Learning Assyrian

Bronit Omta

New member
So i've always wanted to learn Assyrian properly. I can speak it decently and understand it but i'm not fluent.

Are there any resources to learn?

BTW is it called Syriac, Aramaic or Assyrian?
 
barcyy said:
So i've always wanted to learn Assyrian properly. I can speak it decently and understand it but i'm not fluent.

Are there any resources to learn?

BTW is it called Syriac, Aramaic or Assyrian?

It's called Syriac.

Syriac is a dialect of Medieval Aramaic that formed in Assyria through a mix of Akkadian and Imperial Aramaic.

Wait, you want to learn, read, or both for Syriac?
 
mrzurnaci said:
It's called Syriac.

Syriac is a dialect of Medieval Aramaic that formed in Assyria through a mix of Akkadian and Imperial Aramaic.

Wait, you want to learn, read, or both for Syriac?
i want to read and write
 
Kebabs?s said:
thanks but can i ask you a question, some letters arent in the chart like( i) and my name has an (i) in it so what do i replace it with?

i like "ee" or i "eh" ?
 
Does our alphabet actually have vowels? I always thought they were dots or something. Create a new letter to represent "I."
 
elevated said:
Does our alphabet actually have vowels? I always thought they were dots or something. Create a new letter to represent "I."
Yes the dots are the vowels, however we created new ones, so that the teaching became easier
 
Asshur said:
Yes the dots are the vowels, however we created new ones, so that the teaching became easier

I'm confused. So the new system has replaced dots with distinguished letters?
 
elevated said:
Does our alphabet actually have vowels? I always thought they were dots or something. Create a new letter to represent "I."

No it doesn't have Vowels. There's a reason Syriac is classified as an Abjad writing system. Syriac usually uses Yodh in place of an I.

If the I sounds like "ee" place a dot UNDER Yodh, if the I sounds like "eh" then just place the angular zlama that goes underneath the letter and put a Yodh after it.
 
elevated said:
I'm confused. So the new system has replaced dots with distinguished letters?

If you look at my Syriac Diagram chart, which you refused to read, you'll see to the left under 'Eh that there's a vowel marking list for both Eastern and Western Syriac writing.

The vowels markings are not actual vowels. They exist to assist new learners of Syriac and help veteran Syriac readers distinguish words easily

The Eastern writing system uses a system of Dots which is influenced by Arabic's dot system which was invented specifically to quickly Arabize people by teaching them Arabic, so us Syriac-speakers fought back by making our own dot system :)

The Western writing system uses miniature Greek letters as the vowels. Capital Alpha for Pthakha, Lowercase Alpha for Zqapha, Epsilon for RvaSa, Eta for KhwaSa, Omega is supposed to be for "oh" sound until lowercase alpha became to sound like "oh" instead of "ah", and a combination of Upsilon and Omicron for "u" aka "oo" sound.

Both systems work out very nicely though.

Westerners can easily use the Western script because Greek letters that they're already familiar with from the Latin alphabet while most people who use Arabic can easily use the Eastern script from its dot system and Arabic employs.
 
mrzurnaci said:
No it doesn't have Vowels. There's a reason Syriac is classified as an Abjad writing system. Syriac usually uses Yodh in place of an I.

If the I sounds like "ee" place a dot UNDER Yodh, if the I sounds like "eh" then just place the angular zlama that goes underneath the letter and put a Yodh after it.
My bad
 
mrzurnaci said:
No it doesn't have Vowels. There's a reason Syriac is classified as an Abjad writing system. Syriac usually uses Yodh in place of an I.

If the I sounds like "ee" place a dot UNDER Yodh, if the I sounds like "eh" then just place the angular zlama that goes underneath the letter and put a Yodh after it.
I knew it was classified as an abjad, that's why I was surprised to hear we had letters representing vowels.

What about words like "aina" or "itlukh?" How would you spell this if there is nothing to represent them?
 
elevated said:
I knew it was classified as an abjad, that's why I was surprised to here we had letters representing vowels.

What about words like "aina" or "itlukh?" How would you spell this if there is nothing to represent them?

Aina (assuming you're meaning eye) uses 'Eh as the beginning letter which indicates that you pharyngealize the first vowel.

Aina/Ayna is spelled ????

Syriac does have letters that represent vowels BUT they're not used as vowels.

Alaph is used to indicate vowels in the beginning or end of the word, telling you to finish the word with an ending vowel.

Yodh and Waw are also used to indicate "EE" or "OH" sounds as well when since Yodh and Waw can easily morph into vowels.
 
mrzurnaci said:
If you look at my Syriac Diagram chart, which you refused to read, you'll see to the left under 'Eh that there's a vowel marking list for both Eastern and Western Syriac writing.

The vowels markings are not actual vowels. They exist to assist new learners of Syriac and help veteran Syriac readers distinguish words easily

The Eastern writing system uses a system of Dots which is influenced by Arabic's dot system which was invented specifically to quickly Arabize people by teaching them Arabic, so us Syriac-speakers fought back by making our own dot system :)

The Western writing system uses miniature Greek letters as the vowels. Capital Alpha for Pthakha, Lowercase Alpha for Zqapha, Epsilon for RvaSa, Eta for KhwaSa, Omega is supposed to be for "oh" sound until lowercase alpha became to sound like "oh" instead of "ah", and a combination of Upsilon and Omicron for "u" aka "oo" sound.

Both systems work out very nicely though.

Westerners can easily use the Western script because Greek letters that they're already familiar with from the Latin alphabet while most people who use Arabic can easily use the Eastern script from its dot system and Arabic employs.

I didn't "refuse" to read it. I skimmed over it, just to view it.

What exactly did we represent vowels with before Arabic and Greek influenced it then? What does modern Hebrew use? Shouldn't we switch to one or make a new one combining them?
 
elevated said:
I didn't "refuse" to read it. I skimmed over it, just to view it.

What exactly did we represent vowels with before Arabic and Greek influenced it then? What does modern Hebrew use? Shouldn't we switch to one or make a new one combining them?

Was no vowel system before that. Hebrew uses the Dot System similar to Arabic and Syriac :) They call it Niqqud.

Making a new vowel system isn't necessary because both systems work flawlessly with no trouble.
 
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