PARADIGMS AND EXERCISES IN SYRIAC GRAMMAR BY THEODORE H. ROBINSON SOMETIME PROFESSOR OF SEMITIC LANGUAGES UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, CARDIFF FOURTH EDITION REVISED BY L. H. BROCKINGTON SENIOR LECTURER IN ARAMAIC AND SYRIAC IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1962Oxford University Press, Amen House, London E.C.4 GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCA CAPE TOWN SALISBURY NAIROBI IBADAN ACCRA KUALA LUMPUR HONG KONG © Oxford University Press 1962 FIRST EDITION 1915 SECOND EDITION 1939 ‘THIRD EDITION 1949 FOURTH EDITION 1962 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAINPREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION In the Author’s Note to the first edition Professor Robinson wrote that there was ‘a need for something of an elementary nature which should be of value to the student who takes up Syriac for the first time. A book of paradigms and exercises is especially de- sirable in the case of those who have had no previous experience of Semitic languages . . . it is designed as an introduction, and an introduction only.’ The steady demand for the grammar since then has shown that the need remains and that this grammar has gone some way to meet it. The printing of a new edition has given the opportunity of expanding the grammar slightly, chiefly by adding” some explanatory notes and ong or two further rules’ of syntax, and of providing more help to pronunciation by printing diactitic points more fully throughout. It remains an introduction only, and the more advanced student will still need to refer to larger grammars such as Néldeke’s Kuragefafte syrische Grammatik (of which there is an English translation by J. A. Crichton) or Duval’s Traité de grammaire syriaque. The editor acknowledges the debt he himself owes to Robinson’s Syriac Grammar from which he first learnt Syriac, and also to his own students of recent years who have been through the grammar with him. It is also a pleasure to acknowledge the extreme care shown by the printers and proof readers at the Clarendon Press. L. H. BROCKINGTONp. 16 19 24 25 27 35 37 38 39 40 43 45 46 4 63 65 76 83 87 g2 93 108 117 155 156 CORRIGENDA last line line 12 » iO » IO last line line 15 » 10 » 16 »n 4 oS fn Jast line line 2 Col. 3. line to fin. 3 line 3 from bottom line 15 » 13 n T4 yy 22 » 13 line 3 from bottom line 13 » 7 line 3 from bottom line 9 » 5 wl” Iss Ikke IS} eh assy, read wl” INSi Ikso'he siCONTENTS 1, INTRODUCTORY 1. Introductory Il, THE ALPHABET 2. Consonants 3. Vowel Letters 4. Vowel Signs. The Greek Vowels Ilr, PRONOUNS, &c. 5. Pronouns 6. Inseparable Particles IV. SUBSTANTIVES AND ADJECTIVES 7. Inflexion of the Noun 8. Pronominal Suffixes 9. Monosyllabic Nouns with Movable Vowels 10. Monosyllabic Nouns with Suffixes 11. Nouns of more than one syllable with Movable Vowels 12. Nouns of more than one syllable with Suffixes 13. Irregular Nouns V. THE VERB 14. Modes of inflexion 15. The Pe‘al, Perfect 16. The Pe‘al, Imperfect and Related Parts 17. The Ethpe‘el 18. The Intensive Forms to IL 14, 7 20 26 3r 35 38 42 AS st 54 37 62 6619 CONTENTS . The Extensive Forms 20. Objective Pronominal Suffixes aL 22. 23 24. 25. 26. 27. 28 ~ Weak Verbs + e"2 Verbs . \\" Guttural Verbs . ("@ Verbs os and 02 Verbs . 0. Verbs oo” Verbs . Double » Verbs 2g. J”% and us Verbs 30. 31 32. Note on some Anomalous Verbs . USS and oS Verbs with Suffixes . Nominal Stems with Vocalic Endings . Numerals VOCABULARY Syriac-English English-Syriac Index to Rules of Syntax 72 77 84 85 88 gt 96 99 102 106 Iii 117 120 122 125 130 144 159PARADIGMS AND EXERCISES IN SYRIAC GRAMMAR I. INTRODUCTORY §1 Syriac belongs to a group of languages classified by philologists under the general name of Semitic, and more especially to the Aramaean section of these languages. While its centre was Edessa, it was spoken over a wide area in early Christian times, and was more generally used than Greek in western Asia, apart from Asia. Minor. In spite of some peculiar features, it is akin to the lan- guage spoken in Palestine in the first century a.D., and is, there- fore, of special value to students of the New Testament. A developed form is still spoken in the region of Tabriz, but the language with which we are here concerned is that of the Syriac Bible and early Christian Fathers. In Syriac, as in the other Semitic languages, the majority of nouns and verbs are associated, for grammatical purposes, with a triliteral root. It is by no means certain that triliteral roots were as fundamental to the Semitic languages as was once thought. ‘There are many biliteral nouns and biliteral verbal forms. Many verbs which now show a triliteral form in some of their inflected forms may be expansions of an original biliteral form by the repetition of a letter or by the addition of a weak letter. It generally happens that all wordshaving the same three ‘radicals’ can be traced to a single idea. Derivatives are formed by prefixing or affixing consonants, by a change of vowels, or by the doubling of a consonant within the root itself. Thus the primary meaning of the root QRB is that of nearness. The verb greb means ‘to be near’. Another verbal form gareb means ‘to B2 §1. INTRODUCTORY bring near’, then in a special sense ‘to bring near to the priest or the altar, to offer’. Another verbal form, ’agreb, means ‘to approach ina hostile sense, to fight’. The adjective garid means simply ‘near’. The noun gurband means ‘an offering, a gift’. And the noun grabé is connected in meaning with the third of the verbs men- tioned above, and means ‘war’ or ‘battle’. II. THE ALPHABET § 2. CONSONANTS Like most Semitic languages, Syriac is written, not from left to right, but in the opposite direction. There are three forms of the alphabet. The oldest of these is called the Estrangela. It is found in the oldest inscriptions and MSS., and was a square character as compared with the later forms. It is used a good deal in Europe in printing ancient books, especially where the vowels are not inserted. Another form is that which was used mainly by the Nestorian Christians in the Persian empire. This is commonly called in India the Chaldean script, but in Europe is generally known by the name Nestorian. The third, used mainly by the Orthodox Christians in the Roman empire, is called in Syriac Serta, in India Maronite, in Europe Jacobite script. There are also slight differences between the two main dialects, western and eastern, in matters of grammar and pronunciation. Semitic alphabets originally represented only the consonants of languages, As has already been pointed out, the fundamental meaning of a word depended on its consonants; the vowels indi- cate modification of the primitive idea, These consonants were slightly modified in writing according as they stood at the begin- ning, in the middle, or at the end of words. In the following table four columns are shown, giving the forms of the letters (a) when alone, (6) when standing at the beginning of a word, or not immediately joined to the preceding letter, (c) when joined both§2. CONSONANTS 3 to the letter which precedes and to that which follows, (@) when joined to the preceding but not to the following letter. As will be scen from this table, some letters cannot be connected with those which follow them, but all have forms enabling them to unite with those that precede them. In the fifth column the Estrangela forms are given and in the sixth the Nestorian. In both the connecting links are much the same as in the Jacobite. In the seventh column are given the signs used in transliterating Syriac into English characters. These, of course, will no longer be of much value to the student when he has learnt to read Syriac fluently, but should be kept in mind during the earlier exercises, In the eighth column are given the Syriac names of the letters, transliterated into English. When Arabic superseded Syriac as the vernacular, Arabic texts were sometimes written in Syriac script. The name Karshuni is given to this kind of writing.§ 2. CONSONANTS aug *Alaph Beth Gamal Dalath Waw etl Teéth Yidh Kaph Lamadh Mim in, Semkath Pe Cadhe Qoph Res! Si uonvssrysunsy, upuorsay t L Taw g d w y k 1 m s 0 \s PpSuvasy zm rr) * Or RIS. 421194 Burpooaad 03 pouiog sania] Susmonjof pur Surpooesd 03 pasog santa] Burmoyof 1 autos, payDKKQ§2. CONSONANTS 5 Exercise. ‘T'ransliterate the following into English signs as above: 722,204 hag shaw set solo sJor AA? Ng shee ,od? 20k jgam jwed 200 Ing sho IS jhasne yas jpaso psa jJhassese Jno ,yolisrl) oiler Spo ja ,oear SN ay det Note on the forms of the letters: Before attempting to write the next exercise, the following note on the forms of certain similar letters should be carefully read. The letters ? ’Alaph and “\ Lamadh are distinguished by their length from the letters Zain and ~ ‘E which are similar to them in shape, but are much shorter. «& Gamal is written wholly below the line, except for the links which connect it with the preceding and following letters. » Dalath has the dot below the letter, + Res has it above. o Waw is not connected with the letter on its left, © Qéph is so connected, and if it be the last letter in the word, it has a small tail attached to it. ¢ Téth and L Taw are connected with the preceding letter by a line reaching to the top of the letter. » Kaph is distinguished from > Béth by being smaller. \\ Lamadh and ? ’Alaph when combined usually undergo a slight alteration, Lamadh-’Alaph being written“, and *Alaph- Lamadh (occurring less frequently) \. Exercise. Write the following in Syriac characters: sly, wrdyn, bgzrt’, ‘lyh, ywmt’, mdynt’, Slmyn, klb’, ‘lyhwn, kimdm, mtqr’, ‘mew, hdd’, mtl, mstkl, 3hip, I’, sbr, tlyt’, hlpwhy, yd’, yd'twn, mk, mlk’, thw’, nby’, ‘m, ‘mm’, ml’k’, w’zl, dyr’, rd? qtl, msybrnwt’, ttplh, ’r‘kwn, ’n3’, ’ntt’, gbr’. Pronunciation. Some of the letters are often used to indicate vowel sounds, as will be seen later. The letters 6, g, d, z, k, 1, m, n, s, p, r, and h, tv, y when used as consonants, may be pronounced6 § 2. CONSONANTS as in English. Originally all the letters represented separate sounds, which were similar to sounds heard in Arabic. The following should be distinguished as clearly as possible in pronunciation: ? ’Alaph and ~ ‘E indicate the emission of breath necessary to the enunciation of a vowel at the beginning of a syllable. Of the two, » ‘BE is the deeper sound, the flow of breath being com- pressed low down in the throat, and it originally represented two different sounds, distinguished in Arabic script by a dot over the stronger. wv. Héth also had two sounds. One was a strong H, sometimes confused by the Western ear with o; the other was a rough sound rather like the ch found in Scotch and Welsh. Of the four sibilants, co Semkath is pronounced as the English 5, 1 Zain like z, and w Sin as the English sh. Cadhé was a sound intermediate between the hissed Semkath and the Sin. The pronunciation ts, so frequently adopted in Europe, is useful for distinguishing the letter, but has,no philological or phonetic justi- fication. Additional signs. In writing Syriac, especially where vowel signs (see § 4) are not inserted, dots are placed above or below letters or words to indicate divetgencies in grammar, meaning, or pronunciation, These are as follows: 1. Qu&Saya and Rukkaka. The letters ©, «51, y, ©, and L (sometimes indicated by the mnemonic word bghadhkphath), have two sounds, a’ hard and a soft. The soft form is properly an aspirated form, and the hard one unaspirated. The hard form is indicated by the placing of a dot over the letter, the soft form by a dot under the letter. The dot indicating the hardened letter is called Qu88aya, and that indicat- ing the soft letter Rukkaka (lava and Janos), The rules regarding the places where the hard and soft sounds§ 2, CONSONANTS 7 are used can be fully learned only by experience. The following, however, may be regarded as general principles: Quasaya is used with the bghddhkphath letters (1) When they stand at the beginning of a word, e.g. J:5 = bra. (2) When within a word they are immediately preceded by a consonantal sound, e¢.g. Maks = kethbath, Kohs = kthabht. (3) When they follow a diphthong, i.e. the letters o and w, pre- ceded by a vowel (o% = aw, = ai), c.g. Jka (death), iad” (how). An exception is found in the word yl” (like, as), which is pronounced ak. (4) When within a word the letter was originally doubled. E.g. the form Jk, represents (on the analogy of other forms) Jkhyas, but, as in most other Semitic languages, there is a strong tendency in Syriac not to write the same letter twice unless there is a vowel sound between them. Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic have means of indicating a letter thus doubled, but Syriac has none, and the result has been in large measure the dropping of the distinction between the single and double letter in modern pronunciation, Rukkaka is used with the bghadhkphath letters (1) When they follow a vowel, e.g. Jeo? = ’idhd. (2) When the preceding consonant is pronounced with an indistinct vowel (sounded shewa in Hebrew), laoy = dah*bha, eadssae = manlkhin, There are, nevertheless, a good many cxceptions to these rules, especially in the case of the feminine ending Jb; e.g. hid = birté, but \Ksaswo = sim'thd; and |kNu = haltd, but Jos = ram'tha. MSS. do not always follow these rules and they are frequently omitted in modern printed books, It has been felt desirable to retain them throughout this grammar as an aid to pronunciation. The dot used for the purpose is slightly smaller than that used for distinguishing the letters Dalath and Ré3. When it is used to indicate Rukkaka in Dalath it is printed slightly to the right of the diacritic point, e.g. 9.8 §2. CONSONANTS 12, Stydmé (or Ribui). This is the name given to the two dots that indicate plurals. They may be placed: (1) over the plural forms of all nouns: basss malké kings, Jxo%o6 malkatha = queens; (2) over the plural forms of all adjectives, except the absolute form of the masculine plural (including participles): lag Joke Rethabhé tabhé = good books, JNAg [S28 melé tabhathd = good words, JNx8 gg tabhan melé = the words are good, 1 fossa gang fabhin kah'nd = priests are good; (3) over the 3rd plur. fem. of the perfect tense and the 3rd and 2nd plur. fem. of the imperfect tense of the verb: edShS = qilal, SH = negitlan, Spel = teqt lan; (4) over certain prepositions with plural forms wig = hédharai, 5 = bainai; (5) over certain numerals (see § 32). Seyamé may be placed wherever it is most convenient: with Re it usually blends with the diacritic point of that letter, e.g. Jesem = Sariré, and it is frequently written over the letters that do not rise above the line, e.g. ceo) == ’amin, cubits, Only in the case of rule (1) above is the usage anything like uniform: in the other cases there is considcrable variety of practice. 3. A dot is used to distinguish between the first and other persons in the perfect of verbs. The first person takes a dot above it, the second and third below, eg. Kage =I have killed, MK do = she has killed." 5 For a discussion of these dots see Mrs, Margoliouth’s "Excursus on Diacritic Points’ in No, XIII of the Semitic Studies Series edited by Gottheil and Jastrow. A full study of them has been made by J. B. Segal, ‘The Diacritical Point and the Accents in Syriac, 1953.§2. CONSONANTS 9 4. A dot is used to distinguish the perfect from the other parts of the verb, especially the participle. The former takes a dot below the word, the latter above, e.g. Spo = he killed, So = he is killing. 5. Words similarly written but differently pronounced are often distinguished by the use of dots above and below. The following is a useful list: $2) 'aydha = which. Jee) 'idhad = hand. oo haw = that (demon). co hii = he (personal). wo ldy = that (fem.) vo hi = she (personal). aise mdanaw = what is it? ix manit = who is it? It will be noted that the weak letters when used as consonants have the dot above, when used as vowels have it below. For further remarks on these letters see the next section. Jor malkad = king. _ lasso melka = counsel. Inia “Santé == year. | WMa dentha = sleep. Skin. hdhattd = new (fem.). Shyu *hadtha = new (masc.), }o.:2 pariga = separate. |a.:2 prigg == saved. lacs bavitha = knecling. lasso Brikhd = blessed. * The letters underlined in these words are not pronounced, as they coalesce with those which immediately follow. The line beneath the Syriac letter is commonly known as the ‘linea occul- tans’, and is regularly used where a consonant becomes silent. It is a survival of a system of short lines which do not otherwise appear in modern printed books, nor are they regularly observed in MSS. They are: (1) Hx geo a horizontal line written under a vowelless letter ta indicate that it is to be pronounced with a half-vowel, e.g. INNA = dehéltha. (2) bigorsss a horizontal line written over a letter to mark a still lighter pronunciation, e.g. Ra. Nxo = malktha.10 §2, CONSONANTS (3) Mitsifss an oblique line written under a letter to indicate that it is not pronounced at all, e.g. Jtajso = mdhitd. (4) Jgagg an oblique line written over a letter to show that the sound is to be sustained, e.g. oSS\A? = nedlun. [It will be observed that some confusion has arisen in course of time, a short line, called Moos, and written either above or below aletter, with the force of MWafs, being the only one now in com- mon use. ‘This is the so-called ‘linea occultans’.] There are also two uses of a Jong line, extending over two or more letters: 1. Indicating contraction, e.g. am = Lincs. 2, Indicating a numeral, e.g. Px = 319. § 3. VOWEL LETTERS Semitic philologists recognize three primitive vowels, from which others have in most languages been devcloped. In Arabic these three alone are written, though their pronunciation varies, They are A, I, and U. The Jacobite (Maronite) system of writing Syriac developed these three into five: Aas in hat. 1A as in father. Eas in féte, I as in pique (sometimes also short as in pin). U as in rule, Originally these were not represented in writing at all, as the earliest inscriptions show. The first step towards their representa- tion was the use of three of the consonants as vowels. These consonants were ( ’Alaph, « Yidh, and o Waw, the three weak 1 The West Syrians pronounce this vowel as a long O. Sce note following the next section,§3. VOWEL LETTERS 1 letters of the Syriac alphabet. Of these, . Yidh was used to represent the i-sound, and o Waw the u-sound. ? ’Alaph has the pecularity of surrendering its vowel to the preceding consonant except when it stands at the beginning of a syllable, and so it may, in theory at any rate, be used for any vowel. In practice, however, the a-sound rarely has a consonant to represent it, and the ’Alaph is most commonly used to indicate E or A, especially at the end of a word. Yiidh also sometimes represents EZ and Waw O. Exercise. Transliterate into Syriac characters, representing the vowels by the appropriate weak letters: b’r'a, Spira, Spirta, kulhun, ‘qu, dakla, gluta, gbre, nhwe, knikuta, qritd, sniga, 14, tub, ’ituta, mekla, riSe, krihin, ‘umga, kube, tlita, metita, ’urha, ’na. § 4. SPECIAL VOWEL SIGNS. THE GREEK VOWELS . In Syriac, as in other Semitic languages, it became necessary to have a fairly complete system of vowel signs, and the five Greek capital letters A, E, H, O, Y, were adopted for the purpose. They were not written beside the consonants, but above or below those which they followed. Further, they were not written upright, but on their side, and produced the following forms, to which the accompanying Syriac names were given: "=: A Pthahda (\AXs) "=: A Zgapha (881) "= E Rbhaga ) -=1 Hbhaga (y4«) * =U ‘papa Oe) {also sometimes represgnts an ancient O).12 §4. VOWEL SIGNS. THE GREEK VOWELS In cases where a weak Ictter was used to represent a vowel, the Greek letter was also used with it. J and U are generally thus indicated, eg. ehil = dartein, iS = britha, Not SS = Ibhibhitha. The form o is sometimes used to represent the ancient O, though this often became simply o- Note. When two consonants occur together at the beginning of asyllable, there slips in between them a very slight and indistinct vowel sound like the first /I in the English again, ‘This is repre- sented by a separate sign in the writing of Hebrew, but it is not expressed in any way in Syriac, eg. fda ma = name. IkaNso malk*thd = queen. M35 mal(i*\phand = teacher. When two such indistinct vowels would come together, as, for example, when an inseparable particle is added (§ 6), the first becomes a pthaha, e.g, saa = lastma. Further note on ’Alaph Initial "Alaph normally has a full vowel, usually either Rbhapa or Pthaha: eg. yo” = he said. oo +5)” = it is said. Occasionally initial ’Alaph is lost altogether in pronunciation as in 1230, man, |5/, I (enclitic form), Within a word ’Alaph may be dropped altogether, as in a> (for «.[5), and aX (for aS). *Alaph normally surrenders its vowel to a preceding consonant if that has no vowel by inflexion, e.g. alfs (for o|§s), Att (for 137” +»).§4. VOWEL SIGNS. THE GREEK VOWELS 13 At the end of a syllable ’Alaph loses its consonantal value, e.g. ANZ is pronounced sheleth. Exercise.! Write in English letters the following, observing the notes a above: Hb Itt) eRal HD BI MAD MASS, SaNs Fe nt a PW, fe ee repakas i) [2s JINN SRS 1815 JduF Ido Joo fiat SES Nhe ,bkost Jl" hs eppese JLES ,ouRL? RX Rebelo IES ho”? Write the following words in Syriac characters: Smaya, hwath, ’ethhazi, ri8ana, Sabhha, ‘lawhy, halein, ’amiré, tibhana, sagi’é, l’ailein, methqarbhin, qdhaimaikhén, haiment, si’em, Sliha, mmalald, mazleq, ’e8kah, ki’pha, ‘alma, lahma, malphandtha, nmalel, gawma, Sem8a, yarha, ’amrin, tawditha, hasibha, gbhdtha, pargépa, pethgama, ’egarth’, ’ahai, ma‘mi- dhitha, ‘dhama, mapaq, haikla, ‘athrawatha. Note. It should be clearly understood that the account of the Syriac vowels given above does not claim to be scientific. The system was developed for practical purposes in the early Christian centuries, and serves to give an indication of the correct pronun- ciation. An older system, according to which the vowels were indicated by dots variously placed, was used by the East Syrians, and is commonly employed in modern books pripted in the Nes- torian alphabet. As, however, the present work is merely an introduction to the simple elements of the language, it has been felt sufficient to give the signs in the appended table. The student who has acquired some familiarity with the language will have no 1 For the purpose of this exercise, vowels represented by a weak letter are to be written with * (e.g. Jas3 = rit, behiild = lo"), except in the case of a2, which may be transliterated by ei (e.g. ged! = tartein) to avoid confusion with J”. Final d = J’. 2 Pronounced atid (may also be written Wa?14 §4. VOWEL SIGNS. THE GREEK VOWELS difficulty in learning to read the Nestorian script as vocalized with this system of dots. The dots are as follows: =a(short) eg. 3 =ba. d(long) eg. 3 = ba. = e(short) eg. >= be. (long) eg. a> = 66 eg. > = bi. i. eg. o> = bo. =n eg. od = bu. III. PRONOUNS, ETC. § 5. PRONOUNS Syriac grammarians recognize three classes of words, Nouns, Verbs, and Particles. Of these three classes the Nouns are further capable of subdivision into Substantives, Pronouns, and Adjec- tives, It will be most convenient for the student to begin with the Pronouns and a few of the Particles before passing on to those parts of speech which are normally inflected. Pronouns are of four kinds, Personal, Demonstrative, Interro- gative, and Relative. I. Personal Pronouns SINGULAR PLURAL mts copes and Mase. ky/” oh” and Fem. oh” chal” gird Masc. oo, oo* ws, wl gid Fem. oa, vai*® ws, wie 1 In the paradigms, exercises, and vocabularies which follow, the foe : iat 7 oes, + . original O is represented by a, with the upper dot to distinguish it from the original U.