). Thisrule of pronunciation alsobe usedto explain absolute can form of p'Fl! the ('attTvq; "old"). Thesecond syllable thewordis accented, onemightexpect of and for the shortvowelin thepreceding syllable reduce. to However, doesnot this happen sincethe first syllable p'Fl! is closed. same truefor the first of The is syllable il]lR; theshort voweldoes reduce. in /i/ not
Exercise 4c.
Many Aramaicnounsfollow thepattern EIQ! above. of Complete following the chartfor these wordsthatfollow thepattern lQ! of
sing. abs./cstr. slng.
emph./det.
pl. abs.
pl. cstr
pl. emph/det.
E)! ("image")
)JJl ("master")
lpfl ("wine")
Tl! ("slave")
lJllFl ("gate")
In all of the above examples, vowelof the first syllable lal, asin the example the is of fQ!.Many nouns, however, havea shortlil or lel (or sometimes shortlul or a
-lPQ ("book") -lll shortlo) in this position. E.g., hasa shortlil and ("man")hasa
shortltl tnthe plural forms: singular abs.: masc. -llD
-i
masc. -l:i
const.: emph./det.:
llO |IJBD
-fll
NJrl (?)
].'-llD
t:
]'-11, '-l:.1 -l:i Nr
'-15D Ni:f!D
As with tlQ!,the singular emphatic/determined of IBD reveals form very state a closeto theword's originalpronunciation, sipru.Theetymological base words of is not always important know,but it sometimes helpexplain to does certain inconsistenciestheprinted in texts. E.g.,thewordfor gold,:L-l-T, wouldseem be to tlE! And, in its vocalicpattern, is, in identical its form to theword for silver, in it fact similar.However, because originalform of theword in the singular the was dahabu (Nor *dahbu),the bethis always"soft" (thatis, a fricative, or spirantized), the second and consonant always is followedby a muffilured vowel: thus,N+il1 for the emph.idet. state, and'i'liTJ for thepluralabsolute. (Compare with the corresponding of JQ!. N?O! wherethe shewa form represents the absence a vowelandthe ! is "hard"). of Othernouns exhibitslightlydifferent patterns, thebasic morphological but principleof vowelreduction outlined above applies all of them,makingthe to formsof nouns ratherpredictable. Vocabulary: ;lliN : "letter"f. )Pl : "master" m. m. ]tJ : "judgment"
f. nh:n : "crime"
n]tn : "animal"f. Et!l_] : "wise" -lp[l : "wine" m. ..good" lE : -l:ll3: "mountain" m. : "tongue" m. lP, -lEO : "book" m. 'Tl! : "slave" m. P'il! : "old" ilflfB:"charity"f. -lEX $ippar: "bird" f.
-Laa LL ) - - 'l m a g e) Ir )S : m. .' :
)P : "voice"m' -]NU : "remnant" m.
3l
Lesson Participleand (more)NounPatterns 5: Part1: Theparticiples Aramaichaveformsandinflectionssimilarto thoseof nounsand in adjectives. participles The functionasnouns asverbs; verbstheyindicate or as placein thepresent in thetime frameof a given continuous actions take that or passage. if a participle Thus, appears a storyaboutthepast,theparticiple in should be translated the Englishpasttense. summarize,ln? (fromthe rootln:, with To associated writing) canbe franslated a noun"the onewriting" or asa verb with as (with a pronoun lnJ Nln) "he is writing,"or if thecontext thepast"he was is writing," or if the context the future"he will be writing". is Theinflection theparticiple be exemplified therootfor writing: of can with
singular abs.: const.. emph./det.: masc.
JI IJ
" T
fem.
I lJl
1:l
lJ
" I
i t-t
iJ
Ntn!
T:T
NFrn?
fem.
IT:T
masc.
l:r
lJllJ
lrl
lJ
-rl
":t
lJ
I iJt
T:T
tJ
N:ln!
T_:
Nntn!
NoticethattheG-stem activeparticiple has always a long-6vowelunderits first consonant Themostimportant formsto know arethe absolute forms,since these will oftenbe usedasverbsin Aramaic.
32
Exercise 5a.
Fill out the following chart,which isolatesthe forms most importantfor the participle.
.TlN ("to oerish") )NlD ("to ask for or request") p!) ("to go out") p)C ("to come up") 13.U("to do, make")
root
m.s. abs.
f.s.abs.
m. pl. abs.
f. pl. abs.
Vocabulary. Nouns: JJ:$ (in theemph./detN{f$) : land : 'i'lI): fl (in theemph.ldet.: , in thepluralabs. N]l '1'n! : "ready"
rl ill (ln tne Csff.llr ll;{): deCree
T.': '
son
Participles: -fD$ : to say(Noticethatthe second vowelis not but _ . Thisis dueto the followingresh(1), whichtypicallycauses whatwouldotherwise .. vowelsto be become_ ). (Theguttural JJ consonants , fl, andiJ havea similareffecton lel | . l vowels.) "payreverence n?? : "to serve," to")
n?q: "to send"

JJ']] : "to know" Notethatparticiples, whentheyareusedaspredicates, match subject the nounin gender number, NOT in their state. (Unless and but botharein the absolute state; normallythe subject in the emphatic/determined andthepredicative is state participle in the abolute is state.) Usuallyonly participles areusedas that matchanother adjectives nounin theirstate. Thus,
-)-)
" kingiswriting rl? *? ?B: "The king Nll? tt??D: "The writing . . ." Exercise 5b.
Translate Enslishsentences Aramaic: into these Themenof the landarewriting to (use)! for "to") theking.
The goodking is not perishingat the gate.
(:'iltl:$ Theking'ssonis requesting winefromhis father
).
The decree the kins is old. of
A son is sending a king the letter. to
Thewisesonknows.
34
Part2: Thereare a variety of other noun patternsin Aramaic that can easilybe learned. Many nouns are accentedon the first syllable, in contrastto the generalrule, but -l!O otherwisefollow the patternof FlQt and above.Thereare also somewith a middleyodh, which effectsonly their constructstate.
singular abs.:
const.:
strong root
middle-weak
tr l-tD (horn) )n (dream)

I T IT
nli nnl
(house) Jl{ (ev.)

tr ft
t"
l-]D
I i lf
tr)n
$n)n
| ),/
emph./det.: Nl-fP
ttfll @ay!a') ltll! ('aynd')

(Note the silent shewafollowed by a soft taw. The dipthonglayl is considered a vowel.)
plural abs.:
l |)tl) :r-
'trn fn
I
strong
*1r F=
I'T
middle-weak
I tl!t,!i !t
x(Note the different baseform; the is still , pronounced like a long l-a/,althoughit is in an unaccented, closedsyllable. )
const.:
t "
ll2 :r_
'n)n
N : D) N
t'tJ
i:r lt '' : tit tr !t

Y-: -
emph./det.: N:llP
\tt
s\' t'liJ
TT
Fq
Somefemininenounshavean absolute form like the word for kinsdom.:lf )b: singular abs.: const.: emph./det.: fem.
r:)D
malku' malkii\ malk[*ta
nl:rn
Nnr:rn
l:-
.i)
plural abs.:
const.: : emph./det
fem. ]]: )n
lll:)B N!]: )D
malkewan
malkewdt malkewata
of NB: The shewaunder the lamedhin this word indicatesthe absence a vowel, "sofl." How would you be able to predict that this though the kaph is pronounced of shewaindicatesthe absence a vowel and not a murmuredvowel?
Exercise 5c.
to of Fill out the chartbelow,according thepattern lllp
sing.abs. sing. cstr.
slng. emph./det.
pl. abs.
pl. cstr
:l-'l' ;'T_l "illumination"

: Frft'ln
pl emoh./det.
:"need"
nouns. Most are Youwill notice that,like:l:rE, thewordslistedabove abstract nouns. wordsthathavethis pattern abstract are This Theword:l-l';1!is interesting because, initialshort the vowelis notreduced. [n the is because followingi'T, virtuallydoubled. otherwords,although il is is the the not marked doubled a dot,it actsasif it wereandthis prevents short/a/ as by vowelfrom reducins.
36
Exercise 5d.
usuallyare Manyothernounpatterns foundwith "weak"roots,but these are of of analogous thepatterns the "strong"rootsor to thepattern theparticiple. to Based this assumption, yourknowledge Aramaicvowelreduction, and of on complete followingchart: the
sins.ab. srng.cstr. :ll-] ("greatness")
r f]:
sins.emoh. ol. abs. XXXXXX

not attested
ol. cstr XXXXXX

notattested
pl. emph.
XXXXXX
not attested
XXXXXX
not attested
XXXXXX
not attested
XX)O(XX
not attested
("request") : d. The
I I _l' ('-moon )
Nn-l'
l!C("scribe") -a. The :

l; l ('Judge") The : d. i:T?N("God") The,:a. The i''T part is ofthe root and is not replaced by l'1- in the cstr..etc.
Nil)n
lilJ ("priest")
The : a.
feminine Some nouns havea typicallyfeminine form in the singular, pattern but like a masculine nounin theplural:
singular abs.: const.: emph./det.:
fem.
n!n
rr!n
|qn bb
plural abs.: const.: emph./det..
fem. '?. bn
I
,\n
5e. Exercise
Completethe following chartbasedon the paradigmof il?F.
("year") i1),1/J
$Ftq(?)
Vocabulary
i-T : "God"m. ?N f. ilFN : "nation" f{fl$) : landf. lJltl- (intheemph./det.: tlJJl : "request" f. abs. N]l f! (intheemph./det.: , in theplural l'!!): f. nl]l) : "decree" ill]l (inthecnstr.: m. tr)n : "dream" n !n : "word"f.
T. '
"son" m.
l:)F : "kingdom"f. -lI? : "scribe"m' 'l'n! : "readY" : ;l?tD "yeaf'f. Participles: -lD$ : vowelis not..but - . Thisis dueto the to sayfNoticethatthe second be whatwouldotherwise .. vowelsto followingresh(\),which typicallycauses I consonants , lJ, andiJ havea similareffecton lel I I become_ ). (Theguttural vowels.)
38
"payreverence n ?? : "to serve," to")
n?P: "tosend"
9''lt : "to know"
39
Lesson The G PerfectVerb and F{ominalSuflixes 6: Part1. or that languages attest number verbalstems conjugations a of Most Semitic In therearethreebasicstems, different basicconcepts. Aramaic, communicate call namedeitherafterwhatthe Germans it. or afterthe form of the stemin the (3ms)perfect form of theroot hJ! , andlor after masculine singular third person, feature: its distinctive morphological (i.e.,Grundstamm) thePe'al( )!E) --- Thebasic to or stem(used TheG-stem and actions). express bothtransitive intransitive (i.e.,Doppelstamm) thePa"et thJp; --- Thestem for TheD-stem used factitive or "to meaning, verbs for of thatconvey causing a state: make the andfientive from those These notions be distinguished can broken","to makeexperienced." ("to makesomething break","to makesomeone thataremorepurelytransitive has into a state of brought experience"); D-stemimpliesthata subject been the (Factitive in refers verbs whichareintransitive theG-stem, transitive but being. to in in theD-stem; fientiverefersto verbsthataretransitive the G-stem well as as feature the doubling the middleroot is Its morphological of theD-stem). distinctive "Double-stem". nameof theroot means consonant, the German thus (hence is it is TheH-stem Haph'el(t!Eil) Thisstem associated causation with or feature its is Its morphological Stem). distinctive sometimes calledthe Causative prefixi1. with theD-stemsinceboth This stem, associated causation, be compared with can describes bringing the of While the D-stem describe transformation things. passive, H-stem into is the something a state, wherethatsomething essentially participating an action. in actively describes sornething that (pp.355-357) An to Syntax WaltkeandO'Connor's Introduction BiblicalHebrew various nuances the of offersan Englishexample helpsto distinguish that these Hebrew(andAramaic) verbalsystem. "Sarah fliesthe airplane" G-stem "Sarah, herself,] getstheairplane flown" D-stem [by "Sarah fly" makes airplane H-stem the it is semantic nuance, is Because with eachof these stems associated a particular of to based thebasicmeaning theroot andthe associations on of ofteneasy reason,
eachstem,what the meaningof a given root is in a given stem.It so happens, due to the limited natureof the preserved Aramaic,few roots appearin all three written -TlN: stems.But, e.g.,take the root associated with "perishing" In the G-stemit means"to perish" (an intransitiveverb). In the D-stemit means"to put somethinginto a stateof ruin". In the H-stem it means"to causesomething perish", i.e., "to destroy". to Verbs of movementare also easyto predict,like l'lJ'lJ"to go down" In the G-stemit means"to go down" (an intransitiveverb). In the D-stemit means"to bring into a stateof being lower". In the H-stemit means"to deposit"or "to cause something go down". to Thereare alsopassivestemsthat correspond thesethreebasic stems: to The Gp, G-passive. Pa'Tl or t)'Yl) The Dp, D-passive, Pu"at 1)t]E; or The Hp, H-passive, Huph'al ()^Uli'l) or Of these,the G-passiveis the most important,the most commonly used. ln addition,thereare threeprefix-t stems,eachcorresponding one of the three to activestetns, eachusuallyexpressing reflexivenotionor a passive a notion (This meansthat thereare technicallytwo ways to createa passiveverbal form, one throughthe passivestems[Pe'Tl,Pu"al, Huph'al], the otherthroughthe prefix-t stems.)
ThetG or Hithpe'el t)!En;r) ()!,Bnn) ThetD or Hithpa"al ThetH or Hithhaph'al )tlllni:T) 1* Aramaic any Of these, thetG andtD stems foundin Biblical only are with
frequency. (G, Eachof these stems D, H, Gp,Dp, Hp, tG, tD, [tH]), or conjugations, a has perfect form (expressing actions already finished) an imperfect completed, and form (expressing not actions yet completed), well asparticiples, imperatives, as The3msform is themostimportant andinfinitives.We learnfirst theperfect. sinceit is the form of the verb listedin the dictionaries.
,11
Thefollowingparadigm isolates distinctive features eachform of the the of perfect. - j t - t:J 3ms * rJ F (The forms of the 3fs and lcs perfect I i J-t : t J tl 3fs
rlF-f
given that their are somewhatcounter-intuitive, etymologicalform is * katabat and * katabtu. Basedon theseforms, we would expectthe first vowel tobe lal not h/.It is, in fact,la/ in roots E.g., that begin with a guttural consonant. n']:! "she made"and l'l]lE$ "she said", n'Tl! "I made",etc.)
2ms 2fs
t T' :r- J: i: - : r J i I ' l J i t J : r-r-il '_J t : t . : J t :-
F-Fq
/ FqFTi
n F,=o=/ =n!
:i'!
(The shewapreceding suffix in these the forms represents absence a vowel: the of katabta/ ketabt, ketabtlv.The final shewain i:ilil alsorepresents the absence a vowel.) of (The shewapreceding suffix in this the form represents absence a vowel: the of kitbet )
'i
lcs
I t-,$ tJ ..
rl rnl
3-p
rtn!
--ti-r r l-il tJ
rri F-F-
:l:i: i'J,lD!
frll
IDI I rtF
3fu
Zmp 2fp
l'['rJt lJ li'r-Jt rJ
F-
(The shewapreceding suffrx in these the forms represents absence a vowel: the of ketabtu*n,ketabten.) (The shewapreceding suffix in this the form represents absence a vowel: the of ketabnd.)
lF-f
l | l"' l
fn!
lcp
N;:n!
NJ, =O'
Addingthese suffixes the stemof the D- or H-stemallowsyou usuallyto predict to

the correctform. Thus,the 2fp suffix
fn:il : $lJn:i_l Grlote of that Or,thelcp suffixN) . + thebase theH-stem --lli--, it represents contain sequence the something slightly whilebothforms
+2
form indicates the that in Thedot in the taw in theD-stem different eachcase. jndicates is In only middleconsonant doubled. theH-stemform,the dot in the taw "hard". The aboveD-stemform would be transcribed that it is pronounced haktebna'.) kattebten, while theH-stemform wouldbe transcribed
Exercise 6a.
perfectandunderstanding the Understanding suffixes the attached the G-stem to basicprinciples vowelreduction, of allowsyou to predictoftenwhattheverbal formswill look like in theD- andH-stems. Fill outthechart Appendix needed. belowfor theverb3ll!; consult Answer the as
G-Perfect D-perfect H-oerfect
3ms 3fs
it
- i
tJ
tJ
I t.jt
2ms 2fs lcs
I'l-Jt - :rJ I t't)t t:-:::
-ttt
/-tFl
t2
Fl:Fl!
':-:
3mp 3fp
'lJt
-r:J
r:F!
;'1:l''i!
'i-
t':-
2mp 2fp
I t Frr
F-r
l'['rJt_rJ
lnlnl
Nlfn!
1cp
In some cases G-perfect the verbshavea short/i/ vowel,whereln: hasa short/a/ perfect theverbindicating vowel.So,e.g., G-3ms the of abilitylookslike this: )f' ("he wasable").Similarly,with theverbindicating sitting,lll' ("he sat").
43
Occasionally verbswill havelel ( ), instead hl, or lal. But, these verbs(like of nbU ) areotherwise in analogous theirparadigm )J' 3ndlll] . Verbslike F)U to evenhavethe same vowelin their3mpand3fo formsas )!' andJll'.
Exercise 6b.
Parse followingforms(indicating person, gender, the stem, number, root)and and fill in theblanks: :lP)O ("came up")
NlrJ?F("salted") ]lFn2W( _sent") ;rli?! ("inquired") ]nnlUil ("_ found") nfn] ("_ sat")
Part2'. pronouns indicate lnstead usingindpendent of possession in English"my", (as to "your", "her"),Aramaicuses suffixalpronouns. Because Aramaicdistinguishes masculine femininegenders between between and and singular pluralin the 2no and and3'dpersons, means you canhavea masculine this that noun(like "king") with a person pluralpossessive 2nd feminine pronoun ("your king"). In orderto disambiguate "your" in thetranslation includea parenthetical the I identification of "your(fo) king". (This,of course, gender number: and not does implythattheking is either feminine plural.) or Theaddition pronominal of suffixes nouns to followstherathersimpleprinciples illustrated far. If you know the suffixes theabsolute, so and construct, and emphatic/determined of the noun,you canusuallypredictthe form of the forms suffixednoun. Often,if confused, cantaketheemphatic/determined of the nounand one form (or subtract N , ending theN: - ending masculine the pluralnouns) then for and supplythe appropriate suffixto this form.
"thescribe" N]!Q +
l!?*
-+ '-JP? "my scribe"

"your letter"
"the letter" N?fl|i + FIJIN* -+ :JljllN
Thistechnique doesnot work for some nouns, in especially relation the2*p, to 2fp,3mp,and3fp suffixes (seethenote" beneath chart). the
Introductorv Lessonsin Arqmaic bv Eric D. Revmond
44
to the Note that for this andthe following charts, foofirotes the wordsin the first formsin the othercolumns. columnapplyto the analogous
ms noun -lnn
form const./emph.
ms noun
r rri lr lY(
-18? Nl!? rNlq, n:|l|3 / 1V?

