1: Consonants Lesson form, with their transliterated The consonants of Aramaicaregivenhere,together pronunciation: (andconventional) name, andapproximate N ' 'aleph

in the pronounced like thepause between syllables . lswe'erl, pronunciation or "better" of "sweater" Cockney lbe'erl by Englishspeakers. it is not pronounced Conventionally 3) Lesson lbl (or lvl, see arenot lgl (or lghl,butthe two sounds shed) conventionally distingui ld/ (or ldh/,thesoundof th in the pronunciation of theEnglishword "that") this letterllke lwl, lwl or /v/ Somepeoplepronounce which decide like lvl. A student should others pronounciation with and sheor he is comfortable pronounce way. everywawin the same lzl pronunciation of "Bach"or asin lcW,asin the German (or, of the Yiddishword "Chutzpah" thepronounciation "Hutzpah"). is no distinction conventionally emphatic t, though madein pronunciation between this t andthe tow,listed below. lyl 3) lW (or /ch/,seeLesson l\l lml lnl lsl no approximate soundin English,somesaylike just beforevomiting,somesaylike the the sound to up, bothof which seem sound of a camelgetting reflecta biasagainst this phoneme. it is not pronounced. Conventionally,

f ) '1

b g d

beth gimmel doleth

nhhethl ''l w

wow

I n

z h

zayin het

fl ' : , n ) D lJ

tet

y k I m n s '

yodh kaph lomed mem nun samekh 'ayin

Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond

I ? -l tD U n

s q r 3 3 t

sadeh qoph reslt sin shin tuw

llke ltzl conventionally emphatic s: pronounced like kaph k: pronounced conventionally emphatic lrl /s/, pronounced like samekh conventionally /sU asin theEnglishword shine ltl (or lthl, thesound of th in "these"[compare to thepronunciation of dqlethasidhl listedabovel; see Lesson 3)

pronunciations, letters, like beth,havetwo different Some of these aswill be in Lesson 3. Despite with the same explained this,theyarealways transliterated Roman letter.Thus,evenin cases like lvl,I is still where! is pronounced letterb. with theRoman transliterated In addition letterforms,five letters haveformsthatoccuronly at the end to these of a word: :T k kaph(Notethe two dotsthat arealwayswritten with the final kaph.)

Emmem 'J n nun .'l p peh sadeh s Y Notethe similarities between certain forms.Thebeth(3) andkoph(!) letters look similar.Thesin (tlJ) andshin(W)letters aredistinguished by a singledot above (O). them.And, the final mem(D) looksllke samekh -l Practice transliterating the followingwords.For example, Jn -- mlk. (Notethat thetransliterated word in theRoman alphabet is writtenandreadfrom left to right the Aramaicscriptis written andreadfrom right to left [m+l+k], although

Exercise: la.

t-l-, +-nl.)

Introductory Lessons in Aramaicby Eric D. Reymond

N: tb
("theking")

I'Pn
F.trl tt.j

j'!'Pn
("strong"in the singular andin theplural)

Nn'l
rrtFt

lirJ

N'nl
("house,""the house,""houses,"and "the houses")
JI i-J iJ

) t-jl

("he wrote"and"shewtote") -INN 'l-lnN ("he said"and"they said")

-\ F\rtr
irtqF-trt

I lJl

lJ

("he writes" and "they write")

Exercise: 1b.
Now try puttingthesetransliterated wordsinto Aramaicscript.Remember that you mustreverse theorderof the letters. Thus,rb' is rendered in AramaicscriptN:-.l. ktb krbt ("he wrote" and"shewrote") k'n ("now") '1 ("over,""above")
Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond

'dyn ("then")

ptgm' ("message") mdh ("tribute") 5lm "well-being") ("peace," ,r,

tr''

("land" and "the land")

Exercise: lc.
Try transliterating this full Aramaicsentence fiom thebookof Ezra(4:20):

E)ut-r' )u ttn l'!'pn l':)n

N-ln: -tlIJ ):: j'b')tDl

lrn)rn'nn lbnrr): ntnr

"StrongkingswereoverJerusalem and(theyhad)authorityin all Abar-Nahara' andtribute,tax,andtoll wasgivento them."

Exercise: I d.
Now try transliterating this sentence from Ena 5:4 (slightlyaltered for the sakeof consistency andcoherency):

j'rn) 'l-lnN Nn:: j"]$ 'i':l N:':: n:"1 'J N"ll: nilnu'i'r:N ]b
Introductory Lessonsin Aramaic by Eric D. Reymond 8

"Then,accordingly, theysaidto them, 'Whatarethenames (literally:who,this of the menwho arebuildingthis structure structure, arebuilding)?"'

Exercise: Le.
passage Now, write in Aramaicscriptthe followingtransliterated from Ezra5:5 (again for consistency): slightlyaltered w'yn 'lhhn hwt 'l Sbyyhwdy' wl' btlw hmw "The eyeof theirGodwasoverthe elders of theJudaeans andthey(i.e.,theelders) did not stopthem(i.e.,thebuilders)."

Exercise: 1f.
N.B.(//o/alJene:Notewell): Thedoubling is indicated of a consonant through a dot placed in the center of the : letter.Thus,I b, but I : bb; ln: : ktb, but lFll : kttb. Transliterate belowthefollowingpassage fromEna 5.6 and5:17,noting where thedoubled consonants are:

Nf )n lD''ln"'t'T )ls ...':Fln n)u n-lNn-lr$JltD-l!

"A copy of the letterthat Tattenaisent . . . to Dariusthe king."

):::

'-Ti'Tnn N:)n 'J N:T:ln'll

-tr)fn'

"Let a search be madein the house of records of theking therein Babylon."

Introductory Lessons in Aramaicby Eric D. Reymond