§ 5. PRONOUNS 15 ‘The shortened forms marked * are used only as enclitics.' The personal pronoun may be used as a copula in a sentence, e.g. |J}6 Iadgso We JigX = and I am dust and ashes; \u(” In hl” amos kel = You are the axe in the hands of him who hews. The pronoun of the 3rd person is often used thus, even when the subject is 1st or 2nd person, Jind og Ka/” = you are the man. In such cases the enclitic form, where it exists, is the one employed. og when preceded by J. changes the vowel to”; e.g. |S but og [3Nx. When it is preceded by /” a diphthong is formed, thus oo }éo. In the case of the fem. sing. enclitic pronoun a hbhaca is used to join it to a word ending in a consonant, e.g. we &, but no vowel change occurs when it follows a word ending in a vowel, e.g. voy JRaNao. ‘The normal position of the enclitic pronoun is after the prin- cipal word of the predicate, except when it immediately follows a pronoun as above. II. Demonstrative Pronouns SINGULAR PLURAL Masculine Feminine Masculine Feminine This We (d) Je (26) ee r , ay a That 0% ds ws ws With the enclitic pronoun, 136 becomes aJé and J}é becomes OF 18. III. Interrogative Pronouns Of persons: «© = who? Of things: fx, [iso gx = what? Masculine Feminine — Plural tier Jue” eX!” = which? + ai?" and Ql)” are also regularly used as the direct object after verbs instead of the 3rd pers. plur. pronominal suffixes (see § 20).16 §5 PRONOUNS IV. The Particle » This particle is attached directly to the word which follows it and is vocalized in the same way as the inseparable prepositions noted below. It has the following main uses: 1. To introduce a relative clause. It is not itself a pronoun and in many cases the pronoun has to be expressed separately: (a) Without referring pronoun: Kuss} JMS [3 = This is the house which I built. (6) With referring pronoun: Rud ohidy «© = One whose house I built. (The pronoun here 1s in the form of a pronominal suffix, see §8.) Note. The interrogative pronouns {(”, Ju”, and el” are often followed by » to give the meaning ‘he who’, ‘she who’, &c. Similarly 9 06 andy us. 2. Asa preposition, to express the genitive = of: JoX?y JRA = The word of God. 3. To express cause, purpose, or consequence, either used alone or in conjunction with other particles such as SS = on account of, yl” = as, Mia?” = as, Nis = because, Loa\ = concerming. 4. After verbs of saying, thinking, and knowing, &c., it intro- duces the indirect statement: JoX?” ogy 15? SI know that God is good. 5- Sometimes it is used to introduce direct speech: We wash NT” Lise?” You have said, ‘I forgive’.§6. INSEPARABLE PARTICLES 17 § 6. INSEPARABLE PARTICLES The following letters are used as prepositions, and are imme- diately prefixed to the word which they govern: = of, ‘ = (a) the sign of the accusative after a transitive verb. (6) to. © = in, with, by, by means of. Exactly similar in its behaviour is the conjunction o = and. Vocalization of the inseparable particles (a) If the following letter has a vowel, the particle is prefixed without any vowel, e.g. 9 + Jars = Jadx). (d) If the following letter has no vowel, the particle is pointed with pthahd , e.g. 9+ Jis = Js}. Two or more particles may be used together, the above rules applying, e.g.: Ih = The house. INS = In the house. INRo9 = He who is in the house. Jkndaps = To him who is in the house. Jisa>5%.5 = And to him who is in the house. Ittatxe = The city. Wu-Fsa5 = In the city. JNt.¢2039 = He who is in the city. 24,X = To him who is in the city. Je $054X0 = And to him who is in the city. Note. It will be scen shortly that wherever by inflexion more than two consonants are found at the beginning of a syllable a c18 §6. INSEPARABLE PARTICLES pthaha is inserted between the first two, e.g. (hans (formed by the addition of a suffix to JR&s\xo). The Direct Object This may be expressed either by subordinating the noun to the verb as an accusative, or, if the noun is definite, by prefixing \. There are, in effect, five ways of attaching a noun to a verb as its direct object: 1, Jg.S MS = He built a house. 2. IgS |i5 = He built the house. 3 JMS HS = He built the house. 4. PAAN vould = He built the house. 5. Jad vonts = He built the house. (For the emphatic state in No. 1 see p. 21. Nos. 4and 5 have an anticipatory pronoun attached to the verb as a suffix.) In the case of pronominal objects the suffixed forms of the pronouns are used (§ 20), or, again, ‘may be used with pro- nominal suffixes attached to it (§ 8). Vocabulary 125? = man. 134 = good (m. sg.). has) vis = men. ead = good (m. pl.). Jax = people. a’ = good (f. pl.). |Xcla.$j = righteousness, Ks. yx0 = city. I55 = great (m. sg.). IB 80 = commandments. JNS5 = great (£ sg.) —¥ gs8N5 = whoever. also written —¥ wer§6. INSEPARABLE PARTICLES 19 loos = saviour.! Jeaus?” == woman, wife. (pl. 133) Jadso = king. Jia. = servant. \2abo = Moses. Jlise = temple. JspNa = peace. Jis = son. Exercise 1 Translate into English: wh 2 4 cia [ard che joo JER?” obs 15? 0 wl” aI el 4 ohadsop Eh?” co Ch?” 3 ogo 15 Lak 2 MR Iason} base 157)" 5 tfbNaf dd Ql” Vgsady 125) CES 7 Mela Fly 00) Jak Warding GENS 6 + Ihde prof oo J.50+3 JENS 8 i + Ol” RG Is a dP Ascoe be eh” 0 4 a” [dso Bivels exe 9 JBSsy \ifaels 12 tog Melodie Hak [39 LENS arr 4 wl ead Ins Ia grady [a3 13 + ar foNa # BN WelasFin Wand 14 Translate into Syriac: 1. 1am the man: you are the king: you are the women, 2. We are the people of the city. What is good? 3. You are (the men) who are in the temple. 4. This is the son of Moses, Who is he? 5. You are the servant of the king. 6. She is the wife of the king. 7. The women are good to everyone who isin the city. 8. You and we are the great people. - 9. These men are good, ro. These women are in the city. 11. The commandments of Moses are good. 12. Who are those? 1 This is a regular type of formation for a noun expressing the agent: it is formed from the active participle (Pe'al) by the insertion of a long 0. 2 Also written Jen?” and pronounced atid.20 §6. INSEPARABLE PARTICLES They are the wife of the king and the servant of the king. 13. A good king is the saviour of the people. 14. Who is this? This is the son of the good king. 15. The commandments of the king are for the peace of the people. 16. The king and the wife of the king are in the temple. IV. SUBSTANTIVES AND ADJECTIVES § 7. INFLEXION OF THE NOUN SuBSTANTIVES and adjectives do not differ from one another in inflexion, and the1efore may be treated together. They are inflected to indicate: (a) Gender. (6) Number. (c) State. There are two genders in Syriac, masculine and feminine. These correspond to the same genders in other languages. They may have been based originally on sex, but in the absence of a neuter such a distinction cannot be maintained. There are two numbers in Syiac, singular and plural. These are also possible traces of an earlier dual, but this is not generally recognized by modern grammarians. There are three states in Syriac, the absolute, the emphatic or definite, and the construct. There are no cases in Syriac, their place being taken in part by the states, and in part by prepositions. It should, however, be clearly understood that the states do not in any sense correspond to the cases of Indo-European languages. There are traces of original case-endings in several Semitic languages, and in Arabic and Accadian these are clearly marked. Some explanation of the states may be attempted.§7. INFLEXION OF ‘THE NOUN ar The Absolute State is the simple form of the noun, considered apart from its relation to any other word. It is, however, not very often found, its use being practically limited to (i) adjectives and participles used as predicates; (ii) nouns in distributive phrases, e.g. @O) eSI5; (iii) nouns after NS = all, every, eg. G& Nad IXoxty = at every time of distress, Jl XS = for any cause at all; (iv) and often, but not invariably, nouns after numerals, e.g. Jew os +40 «Sy = onc heart and one mind. In (ii), (iii), and (iv) the usage is not invariable and the emphatic state is also found. The Emphatic State originally took the place of the article. Unlike Hebrew and Arabic, Syriac has no article. But the use of the emphatic state has been very considerably extended, and it is that most commonly employed." The Construct State is only used when one noun depends on another directly, without the mediation of a preposition, In other. languages than the Semitic ones the genitive case is employed in these circumstances. But the construct state is far from being the equivalent of the genitive case. When two words stand in the relation which is expressed by the genitive, it is one member of the pair that is inflected; in Semitic languages it is the other which is inflected by being used in the construct state. Thus in the phrase ‘the king’s sons’, it is the word ‘king’ which is inflected in English. In Syriac it is the word ‘sons’ which is inflected. Or the position may be represented in another way. In the phrase above quoted we may express the idea by saying, ‘the sons of the king’. In Indo-European languages the ‘of’ is represented by a change in the word ‘king’. In Semitic languages it is represented by a change in the word ‘sons’. Whereas in Latin, Greek, or San- skrit the two words composing the phrase may be indicated thus, ‘the-sons of-the-king’, in Syriac they would be ‘the-sons-of the- king’. But the use of this state can only be appreciated by fami- liarity in usage." ; 1 For other ways of expressing the genitive see § 8 (at end)22 §7. INFLEXION OF THE NOUN The following are the normal endings: MASCULINE FEMININE Singular Plural Singular — Plural Absolute _ e Je ce Emphatic (or fe Ike Ike Construct ~ ri N NR These endings may be seen attached to the word a4 = good. MASCULINE Singular Plural Absolute a cad : Emphatic hag IQ Construct 33 ew] FEMININE ‘Singular Plural Absolute Ma} ee Emphatic Wal Iead Construct Mh MAY Words for practice: (a) Adjectives: 24 = good, SA = beautiful. Lin = true. wd = evil. Nu fo = slain. am = old. ? The noun takes styamé (or ribui) in the absolute masc. plur. but not the adjective.§7. INFLEXION OF THE NOUN 23 (5) Masculine substantives: ola = pain. = 4. ol? = wolf. ws = festival. ‘a-3 = head. Ss = prophet. id = yoke. wJ = standard. uSa = apostle. ad} = disciple. pv (c) Feminine substantives: Jo'hS = virgin. + \&% = heat. “f |siade = treasure. 1 [oclo = vessel. 1313 = she-wolf. = peace. Note. Some words have a feminine form in the singular and a masculine one in the plural, e.g. JRS93 = a word, plur. She, INSS = egg, plur. |S5.1 In these cases the plural is sometimes construed as a masculine. In the above vocabulary the form of the word given is the absolute. This state, however, is not necessarily found in all these cases, as the words are set for Practice, in the forms. In future the absolute state will only be quoted in adjectives and_ participles, where it is the more common form. Nouns will be quoted in the emphatic state, A peculiar class of feminine nouns must be treated separately. These are nouns (for the most part abstract) whose stem ends in & or o. Their peculiarity is that when the last letter of the stem stands at the end of a syllable, it is treated as a vowel; when it stands at the beginning of a syllable it becomes a consonant. The result is to produce the following paradigm: Ing Ino ‘Singular Plural Singular Plural Absolute ui cis & 7 8} Emphatic JX.jx> [yx Met>, Was? Construct Maj Miys hef> é37 (course) (thing) * This word has also a fem, plur. form |X¥3 = archway.24 §7. INFLEXION OF THE NOUN Words of this class frequently involve vocalic changes such as those which are dealt with under the head of the declensions. They are therefore not employed in the next exercise in their inflected forms, For masculine forms of nouns from these stems see § 31. Rules of Syntax 1, When an adjective is predicative it agrees with its substan- tive in number and gender; when it is attributive it agrees alsa in State, eS obs JLgk Jhindk ISoihS = the beautiful virgin. Jad 03) = the king is good. JAg JAN = the good king. 2, The agent after the passive may be expressed by the use of e& (see sentence 10 below). the virgin is beautiful. Vocabulary | hysdm = we receive. (coll. f.) Lik = sheep. (pass. ptpl.) aks = written. (act. ptpl.) i keeping. ab. = tore. {3X5 = book. = hand. \aata = law. vo JLs8)” or 06 tse] = it is said (£) Jiao = cattle, herd. [ifctinss = kingdom. AG/ = there is. lack = good, good thing. ] = not. N25) = judge. Jaoefs = mouth, 1 ‘The copulative enclitic pronoun is generaily inserted in such sen- tences as these: JSNohS vg JLSK, [ASH om SJ. 2 Similarly og SKS, it is written. 3 This is a frequently occurring type of noun expressing occupation and is formed from the intensive stem (pa'el).§7. INFLEXION OF THE NOUN 25 Nel = blessing. 0.35 = holy. SX = on, above, concerning. 42 = from, by. Jo?” = God. ol = ox. Exercise 2 Translate into English: #1h5 gidadse Jo JAX)" I QS [olragigadeo a afabilas oo Liky Si IA:ES ISNS op Shs 2 Weg LAN Ty chee Ibid ts BE Re! sheep liss of. LEIS 5 sfbabs HAY IS) Wea ENSxe 7 + Shab LINS IES 6 tJaNo gb dade |Netang voy 5 8 oleh oe ho Ibadss .10 + LLSaf JRF NS fl Sy JaaNa 9 ILS Hol Sage tar bog hk LS bo Habe gS [oXetg 6 gl Wadena Sf isk a2 Mba WSS Loge fs I) 34 Jhb MSs wb SS Naty 25 1S IS of. us a frarey [dokriog + jhe Translate into Syriac: 1. Tt is said by the disciples that peace is in the mouth of the prophets. 2, We are the good disciples who are written in the book. 3. True peace is on the heads of the true apostles. 