Classical Syriac for Hebraists: Second, revised edition

by Takamitsu Muraoka

Overview

Classical Syriac for Hebraists is intended for people who already have a basic knowledge of Biblical Hebrew and want to study Syriac, an important ancient Semitic language, a dialect of Aramaic. Syriac is the official language of the Syriac-speaking churches and has a vast amount of literature representing diverse areas of human knowledge: ancient translations of the Bible and related early documents, biblical commentaries, theological treatises, ecclesiastical histories, legends about saints, scientific texts covering philosophy, natural sciences, grammar, translations from Greek documents and many others. With previous knowledge of Hebrew assumed and related phenomenon in Hebrew frequently mentioned, the student can be expected to acquire reading knowledge of Syriac with reasonable ease and speed. The chrestomathy presents a selection of eleven documents including not only passages of the Bible, but also biblical commentaries and theological discussions, humorous fables and a grammatical treatise, all original Syriac compositions. The texts are fully or partly vocalised, provided with grammatical annotations with constant cross referencing to the appropriate sections of the grammar. A glossary to facilitate studying of these texts is appended.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783447100465
Publisher:	Harrassowitz Verlag
Publication date:	02/01/2014
Series:	Subsidia et Instrumenta Linguarum Orientis , #6
Edition description:	2., revised Version
Pages:	162
Sales rank:	694,279
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.50(d)

Table of Contents

Preface xiii

Symbols and abbreviations xvii

Bibliographical orientation xix

Introductory

§1 Syriac as a Semitic language 1

Part I Orthography and phonology

§2 The alphabet 3

§3 Pronunciation 5

§4 Vowel notation; vowel signs; dialectal variations [Other noteworthy graphic symbols] 7

§5 Quššaya and rukkaka; linea occultans 10

§6 Marhetana; mehaggeyana; seyame; diacritical dot; punctuation [Some remarks on phonology] 10

§7 Vowel deletion rule; /e/ > /a/; diphthongs; BGDKPT after long vowels; hatef vowels; proclitics; enclitics; elision of Alaf 12

§8 Tone or stress; spirantisation of BGDKPT 15

Part II Morphology

§9 Independent personal pronouns 17

§10 Enclitic forms 17

§11 Suffixed personal pronouns 18

§12 Suffixed object pronouns 19

§13 Demonstrative pronouns 19

§14 Interrogatives 20

§15 Relative pronoun 20

§16 Independent possessive pronouns 20

§17 Declension of nouns and adjectives 20

§18 Infrequency of status absolutus and constructus 21

§19 Status emphaticus morpheme /-a/ 21

§20 Status emphaticus f.sg.: /-ta/ or /-ta/ 22

§21 Archaic m.pl. st. emph. ending /-ayya/ 22

§22 /-y/ added to the feminine base 22

§23 Nouns and adjectives with /y/ or/w/ as third radical 22

§24 Addition of /w/ to the plural base 22

§25 Patterns of Syriac nouns and adjectives 23

§26 Attachment of possessive suffix pronouns 23

§27 Suffix pronouns attached to $$$ 24

§28 Principles of pronoun attachment according to various noun types 25

§29 Nouns and adjectives with deletable vowels 27

§30 List of important irregular nouns 29

§31 Numerals 30

§32 Prepositions taking the m.pl. set of suffix pronouns 32

Verb

§33 Syriac verb system compared with the Hebrew; internal passive; quadrditeral verb roots 33

