Lesson4: The Noun

EachAramaicword is associated with a threeconsonantroot. Due to the fact that

mostAramaicwordshaveonly threeconsonants, identifiiingtheroot consonants is
-l
oftenrathereasy.Thus,e.g.,theword1)n hastheroot ?n. eeingableto
recognizetheroot of a word is importantbecause it (usually)allowsyou to
understandthe basicsemanticfield of the word andallowsyou to predicthow the
word'spronunciation will changewhensuffixesareaddedto it. Additionallyit
allowsyou to look theword up in a dictionary,sincesomedictionaries are
organizedaccordingto root.

For ourpurposes we will considerthe four mostbasictypesof roots:

-T,
1. strong- havingthree"solid"consonants (i.e.,N, l, l, ;'J,T,n, 13,=,),D,),
D,JJ,5,S,ir,-1,lD,lD,n).
2. firstweak* havinga "weak"(''1,n,:, N) consonant
asthefirst consonant.
3. middleweak- havinga "weak" (.1,') consonant asthe secondconsonant.
n,
4. final weak- havinga "weak" (''1, N) consonantasthethird consonant.

'alepftis relativelystablein themiddleof a root,andthat,similarly,

Noticethat
nunts stablein themiddleandat theendof a root.

Identifoingstrongrootswill not be difficult.Identifuingtheweakoneswill

sometimes provetricky.

Typically,theweakconsonants andverbsderivedfrom theseroots

will disappear
when
will haveslightlydifferentformsthanthoseof the strongroots.Therefore,
we describetheverbs,we will needto describethe morphologyof theseroots
separately.

Part1: SimplerNounsandAdjectives
In manySemiticlanguages,Aramaicamongthem,nounsandadjectives arevery
similar,sometimesoverlapping oftencan
in form andfunction.So,e.g.,adjectives
be usedlike nounsandhavethe samemorphologicalpatternsasnouns.

Nounsandadectiveshavetwo genders: maleandfemale.

Theyhavetwo numbers:singularandplural.
Theyhavethreestates:absolute(thebasicform of thenoun/adj.),the construct
aodthe emphaticor
state(a shortenedform, commonto the Semiticlanguages),
determined state.Thesearebestexplainedthroughexample:

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond ZJ

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

Theabsoluteform marksthebasicform of theword,the onelistedin dictionaries.

-lFD
Theconstructstatemarksa connection to a followingword. So,e.g., in the
constructstatemightbe followedby theword I )n "krng" to givethe expression
: "abook of a king",or "aking's book".Sucha connection between
l'F lED
wordscanbe calleda genetiverelationship (basedon analogous constructions from
Indo-European languages). Theemphatic/determined statemarksa nounwith a
degreeof specificity,like theEnglishword "the".

Whena word in the constructstateprecedesanotherword in the absolutestate,

with the English"a" or "an".
bothwordslack specificityandcanbe translated
Whena word in the constructstateprecedesanotherword in the
emphatic/determinedstate,bothwordscarrythis nuanceof specificityandboth
with theEnglishword"the".Thus,
canbe translated

-l rn :ED : "abook of a king", ar "aking's book"

N?)D :!F : "thebookof theking",or "theking'sbook".

You will notethatin the abovelist the fonnsof the absoluteandconstructstateare

identicalfor this word,but this is not alwaysthe case.E.g.,considertheword
--Lu,
;f?:D (queen, a femininenoun):

absolute: t l) /(): OUeen

I

I r) /Q : queenoI
rr bq
construct:
trr hq .1
emphatic/determined:N l r J ) E : T n eO U e e n
T::-

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond 24

Nounsandadjectives areinflectedaccordingto the followingparadigm,illustrated
hereby the adjective"l'llIJ ("ready","destined"):

singular masc. fem.

abs.: -.l ri ?l
I tl)J ilJ'nP
-?r Fl lt F-|!n lt
const.: tltJ ttt tt,/
- ' - i

emph./det.: r$-?.l n ?t
t\ | )t,
t'-i
$F"l' nIJ (' a-1ly{-ta')
(Note the long vowel ftl in a closed,
unaccented syllable.)

plural masc. fem.

lr-!Fr?t !-.tFft
abs.: I
I
tttt/ I rr|,
JI

t -,r Fr tt t-t-r F lt
const.: ItD/ ttt tt,

emph./det.: N:-T'fiijT--l
Nn'l'nl

The distinctivefeaturesof eachof theseforms are indicatedin the followine chart:

singular masc. fem.

