Customer Reviews

Introduction to Syriac: An Elementary Grammar With Readings from Syriac Literature

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After having tried to learn Syriac (without too much success) from a number of texts (Healey, Ungnad, Muraoka, Robinson), this grammar was like a breath of fresh air! For me, the Syriac script was the major sticking point. Professor Thackston gets the student past this obstacle by using unpointed Estrangela, and by giving transliterations of all paradigms, examples, and vocabulary. In a clear introduction to the sounds and script, he covers the complexities of syllabic division, accentuation, and spirantization in a succinct and understandable manner. There are twenty lessons, and the methodology is similar to that of Lambdin (Biblical Hebrew, Coptic) and Huehnergard (Akkadian): several grammatical points explained clearly, with examples; vocabulary (in Estrangela and in transliteration); and sample sentences / reading exercises. Although I'm only on Lesson 3, I find this book stimulating and thoroughly enjoyable. I'm certain that after completing this text, the conscientious student should have no trouble tackling the New Testament with the aid of a dictionary, or going back to the other works (cited at the beginning of this review) to get extra practice in grammar and reading. The only thing that I feel would have improved this text is a key to the exercises. What I'm doing is to translate the Syriac sentences into English, and after a day or two, translate them back into Syriac, and compare them with the original. This, along with a careful reading of the grammatical principles, gives good feedback. Professor Thackston saw fit to publish a key to his "Introduction to Koranic and Classical Arabic"; hopefully we'll see a key to this work some day as well. But all in all, a pleasure and a wonderful resource.

Many Westerners see the historical split between East and West in Christendom in 1054 as creating a monlithic 'East'; whereas the Western church split into a myriad of sects, from the Western perspective, the East seemed fairly uniform. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth, as increasing attention in history, culture, and language studies complement the study of religion in the Eastern realms. Thackston's book on Syriac is one such study that helps to broaden the understanding of Christian history and the cultural diversity of the East.

If you've never heard of Syriac, you are not alone. Syriac literature flourished in the third century C.E. forward, primarily around the major city of Edessa, which was one of the trading centres of the Eastern Roman Empire, so important as a crossroads that evidence exists as far afield as Iceland and China, Ethiopia and northern Russia of traders who made the trek for goods from (or to trade their goods in) Edessa. Ephraim, one of only a handful of saints beyond the apostles to be acknowledged by practically every branch of the church, was from Edessa; his hymns were carried back with the travellers along the trade routes.

Syriac played a crucial role in the preservation of Greek literature in the Islamic times, which later was reintroduced to Europe prior to the Renaissance. Syriac continues as the the liturgical language of some churches, such as the Malabar Church of St. Thomas in India, and the Jacobites and Maronites in the Near East; it is also the classical language of the Nestorians and the Chaldeans. The Mongol language script is a derivative of Syriac.

Syriac is related to various Aramaic strands (Babylonia, Palestinian, Samaritan) and Canaanite (Ugaritic, Hebrew, Phoenician). More distantly related are languages such as Arabic, Ethiopic and Akkadian.

This is a fast-moving book, well-organised and formatted. Despite the occasional typographical error and one or two minor issues, it is a great text. In twenty lessons, a solid introduction to the Syriac language is covered -- for the motivated student, this could be done in one semester. The book presents Syriac in transliteration as well as Syriac script throughout. The tranliterations assist in vocalisation, as Syriac, like many related languages, tends to leave part of the words unwritten.

Prior to the twenty lessons are ten preliminary matters -- if each of these is viewed as an additional lesson, the book would make a good two-semester text of 30 weeks or so. These preliminary matters involve alphabet, vocalisation and syllabification (yes, that is a word), numbers, and some linguistic comparisons.

Thackston, knowing his primary audience, uses the Psitta, the standard Syriac translation of the Bible, as the primary text from which sentences and words are used in the lessons. This is also a recognition of the influence the Bible had on the development of Syriac language. Thackston also recognises that the student might not be familiar with Hebrew, Arabic or other Semitic languages prior to undertaking the study of Syriac, and thus keeps grammar issues at the forefront. In fact, Syriac makes an excellent introductory Semitic language for study prior to the more difficult Hebrew or Arabic.

Recognising that students might not have a ready supply of Syriac documents upon which to practice, there is a 'reader' of sorts, 40 pages of Syriac writings as an appendix. There is also a Syriac-English vocabulary (the point of this text is reading knowledge, rather than construction, so there is no English-Syriac list).

Overall, Thackston's book is an excellent language study.