t -'llo
?t 5ln ': .J+Y
fs noun i-T-lIN
fs noun
:l: )n
nrf?D
'n:l:?F
-tlt - h r r -r tlJ ,/t) It:-
lcs "my"
a
a
':ut
-rrrih
'F]-UN
/ NFl-llN
/ Nnl:tb
"you" :1, 2ms

2fs"you" 3ms"his" 3fs "her" 'J. ;':'l n
':-l !D
:?-tFln
ab
a c
.::U, N:U?
qrniLr r'l )VJ .)
'l)-v /
:JFTIN
.:FI-ITN
':n:l:)D
=tn :I - -h n t ) I , t ) /
i:TF-UN
i':Ti:]-1lN N:i:'l-llN
IT-IID N : ]l o E::lD
-1-1ElI t+ .,==
ac ab de
e
ITNI:,b
lcp "our"
$t -
N):U'
r-r-r*ih L)))VJ ,/
:l
tb |q:rrl:
E:NI:,0
r -rF1:t - hrr ) /t)
l4r.t
2mp "your" E!
E:n:uN
'i:nllN tri''rn:ilN 'iililiN
2fp"your" J:
3mp"their" Eil 3fp "theit'' ll
.r-trrtah
E;'1-1!D
]:l-lEnn tJv If I
ef
e
tltY /
rr- r;ri Lr t/t t)w ,/
ni'tnr:)n
r - rrr -r hlr l | t" :l t l ' t J / l )
r-rrrih Ir ltw ,t
oTheshewa this form is pronounced. in o Theaccent overthenext-to-last is syllable. ' Notethe dot in the frnalheh,whichdistinguishes 3fs pronoun from the the noun. marker the feminine of d Thesuffixcouldalsobe j:'The suffixof the 2mp"2fp,3mp, 3fo pronouns includes shewa and a that represents absence a vowelwhenthepreceding the of vowelis short(E:-1.??, vowelis long(tr:iT)*; ot E:n!b;, anda murmured vowelwhenthepreceding right beforeit of whenanother shewa represents absence a vowelcomes that the (E!!)0, n:!]t!). Whether not the shewa represents absence a vowel, of or the "soft". Thus,for "your or the followingkaphis alwaysspirantized pronounced for for we scribe" haveE:-lP? (sdpar(om), "your word" Efnln lrnlttatkom), "your God" E!i])n 1'ctattakom), "your king" we havetr:!)D (malke[om), for for "your land" D:!-lt! ('ar'd!om).Noticethatthebasicform of the nounbefore the2mp,2fo,3mp,and3fp suffix is usuallythe form of the nounin the construct -''l9?, n?0, il?N, though form of "your (2mp)king" is similarto the singular: the form sing.of "king" being emphatic/determined of the noun*?)n (theconst. not the 1 ?n) Similarly, form of "your (mp) silver"wouldbe Ef ED! (kaspekdm),
45
*83!Q! (*kesapkdm), "your (mp)book"wouldbe Ef-lED (siprekom), and and "your (mp) servant/slave" wouldbe E:-lf! ('abdekom). r Thesuffixcouldalsobe lh-
Exercise 6c.
Transliterate translatethe followinq forms: and
-Fi
l'li l'lYJ
T
ttt
:T? ?5t
tr:i?b
iT-tnn ..
:
N))D
t -lt
lnlni_r 'n''l'I
.-Fq-?i
,li ill
I rl:
l5
:
crnllllne
prurij
nOuns takethe salllg sutllxgs ur gsscrllra llv taKe tllc
the samewav.
fp noun
'illN
const./emph.form lcs "my" t
T:TT:
fp noun rr-r\n
rnt-hn
a I l-)
n:IN / $n:tN 'n-llN
/t)
"you" :1, 2ms

2fs "you"
3ms "hij'
:ifllR
':ri:lN
"t:'
-ttl. _tr t
Jt
tJ I t)
h>r
,/t)
':.
;':1
r-nr-
h>r
/t)
3fs "her"
;':1
;:Tn-llN ;:Tn-llN
"T:
-r-rr- h>r t'tt I t) /t-)

--rq t'lt ll) hrr ,/l)
lcp "our"
R; -
Nin-lrN
E:n-llN ab ac
$!F.l'tt \ l t - tI: t J
t
it\ , / t -- J
:
2mp"your" tr!
rr-nrlJJt
:
2fo"your" ]l ,
3mp"their" tril
'i:r-1llN a
Ei'ln-llN
lt)
t:
h>r
, / t )_
:
-
r -F\r - hrr
|
l J "t t t: ) /I t ) :
i
3fp'1heir"
'liT
'iiln?lN a
rr-nr-r t J lr>r rf
uf f
f i
/ t )i
uTheshewa this wordrepresentsmurmured vowel in vowel since preceding the a 'iggoratokOm. is long.8.g., oThesuffix couldalsobe jl'The suffixcouldalso 'i;1be
46
pluralnouns the Masculine but takeslightlydifferentsuffixes, in essentially same for way.A yodhappears partof eachsuffix,except in the 3mssuffix.Thisyodh as is pronounced in the 1cssuffix aspartof the dipthong only layl; it is not pronounced the otherforms.In an earlierstage Aramaicit waspronounced, in of from those used but now it simplyhelpsto graphically differentiate these suffixes 'al nouns lar fi on the sinzularand feminine plur mp noun mp noun
lr-'lhn I r':Y form const./emph.
lcs "my" ! r -1Eln
Tt -lEll-l .l r.JlJ
r . .tti\
a
a b a bc
.':U, / R::U, .':lD)

- .rt r r rt it hl l
)
2ms"you" :l', 2fs"you" n!'. 3ms"his" 'iT'l

3fs "her" irr
.l'lr -lEln
-
. . . : 't - v
r-rirrilr ) )uJ ./
r-i rrrih | ' |' l)VJ ./ t
.rr rlrih t'l )UJ .2
'niilo
;:l'-llo
N:'-]!O
acd
ab
abc
Icp "our"
N;'
$:':tDt
n-r.nih L)J t\Lt- ,/ ' "T
2mp"vour" E!'
E:'-l5D "
l-l.r-lEln t-v l|"":T
b b
2fp"your" l:'.
3mp"their" EiT'
a b
'r-r'rttil
I
l ) '-
/ut
E|'T':!Q "
'?:1r-lErn
j'.1 .,r+=
=-r rrrih Ltt I tVJ )

rrrrrrih Itl tW /
3fp"their' lil'
ab
o The shewain this form is pronounced. o Theyodh of the suffix is not prounced. 'The accentis over the next-to-last syllable. o Note the strange form of the 3ms pronoun. As might be obvious,feminine nounsthat follow a masculineparadigmin the ural, take the suffixa nounsas if the word were a masculinenoun fs noun fp noun
ilnN
form const./emph. lcs "my" 2ms"you" 2fs "you" 3ms"his" 3fs "her"
'l'bs
r]EN /NNNN
'nn$
'EN / $rnN nnN
1m|.\ ':naN
t " : 1 .
1'F|J
':'nN
;:l'bN
;.:TNEN
":r.
'il''lnN
;.:TNEN
47
lcp "our" 2mp "your"
$)NEN
N:'6N
E:'bN
E:NEN
i -..
2fo"your"
3mp"their"
.I:NEN
ENNEN
: - 4 .
.i:'EN
E;'T'EN
3ft "their"
'lnnD|3
u Because memin thisword is doubled indicated (as the by the dot),the shewa mustrepresent murrnured a vowel.
lil'n$
Exercise 6d.
Consider followingexamples thenwrite thewordsbeneath the and in these Aramaic:
n l s s l a v e( r ' l. l : ! )
Ilef SOll (. r'l -iii ) :.
t ,---. i /--b al\
(NJ'lbD) ourkings kingdom nl: )n) their G;f hiswords ii !n; f ('FI-UN) rnyletter your(masc. ( sing.) nation lplt
-| ' rrtLrrr
y o u r ( r e m .p r . )c n m e s( l J i i ) 1 - t _ ) ) .
l. my slaves (remember unpredictable 2. oursons pluralto thisword) the (fem sing.) 3.your king 4. their(masc.) kingdoms 5. herword 6. your(masc. letter sing.) 7. our nations (remember unpredictable plural) the 8. my crimes 9. his illumination 10.their(fem) greatness I l. your(fem pl.)judges 12.hisneeds
48
Part3: Syntax 'J. of In Aramaic, canexpress genetive relationship one a between wordsthrough two theconstruct state, already In as discussed above. addition, canexpress one a genetive "of relationship through particle,']1,whichmightbe translated in the the "the followingcases. Thus, expression sonof theking" mightbe expressed the with either
or
Nl?D '-T NJJ theparticle'T.

versionof this second an Quite often in Aramaic one encounters expanded possessive in construction, which the first word hasa 3'operson suffix on it, in agreeing numberand gender with the word that follows the':T. This seems redundant the English reader,but makesgood Aramaic. This allows a third way to "the sonof the king": the to express samephrase
N?rD'J i"l-'ll
-ll Here,the 3mssuffix on in agrees number gender and with theword "king". Notethatalthough moreliteraltranslation "his sonof the king"',this is not is the idiomaticin Englishandsothis Aramaicconstruction neverbe translated should yourtranslation be thisway.Rather, should always in idiomatic, comprehensible English. the expression: Consider pluralformsof the same
N? ';l )D
a. "the sons/children thekins": of
N??B tt1:l ":T

'l'l']:: N!)n "':T
, .< t:-i
49
of b. "the sons/children thekinqs"

N : - .l 7 n_ t :. -= l\ r :
$'.:)D .T N1!t
E;'J':J N:f 7n "':T
T-: " :
c. "the sonof thekings"
N:,])E :! Ni! )E "':l NJ:

Nil)n 'T Ei'T-lf (?) (Thisform of sonis unattested, herebased the but on form in Syriac. bZrhon.) analogous
pronoun, Theparticle'J (andits alternate form T ) alsofunctions a relative as "whorn","which","that","that into translated English either "who","whose", as which","where", E.g.,notethefollowingusages from depending thecontext. on 2.11. thesingle verse Daniel of
.'r nl'i?: )Nqil??D |qftb 'f'$ N?'i?[$1 N?)F Eli?;rllril'-T .'i'rin'N n;wf EtJ 'iiilrJD 'i'i'T?s 'in? '-T *f
"The matter(lit. "word") that the king requests hard. (is) Another thereis not who canexplain it beforethe king, exceptgodswhosedwellings are not amongmortals." The English word "whose" usuallydenotesa possessive genetiverelationship. or Notice that in Aramaicsucha relationship indicated is by'-'[ + noun+ possessive
'i''l;'l + -l]lD +'J. suffix: ,

FFri-,t
phrases In addition,'J canbe usedasa conjunction connect to together, especially like afterverbsof knowing,saying, perception, English"that" in "I knowthat or you a.re buyingtime," or "I saidthatI wouldfind it," theformerof which is a fromDaniel2:8: directquotation
50
'i'lli]lFlls NIT! 'T ;1J$ IJ'll

"I know that you are buying time." The extremelyversatileparticle'J can also indicatedirect speech, especiallywhen it follows a verb for speaking. thesecases is not translated. In it Because can also it mean"that" after verbs of speaking, thereis sometimes ambiguity as to whether the particle is indicatingdirect or indirect speech.
Exercise 6e.
Write in Aramaicthe following phrases usingthe third mannerof expressing the genetivewith the suffixed pronoun. l. the decrees the kings of 2. the servants/slaves the nation of 3. the scribesof the land 4. theneeds the children of 5. the crimesof thoseservingGod 6. the request the one sending letter of the 7. Thejudges.ofthe nationmadean imageof the old king. They saidto their children(use )IJ for "to"): "We are writing in our language (for "in" usel; for "language"usethe word for "tongue").
Exercise 6f.
Translate following passage the from F,zra5:l I -l 2, vocalizingthe two unpointed forms. For words you do not know, usethe vocabularylist that follows the passage.
Np-[s] N:.D|D ;=t!*-'r'il1']]JJ *jnl* inl 'tTi-t;] N!.EID N?nT?ts '-T-'iD ;T?N lil?
N:lu: )ll-1?D -tsl''tf:Elrl! ]E;]ti_t'
.tl .
5t
Vocabulary: Nouns. --ll! : "father"(Pl with lcp suffix:Nllil?t! : "our fathers" seethenextlesson for this word andits strange forms.)m.
:'Judge" m. li'l 'tbi:t
-l] : "hand" f. 'JiD! : "Chaldaean" --(emph./det.: N]]tD! : "theChaldaean") see next the lesson theformsof gentilic for nouns. : "slave"or "servant" ll! (emph.ldet.: ltlll!), m. (emph.ldet.. j:FUJ: "heavens" N:,EU) m. perfectform): Verbs(Verbsarealwayslistedin theirG-3ms : "to give" :i_l: )ll : "to be able" ln] : "to sit" up" P)B : "to come "to TJJ: In H-stem: anger"
t
: the3mpindependent "they". pronoun Thisformis peculiar thebookof to Ena.elsewhere it is l:l!t{ andtinn
Particles :"bllt","excePt" ]il? tT-]n : "because"
52
Lesson7: Imoerfect. Participles, Prepositions Part 1: The imperfect form of the verb indicatesactionsnot yet complete,and so can often modal nuances, be translated with the English presentor future. It also expresses in which are communicated English throughcomplementary verbs"should", "would", "could", etc. Its form is characterized a combinationof prefixesand suffixes(in contrastto by perfect's exclusiveuse of suffixes).Again, predictingthe correctforms of the the verb in the variousstemsis easyif you know the root, the themevowel, and the seriesof prefixes/suffixes eachperson/number/gender. for The themevowel is the vowel that appears the last syllableof the 3ms imperfect in form. For the D- and H-stems,every root hasthe samethemevowel lel ( ..), unless it has a guttural(N, ;1, n, IJ) as a third-consonant a resh),in which casethe /e/ (or ( ) shiftsto lal ( _) in accordance with the phonological rulesof Aramaic(seethe -lnN abovenoteto [Les. 5, part I ]). In the G-stem, themevowel is lesspredictable. most commonis the short the The /u/ vowel. This is found with rootslike lif ("to write"). Otherrootshavea short lal,llke the root connected speaking(lDN), or the root that indicatesdressing to $Jlr), or the root indicatingwieldingpower (E)U). lJsually,rootswith a perfect like E)tp *ith lel ( ) as the secondvowel, have imperfectswith an lal theme vowel. Considering following paradigms, the whereverlllJ has a /u/, theseverbs takelal. They are otherwisecompletelyanalogous lllf . A very few roots havea theme to 'ill) vowel of lel( ), rootstitce)5: ("to fall") and ("to give"), which will be later. discussed
53
isolates distinctive of Thefollowingparadigm the suffixes prefixes eachform and of the imperfect. 3ms 3fs 2ms 2fs lcs 3mp
-tF-t.i
Jl ,J ri
JI'IJ Jt'tJt'l
:N:
-jt'iJt'l rt|t-\F-F I Jl'rJr'l
=n? F
rrt JtiJ
I ,"\
i.l
tn:$
\.i':
.r\qF-.t t:: .r-Fq! lr::'
l'r-,li'rJ
11
I
lFl! r
3fu
2^p 2fp
lcp
IJr'rJ
1
lv rirl
:n:r
-r r_j F
r . 'i r t Ft-'F J t ' r -J r t:: |' rr F-rF I Jl'l-Jl'l lr::
l'r
rt JtlJ
'r.l
l.l
F
I ' lFl r
1 . : '
54
7a. Exercise
imperfect and attached theG-stem to the and Understanding prefixes suffixes allowsyou to predictwhat of the understanding basicprinciples vowelreduction, theverbalformswill look like in theD- andH-stems. Appendix as the Fill out the followingchartfor the verbl[1], consulting Answers needed.
G-imperfect D-imperfect H-imperfect Alternative form of the Hstemwith no iJ
3ms 3fs
'' : _ :
2ms 2fs lcs
ttt--h
I Jl'lJl'l
rttF-F l-ll,l-Jl'l
]F]:N
. , : f
]F]:N
lFl:ir$
' _ : - - i
3mp 3fp
l1:ntl
tr;:
tt-Ft!t
l'l-rl'lJt
tlqFrrF
2mp zfp
lcp
i'rJi'rJi'l r ]Ji'rJy
Notethe alternative formsof theH-stem(Haphel), calledthe A-stem(or, Aphel), prefrx. heh sinceit lacksthedistinctive TheA-stemoccurs in sporadically Biblical Aramaicandeventually supplants olderH-stemin laterdialects Aramaic. the of
Exercise 7b.
Parsethe following forms, describingstem,person,gender,number,and root.
parsings. two lnln Thishas possible
j':nlrl
[ntroductory Lessonsin Arqmaic by Eric D. Reymond
5s
rrlhnn
'ltnl'
| /
/t-t,
ui)n: ": -:
NlUN
lr-i-:
Part2'. The forms of the D- and H-participlesare easyto learn,basedon your familiarity with the patternsof the perfectand imperfectverb forms. They are distinct from because they both havea memprefix. the G-participle, As with the G-participles, D and H-participlescan be usedas nounsor as the predicates. Their mostcommonforms are qivenbelow: D-stem H-stem (Haphel)and A-stem (Aphel)
ms
f s. m.p f.p.
.
lFrfn
illFfn T':Fllb ]lF:n
lT: -:
:n:iln
;l:i:]:;ln l':Fl:ilD ]lnfnn
lT: : -:
lF:E
nlli:E l'lFfD l:F:n
lr; : -
Part3: prepositions takesuffixed pronouns. Like nouns, can Theirparadigrn entirely is predictable:
Exercise 7c.
In the followingchart,theprepositions and! arelike ) in theirform.The ! prepositions andEIJ aresimilarto eachotherin thattheybothactually havea lD 'imm), something is only indicated radical(i.e.,minnand in doubled second that )9theorthography a dot whena suffix followsthem.Theprepositions and by pluralnouns. EIP bothtakesuffixes if theyweremasculine as
56
Fill out theblanksin the followinschart.
lcs
,?
1,
It
':1
=1
1n
'r.1 l'\
F t,t
lr lt
4
t) -
tl.,
'
tl,/
JY:
2ms 2fs 3ms 3fs

lcp
:l2j\l n 't 'l' f
t:.' )lJ
n,
r - |i tA - | )
'
tl)
t lt:
e2
N))
t-
:'?llt
N)tn
2mp Zfp 3mp 3fp
E:,
l+(
E:'r9
Eil)
F-htt
i
tir)
t":
)/
Part 4. A final few nominal patternscan be studied,as they are occasionally found in Aramaic texts. Thereare many nounsthat have a prefixed memor taw at their beginning.Nouns -lJp "to like "l!JJB "work" are formed from the basicroot do" or "make."
lJUn "bed"froml:U G: "to lie" andnl'lp ("altar")from nlT G : Similarly, "to sacrifice". same pattern with the taw-prefixed The fits wordslike i'T[i]Ui "praise, glory"from n:U D : "to praise." patterns exist: Other,moreconfusing also singular Nouns thatendin
etymological y
(ending Ay) gentilics in

(These usually are names ethnic, of
liTll"1;ltT[il",H,il":,0,;
lud.un or Jew.)
abs.: const.:
NQ-l? (throne) ;1:-ll3(lion) (, : lol) il:-f$ NQ-l?(?) N]:-llt (?)
':ltl;J' 'Jl;'l] N"'T:l;'l'
emph /det.: N]Dl?
plural abs.:
]]D-l!
I T T : T
T']'-]N
I TT : -
]"J:l;J'/]'N-l:lil'
| r : | ' ?
const.:
nlpl!
nll-]lt
':ltli'l: / 'N:f:li'].l
N'J:li'T'
.'Tt
N[r]?l? emph./det.:
Nfll-lls
Notein relationto the gentilicnouns findsformsin whichthe thatoneoccasionally 'i'NJ:l;l' 'aleph. yodhhasbeen original replaced an by for]".]ilIil] *d'NJ:li'l'
IOf
n ttat-t
l'lt l .
58
7d. Exercise
Fill out the chartbelow, accordingto the patternof
abs. sing.
r:'f
tit
']l:li'T'
pl. cstr. pl. emoh./det.
sing.cstr. sing.
emoh./det.
pl. abs.
("Babvlonian"
r.:?Dt:
(Chaldaean")
Thereare, of course,many more peculiarnouns,but thesemust be learned individually. Especiallyimportantare the forms of fatherand brother,both of which are attested only with suffixes,making their other forms a matterof conjecture. Considerthe suffixed forms. singular
'lt3
Jr:x .':l:$
'i]:llt_\ ilrl|l N::I]N E::I]N 'l::llN
t"
Ei']:llN
jilrr$
plural
'nF?|-\
:Tnill$
ITTT-i
't_'I|s (?)
:j'F$ $his is theonly formattested BA.) in
etc.
For ending. "brother", For theword "father"notethatthepluralhasa feminine notethatthe fl in thepluralform is virtuallydoubled.
59
Exercise 7e.
Translate following passage from Ezra 4.14-15,vocalizingthe six forms the without vowels.For words you do not know. usethe vocabularylist that follows the passage.
N:n7n N7f';'t n7n

t : :
-"':T ?lD-?l ]JJ!

