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    Aramaic Scripts For Aramaic Languages by Peter T Daniels

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    Anonymous y83ITj4nw6
    This document provides an overview of the Classical Syriac script. It discusses the origins of the Syriac script and its development over centuries. There were three main varieties of Syriac writing: Estrangelo, the oldest form, and two others that emerged during a schism in the Syrian church. The document describes the Syriac writing system including different consonants, vowels, and optional dots used to indicate pronunciation. It provides samples of text in Syriac scripts and their transliterations along with analyses. The bibliography cites numerous sources on Aramaic, Classical Syriac, and related scripts.

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    Aramaic Scripts For Aramaic Languages by Peter T Daniels

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    Anonymous y83ITj4nw6
    228 views8 pages
    This document provides an overview of the Classical Syriac script. It discusses the origins of the Syriac script and its development over centuries. There were three main varieties of Syriac writing: Estrangelo, the oldest form, and two others that emerged during a schism in the Syrian church. The document describes the Syriac writing system including different consonants, vowels, and optional dots used to indicate pronunciation. It provides samples of text in Syriac scripts and their transliterations along with analyses. The bibliography cites numerous sources on Aramaic, Classical Syriac, and related scripts.

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    Aramaic Scripts for Aramaic Languages by Peter t Daniels

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    This document provides an overview of the Classical Syriac script. It discusses the origins of the Syriac script and its development over centuries. There were three main varieties of Syriac writing: Estrangelo, the oldest form, and two others that emerged during a schism in the Syrian church. The document describes the Syriac writing system including different consonants, vowels, and optional dots used to indicate pronunciation. It provides samples of text in Syriac scripts and their transliterations along with analyses. The bibliography cites numerous sources on Aramaic, Classical Syriac, and related scripts.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    228 views8 pages

    Aramaic Scripts For Aramaic Languages by Peter T Daniels

    Uploaded by

    Anonymous y83ITj4nw6
    This document provides an overview of the Classical Syriac script. It discusses the origins of the Syriac script and its development over centuries. There were three main varieties of Syriac writing: Estrangelo, the oldest form, and two others that emerged during a schism in the Syrian church. The document describes the Syriac writing system including different consonants, vowels, and optional dots used to indicate pronunciation. It provides samples of text in Syriac scripts and their transliterations along with analyses. The bibliography cites numerous sources on Aramaic, Classical Syriac, and related scripts.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 8
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    The passage discusses the history and development of the Syriac script. It describes the different varieties of Syriac writing and how vowel indicators have evolved over time.

    The three main varieties of Syriac writing are Estrangelo, Serto, and Nestorian/East-Syrian.

    Jacob of Edessa proposed inserting vowel letters from Greek into the Syriac consonantal text, though this scheme was never used.

    SECTION 47

    Aramaic
    for

    Scripts

    Aramaic Languages
    Peter
    T.

    Daniels

    Classical Syriac

    The

    origin of Syriac script

    is

    not fully clear, though


    fairly easily

    its

    development across the cen-

    turies of its flowering

    can be followed

    thanks to dated colophons (Hatch


    is

    1946).

    The

    fullest discussion

    of Syriac paleography

    Pirenne 1963.

    Three kinds of consonants


    There are three main
    varieties of Syriac writing. Oldest is the Estrangelo; during the

    Golden Age there came about a schism

    in the Syrian church,

    on Christological

    Acknowledgment:
    improvements

    am

    extremely grateful to

    Bob Hoberman

    for his careful reading of

    and manifold

    to the treatment of Classical Syriac.