This is a difficult review to write. On the negative side, there are simply an unacceptable number of typographical errors--including some baffling errors/ editorial decisions(????) in the chrestomathy. This text book is in dire need of a second edition to correct the numerous publication errors that have found their way into the text.

That being said...

This is arranged and set up as a VERY nice introduction to the Syriac language. In organization and grammatical treatment, it does indeed represent a large step forward from Robinson's grammar. It presupposes no prior knowledge of Semitic language, is clear in its presentation of grammatical concepts, and does a very good job of balancing vocalized forms (in transliteration) with their (as will almsot always be encountered) unvocalized forms in Syriac script.

I fully recommend the use of this grammar--however, because of the fact that numerous errors have crept into the published version, it should only be used in a class taught by an individual with a good knowledge of Aramaic and Semitic verbal morphology.

I'm now in my second read of the book, and can actually read my Peshitta (although very slowly)! This grammar uses a great and easy teaching method, and it's easier to use than most other Greek/Hebrew grammars. It's also very affordable, compared to other Syriac/Aramiac grammars and language tools.

I found this book to be an excellent introduction to Syriac. For the most part, it is adequate for self-taught students. I worked through the lessons on my own in two months (though I suppose I should add that I have some knowledge of Hebrew and Arabic, and considerable experience in numerous non-Semitic languages, so this was far from my first introduction to a foreign language). The points are presented in an order that is useful to a learner and at a manageable rate. The earlier lessons are rather short, which is helpful as one gets started with a new language. The lessons get longer as the student gains greater familiarity with the language and can assimilate more at a time.

A great strength of the book is its introduction of the perfect form of the verb starting in the first lesson. The presentation of the full paradigm of the perfect in Lesson 2 allows English-speaking students, who will not be used to gender distinctions in verbs, to get accustomed to this feature quickly.

The Estrangelo font used in the book leaves something to be desired. In particular, it is exceedingly difficult to distinguish the letter _het_ from the two-letter sequence _nun-yod_. That said, though, I think that Thackston's use of the unpointed consonantal script with transliteration is a great service to the student. The constant use of transliteration is particularly good for helping the student to see which consonants are doubled and which are not. This is a feature that is not marked in any way Theodor Noldeke's Compendious Syriac Grammar or J. Payne Smith's A Compendious Syriac Dictionary.

Some reviewers have lamented the fact that Thackston does not regularly mark _rukkaka_ (spirantization of stops). However, such marking is, in fact, rarely necessary. If one learns the simple rules for spirantization that Thackston gives in section II of "Preliminary Matters," it is only necessary to see exceptions marked, which Thackston does. I far prefer this to the constant marking of _qushshaya_ (non-spirantization) and _rukkaka_ which is done by Takamitsu Muraoka in his _Classical Syriac_ (2nd ed., 2005). The dots for qushshaya and rukkaka in this latter work, in combination with the dots he uses to indicate the East Syriac vowels, make for a very "busy" orthography that slows down my reading rate.

In spite of the merits of Thackston's work, I have found a few points on which it was necessary to consult the other works, namely, the ones already mentioned above: Noldeke, Payne Smith and Muraoka. For example, in the vocabulary for Lesson 9, Thackston gives the various forms of the adjective _hdet / hdat_, but he does not specify the spirantization of the various d's and t's, which is unclear due to the interaction of ordinary spirantization rules, the general rule that in all _-ta_ feminine suffixes the t is spirantized, and the adjacency of d and t in some forms. I found the forms unambiguously transcribed in Muraoka. One point left unclear, though, was the correct vowel for the masculine singular absolute form of this adjective, which I have transcribed above as _hdet / hdat_. The vowel given is _e_ in Thackston Lesson 9 and in the _Compendious Syriac Dictionary_. However, _a_ is used by Thackston in the vocabulary at the end of his book, and it is also the vowel used by Muroaka.

In some cases, I have found that a point in question is dealt with by Thackston after the place where the student first needs an explanation. For example, in the "Translate into Syriac" exercise at the end of Lesson 7, for item 3 the student is to translate "The sons of this man killed the enemy..." However, the spelling of the verb form for "killed" with the requisite direct object suffix is not given until the next lesson.

There are a number of typos in both English and Syriac, but I do not consider the quantity overwhelming. The most lamentable, I think, is the omission of the last part of item 17 and the first part of 18 in the key to Exercise 1 at the end of the book. The beginning student needs reinforcement in his or her first steps in the language and this omission, along with the incorrect numbering of the remaining items in the key, creates confusion.