' "lr: r | :
NInF) l'-'XN?N?In *;? n::rp1 *r)n) *:piintN:n)u il:r-rIJ

]nill$ 'T N',:]:J--tlD3 -'lPl' 'T
-lf ':l--llo= nlu*iln']
ijl: n''l N::
j':)F npTl;tnl ill-lD ill-li?1l Nflri? "':T

I : ' T T T T :' I
Noticethatin line 4, the initial verbis 3msin form andrefersto thePersian king, whilethefollowingverbs 2msforms,alsoreferring thePersian are to king.The initial useof the 3msis perhaps of deference theking's superior out to status. Vocabulary: Nouns: : "record" (do[rdn)(pl. emph./det.: Nt!'l:T) rn jl:l l?'it : "palace" (sing. emph./det.: Nf!'il; m n ?n : "salt"(sing. Nll emph./det.: )F) rn ir]:! : "dishonor" (sing. n]:W) f cstr.:
: ;11-lP "city" f.
Adjectives: -jt-tl-t : o'propf" 'T-ln : "rebellious"
Introductorv Lessonsin Arqmaic bv Eric D. Revmond
60
Verbs: fP! : D-stem seek" "to "to ;1i[1: G-stem see"(G-inf.:il]lJF) "to (G-impf.9fl]) , JJ]] : G-stem know","to understand" "to H-stem makeknown"(H-perf.D-]'1;1 ) : G-stem salt"i.e.,to donate or to eatsalt. "to n ?n salt, : "to Pj! G-stem. suffer" "to H-stem: injure" nlU : H-stem find" "to Particles/Adverbs: that a vowelis prefixed I : "in" --- Notethatwhena shewa representsmurmured to a word thatbegins with a murmured vowel,the first munnured vowelbecomes -flD + - -'llD3* ---'-l!Of short andthesecond lil, becomes silent: - : : _ : : J (bispar).
)=P-)1 : "corresponding to" "-ThP- )3 : "because" l!! : "now"
L- -- L-
Note the three setsof "near" demonstrative pronouns,all identicalin meaning ("this"/"these").
Sing.("this") Plural ("these")
FirstSet
masc. fem. SecondSet masc. fem.
;1)?
i'l?N and)N) l'?N (and
N?
T',N
:T :1 :.il
'l:1?
l+ .l
1?||
1?N
Third Set masc.

fem.
?-l?
XXXXX XXXXX
6l
("that"/ "those"), thoughonly the Thereis only onesetof "far" demonstratives masculine formsareattested:
Sins. ("that") masc. *fem. Plural ("those")
N:IiT $'lJ*
T1,]N
T'IN*
Introductorv Lessonsin Aramaic bv Eric D. Revmond
62
Lesson8: Imperative. Infinitive. and Numerals Part l: have imperatives, All the stemsand conjugations whosefunction is largely is, functionin our language,that commands. analogous the imperative's to forms of the The forms of the imperatives usually are basedon the 2nd-person imperfectverb. Essentially, they are shortened versionsof theseforms; the prefixes Thus, from the G-2fs imperfectform'i'lFlF and suffixesa.re usuallytruncated. we get the G-f.s.imperative'.:{t! . The taw prefrxhasbeeneliminated andthe ftnal nun has alsobeeneliminated.Furthermore, falls on the because stress the secondsyllable,the original lulvowel hasbeenpreserved.
G-stem
m.s. f.s.
m.p.
_1' _
D-stem
-jt'iJ -Jt'tJ
H-stem(Haphel) (Aphel) and
:1]!
'1il!
-' r i--l . . r J l
rrir
lrifi_] / :Fifts
--i-,rrJr11
J" ':l - " : - l i l Jr
Jl'lJSt
rrF!
--t'T'-
llFt:i_] / llt-tft!
--ri-tl-t'tJt
t':-T':
I . D... : rt
r lJl tJ
I tJt'tJ
r --ill,t-r'tlN
Noticethattheffi.S., m.p.,andf.p. imperatives theD- andFVA-stems in are perfect identical therespective formsof theD- andH/A-sterns. to Part2. All the stems conjugations haveinfinitiveswhichfunctionin a manner and also infinitives. similar English to Theirformsareslightlydifferent. the G-stem, infinitiveshavea memprefix, In the while in the otherstems theydo not.
tn:n
G-stem
D-stem
I l-ji'iJ
tl-
H-stem A-stem /
--=-I
tJl tJt rT;-Tt:r ./
, l| ?l 'Jlli ? - l r a
tJt\
Notice,now,thatthe G-stem the only stemthathasamemprefixon the is infinitive.Contrast to theway participles formedin eachof these this are stems, wheretheD- andFVA-stems theonesthatcarrya memprefix.Thus,if a verbal are form hasa memprefix it is eithera G-stem infinitiveor a D-, IVA-stemparticiple.
63
Part3: Numbers Numbers l-10 Cardinal

I
'Tt_]
nouns Usedwith masc.
Usedwith fem.nouns
il-ln
2
a J
J'-lF / csh. 'lFl

-n h| l| | ./t'l
n)n
ninn L/l)t
-tlt
4 5 6 8 9
nJJi:N
-lti>rn
I mJt-Jl I
tJf -iN
I
-tlt
I [ ' tt' v J
I rlLr Of i illJ
- rr-rri
-'r'tl'\El
| | ,Jl-Jt I
rr- rri
-t
-r
I l/
l-Jl
" f
hh
;
t |)JUJ|'I
-t it.r tt
T: -
lcrli-
)JUJt'l
tttt!F
-rilt rr 10 I I lvit/ Onecuriosity thatAramaicshares with otherSemiticlanguages thatthenumbers is 3-10thataremasculine in.fornr modifyfeminine nouns numbers are and that "seven feminine in.form,modifymasculine nouns. Thus,to express kings"one wouldwrite:j'!?F illftD or illliD j':?F (thenumeral comeeither can before "seven queens" wouldwrite: or afterthe nounit modifies). But, to express one or the numbers like adjectives, are in ]?)n JJltlJ IJIU'i?)8. Although cardinal thattheymodifynouns, theydo not occurin the emphatic/determined and state rarelyappear the construct in only state before noun. the
q
The"teens"do not occurin BiblicalAramaic, we mayconjecture following but the forms, together with themultiples ten,whichhaveonlya single of form for both masculine feminine nouns. and ll-70 Cardinal Numbers
Usedwith masc.nouns 1l
-itt
Used with fem. nouns

--fftll
":T
twv
- - i
ta
--
il|
D I
IItYJllt|ill
Fr-Ft
l2 13 20 23 (literally,20 3) and 30 40 50 60
-tfttlt
IYJ)/
r-tn
-h-
-rilrrr
tui)J t [ | ,/t'l
- i :
--rirrr - htt tuJ)/ tt./t'l

i|!-fntt
.tY1 | | ./\ r'r I

- hnr rr-rilrrt
tuJ)J
rr- hn I | | ,/l'l
'l'llllt
'?I llllt Ft
ttFritt
I l:lv
61
64
70 80 90 100 200 277o00 and70and7) 300 1000
rri tttitt
-l$'l JJf
I 1+uJ
| |
t r Firi I l'l\4J
t r r//r\Jn )
'r r ttitiFf
| )/vJi'l
nNn
'itiND
'l'nNn (This form.) is a dual
n$bn)n
1?r\
To express what corresponds English "first", "second","third", "fourth", "fifth", to In etc.,oneusesordinalnumbers. Aramaicthesehavethe "gentilic ending"l-ayl, exceptthe word for "second".Like for the cardinalnumbers,thereare different forms for masculineand feminine nouns.Usually theseappearafter the noun they Also like adjectives, ordinal numbersappear modifir, like ordinary adjectives. the Furthermore, otheradjectives, like in an absolute and emphatic/determined state. thesecan be usedaloneas nounsand can appearin plural forms, to mean"the first ones","the secondones",etc. (Due to the lack of evidence,many of theseforms are educated euesses.)
I OrdinalNumbers -5
Usedwith masc.nouns I
with fem.nouns Used
2
J
a
'n')F / N'n')Fl or N'ri')Fl
5 yodhof the form Noticethatlike gentilicnouns, therearecases wherethe original 'aleph. hasbeen replaced by
Exercise 8a.
(Remember the shorter form of of the Write in Aramaic followingphrases. the that numbers 3-10modifies masculine nouns, longerform modifiesfeminine the nouns). onebook two lettersfrom two kings from four scribes threerecords
65
five yearsin six countries (i.e.,lands) palaces eightkingdoms seven for these nineslaves tencities for elevenmenfrom twelvenations thirteen houses the first son the first kingdom the second city thethird man the fourth animal
Exercise 8b.
Read followingaugmented the version Daniel7.1-7.(Thetextis augmented of in several It includes parentheses ways. in wordsthatarenot in the originalbiblical manuscripts, whichhelpmakesense theAramaic. but of Some confusing words havebeeneliminated, whichareindicated with ellipses. Furthermore, graphic inconsistencies the representation corrected.) in are Consult glossary the end the at of the lessons wordsyou do not know.Thereyou will find verbslistedunder for perfect theG-3rns formandadjectives listedin thern.s. abs.state.
Nnr')-np .'lTn! n''];'T -lbNt )*t::t |'T:IJ ;'TTn

,l t: ':
2.
rttr\J
srr.\ rrrrrD NrnU rn:l-) JJi-lN l-lp1 ,1 _r r\rJ_,/ , I _ : lt,r i _
'-_:
..
.'.
.'T
3.
Nl-jnNJj'iq NF:lnjp)q l?rt-t jl'n rrt-'tr!'!

4
-lql-'-T 'i'lJ] ill-lts: NflFfP ;-T?

:llf'-JF-'--T n'l;] ;''lT[ "lll ;-T'EJ
i':T7 l.;J. lD:N l-t:l , , ,,,4 r,'j-.u lf ?ll-)p1 s{-rq-'in n!'irll = nn.-;-t -1,\,J t4,,:
|.
66
lr) illFl illllri .'-:R$ r-r$l nJ'n

:.:itiY J tt= l t't 7 | ;
')lt-\ 'D'lP;-T? N'llL_'-lql l'-rD$jll -ln:! '-lnN :l-lNlri'''li'li''lTn :nN: n::T

-:' 'Ti T -i"_i "T T: -
:?tj,tEr: ri )f'lltt/ I'lt)=J ,t ,/) !
| l,/t
-tn:
l-t t ll)
Ftrt.i:l/l
-n--rai:,.\r rll ILJYJ
6.
:r=:t-f ,,
=4
/ -t : n i f r - i ? l,:lr:r;
ll
l : l I Jl J- I r-D| !] . F i
n) :'nf iF)q1 Nf1'i1) ;rgt-tr3l i'ulr-t

1
]'51
:tht iT
zr
-tnNl N.').') .'ttnl n'']i'lnTn;l):T-lrt I n'li't

N-'l'i:l'N!'irnl ':nb'N] il)'nl
t, | ' : ' T : " : r : "-i "t Y i T
ilDTnl i't):* 'll-ll-t a) h-E-'-.1'l'iul

: t T :
;'T'IJ':-]i'Tl'nl:N'l
' T '.
N!J.'n-r?-'in x'irl i1?5:;-r'?ilrN?$rDt nllqn

'i':-lD'] ;':T -lUiJ ) ;:T'nlD':1 Consider followr*' the
In thefirst line of ,r"rrl I , the lastword,ilT,[, is theG-3msperfectfrom theroot ilTfl ("to see") is franslated saw." "he and In thesecond of verse , thelastword,fiT!)[i-]l), is a D-3mpimperfect, line 1 from theroot )n'l 1"tofrighten").Thefinal letteris a pronoun suffix,indicating the "him", referring Daniel. objectof the verb;hereit is a 3mspronoun, to In thefirst line of verse thepredicate madeup of a participle [) anda G2, is fif 1csperfect "I form of "to be" (f'l'liT),resulting thetranslation saw"or, "I was in watching." This combination participle plusa perfect of form of "to be" is rather in common this passage indicates continuous and a actionin thepast. In the second of verse notethe vowelunderthewaw conjunction. line 2, In the first line of verse therearetwo clauses, 4, bothlacka verbalpredicate. The predicate in eachcase, prepositional is, phrase. a jlE'-lD is a In thesecond of verse theverb line 4, passive perfect,3mp. G-stem In thethird line of verse the verbn?'Pl is a G-stem 4, passive perfect, while 3fs, passive theverbf i:T]is a G-stem perfect, 3ms.Thenounlf ?ll is "dual" in form. In otherwords,it is not a singular noun,nor a plural,but indicates something that appears a pair.This form is usedwith several as pairs. nouns thatcomein Originallyeverynounwould havehada dualform, thoughthis wasno longerthe
()/
,T
'
.-
case thetime the Book of Danielwaswriffen.Only certain by nouns a dual had form,mostlybodyparts. In thethird line of verse5, thepluralform of the activeparticiple j'lF$ is here usedin an impersonal way, andtranslated if it werea passive as verb:"It wastold . . ." Thisis a relatively feature BiblicalAramaicsyntax. common of Whenyou find a m.p.participle a 3mpperfect imperfect or or verbwith no clearsubject, thenyou cutn assume impersonal an subject, translate verbasa passive English. and the in Often,in these cases, is the grammatical whatever objectof the verbin Biblical Aramaic will become subject yourtranslation. the in In thefifth lineof verse 7,thewordfor "horns," i'.ili?, is in thedual. Verbs: "to nl: : H-stem stirup" (H-part., n['ln ) f.s., : "to "to H-stem crush"(H-part. ?P1 G-stem: be shattered", Pfi]n) i]]iT : "to be" ("I was": n.'.!.iJ) i''li[i : "to see" Notehow a participle used is together with a perfect forrnof the;11i1 "to "to EtlP: G-stem arise",H-stem setup," "to install",Hp-stem be setup" "to
(tr'PiJ)
Particles: "belonging to" | - "to",but alsoownershop,
68
9: Lesson Passive Reflexive and Constructions Part1: passive perfect participle (but no Eachof the stems a corresponding has and imperfect, infinitiveforms). imperative, or
Exercise 9a.
Fill out the followingchartfor the verbfl]!,
Answer ix as needed.
Perfect G-oass. D-nass. Perf H-oass.Perfect
in consulting paradigms the the
3ms 3fs
lFr!
:ri:n / tFl:i]
2ms 2fs 1cs
I'tJllJ/l'tJltJ t:t2 rrr-r,rrit't-J I t;J 't:
-tiEt
/ FqlFq l
i't-Jt'l;J
il"n!
:l:tn! ill'n:
3mp 3fp
l:n?
t l 't l F ll t
- : 1 . - i 7
lJr I /'l)\'l)t
/ tt-ll
2mp zfp
! l frr- r.J :). r-J i 'rn I

I F-r|t
l r ' r - JI
Frr
rJ
lcp
N;l'n!
Notethatthe second vowelof theD- andH-stems not thelel like in the active is form,but a shortlal. Thispattern alsofoundin thepassive is participles:
69
part. G-passive
lll : J
part. D-passive
-tEl-n
J, tJt)
part.andA-pass. part. H-passive

qn--Zi
-t tJt tt) Jl
- r , = ' : lt J
a
- | ? - tr.Jl i - J
t.s. m.p.
i'j?'n! l'l'n!
;r?iifn ]'lFfn
n?i:i:iln l.'lF;ilF
il?Flfp 'i'ln:D
fp
l?'n:
l?n:n
l?F:iln
l?iun
It should obvious these be formsproduce manyambiguities. example, that For the participle identical theG-3fppassive perfect. is G-f.s.passive to Similarly, f.s., the participles theD- andH-stems identical formto m.p.,andf.p.,passive in in are theiractivecounterparts. context distinguish forms. Only can these Now, noticesomeof the salient characteristics thepassive formsin relation of to theiractivecounterparts. Whilethe G- activeperfect an a-vowelafterthe has ( li! ), the G-passive root-consonant perfect participle second and havean i(specifically long-rvowel). vowelafterthesecond root-consonant a Just the pattern observed is opposite between D-, FVA-active the formsandthe D-, FVApassive forms.Thus,while the D- andH/A-active perfect imperfect havean eand (:li!, :i=il] andlFlfi_l, lnf'_.1:),theD-, vowelafterthesecond root-consonant perfect participles H/A-passive and havean a-vowel. always Part2. Eachof the stems a corresponding has reflexivestem, which,asits namesuggests, reflexivity,or sometimes canconnote habitual, repeated More often, action. passivity. however, represents it Thus, is yet another to represent passivity this way in Aramaic. ThetG or Hithpe'et1)llnn; ThetD or Hithpa"al()!Ellll) ThetH or Hithhaph'al )tJlilri;'t) 1x However,only the tG andtD stems attested BA andtherefore are for merit our attention. These reflexivestems characterized theirhi1-(or, in the imperfect, are yi1-,ti1-, by 'it-, nit-)prefixes. Thestems haveperfect, imperfect, participle, infinitiveforms, imperative, and not though all of these attested BiblicalAramaic. in are
70
Exercise 9b.
left Fill out the spaces blankin the followingchartandanswer following the uestr ons.
tG-Perfect tD-Perfect tG-Imnerfect tD-Imoerfect
3ms 3fs
.Jt
tiJ) '. : :il
-Jl'liJl
FqF-IFF
ll ,
Jt " ttJt I I
r l ' l i l l- l -
i tJt
FqFqF+
t;Jt tr i
i t-Jt'tJt tr I
2ms 2fs lcs
Ft:n!ni']
r--ti--r i ' ' - J i: t ; J t l r I t: :
- l h t F q
l'lJl'l;Jl
lr I
I l-Jl lJl
htFtFt
lr I
3mp 3fp
'rl- ii- n r J lJl

