Language and Linguistics

Samuel A. Rhea created a brief vocabulary and grammar while doing missionary work with the Kurds. His goal in creating a Kurdish grammar was to translate the Old and New Testaments into Kurdish.

Maronite bishop Yusuf Daryan’s (d. 1920) detailed and lengthy work covers Syriac orthography and morphology, discussed with numerous vocalized examples, which are also generally translated into Arabic.

This detailed grammar of Syriac by the Maronite George Al-Ruzzi (Risius), written in Arabic, covers poetic meters in addition to the customary grammatical subjects.

Semitist Friedrich Schulthess (d. 1922) here presents a study of forty-nine homonyms in Syriac considered in light of comparative Semitics. Language indices conclude the study.

This volume studies the strophic patterns used by Ephrem the Syrian, which the author divides into five types. An appendix deals with possible relationships between Byzantine (esp. Romanos) and Syriac poetic forms.

This volume contains Neo-Aramaic texts, with German translation, from various regions between Urmia and Mosul, a collection of 27 narratives (including proverbs and songs) that offer a wealth of cultural information.

Grammar of Syriac, prepared by the celebrated editor of the New Testament, with bibliography of nineteenth-century works on Syriac, three Syriac texts, and glossary.

The present work, Michel Feghali’s doctoral dissertation, is the first large scale investigation of the survival of Syriac linguistic features in Arabic dialects; he examines in particular, the Lebanese dialects.

This collection of texts in the Neo-Aramaic dialect of Urmia, with parallel German translation and vocabulary notes, includes stories, material on baptism, a wedding, Araq and wine, history of the region, and several letters or parts thereof.

This brief Syriac grammar for students, along with a prolegomena showing how Syriac fits in among other Aramaic dialects, includes the standard grammatical items. The paradigms are unique for including Jewish Aramaic forms side by side with the Syriac.

Cowper, having reasoned that English students of Syriac deserve an affordable and complete, yet not too cumbersome and detailed, guide to the language, here offers an abridged and edited English version of Hoffmann’s grammar, originally published in Latin in 1827.

This grammatical study focuses on how the relative particle is used in the Demonstrations of fourth century Syriac author Aphrahat. A great number of examples from Aphrahat’s writings are included in both Syriac and in German translation.

Greek-English and English-Greek dictionary with an Appendix of Proper and Geographical Names.

The classic introduction to Akkadian, for classes and self-study. It includes an extensive selection of readings, with grammar and cuneiform dictionary.

This volume features the tablets of the Akkadian text of Gilgamesh, reproduced as a cuneiform text with German captions.

Poems of advice to monks and nuns from one of the first monks to write, in the late fourth century.

This book outlines the connections between the Arabic and European languages, giving a brief listing of European words and phrases with their Arabic equivalent.

This is a thorough academic tutorial of the Syriac language beginning with its history and ending with the learning of the language itself.

Author Ephraam Barsom deliberates on the logistics of translation versus transliteration of Syriac into Arabic. This is a great read for anyone interested in the translation of Syriac into Arabic.

An Overview of the compilation and history of the Aramaic Language from various dialects.

This is a beginner’s guide to conversational Syriac with translations in French and Arabic.

This book presents a look at the effects of the Aramaic language as it appears in Lebanon and Syria.

In comparing the formal Arabic language with colloquial Lebanese Syrian Arabic, Raphael Nakhla Al-Yasou`y finds a large list of foreign words that have unknowingly worked their way into the local dialect.

In this linguistics book, Ignatius Yacoub III documents the relationship between the Syriac and Arabic languages; postulating that both are intrinsic to the study of the other.

This handbook for grammatical forms in Syriac provides students and scholars with a quick reference for the various forms of nouns, pronouns, and verbs, and also offers a simple way to learn Syriac grammatical terminology.