4. It is written that bad sheep are not slain in the festival. 5. The beautiful standard is above the city of the kingdom. 6. The old (women) are not beautiful. 7. The festivals of Moses are written in the law. 8. Peace is on the head of the true disciple, g. You are not a true prophet; you do not keep the festivals which are written in the law. 10. The good judge is keeping the city. 1. The wolf tore the head of the old prophet. 12. We receive good from the hand of26 §7. INFLEXION OF THE NOUN the true apostle, and evil from the hand of the old judge. 13. Sheep and oxen are slain in the temple at the festival. 14. The sheep which are slain at the festival are good. —_15..The old man tore the yokes from the heads of the oxen. 16. The true judge keeps the book of the law of the city. § 8. PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES There are, strictly speaking, no possessive pronouns in Syriac, though a composite form mentioned below is often used in this sense. When the possessive case of a pronoun is used in English, it is represented in Syriac by a shortened form of the pronoun attached to the noun it qualifies, The following are the forms attached to the singular of a masculine noun, and to feminine nouns both singular and plural: SINGULAR PLURAL ist Com. . cc and Masc. ~ - wae and Fem. wal ae 3rd Mase. on oo 3rd Fem. Tol eee The following are the forms attached to the plural of a mascu- line noun: SINGULAR PLURAL ist Com. we ra 2nd Mase. ~ wa and Fem. ws BA 3rd Mase. Loo, eon 3rd Fem. on eo 1 Distinguished in unpointed writing, from the masculine by a dot "placed over the o.§8. PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES 27 It will be seen at once that the suffixes of the 2nd and 3rd singular and of the 1st plural as attached to the singular noun, and all suffixes attached to a plural noun, begin with a vowel, or rather are connected with their noun by a vowel. The rest have no connecting vowel. The former are called vocalic suffixes, the latter consonantal suffixes. The suffix of the 1st singular was originally a vowel, but ceased to be vocalized before the system of writing vowels came into existence. This fact must be borne in mind, as it seems to be responsible for some irregularities in the mode of the attachment of the suffix. Nouns with immovable vowels attach the suffixes to themselves as follows: NOUNS WITH IMMOVABLE VOWELS A. Masculine Nouns. The suffixes are attached to the stem formed by dropping the \_ of the emphatic state in the singular, and the |2_ in the plural. Thus: 4.3 = head; stem to which suffixes are attached —a.3. wa.5 = my head. cé5 = our head. y&s3 = your (m.) head. \Gaa.3 = your (m.) head. wad.5 = your (f.) head. cae5 = your (f.) head. o.5 = his head. \eoiasd = their (m,) head. oas5 = her head. edad = their (f.) head. }2.5 = heads; stem to which suffixes are attached a3. ois = my heads. 5 = our heads. = your (m.) heads. ea = your (m.) heads, = your (f.) heads, eat} = your (f.) heads. egak.5 = his heads. oud} = their (m.) heads, owas¥ = her heads. qe ouaed = their (f.) heads.28 §8 PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES Note. All masculine plurals follow this pattern since none of the forms undergo any further vowel changes. Examples of masculine nouns with immovable vowels: (i) With a long vowel in the final syllable: 13Xo = book. LEY = judge. . : lSo.9 = saviour. ate . \& pelo = consecration. Lijecto = commandment. (ii) With a doubled consonant: YL = hill. aS = heart. B. Feminine Nouns ‘The same rule applies as to the masculine. Thus: Js = rest, stem to which suffixes are attached Kus. wh = my rest. hau = our rest. ght = your(m.) rest. aahuls = your (m.) rest. wohwu = your (f.) rest. Shaw = your (f.) rest. obs = his rest. Vokes = their (m.) rest. ows = her rest. ediheu = their (f.) rest. Examples of feminine nouns which follow this pattern: Jk toh (plur. JX320h) = praise. Welis — (plur. Jao) = kingdom. Wnwtdad (plur. |Nsaial) = glory. Wed (plur. stax.) = prayer. All feminine plurals follow a single pattern, thus: JNaN% = queens, stem to which suffixes are attached MAS. vaso = my queens. \XaS% = our queens. phar == your (m.) queens. oa = your (m.) queens.§8. PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES 29 wokaNce = your (f.) queens, SANs = your (f.) queens, oklaSse = his queens. yookasee = their (m.) queens. oiSXxo = her queens. ceokaS = their (f.) queens. Pronominal Suffixes attached to other words than Nouns The inseparable prepositions subordinate pronouns to them- selves in the form of suffixes similar to those attached to the singular of nouns. Thus y3 = in you (sg.), oS = to him. 3, how- ever, does not follow this rule, but takes the form x9, to which the pronouns are suffixed. So oX.j = his, oS.7 [Ss = his book, an emphatic possessive. This literally means ‘the book which is to him’, «} being the original form of . So also e= = from, pe = with, L&S = unto, 1do/” = like, as. , Certain other prepositions take the forms of the suffixes attached to plural nouns. Thus SS = upon, Wada = = upon you. #5 = beside, aN« = instead of, also belong to this class. With these last may be included the word Ki? = there is, often used, especially in the later language, as a copula. Thus oak? = she is, Borne? = they are, or there are. The negative form is MX (= Nel +9), which takes suffixes in the same way. Rule of Syntax ‘The genitive relation may be expressed in three ways in Syriac: (a) By the use of the construct state (see § 7). (6) By the use of the emphatic state together with the pre- position » (see § 5). (c) By the use of both the possessive pronominal suffix and the preposition 4. Thus ‘the king’s head’ may be fans a3, JaNsoy M5, or JaS29 of3. The last of these is the commonest in cases where the relation- ship is a pure genitive.30 §8 PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES Vocabulary (f.) JNxoxcs = treasure (f.) JRSsB = word. Ikus = house. (pl. 3) (£.) JMsS% = queen. eas = taking (ptpl.) Exercise 3 ‘Translate into English: 1 Saad 5 jocbNea jeldd jroeSn , Cont jSko 1 jwooSidS , Wot 4889 j LANE , volta] ,yods wo [hike Mya} CoSMAS og SKS 2 ate SIP BMT ondelas INSY Ihs Eau! 3 + haut Ik + aes 5 oflltaty kad ele eds .foaNe XK 4 Mp UY hse 6 tIolty osbe's gb LSS Lge 4 hE NS gltsy haste .7 sidieds Ls lias i 9 eJabSy kts Liste Had ed.K) 8 Be Ly vurwelas gtibsts 10 + SG} Jadde JaoNe 14g ool” 12 JRaNSby oof INN'CRS GSK tr God Lik Sis M3 SASKAS LdNa vookil} aed oo Ladson JIB! Ral 1g #yiSS hysse | ml!” Wy MASS AES Coy JLa5)” 15 ete? ON NORD Media Translate into Syriac: 1. Unto him, your (m. pl.) head, my peace, your (m. sg.) disciples, their (m.) books, our heads, upon them (f.), from you (£. sg.), beside her, in me, your mouth, his words, their (f.) peace, to her. 2. Peace is on his head, he is keeping the book of the law. 3. The virgins are in the house of the queen.§8. PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES 31 4. We receive kindness from your king. 5. The king who is in the city is taking away its treasure. 6. You (m.) are evil prophets and ‘your words are not truc, we do not reccive them. 7. The apostle is in the city on which there is a standard. 8. Evil old men have no peace (say: there is not peace to them). g. You (m. sg.) do not keep the commandments which are written in your book. 10, Peace is on your head, O queen; you are in the temple. 11. Kindness is in our hands who reccive your (m. sg.) yoke upon our head. 12. You have a fair city, O virgins, and there is a fair standard upon it. 13. This king does not keep his kingdom, the men who are in it are not good, and its good (men) are slain. 14. The old man has a book, and he keeps the festival according to it. 15. Peace be upon our heads, peace be upon your heads, peace be upon the head of every one who keeps the commandments which are in this book. § 9. NOUNS WITH MOVABLE VOWELS I. MonosyHabic Nouns There are in Syriac two main classes of nouns which have movable vowels. In the first of these, masculine nouns carry only one vowel on the radicals. This appears in the simplest form of the word (absolute singular) on the second radical, in other parts of the noun on the first radical. (These nouns are similar to the segholate nouns in Hebrew.) Thus the following paradigm is produced: SINGULAR PLURAL Absolute | By : eS Emphatic Jia Jia Construct BN on32 §9. NOUNS WITH MOVABLE VOWELS The vowel may be either pthaha, rbhaca, or ‘gaga, but the vowel of the absolute is not necessarily that of the emphatic. ‘Thus: Absolute Emphatic Construct peo lasso pre hs ite bs 1 plan, baba pony Feminine nouns of this class have the vowel on the second radical only in the emphatic singular, in other forms it stands after the first radical. Thus the following paradigm is produced: SINGULAR PLURAL Absolute Emphatic Construct Absolute Emphatic Construct ee a eel pel nem ee Heten hs KAS BS as Ks WS 4*hemclo WKucdaso baad giccle |Miicho Kindo Vocabulary (£.) Ux} = foot. SlAof = gold. pee ee Visa = wine. ets = fish. San enKe Maj = time. JNegie = torment. Jia = compan- (pl. INGE) jon (m.) : wo] = said (3 m. sg.). Jie = compan- so)" = saying (m. sg.). ion (f.) * The vowel letter is normally written with o and u, both long and short: there are very few exceptions, e.g. SS, (rarely as, Says). 2 = companion. > = heifer. Ee ta 5 The o is soft because a short vowel stood before it originally, cf. Hebrew 33].§9. NOUNS WITH MOVABLE VOWELS 33 (INag3) Jods = cost. cetel” = saying (m. pl.). asda == heaven. Siero = walking. (abs. pe) loot = day. Jia, = man. (has two plural forms: (£.) Bs8 = horn. (i) Lar abs. sat Ik cla) = food. (ii) Rx &7 abs. not in use.) JE = new (m.). eke” = drank. Jie = new (f.). JA = drinking. Ji?” earth, land (f.). JX)” = came. y? ” = as, like, accord- (pl) as0(s.) ped = put, set. ing to. Jdoo = was. 5)" = ate. Jdo1 = was (en- 112" = sign (f.). clitic form). (pl. JgLe). Jind = flesh. as = heavy (adj.). pha: = body. (f. sg. emph. JXacs.) (f.) Laas = soul. Ig == children, (constr. «Su) Exercise 4 Translate into English: Jsilh lass .2 + Bote dads Iso yore Lede or eS Fg aoy LSMAS Meant tla} ete!” Hab WK Had pola AS [gd pd 4 6 ST Mada34 §9. NOUNS WITH MOVABLE VOWELS whald [fads Jadsoe LE 05)" 5 JESIS 5 + Bole a Hide WF osam Jad Jig opSD 6 Jando} Mage N57 8 igs hs LoS ELT NS JES INS [Se 1S) pd 9 Jad% poy AS uSk 10 o Iha3S INa tod) JNNSAS 18g Nafo flag iS rr #1835 Itupeo NS 13g eB Joba JpeSS) ods 12 tea Whe I Jing a6 abet Sts SIS Lege oe?” 213 a }aSso yNvo ORG SGT Eoafe fe IAS Lae hh oy Hg 3% Mak vg MASS 5 Translate into Syriac: 1, The wolf has eaten the sheep of the good king. 2. The prophets say that the law has set standards of peace upon the men of the city. 3. The man has put a yoke on the heads of the oxen. 4. The king is drinking wine in the temple. 5. There is pain in the bodies of the men. 6. ‘The men of the city have appointed festivals. 7. The soul of the good king is in heaven. 8. The apostle ate of the flesh of fish, of the flesh of sheep and of oxen he did not eat. g. The prophet walks according to the commandments of the law. 10. The disciple is not watching the body of man, he is watching the soul of man. 11. Good is he who walks according to the law of the apostles. 12.A good and true soul is the sign of the disciple. 13. And that evil one said (that) ‘I am the king of kings’, and he entered into the temple and tore away the gold. 14. On the day of the festival the apostle eats the flesh of sheep and oxen, but drinks no wine; sometimes he eats the flesh of fish. 15. Gold is heavy and its cost is great.