-qriqn-
lr I
r l-,li tJl lr i
2mp zfp
lcp
ItFrrF-rF-t
l'ly
r - r . . r J r .r r. i
lJl li I
IF-EqF!
1i'lJi
\strrF-Ft\,J-Jt tiJt
f i ' i i
lt I
l. Whatarethedistinctions thevowelpatterns in between tG-perfect those the and of the G-perfect? 2.In an unvocalized how manydifferentformscouldn:nf,nil represent? text, Whatarethey? 3. Thereareno tG- or tD-imperatives Biblical Aramaic. in But, giventhe imperfect formsyou'vewrittendownin the above chart,whatwouldthe imperative formsof thetG andtD look like, if theydid occur? 4. There tG- or tD- participles BiblicalAramaic. the masc. in are If sing.formsare, respectively:i!nD andlFiJl'iB, whatdo theotherformslook like? paradigm foundwith rootsthathavea Onewrinkle to this ratherstraightforward is (D, sibilantasa first-consonant T,B, lD,tD). the frst consonant a D, T,D, or U If is the sibilantandtheprefix Il switchplaces: ):ntUR is them.s.tD-participle from
7l
J=tA("to consider"). the first root consonant a 3, thenthe consonants If is switch places, thef-lbecomes Ll : 9]ts$i] is them.s.tD-participle but a from 9:g ("to be wet").
Exercise 9c.
Translate slightly simplifiedversionof Daniel 7:8-10: this 8.
I
ilJ'IJi.'--l[$ l)*: *'.1-rp3 )tnun ri'']ir l;f i'i rr12)c ]-rp
n'DJi?-ln irJl?lni:T Nll?rizNitrp-ln n?nr .ll!t $plt\ l;1::l )\aa tr!:lNJ-Nlrpt l.I! r)*
9
rar r r. t.. i.
t-
-lF!! nuN-t-ltjul -llrl t?n: ;'lu:) NP-i -'t':l: ';ri)l)l -lt .-T l)l l'l':tD i':T:D-r?
| | : lTr :T
Jf
' :l
llJl
l ) r ' l )'J - : I .
l{J
'
llllJ
lJ
'l
i.
-..
l)/illt
. . - iI
lllll .'r
-T)j-lr:-'1 -1[i 'iliDJP-IF PEjl .'ilin:rp

:ln..E: rrr.rI l=Yl.
l0
iI!:lubrp: 1)* lrnrp''i.-lrr.)l jl:-: rr-:1 I'E)r!

lri. N:.-.J
Consider following: the In thefirst line to verse8, noticethatthe feminine word "horn" (jlP) is modified by two feminine adjectives. In thesecond to verse notice two distinct, similar, line 8, the but words: the adjective/cardinal number'F''liz andthepreposition EJi?. In thethird line to verse noticethe lastword is a generic 8, word for "greatthings." ''l'F:, In the firseline to verse noticethattheverbis 9, perfect a 3mpG-passive of ("to throw,setup").Thesubject "thrones." ;'Tn-l is Also,thephrase l.'bl' p'Fi! is "Ancientof Days,"andindicates singledivineindividual. usually translated a The perfect, a simpleG-perfect, verbll'l' is not a G-passive but with an lilvowel, instead an lal vowelin its second of syllable. In the second of verse bothclauses line predicate. 9, contain non-verbal a In thethird line of verse bothclauses 9, predicate. contain non-verbal a
72
"thousand line In the second of verse10,noticethetwo similarexpressions of greatnumbers. idiomsexpressing thousands" "ten-thousand ten-thousands," and of Also, notethe objectsuffix (3ms)on the imperfect verbUDUin verse10. In thethird line of verse10,noticethattheword for justiceandjudgment, N]'T, seems indicate courtitself.(Unless- is a misreadins N):T- theword to the this of forjudge.)
I-)
Lesson10: Weak Verbs I: First-nlrn.First-'a/erft. First-yodft or those havinga weakfirst, second, Therearethreebasicvarieties weakverbs, of wctwandyodh.When Therearemainlytwo weakconsonants, third consonant. 'oleph weakandcan or appea$at thebeginning endof a root it is considered of forms.Only whennun appears thebeginning a root canit at create unpredictable in formsof the verbs. be considered weak,especially the conjugated Part1. First-nun verbs Thesimplest these In of weakverbsis the last,first-nunverbs. fact,not all firstpatterns nun verbsbehave at identicalto the strongverbs. strangely all, somehave : "to give". These include verbs like pT! H: "to injure",]n: G Those do show"weak"characteristics nnl G: "to descend". C that include: )l:
: "to fall", P!: G : "to comeforth", )S: H : "to rescue",NU: G : "to carq/". We havealreadylearnedsomeof thesein an earlier lesson,but because only we learnedthem in their participial forms, they did not exhibit their "weak" In characteristics. fact, the weak characteristics not evenapparent the perfect in are of any stem.But, in the G- and H-imperfectthe weak frst-nun verbsbehave (but are normal in the D-imperfect).In essence, somewhat unpredictably whenever prefix is appliedto the root and this resultsin nun as the final consonant a a of syllable,the nun blendsin with the following consonant; assimilates. it Thus, in the perfect,without a prefix, we have )!!, the expected form, analogous the form to of verbswith strongroots. But in the imperfect,with the addition of the prefixyi*yin-pel, and it subsequently the nun becomes syllable-finalconsonant a blendsor with the followingpeh, resultinginyippel. (Noticethat the theme assimilates vowel of this root, as indicatedearlier,is lel [ ] The themevowels of first-nttn verbsdiffer.) Assimilation is a commonlinguistic phenomenon. What is described hereis similar to the kind of assimilationthat hastakenplacein Latin in the very word assimilate, from ad + similis --- assimildre: "to assimilate".
74
pro$am,the dot thatshould that with my word-processing Q.{ote dueto difficulties in the sadehin the follow ng tbrms doesnot fi H-Perfect H-Imperfect H-Imperative G. G. Imperfect Imperative
L..- , , /5r | fiASSl
3ms )2' yippet 3fs )ln
L.r-.
.rj5r_l yan0sSel .
n?sil
bgi:r-r
l-a t--,
2ms 2fs
lcs
)En
rrtan
l':
)s ')6
ri)xi: 'n)!il n)s;T
,zSi li'l
I
rr l-c t-F
./5r ll'l
'xil
)sil
)lN
TgnN
3mp 3fp t ta.

lr:
n la.
rrlil n)!n
rrLrr-r l't /5t I r l.r r-,. I ./5t I

lt:-:
2mp ir )lt1 2fp r \an

| /-a IT: I
r)s
il)5
r.. n l..t rl'll'l ,/5r I r-l.rrI l | i"' : ",-/ 5 r I
r r' t l . r r - - t l ,/5t ['l t l.tr--' I ./5t ll'l

tr:-:
r )!l
n)S;'r
lcp
)r:
*: )tn
)sn:
Notethatthe imperatives attest also unexpected forms,based the factthatthey on areinfluenced the form of the imperfect. by TheH-stemparticiple G- andH-stem and infinitivesarequitepredictable, given thepattern above.
H-participte: )ts[b or )SE , n?S[F ot nf$E, etc. )Fn G-Infinitirr., H-Infinitive:?+A i'T
rntroductoryLessonsin Arqmqic by Eric D. Reymond 75
into in formsthenunhasassimilated the As observed above, eachof these *yinpel--+ yippel. Thus, resulting a doubled in followingconsonant, consonant. formsis and Thisis a relativelysimpletransformation, derivingtheroot from these problematic formsbecomes whenone ldentifuing relatively these straightforward. considers otherweakverbsthathaveformssimilarto these. the Par|2. First-'aleph verbs. haveverbalformsthatareonly slightly Rootswith an N astheirfirst consonant distinctfrom thoseof the stronsverb. primarilywhenprefixes added are to As with ftst-nun roots,the differences appear is short of theprefix lil theroot.FortheG-stem, result thattheregular the into transforms lel ( ). -lDNl. -lbN it is in theperfect lB$, but in the imperfect is Sothe 3msform of it is'ilfl"lBN, but in theimperfect is llfDNi:l. The2mpform in theperfect or Noticethatthe 'alephin theprefixedformsdoesnot havea shewa anyvowel it. beneath
Exercise 10a.
Basedon the two examplesabove,you shouldbe ableto predict the following -lDlt for the G-Imperfect and'fDN): forms.Fill in the blanksof the chart(
G-Imoerfect 3ms 3fs 2ms 2fs
lcs G-Imperative
ln$'
XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX
rEs
'_'lEts
-rE$
XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX
3mp 3fp 2mp
11EX
zfp
lco
;''T'rn$
XX)O(XXXX
16
Noticethatthe lcs form wouldhavebeen*-lFN$ , but because theredundancy of 'alephs" shortens theform lFN of two this to TheD-stemshows majorinsonsistencies the basicparadigm no (e.g.,*-lp|!l with *d *j'--lDltFl --- thelal theme vowelis dueto the influence the resh),but the of H-stem doesshowsignificant from thebasicparadigm. formsof deviation The first-'aleph rootsin theH-stem mustbe learned individually each for root. Part3. First-yodh verbs. Rootswith a' asthe first root-consonant like the otherverbalpatterns are studied in thislesson, thatpeculiarities theirformsemerge in in onlywith theapplication perfect these of prefixes theirroot.TheG- andD-stem to to verbsare,therefore, analogous strong to verbs. For the G-imperfect, therearetwo basicpatterns, depending the specific on verb/root; the H-imperfect, for thereis a singlepattern. These illustrated the are in chart below.(D-stem imperfects too rareto warrant are discussion.)
G-Impf lJ-lr G-Impf. !l'l!
-tEti
G-Imvs.
H-Perf.
u
ll)J
H-lmpef.
3ms 3fs 2ms 2fs

lcs
f t : ? :r
t|t
lrlr | li i
l)'l)l'l
)J 'l rl'l
rj-l'1;''Tn IJ-]"t;'tF]
-it'|l'I
j - J r . r r .l
ll-?' t
I Jt'l
i -rF
i't)/
Ir-1't;'t i:'i
? r J l - r - in i l . l : l
I .l
?r f'r=il':1
'lji /':l''i
'nljl'];'l
tt)J t;tt
tJ:T:N
'll t'tt'r I !'t?. r
1'lv'l!i'l
tF[{
i'tjl'1.
9'1''ri"itt
?t ft-t-r i'- ,'"
l)/ rlt I
3mp 3fp 2mp 2fp

lcp
r iJ-li;''l
i''uj-j'1;1
?-t|:1r
"
j'iJi'ri'r lJr'D'r
rri / 1:r.l
i'lgi / n:rr
t i F
I'li'lY I lrI li'l! I lrI
lt-t-
t I tt-rtI ttairF
I'l)/ | lr li'l l! I lr ll'l
lr
'rrr'l
tEttait
tt?t I
N)lJ-]'1;'1
TheG-stem imperfect IJ'l' mimicsthepattern a rootwhosefirst root of of consonant a nun, onethatdoes assimilate. G-stem is not The imperfect ll'i' of mimicsthepattern a rootwhosefirst root consonant anun thatdoes of is assimilate. TheH-stem lln shows lal vowelwhere expect (. ); thisis dueto the of an we lel 'ayin.Thuswe havel']'f if instead l'lii'l. influence the guttural of of Oneroot
77
from this andmakes H-stem deviates the with a prefixed-'iJ, theroot )l', which in appears the H-3msperfectur h';'1. Oneof the sideeffects these of similarities between rootsis thatit is sometimes difficult,whenreading Biblical Aramaic, recognize root frornwhicha given to the verbform derives. This,in turn,makes difficult to look up the meaning the it of verb.
Exercise 10b.
List the possibleroots I?omwhich theseverbal forms might derive and look up the correctroot in the AnswersAppendix.
1 t{tD
L.-ll
J. 'lt)=
4.v1
5.'Tlii']r'i
Exercise 10c. Translate slightlysimplified this version Daniel7:11-14 of 11.
"t! N!]'n n?'bP.'J n''liT ;rTI 'lllil'l irryN nli?') nl';r'"! ;'TFUI
l2
r{rrrrL.ri
t?)nn flrp ':T Nll:rt NlIn)i?-in irTr.l l]inr n''tiT
j. I= t.'a"ra'r--7 ly l'l)Jl lfJl

lT : l-: -
il'lltr)VJ )- -lJJ;l Nn''l'n ',-irr-rr-
-lNlL'l
tl
:
lJlrl,/ilJ
:
i I-:.-.'
-
rr: -r= ---rir tt\l I'llJttJ

| -; T ;-;
Nl)') .'1ini n''lit;TTF ;lliTiln$ ulN-11!N'.DID'l!-tr! l-r$l

.rrirrr rrirtr
13.
-;rrt-rj?i_l'i:TrnlP'l NiF]' p'F!-'t!l irpn
):r irn)rin: illirylolntN'.nnp

'78
14. ttrtl'] | -'lil'l| '?rr7ilJ t/t/ \,/ tu l';'l' ;'.'T7']
-= ! '
' )flr t
' tf -!-r? r\ /
'' a r t ' Ft / ) J |
ttlL..i tL) )W
r.ql...i I't)L) /V
ii:r::n'' ?lEnnN?-'-T
Considerthe following: 'T!R : G-stem"to perish", in the HIn the third line of verse 11, note the forms of 'l:lil) stem"to destroy",in the Hp-stem"to be destroyed"(Hp-perf. In the first line of verse12,the verb l':TJJi'lis an H-3mp perfectof i'l-lJJ:"to take away."The lelvowel under the heh (insteadof an lal vowel) is the result of the "the rest of the beasts took following gutturalconsonant. Insteadof translating, to awaytheir dominion,"it is likely that this verb is intended havean impersonal into the Englishpassive.The first noun subject,and shouldthereforebe translated "As for the rest of the phraseis marking the topic of the sentence, besttranslated beasts, their dominionwas takenaway." In the second line of verse12,notethe curiousphrases mark time at the end. to In the secondline of verse13, note the phrase"like a son of man," meaninglike a humanbeing.We might expecta'T to precede this phrase, make"one like a to humanbeing". In tlre third line of verse13,notethe objectsuffix (3ms)on the H-3mp perfectof f-lP The addition of the suffix resultsin the reductionof the short lilbeneaththe resh inthe regularform of the H-3mp perfect:ll-lPil Notice that herethereis no clear subject,and so one must assume impersonalsubject,and translatewith an an "He was broughtnear"(instead "they broughthirn near"). Englishpassive: of In the third line of verse 14, the verb |'T:TJJ' a G-3ms imperfectof il'lJ) "to pass is in away Comparethe H-stem of this verb, as it appears verse 12. ."
Introductory Lessortsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond
79
and 11: Lesson Weak VerbsII: Second Third-WeakRoots Part1. and Second-yodh -waw verbs. of independent root as Originallyyodh andwawfunctioned discrepant consonants, , as especially they the as eachother.However, Aramaicdeveloped, two consonants, so together, thatnow it is in appeared the middleor at the endof a root,merged consonant, second whether roothada wawasits original a oftendifficultto discern rootshasa longl-a/in the first syllable of the or ayodh.In general, G-perfect these yvowelaftertheprefixed or t- anda (FP), while theG-imperfect a murmured has (trlP]) It is a consistent feature verbsof this type of syllable long/t/ in the second any beneath prefixedelement. vowelor half-vowel to carrya murrnllred whichneverdisappears. consonant, TheD-stemhasusuallya yodhasthe second verb. is to verbsin the D-stem identical thatof the strong Theform of these is syllable either/7 prefixto theperfect i'l. Thevowelof the second is TheH-stem imperfect usually to or lll( ..) (E'i?il or E'i?iT).Theprefixelement theH-stern just is The vowel,asin the G-stem. H-imperfect distinguished carries a murmured which is fil (E'p'). syllable, the through vowelof the second from the G-imperfect of havingthepattern E'i?i'l' appear, otherformsof the H-imperfect Occasionally, E'P] andits Aphelvariant long the Because verbalformsof this typeof root arecharacterizedby vowels, the often syllable predictable. Notethatthe next-to-last paradigms somewhat are forms. in the carries stress these
G-Perfect G-[mperfect
a)'tl) u 1l.rl'i
a'tl)t"l
H-Perfect
I
tr)
H-lmperfect
F.-t
3ms 3fs 2ms 2fs

lcs
4l)
, il)l)
llt_!
l2tI
l//t I
rlz.tr?tJ./r1,,
-atF
Fr--r
Fr-l
u lrt'r / etc.
-ir-
FnP (qamta)
Flt\, r-l/ ; l'\it
ErX\ritt r)
'FIni? (qamtrt)
i E't?t'l
rnnri:r ,
.r/
l/t _t
'i'E'pFt / etc.
Erp$ / etc.
lr'1,,1'l / etg.
ErPS
. I lll il" tttl/
I
-hritt r) l/t_l
3mp 3fp 2mp 2fp

lcp
I l1'r -:?
I ll) l.2t_i
-t'\:t/ I tt-l
ltJ1l.)
1:!t'\:!-l'lt i r ) t l / /r . l
llnni? (qomtiln) 'lnFi?(qomtEn) I t \:t i-l Fl
!:Ftt\tj'1I t, r) l./t-l
I Flf'\t I t-.r/ -l// | _l
'l:lb'p' / etc. 'if,'p' / etc 'JlE'i?Fi letc.
l?'PF I etc
-ttt,
$inp
l'tP)
N:_n'i?il
re)/erc.
80
'aleph themiddle TheG-participles sometimes yodh,sometimes have as consonant:
m.s. fs m.p. rp
G-stem
trNi? i]?lP I'DIP lPli?
passive G-stem
E'i2 ;]F'P I'D'i? jQ'P
H-stem(Haphel)
F!-ti r Fr!t-?lt / Fr-t'i t) l4tl t t) l/trtt) / l/t) -'.\r -t r
| |)
''
l , / t ):
'?i ttr i-lll ',4 I l<',1 t l.\r -t \