The vocabulary at the end of the book is missing a few items that are in the vocabularies of the individual lessons, and also a considerable number of words used in the readings that follow the lessons. Some items in the final vocabulary are also out of alphabetical order.

At least one previous reviewer mentioned the lack of an English-Syriac vocabulary, so I simply made my own as I went. It proved occasionally useful, especially as I got well along in the book and couldn't immediately recall every word needed for the English to Syriac exercises. However, I think the main benefit of compiling the reverse glossary has been to reinforce the vocabulary items in my memory. It has also provided useful practice for my Syriac penmanship, as thus far I have kept it entirely in handwritten form. When the entries under an individual letter exceed the space available, I just recopy all the entries for that letter on more pages, leaving space for additional entries. This mnemonic reinforcement has proved very valuable. (Since I first wrote this review, a new book has been published: Introduction to Syriac: Key to Exercises & English-Syriac Vocabulary, by Daniel M. Gurtner, who worked in collaboration with Dr. Thackston. It even includes a few additions to the Syriac-English vocabulary, but far from the large number needed. Unfortunately, it contains many errors in the main section, the key to the exercises.)

The book's index is moderately useful, but I would like to see more detail. Also, a more "open" format would make it easier to read. Specifically, subentries are set off by being in boldface type, but I would prefer each subentry to start on a separate line, even without boldface.

In general, I recommend this book to those who would like to learn Syriac on their own. However, I recommend that you have at least Muraoka at hand as a study aid. If you have never studied any foreign language before, you might find Thackston hard going. However, I know of nothing better currently available. (If you want details of my notes on Thackston, click on my profile for contact information.)

Dr. Thackston has done a great service in this primer, however, a few notes of organization are mentionable. For instance, one would not ordinarily hide the Peal as an assumed primary form in an introductory Semitic grammar. Also, in the logical flow of part-of-speech constructs one would not follow a discussion on Tense with a chapter on Pronouns. Similarly, nor would one insert a discussion on Adjectival forms in the midst of a discussion of Verbal forms. We would expect the basal formula of Nouns-Pronouns-Adjectives, Verbs-Adverbs-Infinitives-Participials, Particles-Conjunctions, etc.

Although out of print a fine organizational pattern for a linguistically ordered Semitic readers grammar would be Kyle M. Yates "Beginners Grammar of the Hebrew Old Testament". Maybe we can look for a new and reorganized edition in the near future? With all of this being said, I believe this is a wonderful primer on the Syriac dialect and well worth the expense.

We are using Healey in class, and I felt like the language was impossible to learn using this very frustrating resource. I decided to use another grammar on my own and am very pleased with the results. Thackston teaches step by step, and has useful exercises which illustrate the points made in the text.

This 6" x 8", 228 page, paperback, ring-bound textbook consists of twenty lessons that span the first 127 pages. Twenty pages are also devoted to tables of verb tenses and other grammatical features of the language. There are 40 pages of readings on religious, cultural, and historical topics--although none are taken directly from the Bible itself. In the back of the book is a 30 page Syriac-English vocabulary and a two page grammatical index. This book uses the beautiful and easy to read Estrangelo alphabet and is well graded in its series of lessons for the novice. The rather complex rules of pronunciation based on the written word are explained in sufficient detail. The only thing that this book lacks is an accompanying CD.

I used this grammar as a textbook in a beginning Syriac class. I'm an undergraduate, with no background at all in Semitics, only some linguistics and basic Latin; but this grammar was extremely useful, particularly in its transliterations side-by-side with the Syriac script. One semester was enough to comfortably cover the entire book, and I feel like I have a great feel for Syriac. There are certain typos and omissions in the text, but with a knowledgeable instructor who alerted me to these mistakes, they weren't a problem; and the progression of topics seemed pretty natural. After having learned everything in the book, it's become a great reference to go back and refresh certain paradigms or structures that aren't very common. I don't know anything about any other Syriac grammars, but Thackston's worked brilliantly for me, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning to read Syriac.

Thackston is really the only choice for an intro to Syriac textbook. Although he prefers Estrangela in keeping with the current trend he also uses the Eastern text form, (much preferred in my opinion), and also Serto. What I like most about this text is the linguistic-grammatical approach with follow-on primer exercises to get the student moving through translation early. It's a tried and true immersion method that has always worked for my students. If this text is coupled with the Williams Syriac Concordance, Lexicon, and NT you have a matching set of working student volumes sure to keep Eastern study students actively engaged.