§10. PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES 35 § 10. PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES ATTACHED TO MONOSYLLABIC NOUNS As in the casc of nouns with unchangeable vowels, the suffix is attached in all cases to the stem formed by dropping the } or J. of the emphatic state. It should be noted that in these nouns, both masculine and feminine, the vowel change occurs when the absolute state is expanded either by the emphatic ending or by suffixes. In prac- tice, therefore, if the emphatic state be made the starting-point, there is no further change of vowel. {s\x6 = king, stem to which suffixes are attached, 3. NS. \gSo = kings, stem to which suffixes are attached, 3N.5. wits = my king. udXso = my kings. yd>% = your (m.) king. yea = your (m.) kings. wcities = your (f.) kings. vad sso = your (f.) king. vogSxo = his kings. oddso = his king. ogiSso = her king. ovadco = her kings. ead = our kings. Rccvenes = your (m.) kings. eedighss = your (f.) kings. \SorigSs = their (m.) kings. eegd = their (f.) kings. ead-6 = our king. (oad = your (m.) king. Sad = your (f.) king. oid = their (m.) king. edad = their (f.) king. = torment, stem to which suffixes are attached hd Wee JX and \.. The words 4.” and {3 are changed into hdo¢” and ANh3 before suffixes. III. The following take the suffixes attached to the plural masculine noun: »X\3 = without, Lal = beneath, eS = in front of, jz = around, aN. = instead of, NX = upon, pyo = before, go. beside, ychus = alone, is treated as a preposition, vyojcuss = by himself. The word Kis = between, takes the suffixes attached to the singular noun, and has a parallel form WL. (ie. with suffixes attached as to a plural noun). § 11. NOUNS WITH MOVABLE VOWELS II. Nouns of more than one syllable This includes nouns which have in the first syllable an immov- able vowel. This vowel may be either long or short. The typical form in the first case is that of the Active Participle of the simple conjugation of the verb. In the second case the vowel was origin- ally followed by two consonants, either different ones or the same letter doubled. Syriac, unlike Arabic and Hebrew, has no means of indicating a doubled letter; hence nouns of the second type are not readily distinguished at sight in the emphatic state from nouns like asx.§11. NOUNS WITH MOVABLE VOWELS 39 There are thus three types of nouns of this class: 1. With long vowel: \{S (ptpl.) = killing, pXx (emph. JsaSX) == world, eternity. 2. With short vowel originally followed by a doubled consonant: +9) (emph. Ji8)) = bird, 6?” (emph. Jé0/") = lamb. 3. The first syllable containing a short vowel followed by two consonants: 3,5 (ptpl.) = approaching, gia (emph. Jisa) = tent. N.B. Nouns of this last type are formed normally by the prefixing of one or more letters to the original rcot. Masculine nouns of this class take a short vowel on the second root syllable in the absolute and construct singular. Feminine nouns of this class take a similar short vowel in the emphatic singular. The following paradigms are thus formed: A. Masculine Nouns SINGULAR PLURAL Absolute Emphatic Construct Absolute Emphatic Construct wu Ws hs ov wy fs 7 gay fe pe os rom 3 is) * os pee — 135-50 pe 135 eae Naas eas wide * When the third letter of such participial forms is one of the Bghadh- kphath letters Qu&Saya occurs, e.g. ep = doing, making.40 §11. NOUNS WITH MOVABLE VOWELS B, Feminine Nouns SINGULAR PLURAL Absolute Emphatic Construct Absolute Emphatic Construct ee Ise mS ae KS We (chariot) Ms05)” ISSi? KXQ05/” Xs0i]” INNw0I)" KXwWI!” (widow) Nai Jobd MBi Sie INSI2 NSF (footstool) Wolsd? Ihr clalad KNalsd? abs IKNsh6 nals (food) Rule of Syntax ‘The absolute state of the participle is used with the enclitic form of the pronoun to form a present tense. 350 so)” = Iam saying. wh?” Jiso)” = you (f. sg.) are saying. a he cis! = we are saying. wohl” ceisol” = you (m.) are saying, &c. In the case of the third person the pronoun is generally unneces- sary, since the subject is normally either a noun or a demonstra- tive. +5?" = he is saying. ev?’ = they (f.) are saying. Vocabulary (f) és? = sparrow. Iio = life (m. pl.). wo = telling. KS = sinning. ode = satisfying. JNWIS' = bird. sda = taking away. (pl. IRL85) * Also written JMS. * It is possible to regard these forms as belonging to an abs. }XNo). 9 Often written in a contracted form, i 330/”, chino!’§11. NOUNS WITIT MOVABLE VOWELS Jxadel = prayer. LAs = world, eternity. {iso/” == lamb. [ise = tent, piss = completing. pres = betraying. cS. dso = believing. Welard.d = faith. ; TLS = for. Nis == wilderness. Jbin = truth, 4r pos = loving (used as noun = friend). yi s© = approaching. was Vos" Iss355?” = widow. Wwe = glory. (pl. Jnana b.) ISS = chariot. "(also aS) @N% = teaching. i} raising. = priest. Woot = shall be (3rd pl. m.) MX = there is not. ANS. = has entered (f.). 6} = David. Exercise 6 Translate into English: Il ASI 2 a Gass pss [LES Jaaak or CAsdaoh eS NSAN pSSNG [EL Wooo |ASSN JEoaNF pole oly LVS [fol og pres; ciel!” Keye 3 e)EStN [LEE Le pole LOLS LSS ested 4 bSSn0 INSTRDE 6 NS LG BNS ade 7 a fisyhs Maas pio |2ds00 5 + Lixy Jisoll poy 069 Moi ePBXNS [Jp RX 8 afbdreis erialy fax Ripe lassty Wika Jiro?” .9 Bla oof oXay SES LE ASowe +10 + Mss d0% Vaan J5olS Jisol} fimS odany ? Normally second word.42 §11. NOUNS WITH MOVABLE VOWELS oNa5t Wiis Lig ar feta Josep ISS #1 QS Ja Kale IRN” NS 2 lbh oh LES 14 fads Ite ghar ob QS 43 Bs! as O15 oS oN) Bisds AS By Meas) #}sbSsoj LLSS [855 NQLy Translate into Syriac: 1. And glory (was) upon the heads of the priests who (were) in the temple. 2. Whoever eats of the flesh of birds and of oxen is taking away life. 3. The saviour of the city raises the standard on the tent. 4. The virgins say that they love truth. 5. ‘Ihe apostles teach that the tent is holy. 6. ‘The prayers of the apostles are sufficient, 7. The priest loves the prayers of the widow. 8. Glory is upon the heads of those who believe in the whole truth. 9. The sparrow has entered into the tent of the king. 10. Glory to thee, O God, for ever and ever. 11. They do not believe, for they say that the world suffices them. 12. And they take away the king in a chariot and raise standards against him. 13. The priests are raising prayers and glories in the temple. 14. He who takes away the widow’s lamb, sins. 15. The wife of David did not betray him to the servants of the king. § 12, PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES ATTACHED TO NOUNS OF MORE THAN ONE SYLLABLE Masculine Nouns. The suffix is attached to the stem formed by dropping the J. of the emphatic state. Before the suffixes for the ist pers. sing. and the 2nd and 3rd plur. (masc. and fem.) the short vowel characteristic of the absolute state in the mascu- line reappears.§12. PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES 43 ‘Thus: Jixolxs = speech, stem to which suffixes are attached ols, before consonantal suffixes —;s0)s5. visolas = my speech. bolas = our speech. yisolas = your (m.) speech, cere se) = your (m.) speech. wotsol5 = your (f.) speech. Seeks = your (f.) speech. ofsolas = his speech. \Sorssolad = their (m.) speech. osolss = her speech. ee oiscolss = their (f.) speech. ‘The plural takes suffixes as other nouns. Note. ‘I’o this class of nouns may be attached certain monosyl- labic words, which may be treated as if they lacked a first syllable. Such are |x» = blood, Jaa! = name. Thus: woe = my name. Se = our name. ySe = your (m.) name. \@axn2 = your (m.) name. 2 aos 7 vase = your (f.) name. t = your (f.) name. y case =y Ma = his name. Wome = their (m.) name. oie = her name. eons = their (f.) name. Certain prepositions are also similarly treated, e.g. sX5 == after, ikon = behind. Feminine Nouns. The vocalization is regular throughout, retaining that of the emphatic state, e.g. INad, obo} esd. It may be convenient here to introduce feminine nouns of the type JKaNx6, construct Kg\x6, which also take a short vowel before rst pers. sing. and 2nd and 3rd pers. plur. suffixes. Thus: JN = queen, stem to which suffixes are attached —KsiS-». 1 Plural Josie.44 §12. PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES esx = my queen. Mads = our queen. gXss-2 = your (m.) queen, Sohddco = your (m.) queen. woXtsd.o = your (f.) queen. cobsd > = your (f.) queen. oNsidso = his queen. Soka dso = their (m.) queen, oss = her queen. eohsdso = their (f.) queen. Vocabulary Jk.a.5 = beginning. Kis = amongst. Joes = light. > = work. Ipck. = love. WEN = fullness, JoouX = bread. eos = seeking (m, pl.). "= if. Jkmclis = synagogue. Teds but. gris” MSS = enemy. [Age = thigh. chick = John. (pl. JRaa.8%..) ap = knowing (ptpl.) +A = doing, inaking (ptpl.) Exercise 7 ‘Translate into English: RW” Bie SES CMAK pSSO pda Lads of oo \eaSNu ‘ RENETIONG Jo ly oe 2 4 voatiods Phase Es QS bade clog NES 0 Joo ISG Lhe nb?" 3 tele eodiady CLS cea dTbod’s GIN Gi 4 5 6 a LBNSy odorcs LIF NES HP LASS of Cor 18 tubenf WS [bade 00 S13 ideal SS gi olESS de . * Normally second word.§12, PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES 4 SM das che Se vedios cle ol 7 es 9 GohLS [2 AS Lyed tas 8 S oscles Woks dias JIS .10 + dlctanFio Kae} olan LL Woke? GMS war + GENS Lsiaf ollstsnsey old Nal’ 12 4 file Sby aaa Wo WoT [hu daak S47 NX GoXF VSS amd 13 thaSp onbaX LOS Jind tS) Worms Sx Edel” I ug $ Wha dy otf chsiao?” omsfalig MESS N hu! ERdabo Sats) Il)” 15 4 odd SSoj ‘Translate into Syriac: 1. The feet of the king are on the threshold of the temple.” 2. | am not eating of the flesh of your lamb. 3- The queen and her companions are behind the chariot of the king. 4. The widow of the priest is in the temple. 5. We believe that the love of the apostle is upon his friends. 6. There is pain in my head and in my thigh. 7. The prophets say that truth is the saviour of the world. 8. You virgins, glory is upon your heads, g. Your chariot, O queen, is among the men of the city. 10. The women of the city say that after them comes the king. 11. Glory be unto your names, O virgins, for you keep the commandments of your queen. 12, My sheep and my ox are killed and the enemies are eating thereof. 13. The widows are watching the bodies of their men in their tents. 14. I know that my wife! is good. 15. You (m. pl.) scek your own glory, you seek not the true glory of the kingdom. §13. IRREGULAR NOUNS The following is a list of irregular nouns in common use. * See § 13.$13. IRREGULAR NOUNS 46 (1029 ‘ove PEN “uaxjo ssaj ‘osye) pue (e3{ say) (f) 980] og ‘operh BaMh oie ge | ork “Ha ‘Ap (=2 ‘sqv) rep) oye ye wy sy asnoy om ‘erie [ty STN ee see | | Eyl songinep (Tp "3su0p) (s# ‘sqy) sree sre8e ery Sree iisre ister & = bad Al BSTE | Jordy, AFA! LYSNT | Sunuem | /o9/ preurpuey 7 i= i (QNiI 20) as fA “gee PRT | AT | dale ae i = a Quit saw) . irra “eta Tie [Pa [rah 7 ond 6 Qeteth Joker | FEA, | yy UH ‘x90 “ “ ‘yh foyer Sunuen NI 49}sIS “ ome teh pom ud AF seyour “ TED Bn woh Ceo “ ~Y ME]-UI-J9yIVy > e : 7 “ par “spe “ue “ ov 334301q ae ° ASPBe Leek ter Supuem | d51 bid suisof paxfing suisof paying qmnsgsuor§13. IRREGULAR NOUNS *saqpuey, sueaur joe fo4( uz0y yernjd ayy, , *,¢ 3 UoRoeTUOD sI0J9q ‘femnjd ay Jo ULIOS JaN|IED We se papreBas og deur Yor v4 wr uoneUTUOY pen]d ays Jo sd[durexe ase sprom wares BuLWOTIOs Bu PUB SIT, » “oN pus SP Ere :m9I90 sur} fenjd JaYIO OMT, ¢ ‘Jeanueysqng , “puIp psounouolg ; ‘yeuontsodarg , “YpNs no WaHUM OsTY ; soy Sowa (roe 23 ST qarep) ‘yih om oud, = ae ey J (exch (1) ‘ert () soxggns ‘em su09 “ge -sqy) aa (28 fwgen woe? se} UT yemnjd sXeae) ic (+# -sqy) ~T1 ey G39 sqy) Sunuem ww og fhe Supuea (7 oy 8h Jan io oor ssauoyty Sy e038 ey Toe, pue = UsABoy (prom ueisseg) bey sotoods ‘puny ry (A) a9 TH ysvoiq dal (Cf) pueq48 §13. IRREGULAR NOUNS A large number of Syriac nouns are irregular in the formation of the plural, having the singular indicated by a masculine form, and the plural by a feminine form or vice versa. Such nouns are \aa5 = soul or self, pl. JR&85, JXSs5 = word, pl. lho. Some nouns take either a masculine or a feminine form in the plural, \Lc5 = spirit. These nouns are mostly feminine in gender, whatever their form may be, but there are some masculine nouns of this type, e.g. J3/” = father, has two plurals with different meanings, Jodl” = natural fathers, parents, J3/” = spiritual fathers. The following nouns are also noteworthy: 1a5? used by itself to mean ‘one’ (French ‘on’): abs. asl or a5; pl. ail, cas. The pl. does not occur in the emphatic state. Const. pl. ou, with suffixes wos). With i it is used to mean ‘man’, ‘mankind’ and makes the following forms: |43) +5 or \43 sp; and in the plural: 143? Cis or ais. c Ji ‘master’, ‘lord’, has the form Ls when used for God or Christ: const, J?x. Three plural forms are in use: (i) Liss, (ii) Js (rare), (iii) JfSix0. Mag ‘young’. Adjective used as a substantive. Abs. lg, fem. JSQg. Two plurals are in use: (i) = servants, INy, EXSY, vd]; (i) = children, boys, LNY, NY, fem. JRASY. \s3 ‘great’. Adjective used also as a substantive. There are three forms of plural: (i) as adj. esis (ii) as substantive mean- ing ‘great ones’ J23¥03; and (iii) as substantive meaning ‘teachers’ 235, Rules of Syntax (i) Comparison in Syriac is expressed by the use of the preposi- tion &, e.g. Jisol” 2 J3ok o5 = the ox is larger than the lamb.