Syriac language

Syriac is an Eastern Aramaic language that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. At its broadest definition, Syriac is often used to refer to all Eastern Aramaic languages spoken by various Christian groups; at its most specific, it refers to the classical language of Edessa, which became the liturgical language of Syriac Christianity.

Grammar

Syriac words, as with those in other Semitic languages, are built out of triliteral roots, permutations of three Syriac consonants. For example, the root ܫܩܠ, ?QL, has the basic meaning of taking, and so we have the following words that can be formed from this root:

Related Topics:
Semitic languages - Triliteral

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• ܫܩܠ ? ?qal: "he has taken"
• ܢܫܩܘܠ ? ne?qûl: "he takes"
• ܫܩܠ ? ?aqel: "he has lifted/raised"
• ܐܫܩܠ ? a?qel: "he has set out"
• ܫܩܠܐ ? ?q?lâ: "a taking, burden, recension, portion or syllable"
• ܫܩܠܐ ? ?eql?: "takings, profits, taxes"
• ܫܩܠܘܬܐ ? {{unicode|?aqlû??}}: "a beast of burden"
• ܫܘܩܠ ? ?ûq?lâ: "arrogance"

Nouns

Most Syriac nouns are built from triliteral roots. Nouns carry grammatical gender (masculine or feminine), they can be either singular or plural in number (a very few can be dual) and can exist in one of three grammatical states. These states correspond, in part, to the role of grammatical cases in some other languages.

Related Topics:
Noun - Triliteral - Grammatical gender - Grammatical case

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• The absolute state is the basic form of the noun ? ܫܩܠܝܢ, ?eqlîn, "taxes".
• The emphatic state usually represents a definite noun ? ܫܩܠܐ, ?eql?, "the taxes".
• The construct state marks a noun in relationship to another noun ? ܫܩܠܝ, ?eqlay, "taxes of...".

However, very quickly in the development of Classical Syriac, the emphatic state became the ordinary form of the noun, and the absolute and construct states were relegated to certain stock phrases (for example, ܒܪ ܐܢܫܐ, bar n??â, "man", literally "son of man").

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In Old and early Classical Syriac, most genitive noun relationships are built using the construct state. Thus, ܫܩܠܝ ܡܠܟܘܬܐ, {{unicode|?eqlay malkû?â}}, means "the taxes of the kingdom". Quickly, the construct relationship was abandoned and replaced by the use of the relative particle ܕ, d-. Thus, the same noun phrase becomes ܫܩܠܐ ܕܡܠܟܘܬܐ, {{unicode|?eql? d-malkû?â}}, where both nouns are in the emphatic state. Very closely related nouns can be drawn into a closer grammatical relationship by the addition of a pronominal suffix. Thus, the phrase can be written as ܫܩܠܗ ܕܡܠܟܘܬܐ, {{unicode|?eqleh d-malkû?â}}. In this case, both nouns continue to be in the emphatic state, but the first has the suffix that makes it literally read "her taxes" ("kingdom" is feminine), and thus is "her taxes, those of the kingdom".

Related Topics:
Genitive - Noun phrase

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Adjectives always agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify. Adjectives are in the absolute state if they are predicative, but agree with the state of their noun if attributive. Thus, ܒܝܫܝܢ ܫܩܠܐ, bî?în ?eql?, means "the taxes are evil", whereas ܫܩܠܐ ܒܝܫܐ, {{unicode|?eql? ?î??}}, means "evil taxes".

Related Topics:
Adjective - Predicative - Attributive

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~