I
ll)
l,)la
''
The imperatives, basedon the imperfectforms, are not that surprising,nor ar the infinitives: G-stemimv. H-stemimv. (Haphel)
rns
DfP
f s.
m.p.
'nlP
E'P|T
'n'Pil
lblP
:lD'PiT
f.p.
;rFlP
;rF.'PiT
;rFPiT
Infinitive EPn
OtherIdiosyncracies: Somesecond-yodhlwaw,roots D'U "to set")haveG-perfect (like fonns like those
listedabove with Gq , nFP, etc.)buthaveG-imperfects a long/7 G'D]), which, of course, look for all theworld like H-imperfects. Further confusing thingsis that passive perfect theG-3ms wouldlook identical theG-m.s. passive to participle:
E'U.
ThetG andtD formsof these rootstypicallyhavea doubled t-prefix.Thus,in the imperfect npl: (yittesam).
8l
Exercise 1la
Translate this slightly simplifiedversionof Ena 5:6-10;the first verseyou have alreadyseenbefore.
R-lil:--ll! n[P ':F]i!n?u-'ll Ntj-llN llu-]P '-l nl;p-l!$ ;=TiJJ:t x?)n u]lll )g N'liTi--l!!l
'ni)p :ln?u N?lnB

n:ll3 I'n3 il:-r:] Ntf Nn)iD Nl)n u']'-t't?
"-: : t :' :
'r:r;r'b Nqi"tb xl)l$-'-l*?)n) xln?!'r: N+]N,l?N n'lt

.
tl
:11 Ei't'llf il[xi]nr irJllnn Nj"rFo$ N|J'T'lll

9
))l]lR r: |r
N;f nD N:li]'] "| : ' :
NN:! T'N N!]U) N:)NU ]'-IN

r ": l" ' TT: r: " : | r:
<l.tl
E;r NJ-IE$ ) N:rn) ;r:r Nn'r trtJi3 : EU-]n c:) ' '-
tl\=tts\h:rii:-ru*r'
trps1 1;r4in) n;r)Nl)nuHrnT?u

|" t : i f i " | : T
10.
E;t'uN:l ":t Nil:l-Et
:tj::. "1
Consider following: the In thefirst line of verse the nameof the governor 6, is'tFlfl . In the second of verse6, theword Nl?QlE$ appears be a gentilicword, line to pluralemphatic/determined for ending this typeof word. dueto the characteristic "officials". it However, is understood a common as word,meaning line In thethe second of verse7, theobjectof the verbfl )UJprecedes verb. the + is Thisword order(Object Verb + Subject) typicalof BiblicalAramaic. The phrase pronoun (!) nll: is madeup of a preposition plusthe demonstrative
[ntroductory Lessonsin Aramqic by Eric D. Reymond 82
"as (i'lj'l: "this"). Thephrase translated is variously follows" in theNRSV and impliesthatwhat Bible,andas"thus" in theKJV. Thephrase New Jerusalem of follows(in thethird line of verse7) is a quotation the letteritself. to 7 In the third line of verse , theclosingtwo wordsarethe salutation Darius. 'l:li'l'. name ) 8, In thefirst line of verse "l:li'J') is thepreposition plustheplace that the )f4 i:lt is a nounphrase indicates In thethird line of verse8, thephrase "out of'which thetemple wasbuilt. material ) n|?=rU\ is madeup of thepreposition In the fourthline of verse9, thephrase in plusthe Shaphel infinitiveof i)= fh. Siraph.l'i,arareconjugation Biblical (or, causation. like Aramaic, essentially the Haphel Aphel),indicating :lfillf i;f , is made of thepreposition ) 10, up In thefirst lineof verse thephrase "you". Whenan plusthe Haphelinfinitiveof JJJ' plusthe 2msobjectsuffltx, infinitiveis in construct with a followineword or whenit is followedbv a suffix it takes lll- endins. the Part2. waw,and'aleph Third-yodh, verbs. yodh,waw,or 'aleph havea varietyof with either Rootsthatoriginallyended 'aleph yodh,waw,or wasno longer formsdueto the factthatthe original pronounced. Typically,in the G-3msperfect, verbformsfrom rootswith an the yodhor wawendin il in BiblicalAramaic andlaterdialects, sometimes or original And N (since two consonsonants oftenusedinterchangably). for this were the and with reason, rootsareoftenlistedin dictionaries i'l astheirfinalconsonant, the imperfect formsthat referred as"third-heh roots";nevertheless, to aresometimes with an lack suffix typicallyendwith an N: Nll' . Rootsthatoriginallyended 'aleph listedwith thisroot consonant the dictionaries this consonant in and are many in forms.All the same, and oftendoesappear the G-3msperfect imperfect the formsof these verbsdo not attest iJ or an N. Theresultis thatlearning a paradigm these weakverbsis essential. of "building": is Thetypicalroot used illustrate paradigm the oneindicating to this perfect havethe imperative, passive and imperfect, ;1:1. In the G-stem, perfect, the followingforms.
83
G-Perfect
G-Imoerfect
G-Imperative
Perfect G-Passive
t .1.,:l
3ms 3fs 2ms 2fs

lcs
I iJJ
It)l'
i l,r;J
$irFr
nllFt
I ,r-+l.r
?
r,,l:1
f'l? (banayle) 'nlii (banayflY)

-!.t:r
?
?
$tlN
?i t-r. *
?
)
3mp 3fp 2mp 2fp

lcp
rt:r
Ft:
j'[
| ljJ
t:
I lr-lt'l
'1I -'l
] r . . r, _ +
!t'!-tFl
,)
Lii,'
$)')!
N)t)
7 ? ?
Because corpus BiblicalAramaicis so small,manyformsdo not occur.But, the of theabove chartillustrates some thepeculiarities thistypeof verb.The of of yodhlwaw thathasdisappeared the G-3msperfectform appears in uniformlyasa yoclhin the G-2ms, perfect 2fs forms,aswell asin the G-3fp,2fp imperfect forms. Themasculine pluralformsin theperfect, imperfect, imperative all and are characterizedby finali- 1or,'ii-) the endingThiswill helpyouto distinguish yodhlwaw a third root-consonant rootswith a rootswith an original as and yodhlwaw a second as root-consonant; lnP perf.), compare (G-3mp j:ln:lP' (G:lD:lp(G-m.s. 3mpimperf.), imperative). perfect, For the G-passive notethatthereareonly two formsattested. 3ms The form is identical theG-m.s. to imperative. will be seen thefollowingchart, As in theending this forrn,' -, bears similarityto the endingof D-3msperfect of a and theD-m.s. imperative. G-passive perfect The 3mp l' alsobears ending, . , thatis an similarto the ending theD- andH-3mpperfects. on
IntroductoryLessons Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond in
84
D-Perfect
D-Imoerfect
D-Imperative
3ms 3fs 2ms 2fs lcs 3mp 3fp 2mp
IrDl
Flt r-r tttJ *
'n'h
nr t:
NllFl N!lF't
?r:'l-lh r * I J-+r.
'1'f 3 i'r!l *
l'[ | ll I -t:!:r lr..rl+
Nt:tl
r i t it : r +
I
l llfr'l
t t l-'l F! o
zfp
lcp
N)'ll
N) :)
Noticethatalthough D-3rnpperfect the endsin i- , andtheD-3mp, 2mpimperfect in'iiend

H-Perfect H-Imperfect
''l'
endsin .-, theD-m.p.imperative
H-Imperative
H-Pass.Perfect, from the root iJl]ll

?
llllrl
o
3ms 3fs 2ms 2fs

lcs
nll;l
-l'lr!'&
'n.'):i-1
n')lil
l'!llr-t
liFiiir
$l:nr or Nll' N):ilFl or N)lFl N)li_1F1 etc.

l r t/_!r- F ). r * -r r
I -r
,)
?
l itrl
3mp 3fp Zmp
'1')l;l
*
Iti:;'1N
I
i lJ-Jl_li'l
I'il I rJtl I i | ,J-Jt_l
,l
zfp
lcp
l-r+r_li'l
)
?
N:'):i'l
It):i])
TheH-stem manyof the same has endines theD-stem, as Theparticiples, especially the G-stem, for alsoofferproblems to their due idiosyncracies. G-Participle G-Passive Part. D-Part./Pass. Part. H-Part./Pass. Part.
m.s.n!+
irll
NllF / '!lD *
Nl3[n /'llln n
f.s. nll?
m.P. .
t r. n . L V
.
nllf
l{. i : J ,
l.z= .?r:.:l
l a- lr:
nl!]tr
i''-=-' l|r l -tlJttl)l
lTi -
;11!?ilb
t.-: ? i . l - ! - t l \t t - ) |
| ,l-,t | r:: -
rrir I JJ t'-r
? r :.-- ' 1 |
f r; r
tl..it:)n ) (
. ? r i - t: t t t | r - r -r: - J
;
85
and between G-f.s.,f.p. participles the G-f.s.,f.p. passive Theonly distinction participles in appears the first vowel,, versusparticiple would and Theonly distinction between D-participles theD-passive the participle As doesnot occur. in in appear the m.s.form,thoughtheD-m.s.passive for the paradigm the regularroot lf'lf the otherformsof the D-participleare the and Thesame holdstruefor the distinction between H-participles the identical. participles. H-participles alsoappear The may withouttheheh,i.e.,as H-passive (Aphel-participles) f D, etc. : flt A-participles morepredictable. Theinfinitivesaresomewhat infinitive G-stem D-steminfinitive H-steminfinitive
Nlfn
Exercise 1lb
nll!
nllfil
you Translate slightlysimplified this version Ezra5.l l-13; several theverses of of havealready seen before.
-rDNF) Xli:'rriT N?in! NFi:r N:.D|D ;rf*-'r 'iliit! ib;r NJnllr $lJ'rtsl 'is'luJ'i'ltD nD'TizD illiT-':T nl:T illr Nfll ]li;l
11.
;-T?N lTi-til N"FU Nlr_lit?r! 'r-1bjir? -rglltrtl ]t! iE;]lil: N:Trp: );+-:1)n
L--L -L.-hr.-b--r-----
12.
/J-./
/)tt
t t{jJytt't
tiitJ lt,
Itl|iJl
13. I
)ll
' 'T N!)n iu'ri:)
nrn n:ul E:l
N:rn)n1rnry)lr-n;: nqN?iB npn ru-ri:

the Consider following: In thefirst line of verseI I, thewordNJll'nil lcp objectsuffix,"to us". is theH-3mpperfect J"lll, with a of
In thethird line of verse12,theword;=l-l.nQ the G-3ms is perfect -lllD plusthe of 3msobjectsuffix,"it". Part3. Verbswhosesecond third root-consonants the same and are consonant. Some roots,lite )hJ ("to enter"), havethe same letterfor theirsecond third and consonants. produces This verbalformsthatonewouldnot expect, especially for theG- andH-stems. (TheD-stemfor these typesof rootsis regular.)
G-Perfect G-lmperfect H-Perfect
hrr-r
/)Jt t L/)J
3ms 3fs 2ms 2fs

lcs 3mp
tt ft t | ?)J FtLliIt rF)11Sl,t t | ?)J
H-Imperfect
)t l
)i' (ye"ol)
/ vt-l
/ vt'l 1r -''r !!l':r
r hrrr-
hlr-r
/tttt
htt-E
/ hrlr
,/)J
/ hraF
n)$r /nttj)il
\'l,tVrI/EIC.
-Lrl,
/Yt lt't | /Yt'l
'r-1)iJi']
)Yt lt'l / etc.

htt!F\
la-h
t!
/)Jt tr'l
)il$
t t | t/r -t.r. r t
I
n)ilr
r )JJil
ti/Yti l'tt't /)Jt I
)r'1,/)Jt I
)9il$
r: Lrrr-r
| ,/)/l rq I
3fp Zmp Zfp

lcp
l I 7)J
rrFhhrr
t'lt't ) )Y
i't ,/)Jr' I
|,/)Jr'I
t't /vt tt'l

tt'l
Lrltq-
lr't ,) / )J
| /Yt
N)))t
$lrgil
Thecharacteristic feature this typeof root is thatwhena prefix is added, first of the of thetwo identical consonants assimilates thefirst consonant theroot.In to of other words, thecase ))lS,the first lamed assimilated thepreceding in of is into 'ayin;we couldrepresent the G-3msimperfect transliteration: in ye"ol. This form *ye'lol o. bbpl *. Similarly, H-3msperfect is derived from an earlier form the couldbe represented ha"el andthe H-3msimperfect yeha"el,thoughin an earlier *ha'lel and*yeha'lel sfage Aramaic of theywouldhavebeen, respectively,
f\Jyl* and))111*;
Sometimes, doubling a consonant, in the double'ayinof ha"el, is the of as replaced the sequence by nun*gsnsonant, thatwe havehan'el,instead ha..el. so of Scholars dispute amongst themselves whether not thisnunwasactually or pronounced, if so,why it appears some and, in formsandnot others. the For beginning student, is easiest assume it waspronounced soto it to that and pronounce nun whenhe or shecomes the across sucha form.
8'l
just learned, imperatives, Based whatyou have on the participles, infinitives and arenot difficult to understand. Participles G-stem passive G-stem
ms
rs
iltV
'i'?V i?v
\)p
n?;ip
i,)'\n 'i?'Ip
i')p
(Haphel) H-passive H-stern
nipirn
i':oro i?p,-to
tuiln
niiin
.r..
)pln
m.p. rp
Imperatives G-stem
m.s.
L'..
fs.
m.p.
I.p.
n
.'t'S
. L'.1
)y
H-stem (Haphel) )pir
')it;r
1)y
r | )9
L'ri
r )pl n )pn
- l. rrTT-
Infinitive )yn
l | ,/)Jt I
Exercise 1lc.
Given what you have learnedaboutthe verbal forms, vocalizethe following twoconsonant verbal form accordingto the variousparsings.Checkyour list against the one in the AnswersAppendix:
t l-?
1.asa G-3mp perfect from'i'T (G: "to judge") 2. asa G-3mpperfectfrom the imaginary root *;'T:'rt 3. asa G-..p. imperative from the imaginary root *;'l:T 4. asa G-m.p.imperative from the imaginary root *'f1) (G-3ms *l-ll) imperfect' 5. asa G-m.p. imperative fromtheimaginary *'iT' (G-3ms root
Introductory Lessons Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond in
88
*lTll) imperfect: root fj)T 6. asa G-3mpperfectfrom the imaginary root *'i)T (G-3ms from the imaginary 7. asa G-m.p.imperative *j-T:) imperfect'
Lld. Exercise
you last version F.na5:14-17;the verse have of this Translate slightlysimplified before. seen already
'l Fll3l N??!'lN+,ITI f{T?N-n'l-"l N::NF ':r pElrl-''lB:-T:l:! D)Ut-1't'-'l N!:';r-'10
t4.
inn ):; '-t N?:'iT! ):'n1 '-t N?:'ij-'in N?)nuli: itril pplil ):+ nnqilFP'1 . . -rBlw) ll';l'l
15.
)* NU n)u:': '-'[N):'nr inn nnil-)itr Ni)$? n)--rn*t n'l'l ;-T-tnts-r! NT?N N!!nl
:Jr lill n'l-':T NiitJt\ ;Tttt-\ :sltDtD nlip'r-r':'.:rNT?}3 ]l'lN
16.
n')u *f1 *;rnnl!!-r!] 1lin-'ibr

17.
rp N?)A-\v lti:l l;r NlMn't! t l 2 J t I )=?l':TiTFiN?)D.'r jil N! NT?lS Nlfn) npptr'tD rn u-r'r!-]F-.'.:1'i:l'N n'l n?u:': '-.'t
't:-
;rlr-)p*?)nnrrr'1r
n N:')IJ ru"
the Consider following: of with In the fifth line of verse14,thelastword,ITFP,is theG-3msperfect EnlD (The of suffix,"him" (i.e.,Sheshbazzar). subject EnUis Coresh.) the3msobject
89
Englishtranslation must one an This means in orderto create idiomatic that 'J with theEnglishword "whom". translate "these". this In In thefirst line of verse15,theword )$ is theneardemonstrative, The line,thethreewordsni:]il-)]N NU arethreeimperatives. first same goes it. imperative with thewordsthatprecede Theothertwo areunderstood imperatives, I'lfli_l, is and together go with thewordsthatfollow. Thelastof these from the root flflJ "to so down" andis herein theH-stem. In thefifth line of verse17,theverbfl?U: .*presses hopeof the writer,and the "Mav he . ." mavbe translated
90
A Last Note: Verbs with Obiect Suffixes The verbal forms you have learnedcan also carry suffixes that representthe object of the verb. In Biblical Aramaic there are only a few verbal forms that are attested with suchsuffixes.The applicationof suffixesin generalfollows the expected rules of vowel reduction,so that when a 3ms suffix ;':T- is addedto a G-3ms -'In?, perfectverb, e.g. the result is i:TlllQ This form recallsthe earlierform of the *satara.The sameappliesto other forms of the verb as well. G-3msperfect, With the imperfectone commonly finds betweenthe verbal form and the suffix an extrasyllable:--inn--. So,e.g.,whenthe 3ms suffix;':T- is addedto an H-1cs
imperfect, ;'lS, we find ;':T: JJ'l.l D'Tl;l$ Whensuffixes applied the infinitivesin the D-, H-, tG, andtD-stems, are to the final i'T, -- ending replaced is with anl'l:l- ending. Thus,whenthe 2mssuffix--T -, is appended theH-infinitive,;-TJJ-'liil, find theform:.[illJJl'f;T to we
'
rtri-r
Glossarv --Lesson 7 l|! : "father", (Pl.with lcp suffix:tt?fif?|! : "ourfathers" see m.