§13. IRREGULAR NOUNS 49 OKL eb S25 JLas = Rachel (was) more beautiful than her sister. (ii) There is no superlative form in Syriac. The superlative may be expressed by (a) the use of the preposition s or ¢% after an adjective, e.g. JaSshs Jes = the smallest king, Jugs ho?” pS = thou art the richest of men; (B) the use of an adjective in the construct before a plural, e.g. cai] Soa =: the meanest of men; (c) by prefixing o$ ‘chief? or «3 ‘head’ to an adjective or a noun, €.g. wt 95 = the most innocent or very innocent, elb_2 wep = my chief joy; © (@) as in Hebrew, by the construct of the noun before its own plural, e.g. cos!” oX/” = God of gods, the supreme God. (iti) ‘He who’, ‘they who’ are expressed in Syriac in one of two ways: (a) by § 08 (m.), 2 wa (f.), # LS (m. pl); (8) by » Mi” (m.), 2 NE” (Es # eS” DL). Vocabulary Lkuss = she has died. acu = took. iol = let us dwell, he will Lt = seeing (m. pl.). dwell. Sy = fear (imper. m. s.). Je = he may or (will) od2y = they feared. help us. t/” = love (imper. m. s.). pk = sit (imper. m. s.). lic) = here.50 §13. IRREGULAR NOUNS Sle? = Israel. u2dQq) = return (imper. f. s.). * Sg = many (adj). oda = let us go out. (emph. state = We Jind = eagle. fem. pl. JU\ze) Exercise 8 Translate into English: Wad?” gis!” 2 oh” S [lon } ott val vol at vo Gkio youll LS 3 tbASSy oo [bors ody tl” Welaih vis Gia dwof eX 4 + bs Sica] ld .6 + @obguel” Ady Vag eae 5 + Shel ESS tino [35 Gb wdsl 7 ev ylig MS} Wb? lal” X RX 9 2 \ia) Jehul” Jas adr 8 eehdils abl” Gul” go wo!” 65 gS «10 o SS esa 12 aia Chas cle ely ta wl eum Igbo gs 13 2 edu] IGS Meol” LG Gis GaroS/” oN2y ory # Gomads |onold 155)" Souk! oh Mis ob obo JLSe Uk. 5 ks ‘Translate into Syriac: 1, My son, my son, sit beside me. 2. Fear your father and your mother, love your brothers and your sisters. 3. He who does righteousness in the house of his father shall dwell in the cities of Israel. 4. The queen is more beautiful than all the other women who are in the house of the king. 5. In your mother’s house there are many handmaids. 6. You know the name of his wife and the name of his wife’s father. 7. Our father will help us at all times. 8. We and our sons dwell in§13. IRREGULAR NOUNS 51 the houses of our fathers. 9. The father is the head of his house, the king is the head of his people. _ 10. ‘The enemy has devoured our sheep and our goats, and in the heavens there is no swallow or sparrow. 11. The eagle is larger than all other birds. 12. Return, O my daughter, to your mother and,to your village. 13. It is written in the books of the Fathers that he who believes shall dwell in the heavens for ever. 14. The father is the king of his sons and of his servants, the mother is the queen of her daughters and of her handmaids. V. THE VERB § 14. MODES OF INFLEXION In all Semitic languages, verbs are inflected to indicate (a) Conjugation. (@ Number. (b) ‘Tense. (e) Person, (c) Gender. (a) Conjugation As applied to the inflexions of Semitic languages, this term has a different meaning from that which it expresscs in the grammar of Indo-European languages. The conjugations are not classes into which different verbs may be grouped. In theory every verbal root may be used in all conjugations, though as a matter of practice there are very few which employ all the regular conjuga- tions in Syriac. Ihe conjugations are modifications of the root indicating modifications of the meaning. In some ways they correspond to the inflexions known as Voices in Indo-European languages, but they have a much wider scope. A root may be modified in one of two ways, either by strengthen- ing the radicals (or lengthening the vowels) within the root, or by external additions. These are always placed before the radical52 §14. THE VERB: MODES OF INFLEXION letters, Of these preformatives the most common is the syllable —1?”, originally having a reflexive force, but in Syriac developing into a sign of the Passive. In addition to this, \erbs are commonly modified either internally or externally. The number of conjugations varies in different languages. Thus Hebrew has seven, while Arabic has no less than fifteen. In Syriac six are generally employed, though in the case of a few verbs other forms are found, ‘l'hese six arc as follows: 1. The simple form of the verb, without any modification. 2. The passive of the simple form. 3. The intensive form, produced by internal modification, 4. The passive of the intensive form. 5. The extensive form produced by prefixing the letter ?, vocalized with pthaha. 6. The passive of the extensive form. The old grammarians used the verb “9 = to do, as their paradigm verb, and gave to each conjugation as its name the form which that verb assumed in that particular conjugation. More modern Oriental grammarians have employed the verb Sho = to kill, in the same way. Thus the names given to the various conjugations are as follows: . 1. Pe‘al or Qtal. { 4, Ethpa‘al or Ethgatal. 2, Ethpe‘el or Ethqtel. {5. Aph‘el or Aqtel. (3. Pa‘el or Qatel. 6 Ettaph‘al or Ettaqtal. N.B. Syriac verbs are always quoted, not by their infinitive but by the 3rd sing. masc. perf. pe‘al, as being the simplest form of the verb. The paradigm of the conjugations, then, as applied to the verb hs, will appear as follows:§14. THE VERB: MODES OF INFLEXION 53 ACTIVE PASSIVE Simple Xfeo fol!” Intensive Sh ~~ Extensive NS Sfoll?”! (4) The Tenses The tenses proper are two in number, the Perfect and the Imperfect. In addition to these the following forms of the verb should be mentioned, the Imperative, the Participle, and the Infinitive. ‘The Perfect and the Imperfect originally expressed complete- ness and incompleteness respectively, without reference to past or future time. In Syriac, however (possibly owing to the influence” of Greek), they have developed into a Past and a Future Tense, and are often spoken of under these names. Three other compound tenses have been developed in Syriac, a Present, a Continuous Past, and a Pluperfect.? (c) Gender As in the nouns, there are two genders, masculine and feminine. (d) Number As in the nouns, there are two numbers, singular and plural. (e) Person As in the pronouns, there are three persons, first, second, and third. In conjugating Syriac verbs it is usual to place the third person first and the first person last. 1 Also written Sfobk?” and pronounced ettaqfal. (‘The ‘alaph of the aphel has been drawn into the taw of the passive formation and has resulted in a hard, doubled letter.) * See § 16.54 $15. THE PE‘AL, PERFECT § 15. The Perfect The stem is represented by the 3rd sing. masc., to which are affixed the terminations of the other numbers, persons, and genders. These are shortened forms of the personal pronouns. They are as follows: SINGULAR PLURAL grd Masculine — ce, oe 3rd Feminine Na ee, vo and Masculine Re woh and Feminine oh eh 1st Common a — Attached to the stem of the verbs \fo and 2} (== fear), which, like a number of others, mainly intransitive verbs, takes rbhaca instead of pthahd in the Perfect, these will appear as follows: SINGULAR PLURAL abe Wy 3rd Mase. Xho SS ae —_ fo er Who Aly | She Sh 2nd Masc. bifo MAL, vohafo RAS, and Fem. = obSfo obN2y chsfe Ebssy 1st Com. ASS ASLY obo me The pronoun (L.. is frequently added in a contracted form to the ist person plural, dak, ody It will be seen that in the 3rd sing. fem. and the rst sing. the vowel is shifted to the first radical, while in the other persons it remains as in the 3rd sing. masc. 3rd Fem. RXBS ANG§15. THE PE‘AL, PERFECT 55 The forms of the 3rd plur. ending in e are less commonly used than the others. ‘The Perfect is used to indicate the shade of meaning expressed by the following tenses : 1. The Aorist He killed. 2. The Present Perfect He has killed. 3. The Pluperfect He had killed. 4. The Future Perfect He wilt have killed. Rule of Syntax jy is used to negative an adjective or a noun which is then usually in the absolute state: Beye by = what is not lawful. eee Ip = without number, Vocabulary wat = lead. adv = receive. SS = fall. - - M8\% = teacher, Sho = kill. - \aag = crowd. PS) = stone (verb). wba a sent. she = keep. - sha = hear. 23% = do, make, oXs = write. +a = transgress. > Youo = witness, Js = mountain, - p) = high. WMelxJ = youth(fulness). ps. MS = voice. - Kid = dead, 23 = when. prato/’ = Jerusalem.56 §15. THE PE‘AL, PERFECT Exercise 9 Translate into English: ahh Hobs vod, BAM Gop se NaS ub!” bo 1 eS UBT ONS GANS Lids vod ob]? GH 0d 2 Ve edt Sd bbodeis ae} Shoda 3 euldsj WWebirsbr bdakas gcd gasin fais oS orld 4 9 + ESE NS 1557 Gad Kebs 55 #pXSs co behak ASsol bo 6 thie GB [bo CoA) OSS hOMAy eS JES 7 IRS yl” coaXaF LAX RNat oSEN 160 lich 8s Upods NS Mas GF oly” sds I che LENS Bi NES HSL HK Sy Mol} Fd SIS -goSa WhXfod Giods Wlidas ge illaaf ah. Jetje ea tds SL ea Wiiod’s ob sO 4 Gast had Yow 12 #JASSx7 oS baag osha bub!” 17 JS LaF Shad 113 ode oS Jb LddsS LQ ad & WRAL ago hass Gods Gy Gas) onbld Jandy Las ral Yas, sfebains NL Bld} OES Ie] whuag id [ods cafe pSatol pafel 16 eX Sad aeoles hey QL! ‘Translate into Syriac: 1. The teacher said to the crowd, I have kept the Jaw of Moses and have not transgressed it. 2. The woman did that which is not lawful, 3. We heard the commands of the Fathers and did them. 4, The priests received the law upon the mountain, 5. We bore witness that you wrote the commandments. 6. And the judge said to the woman, You have heard the law and have transgressed it. 7. The woman heard the voice which said,§15. THE PE'AL, PERFECT 57 You (m. pl.) have not done that which our Fathers wrote unto us. 8. I have testified concerning those holy virgins that they have not transgressed the law, 9. The apostles wrote in a book the Jaw which they heard upon the mountain. 10. The queen said to her handmaids, You have not heard my voice. 11, My son, your mother has dene that which ¢s lawful. rz, We have ted this nation in the wilderness, but they have not heard our voice. 13. I said to my mother, You have led my feet into the temple. 14. You (m. pl.) have done that which is not lawful, and you have feared, for they that have transgressed the law are slain. §16. The Imperfect In the inflexions of the Inperfect the person is indicated by a preformative, the gender and number by an afformative. These « are: SINGULAR ‘PLURAL grdMasc, 3 CG e eed 3rd Fem. cece (aeeeech) Cereeees end Maso, vaceed Wleveeed and Fem. tek Geen L istCom. gg, a wee eed In those parts which have no afformative a vowel appears. In the case of verbs whose Perfect has ” the vowel is normally &, eg. Sho, Sohal. Sometimes a * is found, but in the strong verb the only instances of this are +a% = do, make, +, and 31 = buy, BH. In the case of those verbs which have the Perfect in * the Imperfect has", e.g. N2y = fear, S243, Occasionally ” is found in the Imperfect Gf verbs in ”, e.g. pSa = rule, gSa7, butin such cases the Perfect may have been in * originally. Such verbs are usually intransitive,58 §16. THE PE'AL, IMPERFECT In“ In* In” Singular 3rd Masc. Nepal SS 3rd Fem. Nagel Sarl (spel) (se) and Masc. apo) } Soyh and Fem. esol emsh eden ist Com, Nagel” asl’ NAT Plural 3rd Mase. vos gal ora PCnere) rd Fem. aw wast ss and Masc. ergol ora vel and Fem. Sst yesh eh rst Com. chal aw eS The Imperative The Imperative is formed from the 2nd person of the Imperfec by dropping the preformative. In the feminine singular and th plural the absence of the preformative makes it necessary to re tain the vowel. The Imperative is only found in the 2nd persor the forms of the Imperfect being used for the rst and 3rd. In * In” In” Singular Masc. Sapo ay Ny Singular Fem. wdapo ey wy ase 2 ast Plural Masc. ‘ oe ae i ; cage eee eden ways oA ost Plural Fem. | EP oe — : etage em cM§16. THE PE‘AL, IMPERFECT 59 Participles ‘These are two in number: (a) Active SBS, a form already dealt with under the head of the noun (§ 11). (d) Passive “fs, treated as a noun with an unchangeable vowel (§ 8). N.B. Words of the form S35 are mostly adjectives, e.g. 02:5 = holy, or nouns, e.g. Liiso = knife, although they some- times serve as- participial forms for intransitive verbs, e.g. as:5 = Near, as == seated. They are sometimes distinguished from the passive participle by a dot placed over them, whereas the participle has a dot below, e.g. yasd = yas = humble (adj.). pease = yeAso = spread under (ptpl.). Infinitive All Infinitives have the preformative ». That of the Pe‘al is fo. The prepositions is frequently prefixed to the Infinitive. Composite Tenses ‘The composite tenses have already been mentioned. In addition to the three previously indicated (§ 14), a fourth, formed with the Imperfect of the verb together with the Perfect of the enclitic verb Jéo, is sometimes used in conditional sentences to indicate a frequent occurrence in the past. As the conjugation of the verb Jgq is irregular, the Perfect is given below: SINGULAR PLURAL 3rd Mase. Joo 050 3rd Fem. bow60 §16. THE PE'AL, IMPERFECT 2nd Masc, Kuda eh bo 2nd Fem. ehv boy ch bo ist Com. mde ede Thus the composite tenses are formed as follows: (a) Present: Participle+ personal pronoun KSB = lam killing. () Continuous Past: Participle+ Perfect of JSo. : JS SRS = he was killing. (c) Pluperfect: Perfect+ Perfect of Jéo. JSq So = he had killed. (d) Frequentative past: Imperfect-++Perfect of Joc Jdq Sapa? = he would (used to) kill. N.B. When the verb Jéo: (= to be) is used alone, the o is pro- nounced, and it is written Jo. Rules of Syntax (i) Prohibitions are expressed by }! with the Imperfect. (ii) Purpose is expressed by (a) » with the Imperfect; (5) with the Infinitive Construct. Vocabulary poy = taste. Hoh = anger. win = flee. MSJ = child (§ 13). (§ 29) Jku = see. Ieoy = morning. aia = loose, dismiss, wk = there, allow, forgive. pls == standing.