    499

    500

    PART

    VIII:

    MIDDLE EASTERN WRITING SYSTEMS

    TABLE

    47.1: Syriac Consonants


    gle verb,

    some

    sort of differentiation

    was

    required. This

    at first

    took the form of a sinwith the

    gle dot placed over a

    letter to indicate a "fuller, stronger" syllable (usually

    vowel

    a),

    and under

    it

    to

    mark a

    "finer,

    weaker" vocalization, or none


    ;

    at all:

    r<T^^
    or

    ^bd^ [Tva:9a:] 'a work', i<:i=ai^ ^bd^ [Tavdai] 'servant'


    [qat^el] 'he murdered'
    ,

    A\ii qtl

    [qait^el] 'he kills'

    iV

    9/^ [q^al] 'he killed'

    The

    latter sort

    of differentiation

    was generalized to mark morphological distinctions even when those specific vowels were not involved yatm sm [saim] 'he placed'. This system is already in place in the earliest dated Syriac manuscript (411 c.e.); with the schism and the Conquest in the seventh century, further specification of vowel quality became essential, and the system of vowel points found
    in

    table

    47.2,

    first

    column, began to emerge. The system

    was perfected in East Syrian manuscripts of the ninth century. In the West Syrian sphere, the pointing system was at first maintained; but Jacob of Edessa (later 7th century), showing how complicated it had become, proposed inserting vowel letters into the consonantal text. This scheme was never used. Instead,
    the vowel letters of

    Greek could be placed alongside

    the Syriac consonant letters

    (table 47.2, second column) above or below as space dictated; the odd orientation of the vowel signs is explained by the Syriac scribal practice of writing downward on
    the page, left to right (90 counterclockwise

    from the direction of reading). The date


    (etc.) are

    of introduction of the Greek vocalization cannot be established more certainly than


    before 1000. The vocalization systems of Syriac

    described in

    Morag
    it is

    1961.

    further sign sporadically found

    is

    the linea occultans,

    which occasionally
    placed
    'city';

    marks a vowelless consonant, but more often an unpronounced consonant;


    above or (more recently) below the affected
    letter,

    t<^"i=a md(n)t^ [ms^ittai]

    but a line below could also represent a "fuller" pronunciation.

    There are also two optional dots that indicate stop versus
    of the six plosive consonants b g

    fricative pronunciation

    dkp

    t:

    qussdyd, a dot above, marks the stop; ruk-

    kdkd, a dot below, marks the fricative (Segal 1989). Only a stop following a vowel or

    an "underlying" vowel can be fricativized, so rukkdkd morphological information.

    is

    an important indicator of

    The

    first

    lines of the

    two Syriac samples might look


    T<a\ci^rC

    as follows, fully vocalized:

    ^cnzaa rCAui!>

    ^=i^i iruD^in

    nav:i^r<"i

    ^.i3or< ^aiLl\<ci

    Samples of Classical Syriac^

    estrangelo
    nyhbw
    rOxur<
    ^nr'h^

    ^tyr'b^

    ^tw"t^

    bkr

    tymdq

    *nzk*d

    nyrm^
    *.

    nys"n^w<-

    r^Haa*! T<^ci^v<
    ^r'psd
    ^tw"t^

    :=i:ki

    ^ aTiiWo

    rCL^co
    ^nkh

    xKMmospxi

    bkr

    nwmylsw

    ,^swmn

    ya^ ms

    SECTION

    47:

    ARAMAIC SCRIPTS FOR ARAMAIC LANGUAGES

    bhyd

    wh

    ^yyrwsd

    tymdqw

    .nwhnm

    rqyt^i

    mm"4
    rwsd

    bhyw

    mryhl

    /.

    Transliteration:

    w^ns'yn
    w-nasin

    ^mryn
    amrin
    say

    d^kzn^

    qdmyt
    qadm-ayat
    first-ly

    rkb

    'twl'

    2.

    Normalization:
    Gloss:
    ^br'yt'

    d-akzna
    that-e.g.

    rakkeb atwata
    devised letters.the

    3.
    /.

    and-men

    wbhyn
    and-in-them
    dspr"'

    2.

    ^ebrayata wa-b-hen

    sm sam
    he.set 'hr"n'

    nmws\
    namos-a
    law-the

    hkn^

    wslymwn
    wa-slemon

    rkb

    hakanna
    Hkewise

    rakkeb

    J.
    1.

    Hebrew
    'tw"t'

    and -Solomon devised


    d 'tyqr

    wyhb
    w-yab
    and-gave

    2.

    atwata

    d-sepre

    hrane

    1-^amme
    to-Gentiles

    d etyaqqar
    to-be.honored

    3. letters.the

    of-languages others

    /.