"l'n!
abs.: ;'1

tl
const.: tl

-]'rl!
emph./det.: N t\t I
:

plural masc. fem.

ltFtt
tt I il,v
i rrrY
abs.. t-'
I
I
lT

I li)/ t'nu
const.: i
fl ,

I'nIl -'l'iu
emph.idet.: Nt Nn

Introductory Lessonsin Arqmaic by Eric D. Reymond 25

Exercise4a: Fill in thefollowi chafi for masculinenouns/adi
ectlves:
Noun/adj. emph./det. pl. emph.idet
abs./cstr.
si
P'n! ("old")
!p ("good",
root:3 I ll)
-a.
The :
-t tai . -v
1'yl za-e'r
1"liitie")
'fi:1
('Judgment",
. t a -\
root: i t)
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 consonantof their root (lF and
)p;, harresimilarforms.

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 Nn.ltn
?:
("animal";
root: lil 11)
-l'\r -1F?
t'-

("wise")
;1i?-'i3 Ntli?'ls
("charity") (sidqatd')

r?.:i slppar N-IEg

t:
("bird")
It shouldbe apparentthat thereare certainconsistencies
betweenthesewords.E.g.,
thewordsni?'F! ,;1?'ll-1, and;l?'i?nall havethesamevocalicpattern.
thewordsi1]i'iil!,;1'l'tJi and;'T?l:nhavesimilarforms,thoughthe
Similarly,
long middle vowel of eachis different.Recognizingthesepatternshelpsto make
the acquisitionof new wordseasier.

The exceptionto theseconsistencies is that in the emphaticforms when the

adjectivehas a long-Ethen the following tsw hasno dot and is pronouncedsoft,
whereasif the vowel is a long-[, long-a,or long-r vowel then the taw rs
pronouncedhard.

Note that somefeminine words do not bear the characteristici'l , ending, words
-lET
like (Sippar).Their inflectionis identicalto that of masculinenouns.

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. Becausethe pronunciationof thesetwo morphemesis so similar,
they were often confused;it is commonto find femininenounswith the endingN ,
- and masculineemphaticideterminednounswith the ending i'T - . For the
,
purposesof pedagogy,I will consistentlyrenderthe feminine absoluteendingwith
heh, andthe masculineemphaticidetermined form with an 'aleph.

Par12.More ComplexNouns and Adjectives

Many nounsand adjectivesin Aramaic witnessmore complexchangesin their
inflection. A good,basicexampleof thesechangesis seenwith the masculineword
for money or silver, 1Q!, and the feminineword for a letter or missive,i1]lN

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond 27

singular masc. fem.
abs.: nn-1
t-:
nJ$
const.: E1n=t
t-:
nll$

emph./det.: N?O! (kaspa') ItFl-]lN

plural masc. fem.

'?r5n-l 'ill$
abs.: | +-<

rE:]---1
const.: ":- I1-lIN

emph./det.: It',EDl (kaspayya

) NFll$

Accordingto therulesof Aramaicpronunciation, theaccentof a word is typically

on thelastsyllable.Thevowelof a syllableimmediately preceding theaccented
syllablereduces if it is a shortvowel(la/, lel .., lil ., lol,, lul . ) in anopen
syllable.Thus,althoughthe absoluteform for "silver" is EIQ!, we wouldnever
expectthe absoluteform to be *N?Q?, sincethis wouldleavea shortvowelin an
open,unaccented syllable(*ke-sa-pa ). Sucha vowelwouldalwaysredttce.
However,a form like *N?D! in Aramaicis alsointolerable;so,theresultof these
tendenciesis thatthe first syllableseesthe emergence of a full vowel.In this case,
thelalvowel thatemerges underthe first syllablein the emphatic/determined
singularstateproduces a formthatis muchcloserto theword'setymological
origin:kaspu.