§16. THE PE'AL. IMPERFECT 6r eX = conquer, (£.) Hin = cloud. Jkox = death. io* = draw near, 234 = beloved. pee = something. Jiks = fruit. (oy (> =) cis = who. 2Jxo.x = until. Soy = Zion. * Makes its imperfect in a. There are four other verbs whose perfect has” and imperfect 6X: - 3 « The following is a rough guide to the way these suffixes are used: o after a consonant, vo after a. woe after a. eae after i and é. ? Except in the case of rst sing. (see below).78 §20. OBJECTIVE PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES There are no suffixes for the 3rd plural, the enclitic forms \a5/” and wt being used in their place. These suffixes cannot be used in a reflexive sense. For this purpose the word 493 with suffix is employed. The suffixes are attached to the Pe‘al of the regular verb as follows: Attached to the Perfect 3rd SING, 3rd SING. and SING. MASC. FEM. MASC. 1st Com. Sing. SBS wksfo whsfo 5 2nd Mase. ,, gas yds and Fem. ,, ays wok fo _~ 3rd Mase. ,, oS vous fo 3rd Fem. ,, oN BS ods fo wesfe ist Com. Plur. £4 and Mase, ,, ¥ _— and Fem. ,, ef oe znd sING. 3rd PLUR. FEM. Ist SING. MASC. rst Com. Sing. wehbe _ woergst 2nd Masc. ,, cad yhdbo yoss and Fem. ,, ~ whdfo woods grd Sing. Mase. = soar Xfo aks fo wg od gS ' An alternative form inserts the syllable —5 after the o-, e.g. wiadfe, gioSfo, &e,§ 20. OBJECTIVE PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES = 79 3rd Sing. Fem. ist Com. Plur. and Mase. ,, and Fem. ,, ist Com. Sing. and Masc. ,, and Fem. ,, 3rd Masc. ,, grd Fem. ,, ist Com. Plur. and Masc. ,, and Fem. ,, ist Com, Sing. 2nd Mase. ,, and Fem. ,, 3rd Mase. ,, 3rd Fem. ,, st Com, Plur. and Masc. ,, and Fem. ,. and SING. FEM. Sub ho cif 3rd PLUR. FEM. wigs (aang) (e4¥43) Ist PLUR. prho vaidfo vaiifs SN wairfe edidfo ist SING. aks fo okabe carafe and PLUR, MASC. wekrfo ee vasobsfo ssok Sho dakdfo grd PLUR. MASC. em Sur Paes eSekys and PLuR, FEM. a wala ts stants dg ' An alternative form runs witNf{o, Sh, &e.80 §20. OBJECTIVE PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES Attached to the Imperfect 3rd SING. ‘and SING. and SING, MASC. MASC, FEM. 1st Sing. Com. wpa? wi pol wildygol 2nd ,, Mase. py aus oe and ,, Fem. vaSpat _ sas . ; wo k i 3rd, Mase, vobel merbder oSpar oSpok 3rd ,, Fem. onypal cedpol ist Plur. Com. Sy Sp} and ,, Mase. eardpad a _— and ,, Fem. eadsapas =~ — grd PLUR. MASC. 3rd PLUR. FEM. 1st Com. Sing. warpal wid pay and Masc. ,, poSpat ps and Fem. ,, eavadpad wags 3rd Masc. ,, | waiaSgal | van gal oaSpat oA 3rd Fem. ,, obaSpa? oA ist Com. Plur. daSgod ye and Masc. ,, aadpad (aad gas) 2nd Fem. ,, cBadpat (eS) * An alternative form of the 2nd sing. mase. resembles the Impera- tive, thus: wXahok, eg&afol, oSabok, exapol. This form is chiefly used in prohibitions.§ 20. OBJECTIVE PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES 81 As to the 3rd sing. masc., so the suffixes are attached to the 3rd sing. fem., the 1st sing. com., and the 1st plur. com. As to the 3rd plur., so the suffixes are attached to the 2nd plur., both masc. and fem. Attached to the Imperative It should be noted that in Imperative forms the vowel imme- diately before the suffix is retained. MASC. PLUR. MASC. SING. FEM. SING. 1st FORM ist Sing. Com. LX apo wd apo woryeo? grd 4, Mase. coNdpo cgadadgeo waod{ cs 3rd, Fem. Sapo Raho aX cts- 1st Plur. Com. eSepo endo vodgeto MASC. PLUR, FEM, PLUR, FEM, PLUR. and FORM Ist FORM and FORM ist Com, Sing, aaodgcon (uNdgs) XS jrd Mas, , wgutefd vg ERS Sg grd Fem. ,, : sbaSgdo (oS Sys) ol Naps 1st Com. Plur. deSyeo (Sehs) "Nols Suffixes to the Pa‘el and Aph‘el are attached ina similar manner to those shown above for the Pe‘al. Attached to the Infinitive PE‘AL PA‘EL ist Sing. apes sulfa So and Sing. Masc. piped gleSfaso * Forms like udN a fo are also found.82 §20. OBJECTIVE PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES 2nd Sing. Fem. wa pos wlaXfsso Neat olteS fs eye dpad! — Loasbod favo! { oS poxd &e. 3rd Sing. Masc. 3rd Sing, Fem. ist Plur, od 2nd Plur. Mase. ad fod ee ros worfas! Rule of Syntax 3rd Plur. Masc. The direct object in Syriac is expressed frequently not only by the noun itself governed by‘, but by both the noun and an anticipatory pronoun attached as suffix to the verb, e.g. oNps JadsiS = He killed the king. (Sce also § 6.) Vocabulary wo = till, cultivate, ‘o a = rule over pe = send. Ko = he died. Ne = Patel, destroy. haat = sea. pas = Pa'el, give pleasure to. Jl. = Church. te = reap. Lio,5 = first, 20” = seizes wht == second. «a5 = honour. \ipiclo = offering, sacrifice. oe = dwell in. Ho = fire. 95) = lift up, crucify. be = Eden. * These forms are less commonly found.§ 20. OBJECTIVE PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES 83 pds = stir up. Kies = Jews. " eto = Pe., draw near; 05 = Romans. Aph., fight. pia = do. Exercise 14 ‘Translate into English: wold .2 + egaarnali As onbao Ki? Ay AS6 ut WuiSod lot Weis agrXad crlascbo Isl) aida Wor Kas r0g [adap are 65 Lisal2 [ito Vaso .3 + bsond WoliNS RX ug #1g3 Vo LES waedko woegel” oS 2513 5 aHbooiS Jae oehdal} SES + GAT wid eSdo 6 «ois gest?” We ass tahegeo +key WP efSald JESS dere) EGHSN GBISAS «|b s5/” WNglco Hob BIS 7 balay BSS Clsmly oSaiteod JUN [foe co Sadh onl” oh VW” veg een nd 9 ashe ot {sj whe a5) He 8 Corso had Mod” GoXsds .Jhod pis bebakas ood onal” for) 10 ¢ Jigs Nes sams ios eM” vedas LF wos wold wt + cotaSpaiy Mpicloy ghids ahrafaly SWS 12 + vgdakiooje sfiets oKifo Valls whaakel” 13 + olds eIES GSE LLY” obmSo Kado Ihul” acy U5 LA” 14 + kuNe Sy pes ss aad Lo?” Translate into Syriac: 1. This is the son, let us kill him. 2. And the Romans fought against (ps) the Jews and subdued them. 3. And the84 §20. OBJECTIVE PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES king will draw near to this city and will destroy it with fire. 4. The prophet will be betrayed into the hands of the Romans, and they will kill him. 5. You (m, sg.) have subdued us, but you will not destroy us. 6. You are able to hear the com- mandments of the law, for you have kept them. 7. Thave caused you to dwell in the kingdom and have honoured you. 8. You have stirred me up that I should rule over the kingdom. 9. If I Graw near to the city, the priests will Icad me into their house and will kill me. 1o, Gather them and destroy them with fire. 1x. Send them away that they may buy bread. 12. Have you heard me? I have heard you. 13. Daughter, your faith has helped you. 14. Beloved, I have sent you into the§orld. 15. My daughters, fear not; they shall pursue you that they may kill you, but they shall not find you. § 21. WEAK VERBS Variations in the conjugation of verbs are generally produced by the presence in the stem of (a) a Nun as first radical, (6) one of the gutturals as last radical, (c) one of the vowel letters, Alaph, Waw, Yudh, (a) a doubled or repeated second radical. These are usually separated for convenience into the following groups: 1. Pe Nun ay 2. Lamadh guttural whe 3. Pe Alaph 30" 4. Pe Yudh ok *Gutturals as first or second radical do not often have any effect on the pronunciation or form.§21. WEAK VERBS 85 5. ‘E Alaph Sie 6. ‘E Waw ps (pas) 7. Double ‘E is (thd) 8. Lamadh Alaph and hos, “e Lamadh Yudh It is possible for a verb to be doubly weak, though certain peculiaritics are never found together, e.g. if a verb beginning with a w has a vowel letter as its second radical, it does not share the peculiarities of the yw” verbs. § 22. ws VERBS As will have been already noticed in such words as wl, Jiu. p20, the letter ~ shows a tendency to become assimilated to the following consonant when no vowel-sound intervenes between. the two. The original effect of this assimilation was to double the second of the two letters (but in the modern pronunciation in vogue in India, the doubling of the consonant has disappeared and the previous vowel is lengthened in compensation). This occurs only in (a) Impf. and Inf. Pe‘al, except when the second radical is o, e.g. sou; Impf. sous. (6) Aph‘el (throughout). (c) Ettaph‘al (throughout). In the Imperative Pe‘al the w disappears altogether. The following paradigm gives the Impf. Pe‘alof 2&,.= go out: SINGULAR PLURAL 3rd Masc. wand yaaa » Fem. uoaek, wash a586 § 22, "9 VERBS and Mase. adh sash » Fem, esol cael 1st Com. 205?" wast Imperative Sing. Masc. oad Sing. Fem. wos t re) Plur. Masc. fell yaad ia Sad Plur. Fem. at ¢Sas Infinitive oad The Aph'el is as/’, and so conjugated regularly, and the Ettaph‘al as)?” Note. The verb oXco (= rise) assimilates the \ as a ¥”® verb does the w, e.g. Aph. onl” = raise. Vocabulary ye =pour, 3; aa = cling toe ne = draw (Impf. .2). ING] = seed. Ss = fall (Impf. N83). Ws = husband. Ku = go down (Impf. LaaJ). so = command. ~ ody = take (Impf. ads). we = alive. Sv = give (only used in the Ligd = oil. Impf. 443; for other ING} = fear. tenses 94 is used). | ~) = blow, arouse. ered fomen Daeg CUP Fevpt§ 22. vs VERBS 87 Exercise 15 ‘Translate into English: vyatpedas oid WS hoosis yorhie jas opaias a tA. add Jo + yaa?” ep ros sag em 2 + Rasy osginlS + wipe Ax5?” ro WomSS woduld J2as aasld .3 POSSE pata HXUF oS LS Ibo bl? IXslg ail” CSS SSa5 NGS Ieee GS og Ce haa I 4 5 WRT} 0m 2SL ONSS co GF 5 4 odand NS [aS aol USAr do 213 6 tod orgy GX URSA Nl" 07 + CALE Gok #oSBN cadial” Iy SX Maold ob] Salo 8 + lods wos wodSfo 10 hON No Sy” iil” GE 9 6 as NS SS Smspicols Translate into Syriac: x. And Moses said, Keep this law. 2.4The king said, If you do not give me your sheep and your cattle T shall take aw: ay your sons and your daughters. 3. And the men of the city brought out the gold which was in the temple that they might give it to the king. 4. And they: brought down stones from the mountain, 5. We believe that he will draw all nations unto him. 6. You have caused me to fall because you have not allowed me to keep the commandments. 7. If I come down I will receive you unto myself, and will cause you to dwell in the heavens. 8. And the queen was brought out of the temple that defilement might not fall upon it. 9. The priest said to the women, I shall receive whatever you give me. 10, He is not able to pour out his spirit on us because we are evil and will not receive his love. a1. My spirit will blow upon you but88 §22. we VERBS (and) you will not fall. 12. Bring forth the body from the house and let it fall upon the sea. § 23. S” GUTTURAL VERBS These are verbs whose last radical iso, w, %, or §. Ina few cases verbs ending in / are similarly treated. Their peculiarities arise from the fact that these letters seem to have a preference for pthaha in place of other vowels, especially rbha¢a. This is chiefly noticeable when the guttural is final. There are a few cases in which ».” guttural verbs are affected, having pthaha for ‘aca in the Imperfect.'