Product Description

Syriac is the Aramaic dialect of Edessa in Mesopotamia. Today it is the classical tongue of the Nestorians and Chaldeans of Iran and Iraq and the liturgical language of the Jacobites of Eastern Anatolia and the Maronites of Greater Syria. Syriac is also the language of the Church of St, Thomas on the Malabar Coast of India. Syriac belongs to the Levantine group of the central branch of the West Semitic languages. Syriac literature flourished from the third century on and boasts of writers like Ephraem Syrus, Aphraates, Jacob of Sarug, John of Ephesus, Jacob of Edessa, and Barhebraeus. After the Arab con-quests, Syriac became the language of a tolerated but disenfranchised and diminishing community and began a long, slow decline both as a spoken tongue and as a literary medium in favor of Arabic. Syriac played an important role as the intermediary through which Greek learning passed to the Islamic world. Syriac translations also preserve much Middle Iranian wisdom literature that has been lost in the original. Here, the language is presented both in the Syriac script and in transcription, which is given so that the pronunciation of individual words and the structure of the language may be represented as clearly as possible. The majority of the sentences in the exercises-and all of the readings in later lessons-are taken directly from the P'itta, the Syriac translation of the Bible. Most students learn Syriac as an ad-junct to biblical or theological studies and will be interested primarily in this text. Biblical passages also have the advantage of being familiar, to some degree or other, to most English-speaking students. For many of those whose interest in Syriac stems from Biblical studies or from the history of Eastern Christianity, Syriac may be their first Semitic language. Every effort has been made in the presentation of the grammar to keep the Semitic structure of the language in the forefront and as clear as possible for those who have no previous experience with languages of that family. Syriac is structurally perhaps the simplest of all the Semitic languages. A chart of correspondences among Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac is given.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #520809 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-01
• Released on: 1999-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 228 pages

From the Publisher
A Key to Exercises & English-Syriac Vocabulary has been published to accompany this book. The ISBN is 1588140458.

About the Author
WHEELER M. THACKSTON is Professor of Persian and other Near East Languages at Harvard University.

Customer Reviews

Best teaching grammar yet!
After having tried to learn Syriac (without too much success) from a number of texts (Healey, Ungnad, Muraoka, Robinson), this grammar was like a breath of fresh air! For me, the Syriac script was the major sticking point. Professor Thackston gets the student past this obstacle by using unpointed Estrangela, and by giving transliterations of all paradigms, examples, and vocabulary. In a clear introduction to the sounds and script, he covers the complexities of syllabic division, accentuation, and spirantization in a succinct and understandable manner. There are twenty lessons, and the methodology is similar to that of Lambdin (Biblical Hebrew, Coptic) and Huehnergard (Akkadian): several grammatical points explained clearly, with examples; vocabulary (in Estrangela and in transliteration); and sample sentences / reading exercises. Although I'm only on Lesson 3, I find this book stimulating and thoroughly enjoyable. I'm certain that after completing this text, the conscientious student should have no trouble tackling the New Testament with the aid of a dictionary, or going back to the other works (cited at the beginning of this review) to get extra practice in grammar and reading. The only thing that I feel would have improved this text is a key to the exercises. What I'm doing is to translate the Syriac sentences into English, and after a day or two, translate them back into Syriac, and compare them with the original. This, along with a careful reading of the grammatical principles, gives good feedback. Professor Thackston saw fit to publish a key to his "Introduction to Koranic and Classical Arabic"; hopefully we'll see a key to this work some day as well. But all in all, a pleasure and a wonderful resource.

It's not Greek to me...
Many Westerners see the historical split between East and West in Christendom in 1054 as creating a monlithic 'East'; whereas the Western church split into a myriad of sects, from the Western perspective, the East seemed fairly uniform. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth, as increasing attention in history, culture, and language studies complement the study of religion in the Eastern realms. Thackston's book on Syriac is one such study that helps to broaden the understanding of Christian history and the cultural diversity of the East.

If you've never heard of Syriac, you are not alone. Syriac literature flourished in the third century C.E. forward, primarily around the major city of Edessa, which was one of the trading centres of the Eastern Roman Empire, so important as a crossroads that evidence exists as far afield as Iceland and China, Ethiopia and northern Russia of traders who made the trek for goods from (or to trade their goods in) Edessa. Ephraim, one of only a handful of saints beyond the apostles to be acknowledged by practically every branch of the church, was from Edessa; his hymns were carried back with the travellers along the trade routes.

Syriac played a crucial role in the preservation of Greek literature in the Islamic times, which later was reintroduced to Europe prior to the Renaissance. Syriac continues as the the liturgical language of some churches, such as the Malabar Church of St. Thomas in India, and the Jacobites and Maronites in the Near East; it is also the classical language of the Nestorians and the Chaldeans. The Mongol language script is a derivative of Syriac.

Syriac is related to various Aramaic strands (Babylonia, Palestinian, Samaritan) and Canaanite (Ugaritic, Hebrew, Phoenician). More distantly related are languages such as Arabic, Ethiopic and Akkadian.

This is a fast-moving book, well-organised and formatted. Despite the occasional typographical error and one or two minor issues, it is a great text. In twenty lessons, a solid introduction to the Syriac language is covered -- for the motivated student, this could be done in one semester. The book presents Syriac in transliteration as well as Syriac script throughout. The tranliterations assist in vocalisation, as Syriac, like many related languages, tends to leave part of the words unwritten.

Prior to the twenty lessons are ten preliminary matters -- if each of these is viewed as an additional lesson, the book would make a good two-semester text of 30 weeks or so. These preliminary matters involve alphabet, vocalisation and syllabification (yes, that is a word), numbers, and some linguistic comparisons.

Thackston, knowing his primary audience, uses the Psitta, the standard Syriac translation of the Bible, as the primary text from which sentences and words are used in the lessons. This is also a recognition of the influence the Bible had on the development of Syriac language. Thackston also recognises that the student might not be familiar with Hebrew, Arabic or other Semitic languages prior to undertaking the study of Syriac, and thus keeps grammar issues at the forefront. In fact, Syriac makes an excellent introductory Semitic language for study prior to the more difficult Hebrew or Arabic.

Recognising that students might not have a ready supply of Syriac documents upon which to practice, there is a 'reader' of sorts, 40 pages of Syriac writings as an appendix. There is also a Syriac-English vocabulary (the point of this text is reading knowledge, rather than construction, so there is no English-Syriac list).

Overall, Thackston's book is an excellent language study.

Great way to learn to read the Aramaic New Testament!
I'm now in my second read of the book, and can actually read my Peshitta (although very slowly)! This grammar uses a great and easy teaching method, and it's easier to use than most other Greek/Hebrew grammars. It's also very affordable, compared to other Syriac/Aramiac grammars and language tools.