Getting Started with Syriac

By Paul

Syriac Aramaic has many similarities to other Semitic languages, in a similar way to how Romance
languages share features. Its grammar is not particularly complicated, although if this is your first
Semitic language than it might take some time to get used to the triliteral verb system, since it is so
different from European languages. Syriac literature, however, takes more time to get used to, since the
rhetorical style is quite particular and not easy for a beginner. I recommend trying to read sooner than
later, to give yourself time to adjust. The Peshitta (the standard Bible translation) should be your go-to.
After a few weeks, try reading some of the Gospel of Matthew or Mark.

It’s also important to remember that Syriac is the liturgical language of a wide variety of Middle Eastern
Christians. Because of this, the pronunciation varies from place to place. There are two main groupings
of pronunciations: Western and Eastern. The most noticeable difference is that all Western
pronunciations pronounce Classical o as u and Classical ā as o. I recommend picking whichever
pronunciation you like more and using that most of the time, but also try the other from time to time.
There are Youtube videos of Syriac hymns and readings: use these as practice.

One last note on pronunciation: Wikipedia and some other sources indicate that the soft k and g sounds
(i.e. after vowels) are velar [x] and [ɣ], but as far as I can tell, this is wrong. Pronounce them as uvular [χ]
and [ʁ] instead.

Starting Out: Learn the Script.

I recommend starting out by learning the script online. This will also introduce you to the pronunciation.
Syriac script has a long history and quite a few local varieties, but for the sake of convenience (and
printing) there are three main versions: Estrangela, Serto, and Madnkhaya. Estrangela is the ancient
form associated with the original Classical period but is still used as a “capital” version – for example,
Serto or Madnkhaya documents will often write chapter headings in Estrangela. Estrangela alaph is a
famous letter often used as a symbol for Syriac as a whole: ‫ܐ‬
Unicode uses Estrangela, and so do most scholarly printed editions. However, it has not been the main
manuscript hand for a very long time. Broadly speaking, Serto is the Western form, and Madnkhaya is
the Eastern form. Serto is more cursive and easier to write, and the vowel diacritics are easier to read,
while Madnkhaya is more formal-looking, angular, and while a bit dense, very aesthetically pleasing.
Wikipedia is a decent resource to learn the script: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriac_alphabet

And this table is handy:

Another site which you should spend some time with is HMML. HMML is an organization run by an
American Benedictine monastery which preserves and digitizes rare manuscripts from around the world.
They have quite a few Syriac documents, but more importantly for a learner, the website also has freely
available lessons in the variety of Syriac manuscript hands. This will help a lot in identifying different
hands and being able to read them.

https://www.vhmmlschool.org/syriac
Lessons: find a textbook

I really recommend finding a decent textbook. Sadly, online instructional resources for Syriac are
practically nonexistent. The book I used, which I highly recommend, is the recent revised edition of
Robinson’s Paradigms and Exercises in Syriac Grammar, by J.S. Coakley. Try to find it at a library (either
in paper or digitally), but if you cannot, then it is available on Amazon for about 50 USD. I haven’t used
other textbooks myself, but if you find something cheaper, go ahead and try it out.

Reference Grammar

The grammar for Syriac, hands-down, is Nöldeke’s Compendious Syriac Grammar. It’s old, but nothing
else comparable exists. While the original is in German, a good English translation which was made
during Nöldeke’s lifetime is freely available online:

https://archive.org/details/CompendiousSyriacGrammar

Nöldeke is an invaluable resource and much more in-depth than any textbook you will find.

Dictionary

You are going to have to really learn Syriac by reading, and when reading, you will need a good
dictionary. The trickiest part is usually finding verb roots, so make sure you spend quite a bit of time
learning the grammar so that you don’t get stumped by a strange conjugated form.

The best Syriac-English dictionary available is Sokoloff’s A Syriac Lexicon, but this is pretty pricey and
large – worth investing in if you plan on making Syriac a lifelong commitment, but not necessary for a
learner. There are pretty good online dictionaries which should meet your needs.

The easiest to use is Sedra, which actually compiles several dictionaries in one easy online search (you
can also search for the English translations which is very helpful). The best dictionary contained in Sedra
is probably Margoliouth. Furthermore, when learning a new word, Sedra also has a concordance (Simtho
concordance right beneath the entry) which allows you to see the word you searched in the context of
texts.

http://sedra.bethmardutho.org/lexeme/get

Beth Mardutho is generally a fantastic resource.

The other online dictionary search you might want to use is the Dukhrana Multiple Lexicon search,
which is less user-friendly but provides more dictionaries to comb through. Unlike Sedra though, I don’t
think you can search English translations.

http://www.dukhrana.com/lexicon/search.php
Texts and Further Resources

Reading is the most important part in learning Syriac. I recommend reading aloud and translating
selections in a notebook. As I mentioned, the Peshitta should be the first text a learner reads (the name
means “easy”, in fact, referencing the intended purpose of being accessible). After that, try reading
parts of the Cave of Treasures, and if you’re up for it, some of Ephrem’s poetry. These are some of the
most important canonical texts for Syriac. You should also make sure that you are reading from both
printed editions and from manuscripts, and from both Eastern and Western versions.

Here is a nice digitized Peshitta New Testament in a printed Madnkhaya script:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31158009689018&view=1up&seq=494&size=125

The following websites contain many open-access texts that you can read and further resources to help
you.

http://syri.ac/

Syri.ac should be the first place you go to when you’re looking for something (other than the online
dictionaries I already mentioned). It has links and bibliographies to just about everything you’ll need

http://bethmardutho.org/

Beth Mardutho hosts the Sedra dictionary already mentioned, but also has many other resources as
well.

http://www.dukhrana.com/

Dukhrana is much less nice-looking than Beth Mardutho, but similarly has many valuable resources.

https://rinyo.org/Bible

a good online Syriac bible.

https://syriaccorpus.org/browse.html

Excellent collection of Syriac texts. It seems that they are all unvoweled, though, which will be a steep
learning curve for a beginner. You’re better of starting with something like the Mosul Peshitta linked
above, which is completely voweled.

https://lib.byu.edu/collections/syriac-studies-reference-library/about/

more online texts

https://syriaca.org/index.html

this is a good reference portal for scholarly research and information.