Language Studies

Aramaic Thoughts

Aramaic/Syriac Basics for English Readers - Part 3

As I've noted in previous columns, Syriac, and a number of other Semitic languages, were originally written without vowels. This brings us to an interesting side trail. Ethiopic is another Semitic language. It, however, is written with vowels. The catcher is this. Each Ethiopic consonant takes a somewhat different form, depending on which vowel follows it. That is not the case with Syriac, though with some of the Syriac scripts, the shape of the letter may change depending on whether it is unattached, joined to the preceding letter, joined to the following letter, or joined to both preceding and following letters. In that sense, Syriac scripts are a bit like English cursive. However, the Syriac script I will be using in the column is more like English block printing. The shape of the character remains unchanged.

The first letter in the Syriac alphabet is called alaph (ܐ). This is obviously cognate to the Hebrew aleph (א), and to the Greek alpha (α). However, it must be remembered that the Syriac alaph and the Hebrew aleph are both consonants, while the Greek alpha is a vowel. The sound of alaph, especially for non-native speakers of the language, is essentially silent, like the w in yellow, or the b in debt. Technically, it is called a glottal stop. You can feel a glottal stop if you pronounce a word beginning with a vowel, such as old or English.

The second letter in the Syriac alphabet is beth (ܒ), like the Hebrew beth (ב) and the Greek beta(β). In this case, all three have the same sound as English b, though Hebrew also has a softened form of the consonant that has the sound of English v. Thus, the Hebrew greeting boqer tov (which means "Good morning") begins and ends with the letter beth, but the latter occurrence has the softened sound, and so is written like a v. Syriac, however, does not have this softened b sound.

The third letter of the alphabet is gamal (ܓ), like Hebrew gimel (ג) and Greek gamma (γ). All three have the hard g sound of the g's in going. The Greek gamma, when it is doubled, becomes an ng sound, as at the end of going. Thus the Greek word aggelos is nor pronounced ag-ge-los. The doubled gamma makes the pronunciation an-ge-los, hence the English word angel.

The fourth letter is dalath (ܕ), like Hebrew daleth (ג), and Greek delta (δ). All three have the sound of d in dead. As with beth, however, Hebrew also has a softened d that sounds like the th in these. Again, Syriac does not have the softened sound.

The fifth letter is he (ܗ), like Hebrew he (ה). Greek does not have an equivalent letter. The letter he has the simple h sound, as in hello. The closest thing that Greek has to this sound is called the "rough breathing" mark, and looks like a left single quote mark above the letter. That is part of the reason that when Hebrew names are transliterated into Greek, and then into English, they don't look much like the original. That is why in the KJV many Old Testament names in the New Testament look funny. In 1 Chronicles 3:10, the name of Solomon's son is Rehoboam, while in Matthew 1:7 it becomes Roboam. The Greek lacks the h, so it was simply dropped in the transliteration.

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