    2.

    hw dswryy^ mnhwn. wqdmyt men-hon w-qadm-ayat d-suryaya haw


    by-them
    and-first-ly

    dyhb
    d-yab
    that-he.gave

    Ihyrm
    l-hiram

    dswr
    d-Sor
    of-Tyre

    5.

    of-Syriac

    demonst

    to-Hiram

    'Men say that as (Moses) first devised the Hebrew letters and wrote the law with them, so Solomon devised the letters of other languages and imparted them to the Gentiles in order to be held in honor by them. (He devised) first (the letters of) Syriac, which he gave to Hiram of Tyre.' -From Ishodad ofMerv's commentary on Genesis (gth century), quoted in Coxon igjo: 16.

    Serto
    i\vi(tv>
    tjio

    v^OLUO

    ^'^r-?

    \Lo^Ll^o
    ^twr't^bw
    .ntwld

    nylmsm

    nm nwhnm
    ^ylms'm

    .nyr'dhd

    nylh

    ^r

    pes<-

    Ikl

    ^r'psw

    .nyrysbw

    nyrysh

    nyd nwhnm

    nyrymgw

    ^hktsm

    nwhl

    'btkb

    ^msrtmd

    'twt'

    'nslb

    nmtltm

    'spwt

    Vh

    ^1

    ^r'ysh

    ^r'psw

    .^ynmr^w

    ^ytpwg^w ^ymwrw

    ynwyld

    ^mk^

    nwhl

    ^btktmd'trws

    'ytyb

    'nslb

    ^nmtltm

    'spwt

    Ikl

    >ybr^w

    ^yyrwsw

    'yrb4d

    mk'

    'hktsm

    '

    PART

    VIII:

    MIDDLE EASTERN WRITING SYSTEMS


    sepr"^

    Transliteration:

    hlyn

    dlwtn.

    db'trwt^

    dhdr'yn.

    Normalization:
    Gloss:

    sepre
    scripts

    halen da-lwat-an d-b-atrawwata


    those
    that-at-us

    da-hdar-ayn
    that-around-us

    that-in-places

    mnhwn. men-hon
    from-them
    wbsyryn.

    mn
    man

    msmlyn msamlen

    wgmyryn
    wa-gmirin
    and-perfected
    Ikl

    rnnhwn
    inen-hon

    dyn
    den

    hsyryn
    hassirin

    some complete
    wspr"^

    irom them

    however incomplete
    blsn^

    ms'mly'

    twps* mtltmn^
    tupsa

    wa-bsirm

    w-sepre

    msamlayya

    1-kol

    metlatmana
    pronounced

    b-lessana

    and-imperfectand-scripts complete
    1.

    to-each type

    with-tongue

    ^twt^

    dmtrsm^

    bktb^

    Ihwn
    l-hon

    mstkh
    mestakhii
    existing

    ^km^

    dlywny^
    da-1-yawnaya

    2.

    atuta

    d-metrasma
    that-inscribed

    ba-ktaba

    akma

    S. letters
    /.

    in-writing to-them

    such. as that-of-Greek

    wrwmy^
    w-romaya
    and-Latin
    Ikl

    2.

    w^gwpty^ w-eguptaya

    w^rmny^.

    wspr

    '

    hsyr"^

    P
    la

    hw>

    J.
    1.

    w-armanaya and-Egyptian and Armenian


    mtltmn^
    blsn^

    W'-sepre

    hassire

    wa

    and-scripts incomplete

    not (was)

    twps'
    tupsa

    byty

    swrt^
    surta

    dmtktb'

    2. 1-kol
    3.

    metlatmana
    pronounced

    b-lessana

    baytaya
    proper

    d-metkatba
    that-written

    to-each type

    with-tongue

    form

    1.