\” guttural verbs are affected as follows: (a) In Pe'al: (i) The Perfect of intransitive verbs has pthaha instead of rbhaga, e.g. ool = wonder. (ii) The Imperfect and the Imperative of a few transitive verbs have pthaha instead of ‘ca, e.g. 5) = lead, Impf. sy. (iii) The Active Participle has pthaha instead of rbhaga. (6) The Ethpe‘el has pthaha for rbhaga. (c) and (d) A similar change takes place in Pa‘el and Aph‘el. ‘Thus the Pe‘al and Ethpe‘el of wsxia = hear, are as follows: PE‘AL Perfect San Imperfect what Imperative waa - Infinitive wha Participle Active wai i Passive Nha ry rye . x yom rin Peg. eds et = grind; 792 (or rom), You = remember. Most ~»” guttural verbs are like oj%, 00S = flee,§ 23. SN” GUTTURAL VERBS ETHPE‘EL Perfect Imperfect Imperative Infinitive Participle woke!” wiehkad 89 The Pa‘el and Ethpa‘al of 459 = lead (in Pa‘el = govern, in Ethpa‘al = bear oneself). PA‘EL Perfect Imperfect imperative Infinitive Participle Active aa Passive ETIHPA‘AL Perfect Imperfect Imperative } Regular. Infinitive Participle APH ‘EL of ica = despise. Perfect Imperfect Imperative Infinitive Participle Active » Passive abi, {ts a4 Cw S ab. ,gd §23. \” GUTTURAL VERBS The word waa” = be able, find, is best treated as an Aph‘el of this class in which the ” of the first syllable has been modified to © Vocabulary 21 = Aph,, record ncurmemi eek i201 = sing (praise). sag, = be complete. ww) = rise (as sun), pox = dwell. onol = wonder. am = Pa., hope. wry = they will say. sp = know. HNL? = tree. oso = Ethpe., be ill, Ji = animal. Aph., make ill. (£) 150” = face. w>) = sacrifice. (£.) Ion = field. oy = plant. JRax = garden, po= Pa., walk. 4 TEetommgsomem So whe = be desolate. i JSS = heart. 01) = Pa., justify, one eyeongy§ Sco = helper. (Passive = Ethpa.). pl’ = Adam. Was = prayer. Exercise 16 Translate into Syriac: a obs F HAS KO wrhky NLS yas oil” ops 3 tyhvclnal wild pol Jrods Nx wy?” 2 m Ja? Jas asts 4s LNUTF wondfS ona hld « Sahl” 5s Ndoadad JS) 2852 yl” ol ang}o Hdd Voo el" GB!” 6 to NBS OSS onbHS Joi Vong LES Lege§23. \” GUTTURAL VERBS gr os past by Nis su NSW Yo east” bully Was Li? LbiSs0 Ska” WY pio + Mats JWLO NS S05 7 fas? JaXSS ond + [sd Gb Joossal 355 angld 8 ° ¢ olfda/” WWsnefro} [257 LEN Jad 5X 9 toSt INSBN wie, SE IO Ft Jha. Fs05 9 oad iss oS yond oo ald eh oN eflo SoS NEF NS MW! wheal 252 1) td NS ‘Translate into Syriac: 1. And when they hear that the king is ill, they will say, What has méde the king ill? 2. And he planted a garden and put in it the man whom he had made that he might till the ground. 3. Let us sing unto the king, and let us make mention of his name. 4. Listen to me, my brother, and open to me the eyes of your heart. 5. He who hopes is justified, and he who is justified is made perfect, and he who is made perfect knows the glory of heaven. 6. It was said through () the prophet, I will dwell amongst you and will walk amongst you. 7. Tf there shall be found one righteous man, I will not make the city desolate. 8. You have made me wonder at your words. 9. Whoever shall hear my word and do it, I will grant (give to) him to walk in the light of the kingdom. to. Come out and bring out with you the sheep and the oxen, and let us sacrifice in the temple. § 24. "2 VERBS ‘The peculiarities of this class of verbs are due to the fact that ? when initial must have a full vowel, and that when preceded by a vowelless consonant it surrenders its vowel to that consonant and becomes quiescent, sometimes being even omitted in writing.92 §24. ("9 VERBS This affects all parts where the ? is initial when preceded by a vowelless prefix such as o or y, and further makes changes in: (a) Pe‘al In the Perfect the initial / always has *, e.g. S3/" = eat. In the Imperfect and Infinitive the first syllable is a long open one, and in verbs whose Imperfect has aW in the second syllable the first vowel is *, in those with ” it is”. Thus \.eo[? = he will eat, but |b = he will say. In the Imperative and the Participle Passive the vowel is ’, e.g. 405)”, 228/”, but if the second vowel is ”, the first becomes”, cg. 2)". (5) Ethpe‘el The 1 of the preformative always carries a vowel. In parts which have no vowel in the regular verb, this vowel is *, where the first radical has ” it is simply shifted back on to the L, eg. Sa?) RNalI?”. (c) Pa‘el In the Impf. and Inf. the ? surrenders its vowel to the pre- formative, e.g. wl = oppress, Impf. Pa, SB. (d) Ethpa‘al The ? surrenders its vowel to the L of the preformative, c.g. pall?” = be blackened. N.B. This class of verb is rarely conjugated in the Ethpa‘al, its place being taken by the Ethpe‘el. * (e) In the extensive forms, Aph‘el, Ettaph‘al, Shaph‘el, and Eshtaph‘al, a further change takes place, the ? being replaced by 0 (in one case, that of JL?” = come, by v), e.g. Al == perish, Aph. .30/” = destroy, Ettaph. ,olL/” = be destroyed; the root w?, only found verbally in Aph‘el and Eshtaph‘al = be behind, delay, Aph. 3202”, Esht. Hokie!”§24. ("os VERBS 93 The following forms will serve to illustrate the principal pecularities of these verbs: Pe‘al Perfect grd Sing. Masc. wal? > » Fem. KNo/” 2nd Sing. Mase. RSS" Imperfect 3rd Sing. Mase. Sol? wh ist ,, Com. Soe!” of Imperative Sing. Masc. aol” 0)” Participle Active Nei . Passive Nol” Infinitive Saks wold Ethpe‘el Perfect 3rd Sing. Mase, Sally” » Fem. ANoll?” Imperfect grd Sing. Masc. Salt and ,, Fem. elk 3rd Plur. Masc. cadal Imperative Sing. Masc. SST Infinitive ; Sas Participle NAIK (f. HolS) + Also Noll?” and N38)".94 §24. ("@ VERBS Pa‘el Imperfect 3rd Sing. Masc. pe tens ist ,, Com. pr aX” 3rd Plur. Mase. ep k saws Infinitive ols cats Participle Active pis aS Ethpa‘al Perfect grd Sing. Masc. pe Aph'el Perfect sof" Ettaph‘al Perfect sgolh!” Note. Jl?” = come, is both Pe ’Alaph and Lamadh ’Alaph (see § 29). Imperfect Pe‘al Wh Imperative Pe'al Ih * Aph‘el oh!” Ettaph‘al enh” a Se Vocabulary 1 el Sesh (Impe, s2h,). KA = sleep, rest. \ pod = bind. Ans wLeses JliciaS% = teaching. 1 yx? = shed, pour out. +> = one (m.). wf = seize, hold, Ign = one (f.). Aph., close up. (f) JAN)" = rib, pene 1 eo) = Ethpe‘el, be constant. JSS2 = milk. « The verb aS)” = teach, is generally written without the / in those parts of the Pa‘el that have a preformative. For the Pe'al of this verb the form QN° 1s used.§24. ("2 VERBS 95 ! = 4 1383 = dog. S : Pe LON gan els a 8 ! \s/ = Ethpe‘el, mourn. po = put, set wal = Aph,, delays Grd. mpl. one). Reet sponges Ree ARAS Sam = be satisfied. ok Raa See apt \ yt = sleep; pa. causative. hi5é = thus, so. Exercise 17 Translate into English: Joa aNSo 2 «p83 cc SKS x oles Sales or wield” U3 + Wardt SS obeli Wy egogSNKS Ly Ibu Gane!” aq) + Hake Io Sx coro ofehbs il MIN OAT GE V5 tN eshe Heng cadsold afois WokspoX ops Sass SSod Cho!” chal TELE! WoudiSe + gor BO} pr Joq Sod I!” 6 seals ee 7 + OR” Qa! LAN} Wor ils RL PSE NSS 8 cosy MINT LG? SS Lily BN 4 bdNe fdas old QSSNM” CB Ite od + odsojo pil” aoSsllh Hy oalgsd5 1S + G7” NTS SBadS uN .9 15 ef oda!” + )bux ops” Libs, Sho + sept 3 Colekg ali Was call!” 10 + Qad wih ooh” WEaNS SF Bod HSI Translate into Syriac: 1. Hear the law and keep it, Jest you perish in the way of the desert. 2, Hear my voice and I will teach you the way of righteousness. 3. When you eat the flesh of oxen, you shall pour the blood on the earth. 4. Let us hold fast that which we have received, lest we fall. 5. Let me not mourn, and Jet96 §24. ("9 VERBS not my enemies oppress me. 6. Flee and do not delay, for he who delays will perish. 7. I have fed you on milk, because you are not able to eat flesh. 8, And they seized the prophet and bound him and set him before the king. And the king said to the prophet, ‘Why do you teach evil? If the people hear your teaching, they will mourn and will not be able to fight; and you will shed the blood of men, and by your word the whole city will be destroyed’. And the prophet said, ‘The word which I speak is true, and I cannot restrain it’. § 25. «9 AND o”9 VERBS » appears as the initial letter in most forms, but Aph‘el and Ettaph‘al normally have o.! In Perfect and Imperative Pe‘al and throughout the Ethpe‘el, when the « has no full vowel it quiesces and becomes a long i, eg. Lh, wey? This is often written ./ at the beginning of the word, e.g. L2.(. ‘The vowel of the Perfect Pe‘al is™ except in the case of verbs ending in a guttural or résh, e.g. “S. = bear, .&, = burn, but 8, = be heavy, sf = know. Lameenecte When by inflexion the u has a full vowel it is consonantal, e.g. Liat, se, ASLL’, &e. In the Imperfect and Infinitive Pe‘al the u is replaced by /, e.g. Kalu, Yslao. Indeed, in many respects these verbs resemble J" verbs. The two verbs oX% = sit, and {2 = know, are irregular, losing the & in the Impf. Pe‘al and related parts, and taking tbhaga as the preformative, thus resembling »”9 verbs. * Initial Waw is very rare in Syriac apart from the conjunction and a few forms like }]é (used impersonally to express ‘ought’) and -36 = to appoint. ? Here the long i thus formed is pronounced with the taw. This happens whenever a prefix is added, e.g. 2.0.§25. o“@ AND o”s VERBS 97 Two verbs, aif = suck, and SN. = wail, retain the © in the Aph‘el, ai./” and SS. all others take 0. Thus the following forms will serve as a guide to conjugation : Pe‘al (All verbs of this class have the form of intransitive verbs.) Perfect 50?) Imperfect Bo Imperative LEQ?) Infinitive ls Participle Active Le » Passive \.3(/) Ethpe‘el Lb yw Pa‘el and Ethpa‘al are regular and the © behaves as a full con- sonant, ¢.g. a7, \37h/" (to lead). +82, 48717" (to honour). Aph‘el Bol” al)” Ettaph‘al Boll” (ai Ll’) The verbs o&, and s}, are conjugated thus: Peal Perfect 2 (?) se) Imperfect ov se Imperative of sf Infinitive oh SES Participle Active okt we » Passive oN ()) ~e()98 §25. "9 AND o”9 VERBS Vocabulary te matencnwet ; | op be anxious. 1 Ly. = inherit. | ims = be heavy; | Sa. = Aph'el, bring. Pa‘el, honour. } 9b. = Aph‘el, lend, 1 .\s = bear; Aph., beget. JMS = mind. gh. = exceed. Saeed (£.) Wal” = ear. ' Tam, == Aph'el, add, do again. vq. = around (with | yas = burn; Pe‘al intrans., Aph'el, suffixes as trans. attached to a pl. noun). of” = or. Exercise 18 Translate into English: Miady aS oda!” tNoblt [es . cool of” asoylt doa Bre waial? whSO0/” us!” .2 thou hd SH Jas Saas pr asold 3 + gpd eWSiKs s7l}o oh oe SOM SES J25 In po Math” 4 + JNU55 i? oyool? ay + abu pasy Bos od sarol I v 50.7 a dol” SSN Mss] UE 6 ¢ rats wl” ugad | 8 aYogs asin wobipe Lialy ot oobaX Lidl ly NES badd; olds ohBd wad [BS SS5 pp0F HS SES +25? mds Chase!” 9 gel 10 ILE? LNG WhNgalo felts wokutw dato 4452 Chad SATRAN (oddly USdce vga OL * Used with the Infinitive, eg. 28S oe)” = he said again.§25. »"@ AND o”9 VERBS 99 Translate into Syriac: 1. Unless your works exceed the works of the law, you shall not inherit the kingdom. 2. In those days the Romans went to Jerusalem and besieged (sat about) it. And the Jews were anxious concerning the city, because they feared that the ‘Romans would burn it with fire. For they knew that they had burnt other cities. 3. And they brought the prophet again to the king. And the king said to the prophet, Why am I not honoured in your teaching? And the prophet said to the king, Unless you keep the law, you will not be honoured by the King of Kings, and He will not cause you to inherit the land of your fathers. And the king sent the prophet to his house, and took counsel with the priests that he might be burned with fire. § 26. ’s VERBS These verbs also exhibit peculiarities which are due to the character of the letter /, which must have a full vowel or be quiescent, and surrenders its vowel to a prereding vowelless con- sonant. The Pa‘el and the Ethpa‘al are regular; in the other conjugations the root is practically monosyllabic. In the Pe‘al Perfect the radical vowel is *; in the Imperfect the vowel is”. In those persons that have a vocalic afformative, how- ever, the * reappears. In the Imperative and the Infinitive the vowel is ”. The Act. Part. is regular in the masc. sing., but the stem becomes monosyllabic in the fem. sing. and in the plur. In Ethpe‘el, Aph‘el, and Ettaph‘al, the root becomes monosyllabic, retaining the usual vowels. The following forms will serve as illustrations: Pe‘al Perfect Se Imperfect, 3rd Sing. Masc. SL mon Plur, weSle3100 §26. (’~ VERBS Imperative 4 Infinitive Sis Participle Active She, We » Passive whe Ethpe‘el SIhe? Aph‘el Shall” Ettaph‘al (SILLY i) The verb og = give, is treated like an /” verb in the Perf. Pe‘al. For the Imperfect the root “\ky is used. In the Impcra- tive, Infinitive, and Participles, the verb is conjugated like ~., and in the Ethpe‘el like an ordinary u"9 verb. Vocabulary | ka = ask; Ethpe'el, refuse; waa = lacking in (fol- Aph‘el, grant.spyhosse lowed by »). \ oly = be good. Sabass = wealthy | ajo = be evil. S42 = stretch out. ! aha = be old. LSS = night. 1 yhoo = wear (sandals). AX) = three. v i ( : als). me ree. \ hse = Cease, weary 4+ JIS] = sandal. (tmpersonal). * 1 1:9 = Aph., preach. elo = be evil; grieve (in- Shei, = loaf, trans.); Aph., grieve INsoad = wisdom. {trans.). ee ee INI? = go. \ oot = give. (Impf. Sih5).! \Kadex = gift. ' See also § 29 note,