Want to learn Syriac?

[Ty Pearson]

In trying to learn more about ancient liturgies I was going to study Syriac this spring and I found a free downloadable grammar on the internet. It seems really well done if ayone is interested I could email it to you (I would just give the link but I forgot it).

In Christ- Tyler

[Vasile Dionisie]

This is very interesting-ancient liturgies. Could you send me the link please? For the siriac language?

I got some siriac orthodox chorus, if somebody interested , let me know , I can send them.

[Michael Stickles]

Could it be either the Grammatica Syriaca (http://www.peshitta.org/beth-sapra/pdf_lib/engram01.pdf) or The Elements of Syriac Grammar (http://www.peshitta.org/beth-sapra/pdf_lib/eos01.pdf) which are available from peshitta.org's Beth Sapra Library? If so, they note that both have some "19th-century errors and misconceptions" and are "best used in conjunction with a modern introductory grammar".

Google Books' Introductory Syriac Method and Manual (http://books.google.com/books?id=tw5vuO2hkRMC&printsec=frontcover#PPR1,M1) and Grammar of the Dialects of Vernacular Syriac (http://books.google.com/books?id=1Omd9Vpsu2EC&printsec=frontcover#PPP11,M1) probably should get the same caveat, since they were both published in the late 1800s.

There is also an Introduction to the Syriac-Aramaic Language (http://www.beith-morounoye.org/syriac/index1.html) over at Beith Souryoye Morounoye.

If the grammar you found is more recent, I'd be interested in it, too.

Mike

[Anthony]

I know somebody here who is studying Syriac, and who mentioned to me that she was using an English textbook which was quite good. I will try to find out more.

It might also be worth contacting Fr Ephrem Lash at the Monastery of St Andrew in Manchester. I am pretty sure he knows Syriac, and possibly used to teach it.

[Kris]

I'm studying Syriac this year as part of my university degree. It's a grammar based course. Our main text is Robinson's Paradigms and Exercises in Syriac Grammar by J. F. Coakley.

It's a fairly good text, but the further you get into the book, the less detailed the explanations get. However, some fairly simple concepts are given unecessarily complex explanations.

We've also used Introduction to Syriac by W. M. Thackston. It's similar to Coakley in scope. I would say more user friendly. However, the Syriac text is unvocalised, which leaves you having to rely on the supplied transliteration.

Coakley uses the Western Syriac script (used by the Syriac Jacobite Church), Thackston uses the standard Estrangela script.