§34 Ettafal and Šafel 34

§35 Internal passive compared with eth-passive 35

§36 Inflectional affixes 35

§37 Infinitive 36

§38 Nomen agentis 36

§39 Comparative simplicity of the Syriac verb conjugation 37

§40 Loss of the jussive and cohortative; their vestiges 37

§41 Trilateral regular verb 38

§42 Two sub-patterns in Peal 39

§43 BGDKPT and verb conjugation 39

§44 Verb with gutturals 40

§45 /e/ > /a/ in verbs with gutturals and /r/ 40

§46 Second-Alaf verbs 41

§47 Third-Alaf verbs 41

§48 First-Nun verbs 41

§49 First-Alaf verbs 42

§50 First-Yodh verbs 44

§51 Third-Yodh verbs 45

§52 Some rare features in Third-Yodh verbs 46

§53 Second-Waw or -Yodh verbs 46

§54 Geminate verbs 47

§55 List of anomalous verbs 47

§56 Verbs with object suffixes 48

Part III Morphosyntax and syntax

§57 Noun: gender 51

§58 Noun- state, uses of status absolutus 51

§59 Explicit indication of definiteness and indefiniteness 51

§60 Archaic status absolutus used adverbially 52

§61 Use of status constructus severly curtailed 52

§62 Interrogatives + - $$$ = relative pronouns 52

§63 Prepositions +- $$$ = conjunctions 52

§64 Morphosyntactically conditioned distribution of some prepositions 53

§65 Impersonal passive 53

§66 Perfect: its uses 54

§67 Imperfect: its uses, modal nuances 54

§68 Participle: its uses 55

§69 Passive participle: resultative use, esp. $$$ [Compound tense forms] 56

§70 $$$ 57

§71 $$$ 57

§72 $$$ 58

§73 $$$ 58

§74 $$$ 59

[Noun expanded]

§75 Modifiers often preceding 59

§76 Position of attributive adjectives 59

§77 Position of demonstrative pronouns 60

§78 Position of cardinal numerals 60

§79 Noun expanded by both an adjective and the numeral 'one' 61

§80 Noun expanded by both a demonstrative pronoun and an adjective 61

§81 Cohesion between other numerals and nucleus nouns vis-à-vis adjective and demonstrative pronoun 61

§82 Noun expanded both by a cardinal number and a demonstrative 61

§83 Determined noun expanded by a numeral 62

§84 Position of the quantifiers $$$ and $$$ 62

§85 Synthetic structure; status constructus 62

§86 Analytical structure with -$$$ 62

§87 Analytical structure with -$$$ 63

§88 Proleptic possessive pronoun 63

§89 Status constructus of adjective 63

§90 Position of adjective expanding the nucleus noun in analytical union 64

§91 Versatile syntax of $$$ 64

§92 Syntax of $$$ 64

§93 Relative clause; absence of antecedent; demonstratives and interrogatives as antecedents 65

§94 Pseudo-relative clause with a prepositional phrase [Verb expanded] 66

§95 Essential and non-essential complementation; analytical expression of pronoun objects syntactically conditioned; proleptic use of object pronouns; pronoun objects with infinitives 66

§96 Infinitive absolute 69

§97 Variety of structures complementing verbs of wishing, beginning, being able, and the like 69

§98 Asyndetic union of two verbs 71

§99 Verbs of perception and their complementation 72

§100 Direct speech introduced by -$$$ 73

Clause Structure

§101 Two kinds of clause: verbal and nominal [Nominal clause] 73

§102 Formal classification and semantic classification 73

§103 Bipartite clause with a personal pronoun; tripartite clause with ambiguous double-faced personal pronoun; its essentially extra-posing character; four types of tripartite clause 74

§104 Ellipsis 77

§105 Structural meaning of nominal clause 78

§106 Four-part nominal clause 80

§107 Existential and locative sentences; funtions of $$$ 80

§108 Circumstancial clause and its transformation 82

§109 Types of prolepsis 82

§110 Negation 83

§111 Compound sentence 85

Verb paradigms

I Regular triliteral verbs 88

II Third-Yodh verbs 90

III Second-Waw and -Yodh verbs 94

IV Geminate verbs 96

V Regular verbs with object suffixes 98

VI Third-Yodh verbs with object suffixes 102

Chrestomathy

1 Genesis 39.7-23 (Peshitta version) 107

2 Deuteronomy 4.1-14 (Peshitta version) 114

3 Matthew 6.5-15 (Peshitta version) 119

4 Aphrahat: 'On love' (from his Demonstrationes) 122

5 Aphrahat: 'On fasting' (from his Demonstrationes) 126

6 Ephrem on Genesis 39-7-23 128

7 Ishodad of Merv on Genesis 39 131

8 Syro-Hexapla: Genesis 39.7-12 134

9 'The prodigal son' (Luke 15.11-32, Vetus Syra Sinaitica) 138

10 Barhebraeus: Two oriental anecdotes 143

11 Jacob of Edessa: On mutual incompatibility of some Syriac sounds 145

Psalm 1.1-3 in the three Syriac scripts 149

Glossary 151

Editorial Reviews

"...This second edition of Muraoka's Classical Syriac for Hebraists is a welcome addition, with its more user-friendly format and updated bibliography. As its name infers, this volume remains one of the few grammars of Syriac so thoroughly designed to accommodate Hebraists. Similarly, this volume retains many useful features, such as links to Noldeke's grammar, which were so helpful in the original edition. With this second edition, Muraoka guarantees that Classical Syriac for Hebraists will remain a valuable and accessible resource for students of Syriac." —Jonathan Loopstra, Capital University, Review of Biblical Literature, 2.8.2016

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