    Ihwn
    l-hon

    mstkh ^

    ^km^

    dPbry>
    da-l-*^ebraya

    wswryy^
    wa-suraya
    and-Syriac

    w^rby^

    2.
    3.

    mestakha
    existing

    akma
    such.as

    w-arbaya
    and-Arabic

    to-them

    that-of-Hebrew

    As for the scripts (used) by us or our neighbors, some are complete and perfect,
    but others are incomplete and imperfect. For complete scripts, each distinct

    sound has
    as in

    its

    own

    written

    letter,

    as in Greek, Latin, Coptic,

    and Armenian; but

    incomplete scripts do not have, for each distinct sound, their

    own
    4,

    written form,

    Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic'

    Bar Hebraeus

    (i 22^/6-1286), ''Book

    of Kays,' tractate

    chap,

    i,

    sec. i

    (Mobersy ig22: 191-92, igoj: 3-4).

    Bibliography

    Aramaic
    Abbott, Nabia. 1939. The Rise of the North Arabic Script audits Kur 'anic Development with a Full Description of the Kur 'an Manuscripts in the Oriental Institute (Onental Institute Publications 50). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
    Gruendler, Beatrice. 1993. The Development of the Arabic Scripts: From the Nabatean Era to the First Islamic Century According to Dated Texts (Harvard Semitic Studies 43). Atlanta: Scholars
    Press.

    Klugkist, A. C. 1982.

    "The Importance of the Palmyrene Script for Our Knowledge of the Development of the Late Aramaic Scripts." In Arameans, Aramaic and the Aramaic Literary Tradition,

    ed. Michael Sokoloff, pp. 57-74. Bar Ilan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University Press. Rosenthal, Franz. 1939. Die aramaistischen Forschungen seit Theodor Noldeke's Verojfentlichungen. Leiden: Brill.

    Rosenthal, Franz, ed. 1967.


    parts.

    An Aramaic Handbook (Porta Linguarum

    Orientalium

    10). 2 vols, in

    Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

    Classical Syriac
    Brockelmann, Carl. i960. Syrische Grammatik,
    I976(isted., 1899). Hatch, William Henry Paine. 1946. Academy of Arts and Sciences.
    rev. ed. Leipzig:

    VEB

    Verlag Enzyklopadie, repr.

    An Album

    of Dated Syriac Manuscripts. Boston: American

    Moberg, Axel. 1907-13. Buch der Strahlen: Die grossere Grammatik des Barhebraus. Ubersetzung nach einem kritisch berichtigten Texte mit textkritischem Apparat und einemAnhang: Zur Terminologie. Vol.
    i,

    Einleitung, Traktat I-III, 1913; vol. 2, Einleitung

    und zweiter

    Teil,

    1907.

    Leipzig: Hjirrassowitz.

    La grande grammaire de Gregoire Barhebraeus. Texte syriavec une introduction etdes notes (ActSi Reg. Societatis Humaniorum Litteramm Lundensis 4). Lund: Gleerup. Moller, Garth I. 1988. "Towards a New Typology of the Syriac Manuscript Alphabetr Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 14: 1^3-9^].
    .

    1922. Le livre des splendeurs:


    edite d'apres les manuscrits

    aque

    Morag, Shelomo. 1961. The Vocalization Systems ofArabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic: Their Phonetic and Phonemic Principles (Janua Linguarum Series Minor 13). The Hague: Mouton.
    Muller-Kessler, Christa. 1991.

    Grammatik des Christlich-Paldstinisch-Aramdischen,paTt

    i:

    Schrift-

    PART

    VIII:

    MIDDLE EASTERN WRITING SYSTEMS


    Formenlehre (Texte und Studien zur Orientalistik 6). Hildesheim: Olms. ed., trans. James A. Crichton. London:
    ist ed., 1880.)

    lehre, Lautlehre,

    Noldeke, Theodor. 1904. Compendious Syriac Grammar, 2nd

    Williams

    & Norgate. (German orig., 1898;


    "Aux

    Pirenne, Jacqueline. 1963.

    origines de la graphie syriaque.' Syria 40: ioi-37-

    Segal, Judah B. 1953. The Diacritical Point

    and the Accents

    in

    Syriac (London Oriental Series

    2).

    London: Oxford University Press.


    .

    1989. ''Qussaya and Rukkaka:

    A Historical Introduction." Journal of Semitic

    Studies 34:

    483-91.

    THE WORLD'S WRITING SYSTEMS

    '^'^'l^^^^''
    William Bright

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