Customer Reviews

Classical Aramaic: Book 1

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If you're looking for an introductory grammar of Aramaic, this is not the book for you. (Try Greenspahn's "An Introduction to Aramaic")

A better title for this book would have been "An introduction to Syriac Scripts". And it does it well. The bulk of the book concerns itself with the Eastern Syriac (Nestorian) script. For each letter, the stroke order is shown, and room is alloted for practice. After the alphabet has been introduced, the Estrangela letters that differ from the Nestorian are given. (The Serta script is not given). There is a small section on vocalization, and rules for spirantization. There is little or no grammar given.

All in all, a good introduction to the script. Valuable as a "pre-primer" to more advanced Syriac grammars such as Thackston or Muraoka.

Pros: This book does a great job of teaching the reader how to write the various syriac/aramaic scripts (Eastern, Estrangelo) and it also includes vocabulary.

Cons: There is very little to no grammar included. It is a good book for beginners, but for the more advanced I would recommend "Introduction to Syriac" by Wheeler M. Thackston.

This is a great book for those who wish to study Syriac script. I say that it is deceiving only because the title simply states "Classical Aramaic" and does not hint at what period is involved here (until you buy it of course). This book seems to lump the evolution of Aramaic and its periods together, then making the reader believe that it is spoken today just as it was in "Jesus' time" (which is false). It does outline the periods, but doesn't tell where this book fits in to it all. Great for Syriac script study, but that's about it.

If you are curious and want to see what kind of effort would be needed to learn some of the language then this is a good beginning. Other books are meant for some academic course probably in a school of theology but this meant for someone who does not want to be discouraged.