]f$ forms.) for this word andits strange : G-stem perish";H-stem destroy"; "to "to "to Hp-stem be destroyed"
( l;'li
/-tt \
'ill3 : "stone", f.
;fliN : "letter"f. (sing.emphatic $F-fIN ) 'i]:lt : "then" ifilJ:lN: "wall" (pl. emphatic N;'tp:lN) "to )!N- : G-stem go" '-l[$ : f. sing.(adi "another" ('oh6rT]') ) ':f n'N : "terifying"(adj.) 'itli : "thereis" or "it is" )!$ : "to eat" pronoun m.p.demonstrative I IX : "these", : "thousand", 1pl.]'!)$; m. l)$ ilptt : "nation" (pl.l'Elt) f. -fE$ : "to G-stem say" pronoun Ninl$ : "\ry", independent U;tt : "person" "human",m. or "diligently", (adv.) Nl-lED$ : "thoroughly", Fllt : "also" '?D-l!$ : "official",ffi. 9-l-l|! : "four", usedwith feminine nouns :lJN : "1o"or "behold", thoughoftenit maybe left untranslated. functions It to drawattention a shift in topic. to il]-llt : "lion", m. -Tt-t$ : "propef"(adj.) n?l* : "lengthening", f. l:l$ : land(in theemph./det.: N!l$)
l)
n ?N: "God" m.
nq* : "fire",f.
*'ilWS : "wa11", (determined/emphatic $l-rPS) m. form: "to nnN : G-stem come"
92
-fn!\ : "place", (sing. m. emph./det..jfl$ ) N I "in" or "by" : "then" (made of up il':$ ["then"]+ ! ["in"] ) l:Jtil -lnN? : "after" (made of -1i$ ["place"]+ ! ["in"] ) up ):? : "Babylon" 'ltl : "between" l'l'.! : "house", (Nf:! : "thehouse"; syllables m. two bay-ta ) "to "to "to nJl : G-stem build"; Gp-stem be built"; tG-stem be built" tlJJ+: "request" f. \YA : "master" m. -fi2l : "to D-stem seek" 'i'!3) Jl : "son",m. (in theemph.ldet.: lt]3 , in thepluralabs. (adv.) E:l : "nevertheless" -ltp= : "flesh", m. m U : "back", (pl J'll) -lll : "man", (pl. m. jt-l:l) ']l : "middle","midst", m. "to Il:ll : H-stem stirup" (H-part., i1[']D ) f.s., ;f]il : "decree", (in thecnstr.: f. n]]l) )l\l: "wheel", m. "to n?l : H-stem takeinto exile" 'i.'lll) T:l : "treasure", (pl. m. In its context, inEzra,theroyal"house treasures" of seems be refering whererecords documents to to and werefiled andkept. Fll : "wing", f. (pl j'5t) EUI : "body",m. (with suffix:nDUl) NT : "this", f.s. demonstrative pronoun ]-l : "bear",m. fill : "gold",m. (sing. NlilT ) emph./det.: tJ : "of', "who", "whose","whom", "which", "that",an indicator what that followsis a quotation 'itJ : "judgment", "court",m.
(adj.) )2tr: "rolled"
]iI )n.r
JT j-l:l
'Judge", m. : "to fear", pass. i1?'n:l : "frightful") part. (G-f.s.
: "this" f.s. demonstrative pronoun : "record", (dokran) emph./det.: (pl. m. N]i']l]t) "to ?21: G-stem burn" "to ;181 : G-stem be like" pronoun nJl : "this" m.s.demonstrative : "to "to H-stem crush"(H-part. PPf G-stem: be shattered", PTi]n) N:liJ: "he" ;l]iJ : "to be" ("I was": ntl.iT) Nti'J: "she" "temple" (sing. )!';f : "palace", m. N?:';'f ) emph./det.: ibi:l : "them",independent pronoun : liT "if' ''!: "and" the doesnot need be translated. to ,"or", "but" Sometimes conjunction :l Whenit is followed !/1, 58, andD it becomes ; by whenit is followed a consonant*munnured by vowel,it alsoturnsto:l ; whenit is followedbv n thevoclh loses shewa the letters its and 'i togetherar.*.irr.n' ; it is followedby an ultra-short when vowel,the coffesponding full - N + I becomesN'.J. - B +'l (e.g., vowelreplacesit and becomesl-\l)
lEi nIil
: "time", m' : "crime", f.
"to "to )l[t : D-stem destroy", tD-stem be destroyed" -ll_'l "one", : used with masculine nouns ifln : "on",usedwith feminine nouns -11[ : "white"(adj.) o'to ;li[ : G-stem see"(G-inf.:il]nn) :lTlJ, "vision",m. (emph.ldet.: : f{'Jin ) 'i-J: "living" (adi (m.p. : ) J'll_l "life")
;1]tn : "animal","beast", f.
tttt
n'lll : "wise"(adj.) tr )d : "dream", m. 'tEi:t: pronoun "they"Thisformis peculiar thebookof the3mpindependent to 'i:l!N Ena;elsewhere it is and'iiEn -lDn : "wine", m. lnUil "needs", f. ll! :..good"(adj.)
-l:lE :'1nountain", ngb : "decree" )]: : H-stem "to carry" -T] : "hand", f. l']l : G-stem"to know", "to understand" (G-impf. IJJ!]), Gp-stempart. "known" m.
t-
l'lt:see
t-
ll
(!"tl )
"to H-stem makeknown"(H-perf.JJ-li;'l) "to "to li-l] : G-stem give",Gp-stem be given"(l'iT:) Eit: "day",m. "to ):: : G-stem be able" E] : "sea", (emph.ldet.: m. ltp]) (cstr. nll?] : "burning" nll?]),f -li?] : "honor", m'
fl]lt "moon", m.
"to ln] : G-stem sit" -1ti=11"rrery (adj.) much"(adv.);"surpassing" J "ut" or "like" ;fj'f! : "asfollows"(made of il):T : ! ) up il;lJ "window",f. 'iil? :'optiest", m. I ,i : "alI" (kdl) (alsospelled t ol; )1, f----L!. ))A-)1 : "corresponding kol-qdlel to" '1 )lP-); : "because"
"to \2=: Shaphel-stemfinish" ll , NF:l "thus"or "accordingly" IUJ : "colleague", (pl + suffixnnJ;! ) m. .]Af : "silver", (sing. m. NpOJ ) emph./det.: : "now" lll (korse') 'i]D-tJ) (pt NQ-l?: "throne",m. 'TtD! : "Chaldaean" --- the (emph./det.: N]]lD! : "theChaldaean") see next
fnl lesson the formsof gentilicnouns. for : G-stem write"; Gp-stem be written" "to "to
: "belonging to" 2 "to" or "for", alsoownershop: "no" N? : thisparticle negates verbsandwhenusedalonemeans ::) : "heart", m.
rrirr L L, Lj:l- 7 ' "$?trrlgllt", "robe", m.
N]il? : "let it be" Thisis theG-3ms imperfect ;f]il of
"excePt" Ti]? : "but", N?') --"night", (emph./det.: m. Xi)')1

]P) : "tongue", m.
:'ovessel", (pl determined/emphatic ) m. N]INF TNF ;'TJt'ln : "province", f. "to ifpn : G-stem arrive"
if ?n : "word", (pl.j'!n) f. n ?n : "salt", (sing. m emph./det )n) : N[

"to n?n : G-stem salt"i.e.,to donate or to eatsalt, salt,
: : *. king") I ?n "king", (N?)D "the

l:tE : "kingdom", "kingship", f. jn : "from", "because" '-T]n : "because"
jE : "who?",an interrogative pronoun (adj.) 118 : "rebellious" "to b']n : G-stem pluck";Gp "to be plucked" llUb : "couch, bed",m. 'Ul : "to G-stem flow"
96
tl-lti]l "illumination", f. -li-li : "river", m. -l:l) : "frre", sometimes sometimes ffi., f.
: G-stem suffer" "to "to H-stem injure" : "to "to li-f ! G-stem go down";H-stem deposit" "to "to ,ni : G-stem life"; Gp-stem be lifted" -lEl : "leopard", m. : "to PP! G-stem go out"; H-stem"to bringout", "to remove" Ni?! : "prlre","pristine"(adj.) "to Nq! : G-stem lift", "to carrlr" :q! : "eagle", m. P]l "to ?rA: G-stem comeup" -]ED : "book", (pl. m. l'-lID) -lI? : "scribe", m. -liD : "to G-stem destroy" -1:p : "slave","servant", m, -Jl! : "to "to "to G-stem make", do"; tG-stem be done" ilJ':! : "work", f. -lliJ : "Beyond-the-River'", N-]iT: thetitle of theregionof Syria,Judah, Palestine -l! : "until" (preposition) "to "to ;flp : G-stem passaway";H-stem takeaway";"to depose" : ITJJ "time",m. .'li!' :..bird,', m.
(pl'i'il!) j'.! : "eye",f.

)t) : "to" or "against"or "over" or "accordingto"
"forever", Drl: "perpstuity", m. y2lS: "tusk" "rib",f (pl or l'lJ)!J) : "people", (sing. E! m. emphatic ) NF! -lEP : "wool", m. nlIJ : G-stem answer" "to 'iliJ: "cloud", m.
''fPIJ : tG-stem"to be uprooted"
Introductory Lessonsin Arqmctic by Eric D. Reymond
97
it]lp : "dishonor", (sing. n]:l!) f. cstr.: -lUp :'oten" nouns used with feminine 'Ttn! :"ready" (adj.) P'Fp : "old" (adj.)
if Ft : "govefrlor", m. "to "payreverence n ?g : G-stem serve," to" EE : "mouth", (pl.]tb?) m.

L.-)t" : -i:J :
ron- m.
: llU-fE "copy",m. "concenl",m. EFI : "word", "command", "to "to niE : G-stem open";Gp-stem be opened" ifi?'19 : "charity",f. "to "to n ?S - H-stem cause prosper", prosper" to -l!g ;ippar: "bird", f.
u l+ -Lrt L.'
tmage, m.
. L---L-
tt
'?-1P: "first"(adj.) s.nl?fP) (f (refening time) nDlP ]b / nDfi?n: "before" to
.=lL : See un(ler,'=l/ )., trlP : "before"(referring place), q6ddm to
L--
"to "to E'lP : G-stem arise", H-stem setup,""to install", (E'PiJ) "to be Hp-stem setup" . : G-stem kill" "to ,l]D "sound", )P: "voice", m. "to f:P : G-stem approach"; "to H-stem bringnear" if]-li? : "city", f.
I'
: "horn", ; .i]i-li2: "twohorns", 'i'l-lpl : "horns", f f., f. l-1i?
"leader", (pl 'i'llJNl; pl. with suffixE;']'UNJ) UNI : "head", m :J : "great"(adj ) (fem ' ill:l) tll] : "greatnesS", f. 'il:--l i!--l : "myriad","ten-thousand", (pl f. )
'V'lJ : "fourth" ;1]{'ll) (f.s.:
98
(f. (adj.) pl. abs. f:l'l : "great" lllll) "to TJ-l: H-stem: anger" 'il )J-t : foot,f. (dual: ?ll) n:l-l : "wind",f. "to "to (Gp-3mp perfectl'n-l) ftQ-l : G-stem throw";Gp-stem bethrown" :IJJJ "desire", : f. "to stamp DE-l : G-stem: tread, on"
)UJ: t
-irr
SCCJ \4J
-rirr
N'lU : "much"(adj.) -lt?U: "side", m. "to part 3tp: "elder" l'U: G-stem be old"; G-stem "to l:U : tD-stem obserye" -f!U : "hair", m. "to "to )NU : G-stem request", ask" -l$U : "remnant", m. l':U : "flame", m. "to nlUJ: H-stem find" "to (a n ?U : G-stem send letter)" "well-being", tr?U : "peac", m. "to "to n)U: G-stem be complete"; Gp-stem be finished" : m. ]p?q "dominion", Ell) : "name",m. (with suffix ttbLj ) : m. : ]]DU "heavens", (emph./detN:,EU) : tDDtD D-stem"to serye"
'lliU;pl. : m ItD "tooth", (dual l'!tD)
ilJU: "yeaf',f. ;llU : G-stem change" "to be different"(m pl part.:'i'lq) "to or "to (D-f.s.pass. part.: D-stem change" ;l]llpb : "different") "to l']Fl : G-stem go back";H-stem return(something)" "to
I ?n : "snow", m.
ifQn : "there" nilln : "t'wo", used withfeminine nouns
tntroductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond
99
.'l'i?n: "strong" (adj.)
100
in Introductorv Lessons Aramaic: AnswersAppendix Exercise:14.
N: rD
("theking")
mlk' tqvP
l.'Pn
tqypyn ]'!'Pn and ("strong" thesingular in theplural) in n'l $n'l I'fi: N"nl byt byt' btyn bty'
and "the houses") ("house,""the house,""houses,"
:nf n:n:
-lDN 'l-]bN
ktb ktbt
'mr 'mrw
("he wrote" and"shewrote")
("he said"and"they said") ln:' 'i.l:n:' yktb yktbwn ("he writes"and"theywrite")
Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond: Answers Appendix
lb. Exercise: ktb ktbt

k'n ("now") 'l
ln: nln:
't fl-
("he wrote"and"shewrote")
lt-
jv
("over,""above") 'dyn ("then") l"l$
ptgm'
NDin!
("message")
il.]n mdh ("tribute")

5lm g") ("peace,""well-bein
nlw
,r, 'r"
l-1lt NJJ-IN
("land" and "the land")
lc. Exercise:
n\ttir-'.
4/Yit |
\/tY t
rrfr-l r
l r E r i i ' \ - ' 1 . - f h/ n- t | l.r,l
N-]i]:-lltJ ):: ]'n')ut

I
''l?: rr:?-r -rrnrlJ -T7i.1'] i']''ir:'] Jr rril lrt,/ I
'l mlkyn tqypynhww yrw5lm bkl w5lytyn 'br nhr' wmdhblw whlk mtyhblhwn "strongkingswereoverJerusalem in and(theyhad)authority all Abar-Naharah andtribute,tax,andtoll wasgivento them-"
ld. Exercise: 'i'rir)]-lbN ND:: l'-'lN 'i.:: N:.ll ;'1:-l N'-]ll nnnu 'J l'r:N]D
'dyn knm' 'mrw lhwn gbry' dy dnhbnyn' bnyn mn 'nwn Smht "Then,accordingly, saidto them, they 'Whatarethenames the menwho arebuildingthis structure (literally, of a.re who,this structure, building)?"'
in Introductory Lessons Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond: Answers Appendix
le. Exercise:
w'yn 'lhhn hwt 'l 6byyhwdY'
wl' btlw hmw
'lu N'Jli'Tn ,IJ nln ]iln)* 1'ttt ]Di] 't)n: *)t

of "The eyeof theirGodwasovertheelders the Judaeans the them(i.e., builders)." did the andthey(i.e., elders) not stop
Exercise:lf.
N:bDu.l':l )y
n)u "l Nn-llN .':!:'tn llUr!
'l mlk' pr5gn'ggrt' dy-Slhtttny . . . dryrvS "A copy of the letterthat Tattenaisent . . . to Dariusthe king."
):::
.'-'T Nf )D .'J f\rT:)n':l -'lirln' ;'lEn
ytbqqrbbyt gnzyy' dy mlk' tmmh dy bbbl in of of "Let asearch made thehouse records theking there Babylon." in be
Exercise 2a.
--- melek("king") + kesap ("silver")(Because shewa the first vowelof the is the word,it is pronounced.) 12A t'la:
il-l
tirl'T -ar
- lrrr
-+ bayrt
1 '
I I t-
---+Dau'n
i -,-\
rl -rJ :
rrirl-t-1-\
--E
--+ KetaD
--+ KetaDtl .i.-.lhtt
|
'l-l
rJ
n\pj;-r
U , / 'W 1 .'
:
|
l
hrr irlll
, / ) -J
-:
l|r F r n - / . t t
I l'-
-/t-
NliTl:l! ):: 'i'n'!u11 tiir! lilnn l);rr i): nrnl

malkTvntaqqrvprvn hdwO* 'al yer[*Selem wesalltlt-in bskol'dbar-nahara [*middan belo* wahdlak mitveheb laho*n Note that the first shewain li'l'l'lb represents absence a vowel and the of the secondrepresents murmuredvowel. a
Exercise 2b.
Distinguish shewas represent the that murmured-vowels those from that represent absence vowelsby transliterating the of these words: N?D: ("the silver"):kaspd (Theapostrophe in superscript, is indicating it is beingusedasa moter-consonant.)
IntroductoryLessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond:AnswersAppendix
:TVff il ("heknewyou"):h6*de'Ak 'antln pluralentities): llnlX ("you" for masculine 'amor-/n 'j'--fb$ ("those (The, vowelrepresentshere.): d who aresaying") l]ll ("building"): binyan
(The, vowelrepresentshere.): bdneyd 5 R]l? ("Theonewho is building") it (Theapostrophe in superscript, indicating is beingusedasa maleris consonant.)
2c. Exercise
in of This is thebeginning a letter,embedded the biblicalbookof Ena (4:l 1).Transcribe it:
'ri)! rn?u'-'t ;TjT N;-UN 1lD-lp - N?)EXnipUrin-l$ )! U;N NJiT:--llIJ :J"J:! '-1NIJ:I;I] N?)n) ntn) !'r: n:-$:l "'r
'iggartd dlv salahu*'alo*hTv parsegen danah 'al 'artah5aSte' malka-'abdavk 'EnaS'5bar-nahdrf, yehu"dayc d-i yedT)' lamalka'dTl r-r'*ka'enet lehewe but the yodhis not pronounced, is a graphic Notethatin thewordl'Jl! markthattheword is in theplural. 'ayin.Thisrepresents a to Notethat.!'1' hasan extraa-vowelattached the not and of in recent developrnent thepronunciation Aramaic does relatively in need be represented thetransliteration. to a Notethattheword Nln) has,in its first syllable, shortvowelandis the that vowel,e. Thismeans technically first followedby the ultra-short This is the exception therule. to is syllable an opensyllable. "This (is) a copyof the letterthattheysentto him:
Introductory Lessonsin Arqmaic by Eric D. Reymond: Answers Appendix
'To: Artaxerxes, king --- (From:)your servants, people Avarof the the Naharah. who Now, let it be knownto theking thattheJews/Judaeans . ."'
2d. Exercise
passage Ezra(5'.4)'. from the Transliterate following
NFit jtf* ii;r) r-r[l-t 'i:;?Nll!: ;11'l Nilll I]TFU '-T luN lE
'6dayin kenemd''dmaru* 1eh6*n gubrayya'dTv denal'binyana banayin man 'inn[*n Semahat doesnot fall on the final syllable.In where stress Note the four examples prevents what is a shortvowel frorn reducingand the threecases stress becominga murrnuredvowel. Then,thus,they askedthem: "What arethe namesof the men who arebuilding this building (lit., who this buildingarebuilding)."
2e. Exercise
script: Transcribe following(frornEzra5:5)into Ararnaic the 'dlahahon yeh["daye hdwat'al Sabcv wo'eYn wela'battil["'himmd'
NlJtil''lP )rl nll ]nl?* j'E'l
innr)n: s?t
But the eyeof their Godwas overthe eldersof the JewsiJudaeans
of officials)did not stopthem(i.e.,elders the andthey(thePersian Jerusalem). who Jews/Judaeans wereworkingon rebuilding
Introductory Lessonsin Aramqic by Eric D. Reymond: Answers Appendix
3a. Exercise
passage Ezra5.6,5'.17'. frorn the Transliterate following
x?)Bull:l Jv .'!Rnn?u 'T t{[t-UN llu-18

):lr'T N])D'.T Niill n':J i'.t4[t -li?:nl
'iggartddTv-Selah malkd . 'al tattanay . . darydwes par5egen div dtv yifbaqqar bsbevtginzayya malka'tamman bebabel Part3. havethefollowingforms: in Thepronouns Aramaic
Sineular
lcs "I"
;''illt
Plural 1cp"we"
"you" 2ms 2fs"you"

3ms "he" 3fs " she"
nl|! 'l-U||
!ll;''l
illn:N Efflt! /'ijfn!t! 2mp"you" 'iffllt 2fp"you" + "they" 'i:]!t\ (E.:inn I D..linil) 3mp
3fp"they" l'l$
lvi'l
pronouns. like in Theyareused manyrespects English
3b. Exercise
Basedon what you know of Aramaic orthographyand syllabification, the transliterate pronounsfrom the precedingchart:
Sinsular
lcs "I" '6na 'ant 'antty hD*' hTY'
Plural
lcp "we" 2mp "you"
'lnahndn 'ant6m / 'ant[*n
2ms"you"
2fs "you" 3ms "he" 3fs "she"
2fp "you"
3mp "they"
'antn
'inn[*n / himm6*/ himm6*n
3fo"they"
'inntyn
Exercise 3c.
that utilizingthe vocabulary into Translate followingsentences Aramaic, the followsthe exercise: 1.He is theking. 2.He is in thehouse. 3. We arein thehouse. 4. Theyarebeforetheking. all 5. Accordingly, arethere. the we 6. Before theywerethere, werebefore king.
*r;r 1 N?)D
2.Nf'13 t\l;1
3 n!::: nln!$
n1p 4 N?)p iux ): s nPn xpil

c'r17 6 N?)B nln:|\ilFnlr:NnDri2 lb
l0
nouns/adiecti ng chartfor masculine 4a: ln Exercise Fill in the followinschart tor mascullnenouns/adtectlves:
Noun/adj. sins. abs./cstr. emph./det. sing. plural abs.
pl. cstr.
l2 r'turifr)
'' t
pl. emph./det.
Ptttt! ("old")
Ni?'n!
N;P
I'i?'n!
-11.1 ? i .+? I
Nii?'n!
lp ("good", root:! 1 l!).