Theprocessof vowelreductionmightfurtherbe illustratedby examiningthe

historyof thepluralformfor "kings",jn;?8. fn earlyAramaic(in, e.g.,the800s-
500sBCE) vowelsdid not reduce,nor wastherespirantization of begodkephat
consonants. (Bothphenomena beganlater,presumably spirantizatron takingeffect
beforevowelsstartedreducing.)Thismeansthatthepluralfor "king" was
pronounced molakTn,with the accenton the final syllable.But, afterseveral
hundredyears,the word hada muchdifferentform: thekaphwas spirantizedand
the syllableimmediatelybeforethe accentreduced.Althoughtherewasperhapsa
periodof transitionwherethe vowel waspronouncedasa murmuredvowel,
eventuallyit waslostaltogether.Thishypothetical transformation mightbe
illustratedbelow:

l. *malakTn--+2. *malak\n --- 3.*malaktn --+4. mqlk1n

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond 28

Oneshouldnotethatbecause thekaph(l) no longeris preceded by a vowel,one
wouldexpectit to be pronounced "hard";however,a memoryof the originalvowel
hasbeenpreserved in the "sofl" pronunciation
of thekaph.(Seealsoj'liJf "gold"
below).Unexpectedly, thepronunciation of thepluralof "silver" (j'EQ?) reflects
no suchmemoryof a vowelbeneaththe secondroot consonant.

A voweldoesNOT reduceif it is a longvowel,or if it is in a closedsyllable.Thus,

thevowelof the adjectivelb doesnot reducebecause, hererepresents a long
vowel,andsimilarlythe longlil vowelin'l'119 doesnot reduce.If the syllable
precedingan accented syllableis closed,thevowelalsodoesnot reduce.Thisis
seenin wordslike lll "great",whichhastheemphaticform N+:l (rabba').

Thisrule of pronunciation canalsobe usedto explainthe absoluteform of p'Fl!

('attTvq;"old"). Thesecondsyllableof thewordis accented,andonemightexpect
for the shortvowelin theprecedingsyllableto reduce.However,this doesnot
happensincethe first syllableof p'Fl! is closed.Thesameis truefor the first
syllablein il]lR; theshort/i/ voweldoesnot reduce.

Exercise4c.
Many Aramaicnounsfollow thepatternof EIQ! above.Completethefollowing
chartfor thesewordsthatfollow thepatternof lQ!

sing.abs./cstr. slng. pl. abs. pl. cstr pl. emph/det.

emph./det.
E)! ("image")

)JJl ("master")

lpfl ("wine")

Tl! ("slave")

lJllFl ("gate")

In all of the aboveexamples,

thevowelof the first syllableis lal, asin the example
of fQ!.Many nouns,however,havea shortlil or lel (or sometimes a shortlul or

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond

shortlo) in this position.E.g.,-lPQ ("book")hasa shortlil and-lll ("man")hasa
shortltl tnthe plural forms:

singular masc. masc.

-llD -l:i
abs.: -i

const.: llO -fll

emph./det.: |IJBD NJrl (?)

plural
abs.: ].'-llD
t: ]'-11,

const.: '-15D '-l:.1

emph./det.: Ni:f!D -l:i

Nr

As with tlQ!,the singularemphatic/determined stateof IBD revealsa form very

closeto theword's originalpronunciation, sipru.Theetymologicalbaseof words
is not alwaysimportantto know,but it sometimes doeshelpexplaincertain
inconsistencies in theprintedtexts.E.g.,thewordfor gold,:L-l-T,wouldseemto be
identicalin its form to theword for silver,tlE! And, in its vocalicpattern,it is, in
fact similar.However,because the originalform of theword in the singularwas
dahabu(Nor *dahbu),thebethis always"soft" (thatis, a fricative,or
spirantized), andthe secondconsonant is alwaysfollowedby a muffiluredvowel:
thus,N+il1 for the emph.idet.state,and'i'liTJ for thepluralabsolute.(Compare
with the corresponding form of JQ!. N?O! wherethe shewarepresents the
absence of a vowelandthe ! is "hard").

Othernounsexhibitslightlydifferentmorphologicalpatterns,but thebasic
principleof vowelreductionoutlinedaboveappliesto all of them,makingthe
formsof nounsratherpredictable.

Vocabulary:
;lliN : "letter"f.
)Pl : "master"m.
]tJ : "judgment"m.

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond

nh:n : "crime"f.
n]tn : "animal"f.
Et!l_] : "wise"
-lp[l : "wine"
m.
lE : ..good"
-l:ll3: "mountain"
m.
: "tongue"m.
lP,
-lEO : "book"
m.
'Tl! : "slave"
m.
P'il! : "old"
ilflfB:"charity"f.
-lEX
$ippar: "bird" f.
-L -L 'l m a g e) )
I r ).'S: :
-Laa
m.
)P : "voice"m'
-]NU : "remnant"
m.

Introductory Lessonsin Arqmqic by Eric D. Reymond 3l