Rodolfo Segorbe

The Vocabulary for Biblical Aramaic: for Beginner and Intermediate Students Rodolfo Segorbe

Learning any language requires the memorization of its vocabulary. For mastering common words in Aramaic will help the beginner as well as the intermediate student to read as accurately as possible the Aramaic section of the Bible. The best motivation of learning Aramaic is the purpose to help the students to have the competence of mastering this often neglected part of the Old Testament. Though only 200 verses of the Bible are concerned (Ezra 4:6-6:18; 7:12-26; Dan 2:4-7:28; one sentence in Jer 10:11; and two words in Gen 37:47), this vocabulary will help students who are making their first steps into the great family of Semitic languages as a whole and thus, to experience a rewarding task. This vocabulary will give students the necessary lists based on 700 Aramaic words. The vocabulary for Biblical Aramaic includes several lists: adjectives, foreign terms, synonymous, proper names, and verbs all arranged by frequency; and with lists of words occurring more than 50 to 10 times in the Aramaic part of the Bible. The reader will also find several lists of verbal derived stems and three appendixes.