The : 6.
Nitp
-]'IJT NT
t-
I'IJT ("little") The : .
N-I'TJT
?rit
I :
lt?
t)/l
('Judg-ment"l\)'.7 l'? -T) 'i '

llE("mountain.")
I't'-l
r)t:T
l{tJ'--T $rl:lE
N-'nlJ
N D '!N
1I llr':1n
E'!l_1("wise")
Nrn'!n
)w ./
lp) ("tongue") N]ID) -a.

The :
*,tttil
l f
NT]U)
)jJ ("voice", root: N , D
,I')D
I I t
,,D
N:')D
t -lr
)tPl
The
a
ts rr \t tt.!
l$U ("remnant") The : a.
t\ t ||\\u t :
'l':$u
'-]NiD
N!-INU
Exercise4b:
I /es: lll ln tne Io owlng cnart or remlnle no pluralabs. pl. cstr. emph./det. Noun/adj. cstr.sing. sing. abs.sing.
I ll.)
It
pl. emph./det.
t'l)'t
I tl)
t-
t t)J
NFi?'nq
('attTyqta)
ll'
ilz
l'lY
t tI t' ) t ' t v
Nli?'n!
Nn:b
("old")
NFl:b
?:t
l?t
1"good", root:! 1 ll)
(tabta )
F-rt ltt I I -I| ) / l
;1-l'lji
("little")
NN:'IJ]
i | )/r
t -r:.r F?
It
| |
I )Jl
"i
!qnl.lIJT
i''T?rfn
("crimg")
n)1r[
n'l'n
n|J)1:n
Nrllnn
-it-'!F?
$n)rrn
Nn't'n
nl'n
("animal", root: N '
T't'n
lt "
n]'n
n)
1l
IntroductoryLessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond.AnswersAppendix
:.lhrin
t-
l'rlrtin
NFn'!n
ti
lnt=]n
It
-/\r:F?
!qinn!n
tt
("wise")
I rl4 l:| ("charitv")
-lnr;t':l
?I-
r r;/ l;l
I i :-J l 'l_rt'I
$rji2'13.
(sidqetd )
li?rs
j'.tEt 1E1'r
I ll,
It
l5
:'
$[ri?-]s
NNE'DR
7 f l -
!$j?'i?R
N-l9g (sipperd )
n?'i?n
r lEl
("strong")
t:J5
t35
J'lEg
I\T]Bts
7_:
(srppar) ("bird")
is emphatic/determined Noticethatthel'l of the ltfi- endingin the singular (or (or not trsually spirantized hard),thoughit is spirantized soft)in the by whenthis final l'l is preceded an words"little" and"animal".Apparently, spirantized. e vowel(..) it becomes Exercise 4c.
sing.abs./cstr sing. emoh./det pl. abs.
pl. cstr.
pl. emph./det.
E)I ("image")
)^!J! ("master") l[i_l ("wine")
s?)g
N)r!
I'n)s
1 i -(' 1 t= i : |
'n)s
Nrn)g
N:')ljl
$-rtrn
N:T]IJ
1r -tr\n
l:-
'-'1Dl_]
"|'lJ I l
N!'-]nn
t -: -
13,p ("slave") ("gate") ^UllFl
I'rl! j'!Jn
N!':T:JJ $:'ljlFI
$lllrr
Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond. Answers Appendix
12
5a. Exercise
root .Tlf{ m.s.abs. ("to f.s. abs. m. pl. abs f. pl. abs.
rt$
)$u
i''1E11
;.'T'Tt$
t:t
j'':rl$
T')NUJ
| -:t
llr$
i )nu
lt_:t
Derish")
)NU ("to ask for or request")
;.I)NU
:'?:'181'l
pB) ("togo
out")
1 | i'lE11
I rai
?-nt
tlr i t
p)D ("to come uD") 1!!J ("to do,

makg")
| 1l) /U
lr :
lr(a
1 I -?-t 1 ' = ft |
It i r
'-l:i N?)F)p i':np Nt;-tS

The men of the land are writing to (use )!
Exercise 5b.
for "to") the king.
n?)n r:$ N{-rn-)rl N?N?F

at Thegoodking is not perishing the gate.
'ilttt-r -rBl )*p N?rE:l ]n
(:'i'l:ll$ ) wine Theking'ssonis requesting fromhisfather
nlii N??n i'TP'il!

of The decree the kine is old.
rsF-trr -\rr t\f'f r;t|\ | /t) \r. I r :- . | ,..../ )') n?L,'-]: to A sonis sending a kingtheletter.
N?l IJ'll $F'lt-'r

Thewise sonknows. of the indicates absence underthelamedh NB: In theword l:)E the shewa "sofil."How wouldyou be ableto a vowel,thoughthekaphis pronounced of indicates absence a vowelandnot a murmured the predictthatthis shewa vowel?
Introductory Lessonsin Arqmaic by Eric D. Reymond: Answers Appendix 13
*malek[*, thenthatwouldmean first the If thewordwerepronounced (*ma-lesyllable unaccented a contained shortvowelin an open, syllable Notealsothatin theplural in situation Aramaic. k[*). This is an intolerable 'i]:?F, means only the that of the sequence two shewas form of this word, vowel,thusmalkewdn. a representsmunnured second
5c. Exercise
sing.abs. :l-'l' i'l_l "illumination"
: F?N]FI
sing.cstr.
slng. emnh./det.
pl. abs.
pl. cstr.
pl emph./det.
nl:';i:
Nn:i-t'i''T:
$Frt
l'n'i]l
lr:
nl-'l'iil
t:
;"needs"
n:lnul_'T
Nt tlt t\!JtI
t:-
FlttFl
rrnttin
IIltn/JtI
trFr
NilililiJt
t t-: :
FittF
perhaps represents Notethatin thepluralformsof "illumination"the shewa not. vowel,perhaps a murmured Exercise 5d.
sins. ab
t
sing.cstr.
sins.emph.
pl. abs.
pl
$nll']
i t1)/iJ
XXXXXX
not attested
cstr. XXXXXX
not attested
pl. emph.
XXXXXX
not attested
("greatness")
$nlJJl
XXXXXX
not attested
XXXXXX
not attesled
XXXXXX
not attested
("request") The : a. llJ'("moon")
n:l
-t
Nnl'
I'nr:
':,r-tEtn | !='i
'n--ll
'-l!?
t Jr.':T
Ntnl'
I _ i -
-l!D("scribe") iEln -a. The : r '':T Jrr':l T l lr ('Judge") The : A. ;-'T)$1"God"; n)N The,:a. Theil is part ofthe root and is not replaced by llin the cstr.. etc.
The : -a.
$rlc
N]'':T
It:'lDc
Nrlt.l
tt -
l':tl
'l'i''T)N
tr:
NiT)$
';''T)N
N:it?r3
'f ("priest") i'TJ l;r?
N)n!
l-: ?
| )t12
Nrl;''T!
l_: t
14
5e. Exercise
of on the Complete followingchartbased theparadigm f[
cstr. sine. sins.abs. i tJ v,J il),P ("year")
sing.emph. pl. abs.
.llll ?t
ol. cstr.
..:
pl. emph.
$rjtq (?) $rjnN $nr!
lta
N'litJ '-: $rE$

Nr:l!
irFl
("nation")
I i'iJ
nn!r
nt-t
J'BN
1r.r ':1
t-
' E$
("window")
IntroductoryLessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond.AnswersAppendix
l-s
Exercise 6a.
G-Perfect D-perfect H-oerfect
3ms 3fs
''
-:-
-qiq
2ms 2fs
lcs
l'lJl
t i - i t : - i
lJ
i l'l-ri iJ
/EqEl
r-*q i l-l'lJ _ t i -
/FqF-r l'l-rl'lJ
l ldi lJi I / l'lJi

t : ' : - I I : -
rriqq
/EqEqa
lJr I
i ''t : - : t J Jt
':-
r-qA-r l'lil lJt
'::_
''
'' : : -
3mp 3fp
-:
:rrn-r
I l-I'lJ
t'-
2mp 2fp
trFtF-
lqFqF-
lii'rJi_rJ I i'r-Jr_rJ
l'r'rJi'rl Ii'lJi'rf
rr!FrrF-ii'lJi'lJt f rFlF-t
i i'rJi'lJr_i
lcp
N)ln!
$)tn!
N;:Fr:il
Exercise 6b.
gender, Parse following forms (indicatingstem,person, the number,and filI in the blanks: root) and
rP?P("the), up")G-3ms p)o came Nln?n ("wesalted") lcpn )n Gn)U sent") G-2mp Jlnn?U("ysu -lPf ;rll?l ("they inquired") D-3fu found") H-2fp n:U lnfjlUil ("you nlnl ("! sat") lll' G-lcs
Introductory Lessonsin Arqmqic by Eric D. Reymond: Answers Appendix
L6
6c. Exercise
and Transliterate translatethe following forms:
;-TnlJJ? lQ)n E:n ?n i':T-lED Nl?2 jil:nil 'n'.!'[J :lfi?l$
ba'[*tah, herrequest your(ms)dream helm4k, your(mp)word millatkdm, his siprEh, word qalana ourvoice , their hamrehn, (fp) wine mY heywetTy, animal your (ms)charity sidqetak,
(The plural for "slave" is like the plural for "king", in 1. my slaves']l! daleth,recallsthe that the "soft" pronunciationof the third consonant, pronunciation the plural form of this word: *'abadTn.) of archaic plural to this word) NJ'lf the 2. oursons(remember unpredictable '!!)B ( ) 3 . y o u r f e m .s i n g . k i n g
6d. Exercise
EilnJ: ?E (masc.) kingdoms 4. their

2u ). ner woro rlt-|: _
| l rrLx
letter:l|:l* sing.) 6. your(masc. plural)NJ'D|\ (remember unpredictable the 7. our nations

d. mv Crlmes I r t/'t-l I
er rt--
i:Til:l-l'i'll 9. hrsrllumlnatlon jnnl:-l 10.their(fem.)greatness pl.) I l. your(fem. judge.'if';il l2 hisneedsnn][Ui-f
'u
'r,
, '
6e. Exercise triln?Tl |ti:rE "=T of L thedecreesthekings

of 2. theservants/slavesthe nation NfE$ "l i:l'-ll! of 3. the scribes the land lt|-t$ "l ;"1'l!? of 4. theneeds the children tttl: 'T EililJi:lUlf God il?* 'n)? ':r Eilnfl:i:t serving of 5. thecrimes those the of 6. therequest the onesending letter$lill$ nrp "l nnllJ?
Introdactory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond: Answers Appendix I7
7. Thejudges of the nation madethe imageof the old king. They said to (for "in" their children (use )! for "to"): "We are writing in our language use3, for "language"usethe word for "tongue").
lrl! N?)F "T nn)g *qn$ "l i-1..:1'l Np'tllJ *;iry)r 1'ln? iljnll3'r E;J'!r )! l-rp$
Note how somebegadkepot Notice how the verbscomefirst in the sentence. or are consonants spirantized, soft, due to the influenceof a vowel flom a precedingword. Also, note how the particle'J can mark direct speech.
from Ezra 5:l I -l 2,vocalizingthe two the Translate following passage unpointedforms. For words you do not know, usethe vocabularylist that follows the passage.
6f. Exercise
lTuil 'T-'injil? ;-T?N N!.E||J NlnT?$

N'.ltD:):l-1)n
,';1i'11! ibil Njn:$ Np-r*] N:.DU;'r?*-"1 -rs:_rfll; -T:3'lb;'] lil'
We are the servantsof the God of heavenand earth . . . the our . . . But, because fathersangered God of heaven, king of the he gavethem into the handof the Nebuchadnezzar, Chaldaean Babylon. Notice how the 3mp pronouncan be usedas the equivalentof the verb "to be". Notice also how the adjective"Chaldaean"doesnot follow the word that it directly modifies,"king".
18
Exercise7a.
G-imperfect D-imperfect H-imperfect Alternative form of the Hstem with no i'J
3ms 3fs
'
'' : - :
:n:Ft
lFl:F]
-Jl'tJl'l
2ms 2fs lcs
:f?t'l
tllE--
''
''
:n:n
I I rf L-t-n
I +l'lJi'l
l r --lr - r r i n rJt
i
tt-rF-!F I -,it' i-Jt lt' r
i+).r-J)-r
rn:$
lr.'lftl
lrl:i]N
:n:|t
3mp 3fp
lrrn:l
lJ'r;
rrt-fF--t
i'iJi'r-J
tt;-:
i'i-rl rtF-rii I t:
lJl
-:
ii-tFqF
rtq-tF
2mp 2fp
llJr'r-Jyr
I 1Ji'rJi'l i - i ' r J_t; ' r
li-\F-rtF tt-ttE
lt:
| 1-lt' r-Jt I t' l
I t q h q F
l::-
I 1-li't-Jl't r - J l ' t J l ' -l
l;nrn
tr:
i - i ' l J t - i: i ' l :
It::
lcp
Exercise 7b.
gender, Parse following forms,describing the stem,person, number:
jninG3fs; G2ms
tit-tn
jr )bnnD2mp
]?tt'l D. 3fp rrirL-r .t
uJ+ /t_rj rr rcp
I i r ' r J l ' tu r I S
4n
nlU|! FVAlcs
t9
7c. Exercise
! In the followingchart,theprepositions and! -. like ) in theirform. The prepositions]F ED aresimilarto eachotherin thattheybothactually and (i.e.,minnand'imm),something is only that radical second havea doubled by in indicated the orthography a dot whena suffix followsthem.The as prepositiotrt andE]liJ bothtakesuffixes if theywerepluralnouns. ).U Fill out theblanksin the followingchart.
,
':1
?n
Ff!
rr ft rLrfl
U tl.)
'ill'?t tr:
lcs
.1,
r.:l
t.)n
'r
lj\ ft
2ms 2fs 3ms 3fs lcp 2mp Zfp 3mp 3fp
\J
It
1?
:1?
:?f 11
tf
Ttjrf )
lr -
-?'r lt-lI t tlr:
t:,
':iE
i':'Tl
i'T:1 :1=1
t:t ?!
=tj\ ll
r - r Al /- l
)
tl/
a,
i'l.1n
'ili rlj
=r tr !,1
r-iA-| .| ttl
tl/ ? Ir:
a2
$))
=lj\
f 't
a'ntD
? lr:
N)t
?-
Nll
N)ln
Fith
$)E!
F-lljtt)
$;'?! E:.)!
'i-F lft l+ ..1
$)'b'TD
T ' IT:
E:)
rrb
l+i
F-trr,r-,t-t tl .)l(
!-'rl.\-\J I t)
lll
lJr liJ
r -1.! f',l
- -llj\ n
tl,/ t lYl
Ei],
t--.ll..t
Fl-ix\
ft
E;t')g
lrt I /),t
F-'rh-t)t I
t)' ' |,2 r lr:
J;1)
lilf
lil!
? -..1'\ )tt:
lt !
1-X\ f t lt.r)4
t-rltr--
r lr.1 +,rli
7d. Exercise
sing. abs. sing.cstr. sing.
emph./det. pl. abs.
rir li.l
lr:t
pl cstr
'?l?
("Babvlonian")
rlit):r
t:-
')lf
r:tft:
t:-
N'):!
rrr:ftt=
tt : _
': ?l?
r t ?ftr-]
'' t : -
pl. emph./det.
tt')ll
N":TU!
t I r.:?|,n.1
lri-
("Chaldaean")
2{)
7e. Exercise
the passage Ezra4:14-15, vocalizing six forms from Translate following the list withoutvowels.For wordsyou do not know,usethevocabulary that followsthepassage.
-'-r s!:'n n?n ):p-); iU: $ln?n

N? s;? $:inn! -T'-'to N?)pn1:!! )! )u N? ) x:uii;rl NlrJ ;r:-r)p
:lf|J?}3':T Nl:JfJ--llof -li2ll ':T
.tr--rt n-?r-ltf --?-tr llJllllll-Jlt | - ) / l ) r-l l 2 l ) l : : t r

| : l:
-!-t t
:r'
= . ? r D n r - t i - 1 t - ?, tl,/'l ll,/ lr\rl

I I T : :,'
(or, the the we Now, because havedonated saltof thepalace eaten saltof the palace), of it is not properfor us to seethedishonor theking. knownto theking of Because this,we havesent(word)andwe havemade of in sothathe mightsearch thebookof records your fathers; in and youwill find (thefollowing) thebookof records youwill understand kings. city, thatthiscity is a rebellious injuring Notice followingpoints: the "donate saltof thepalace" more mightbe translated 1. Thephrase the Bothphrases salt into idiomatically Englishas"donate to thepalace". king wasgivento him. indicate whatwasowedto the Persian that line,which linksthe of at 2. Thewaw conjunction thebeginning the second is phrase the mainclause, not translated. to subordinate Thus,in to 3. Aramaicoftendoesnot specitrobjects verbsthatareobvious. for Englishit is necessary supplywordsin parentheses sense. to to actingasan adjective word is a participle, 4. Noticehow thenext-to-last is with the followingword. theword "crty", andtheparticiple in construct
Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond: Answers Appendix 2l
8a. Exercise
one DooK 1lI i:.11,
from twoletters twokings'i'f)E j.':n ln j]lN j'lll[
.-L* qFr or.l'!?D r'Ji-]tln ]'ll$ 'l=i-ln 'i'-f from scribes !Q ;fVl-lt! lF I'iJ:l ilF?n records four three
(i.e., in fiveyears sixcountries lands)'i'!i$ nUl J'ltlJUn[ palaces eight kingdoms )D il;?n b i'):'1 il|lU for seven ll? 'i"r:9 niJUn j.'btt for nine these slaves tencities ll-1i2rtp!? -fq! flf il-l.Ul 't='l''l[lb l'--f:J nations'i'nN men eleven fromtwelve houses thirteen l't'i+ ftP! nn?n thefirstsonN'F-'lP N-ll NflS-TPNll!)D thefirstkingdom city thesecond N|illn Nfll ? N'n' tn N:lI thethirdman
Nn'IJ':-l Nn.l'n thefourthanimal
8b. Exercise
7.1-7. Read Daniel Danielsawa dream King 7:1 In the first yearof Belshazzar,u of Babylon, him frightened overhisbed. of andthevisions hishead (down). . . Thenhe wrotethe dream in and 7.2Daniel answered said:"I sa*o in my.vision thenight:four'winds (i.e.,theMediterranean). werestiningup the greatseao of theheavens this beasts cameup from the sea, onedifferingfrornthat." 7:3 Four great watched 7.4Thefirst (was)like a lionf andit hadswingsof an eagle.I and out while its wingswereplucked andit waslifted up from the ground it h A human heartwasgiven liki over(its) feet. to wasmade stand a human, to it.
Introductory Lessonsin Aramqic by Eric D. Reymond: Answers Appendix
22
up 7:5 Then,another one,like a bear(came from the sea). animal, second a It wasraised onesideandthreetusks(or,ribs)werein its mouth,between to ' It wastold.r 'Rise,eatmuchflesh'. its teeth. (beast) like a leopard. hadfour It was 7:6 After this,I watched another and Dominion wasgiven had wingsof a bird on its back.Thebeast fourheads. to it. (was) 7.7 Afterthis I watched the visionsof thenight.Thefourthbeast in It frightful,tenifoing,andstrong. had great teethof iron.It ate, extremely thanall and on demolished, the restit stamped with its feet.lt wasdifferent k of horns. it it before (since) hadtenpairs theotherbeasts which(were)
Notes u Observethat the standard way for indicatingthe year of a king's reign is to havethe word for "year" in constmctbeforea cardinalnumber.This is ) followedby the preposition plus the nameof the king. tf we were . translatingtoo literally we would get: "In year one belongingto Belshazzar o The predicate hereis madeup of a participle(illll) and a perfectform of "to be" (l.]t']D) 'The word:l-lN which is traditionally "1o",doesnot needto be so translated lt in translated every instance. functionsto mark the beginningof a new or section new point. o The ) preposition "sea" indicatesthat "sea" is the direct that precedes object.
" NotetheidiomN:l-lD Nl r Thisclause no verb.Thepredicate theprepositional phrase "like a has is lion". s This clause is through the alsodoesnot havea verb.Possession expressed ) preposition.
Introductory Lessonsin Arsmqic by Eric D. Reymond: Answers Appendix
23
n Theword is herea dualform, indicating two specifically legs.The "its" possessive is based thecontext thepassage. of on i Theword for teethis in the dual,suggesting setsof teethor jaws. two j way, is Thepluralform of the activeparticiple hereusedin an impersonal verb. as andtranslated if it werea passive
* Theword for hornsis in the dual.
lntroductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond:AnswersAppendix
21
9a. Exercise
Fill out the following chart for the verb l[]1, consultingthe paradigmsin ix as needed. the Answer
Perfect G-nass. D-pass.Perf. H-pass.Perfect
3ms 3fs
'r|:|-l
lFqq
l - J l ' l J f l l ) t ' t ) t- : '

hqF-q /FrF--
qF:-
itiirJ
I l:i
lJ
l l J l- ': l: 1 . l- i : t i / i l ; l ' l J l J
2ms 2fs 1cs
l'lJllJii'lJilJ r-rr riq t ' t - J i ' il J
-rrAq
/ F-tF-
l't-ii'tJ
: : - r .
l'lJi'lJr
: : _ : a . : : - i t
Fq---
I / i'lJi'lJr
, r--d--
/-lFq-
I '
r |:l-'l t':t-l
.--i--
l ''li -- l: lr '.liJ itf -
, /
l' l-l'l-Jr
FqFtt
It-J IrJ
I i-t
tJ
liJl'lJt
l/lEi'tJt-l
/FqFq-
3mp 3fp
r:ri:
't
'l llJ
)r'l;)
r l-J - '-l J r ' il

-qli-q
r r-i--t | / ' l - J i ' l - :t? J

r --ri-r-
ri-i
rlJi'lJ
i l-'il lJr i / r i-il'lJt
rrF:iF-
2mp 2fp
ir'rJ i lJ
F-r
ttFiEq
tattEq-
l'lr'rjr'_rJ
trFtF-
1
I
,llJl-lJr
i'l-l_lJl
, /
i /
,..--F]i:
1'll'Ei'l-.
| l'.1-l'l-.
,
?
I F!i
llr-
irJ
i r'r-Jr_lJ
i a E r - - -
lcp
$):'n!
Nl:li?
Nlfrifil / Nllnfil
t : - : 1 . f | i
25
Exercise 9b.
left Fill out the spaces blank in the following chart and answerthe following uestr ons.
tG-Perfect tD-Perfect tG-Imperfect tD-Imoerfect
3ms 3fs
-.,n!ni]
F-F-FT? I t-,lt t:Jt tt I
rilnir ri:r't!ni]
:n!r'1'
-ii liJi ti'l
-'i
-ti'tJt ll'r
2ms 2fs lcs
t't-ll t;Jl tr I
: : i :
h t F t F -
rr:nlnn
r--riq-t'l-li't;Ji tr I
FqEqEq
:n!nri
r'lqF-iFF
ll't;Jl
.r.aF|--l:-i
['r
r--liq-r l ' 'l :-" l: li l J l
lr i
I Ji.riJr.ri'l
i -Jt'r;Ji ||'r
l'i:l]!lti'l
I El'lJl
ll I
tFi!n$
3mp 3fp
'rl-Ji i- n .t:J:t t t I
-rliqn-
qF ' 't i J -i F l- J l
--:
lr i
lr i
lti-ttt
tt-l
ilJt rJt I
l.'jl lJl I
ir-F-Ft
i1-,it'rJt I I
r ill
lJl lr I
-ri--r l.jl'lJl
l-ri'lJl
tr:-:
2mp zfp
lcp
tr-i-t-t l:_-: trtF-rF-Frt

| :
l'il'lJi'lJi
lr I
it-!FqFF
llJi
tqFqEF
rJt ri'l
iI-F-FF
|
l l
1Ji',r;Ji li'r ll'I
i t t - J t '- t- ; J t t r I I
lJi rJi ri'l
rt--FF
r J l ' li i J_l:
N):n!ni']
N)rFt!ni''T
:n!n)
. j t '-r- J t t l i
in between tG-perfect the and 1. Whatarethedistinctions thevowelpatterns those the G-perfect? of has has While theG-perfect anlal-vowel(li!, 'llti!), thetG-perfect
-
l a n / e / - V O w e l ( - J i . . l J i . l r . l O t / l / - V O W O l( ' l - J i . l J i . l t .J . )
-rirrr
how manydifferentformscouldnfn:ni'l 2.In a text lackingvowelmarkers, represent? Whatarethey? perfect forms: tG-3fs, tG-2ms, tG-lcs;tD-3fs,tD-2ms, Six different tD-1cs
26
But, giventhe in 3. Thereareno tG or tD imperatives BiblicalAramaic. chart, whatwouldthe imperfect formsyou'vewrittendownin the above imperative formsof thetG andtD look like, if theydid occur? tG-stem m.s. f.s.
m.p. L DT.. : : r
qF-F-
tD-stem
-tFttF-
-'ji'lJl
"iI
l, I
rqi-rn- J. ':t: l 't J
tt I
J i ' i_ _ : l t I Ji ,r-ri--J. _ J : t't .t tt I r' - l . i - r - l Jl'l- - : Jl -li--I t-Jt'tJt

T--:
'lJi'lJi.tr.l t l-li'iJi
J-r-
il 1 tt I
it I
in If sing. 4. There tG- or tD- participles BiblicalAramaic. themasc. are look formsare,respectively lFlnn andlljJflD, whatdo theotherforrns like? tD-stem tG-stem
tFrnn il+nlnn
t t -l F]=li'.r I +l.r+).rt-J l-\F-Ftr l-Jt rJt r{J
-jt'tJt
--F-F'.
t:-;
-F-Ftr
ilJ
l{J
I lJl'lJl
t |l r\ F-F'a
I Jf'rJt
r{J
il-J
rr-F-Fta tJt'tJf - :
lT:
Exercise 9c.
Translate slightlysimplified version Daniel7:8-10: of this 8. u I was considering horns and another,small horn cameup betweenthem, the o and three of the first hornswere rootedup from before it. Lo, eyes,like the eyesof a human,'(were)in this horn and a mouth speaking greatthings. 9. I was watchinguntil throneswere set up and the Ancient of Daysd sat down, his garment(was) white like snow and the hair of his headlike pristine wool; his throne (was) flames of fire, its wheels a burning fire.
10. A river of fire was flowing and coming forth from beforehim (or, it); thousands) a million (i.e., a thousand servedhim and one hundredmillion (i.e., ten thousand myriads) stoodbeforehim; the court sat down and bookswere opened.
Notes uNoticethat the verb )fU in the tD-stemtakesa beth-preposition a as In complement. otherwords,in Biblical Aramaic,one doesnot say"I x, J, considered y, or 2", ratherone usesthe preposition which would result "[ in the unidiomatic Englishtranslation: was considering the horns". in oThe preposition'f is here b translated "of'. as 'Literally, the phrase would be: "like the eyesof the human".
u The Ancient
of Days is apparently title, literallymeaning"the agedone," a presumably refersto God. and
28
Exercise 10a.
Basedon the two examples above,you shouldbe ableto predictthe -lDlt following forms. Fill in the blanks of the chart ( for the G-Imperfect andJDN): -IEN]
G-Imoerfect G-Imoerative
3ms 3fs 2ms 2fs

lcs
:NNFl
XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX
-'18$r'l
rnN 'lFs
XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX llb$
J'-rnNr-]
-'rn$
l:1-'lnN'
3mp 3fp Zmp Zfp

lcp
llnNl
lrrnNn
lJDNfr
tn$l
;r-tnN
XXXXXXXX
Exercise 10b.
List thepossible rootsI?om whichthese formsrnightderive look verbal and up the correct root in the Answers Appendix. L NU 2.=l 3 lP? 4.91 'll'l;'Tt-l 5. NID: G: "to lift" li'T' G: "to give" P!: G: "to go out";H: "to takeout" JJ-'fnG: "to know" "llN G: "to perish"; "to destroy" H:
Introductory Lessonsin Arqmaic by Eric D. Reymond: Answers Appendix
29
Exercise 10c.
version Daniel7:11-14. of Translate slightlysimplified this 11. of I waswatching thenbecause the sound thepowerfulwordsthatthe of hornwasspeaking; waskilled, I waswatching until thebeast givento a burningo fire. andits bodywas 12. As for therestof thebeasts, was theirdominion rernoved; in but long life (lit., lengthing life) wasgivento themfor a time anda season. 13 I sawin thevisions thenight, of (someone) a human (lit., a sonof man) andwith theclouds heaven, of like wascoming, andhe approached Ancientof Daysandwasbrought the beforehirn. 14. Dominion, honor, kingship and weregivento him, (lit., andall thepeoples, nations, cultures tongues) the and wereserving him; (was)an eternal his dominion dorninion wouldnotpass that away; his kingshiponethatwouldnot be destroyed.
Notes uNoticethatthepreposition as lE canbe translated "liom" and"because of." Thetwo wordsin Englisharealsosometimes interchangeably. used o Theword nli?] (theconstruct nli?]) is surprising of because would one Thishasbeenexplained a Hebrew pronunciation, expect the .. to reduce. as andtheword asa loan-word BiblicalAramaic, in from BiblicalHebrew. It mightbe,however, the symbol .. represents that e.
30
lla Exercise
this slightly simplifiedversionof Ezra 5:6-10;the first verseyou Translate have alreadyseenbefore. 6. and Copy of the letter that Tattenai,governorof Beyond-the-River, his sent the colleagues, officialsof Beyond-the-River, to Darius,the king. 7. A letter they sent and it is written as follow in its interior: "To Darius,King, (May) all (be) well. 8. Let it be known to the king that we went to Jehud,the province, to the greattemple of God (or, to the templeof the greatGod),u and it is beingbuilt (out of) "rolled" stone. . .; this work is being donediligently and is prosperingin their hands. 9 Then we askedtheseeldersthus, to sayingb them: "Who gave" you a commandto build this temple, andthis wall to finish?" l0 Also, we askedthem their namesfor the purposeof informing you (of everything), ., of the name(s) the men who weretheir leaders.' so that we might write
Notes uBecause adjectiveagrees number,gender,and statewith both nouns, in the that it modifieseithernoun. God andtemple,it is possible b Literally, "we saidto them". 'The verb is EnU.usuallvtranslated set". "to dLiterally, those"who were amongtheir heads".
in IntroductoryLessons Aramcticby Eric D. Reymond:AnswersAppendix 31
llb Exercise
of several the versionof Ezra5:11-13, Translate slightlysimplified this versesyou havealreadyseenbefore. ll. Accordingly,they retnrned us a reply saying. to "We a.re servantsof the God of heavenand earth the and (we) are building the temple that was built beforethis, many years(ago)
12. "But, because fathersangered God of heaven, the our king of he gavethem into the handof the Nebuchadnezzar, Chaldaean the Babylon, and andthis templehe destroyed the peoplehe exiledto Babylon. 13. "Nevertheless, the first year(lit., yearone)of Coresh, King of Babylon, in Coresh, king, gavean orderto build this ternpleof God." the
Exercise lc. l
all abouttheverbalforms.Describe the Givenwhatyou havelearned possible roots)for the followingverbalform. verbalforms(andthe possible yourlist against onein theAnswers Appendix: the Check I l:i 2 i:':T 3. i::T 4. l:i 5. l:i 6. lll 7. lli perfect fromI'T (G: "to judge") G-3mp root *i'l:':T G-3mpperfectfrom the imaginary root fromtheimaginary *i'l::l G--.p. imperative root imperative fromtheimaginary *'i1) (G-3ms G-m.p. *j-ll) imperfect' root fromtheimaginary *jT' (G-3ms imperative G-m.p. *lTl'.) imperfect: perfect root fromtheimaginary *l:T G-3mp root imperative fromtheimaginary *'i):T(G-3ms G-m.p. *'i-T:) imperfect:
32
Introductory Lessonsin Arqmctic by Eric D. Reymond: Answers Appendix
Exercise 1ld.
several the of version Ezra5:14-17; of Translate slightlysimplified this you seen before. verses havealready 14. "Also,thevessels thetemple God,of goldandsilver, of of which(was)in had whichNebuchadnezzar takenout from thetempleu Jerusalem; hebrought that themto thetemple (was)inoBabylon; that(was)in Babylon Coresh, king, tookthemout from thetemple the had . andtheyweregivento Sheshbazzar.. whomhe (Coresh) setup (as) governor. 15. "He saidto him: 'Takethese go themin thetemple vessels; anddeposit whichis in Jerusalem, of andlet thetemple Godbe built on its place.' 16. "Then, of the came this Sheshbazzar and'laid(lit., gave) foundations the temple Godwhich(is) in Jerusalem of (lit., being under construction it hasbeen andfromthenuntilnow it hasbeen built)andit is not completed." 17. "Now,d theking findsit good(lit., if [it is] goodto theking), if (lit., treasures) theking there of of let a search madein thehouse records be in Babylon; to was the if it is (thecase) from Coresh, king, a command made build that of thetemple God,which(is) in Jerusalem, with this (lit., [is] overthis), king is in accord andthewill of the (present) (then)let him send us (wordaboutthis)." to Notes uIn Biblical Aramaic "temple,"the therearetwo wordsthatcanbe translated "house." second, ):'ii, is a wordthat The first of whicht-ltJ, alsomeans goes backto Sumerian. b TheAramaic "the which wordsmightbe moreliterallyrendered temple !, (was)of Babylon"since thereis no preposition "in". It sohappens,
IntroductoryLessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond:AnswersAppendix 33
however,that this prepositionis frequentlydroppedbeforewords that begin with beth.Thus,the translationabove("which was in Babylon") is the correctone. 'Notice that thereis no conjunctionbetweenthe two verbsin Aramaic.
dThis word often functionsas a signalthat the topic is shiftingor changing.
34

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in IntroductoryLessons Aramaic:Introduction

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond

plural first person common

ForNouns sing. singular pl. plural

Introductory Lessonsin Aramqic by Eric D. Reymond

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond

beth gimmel doleth

yodh kaph lomed mem nun samekh 'ayin

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond

sadeh qoph reslt sin shin tuw

Introductory Lessons Aramaicby Eric D. Reymond in

("he wrote"and"shewtote") -INN 'l-lnN ("he said"and"they said")

("he writes" and "they write")

ptgm' ("message") mdh ("tribute") 5lm "well-being") ("peace," ,r,

("land" and "the land")

E)ut-r' ttn l'!'pn l':)n )u

lrn)rn'nn lbnrr): ntnr

Nf )n lD''ln"'t'T )ls ...':Fln n)u n-lNn-lr$JltD-l!

'-Ti'Tnn N:)n 'J N:T:ln'll

"Let a search madein the house records theking therein Babylon." be of of

Introductory Lessons Aramaicby Eric D. Reymond in

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond

pronounced the I in marksthe short/i/ sound, conventionally like "pit."

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond

j'f n)ul:. )tJitn 'i'!'i?n )D n;il! :l! ):: 'i'E')u1

n]l? ("The onewho is building")(The , symbol representshere,as a il,.) does

Remember: pronounced. vowels($ A,!f d, S d) arealways Theultra-short

Vocabulary: Prepositions: 2 :"to" or "for"

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond

g (conventionally, distinctionis madein pronunciation) no

d like or is d (pronounced theth in"that," nodistinction made)

k (pronounced like the ch in"Chutzpah," identicalto I-l)

p (pronounced ph in "phone") like

like ! (pronounced the th in"thick" or "these")

Introductory Lessons Aramaicby Eric D. Reymond in

'T NrT)I n'lr

Part3. Thepronouns Aramaic in havethe followingforms:

;']iN ffl$ tnl$ ll:1;1

+ "they" 'l:l)N (E.:'lnn / D.:'J]bil) 3mp

Plural lcp "we"

2mp"you" 2fp "you" 3mp"they"

Introductory Lessonsin Arqmaic by Eric D. Reymond

: N]?F ;'Ut_t I amtheking.

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond

bl, )! : "all" (kol) (alsospelled kol;

m. T ?n : "king"(N??D: "theking") 'iltDlP: "copy" m.

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond

lD, n). S, D,JJ,5, ir,-1, lD,

lFD : book absolute: -i!D : bookof construct: -; emphatic/determined:NJ?D : thebook

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond

$F"l' nIJ (' a-1ly{-ta')

plural abs.: const.: emph./det.:

plural abs.. const.: emph.idet.:

Introductory Lessonsin Arqmaic by Eric D. Reymond

Exercise Fill in thefollowi 4a:

chafi for masculine nouns/adi ectlves:

'fi:1 ('Judgment", t) root: i l:ll!("mountain.") Et!l_'l ("wise")

jp r ("ton$ue) ("voice"; root:

lltU ("remnant") -a. The :

Exercise4b: Fill in the followin chartfor feminienouns/adi trves:

1"good", root:! 1 lf)

Introductory Lessonsin Arqmqic by Eric D. Reymond