Language learning

[apothecary]

I'm going to be learning coptic and assyrian, each an hour or a few hours a day for the next month. Or more, I don't know. I'll continue them until I learn. This is so I can read the bible in different languages and also because coptic and assyrian are cool.

 

[apothecary]

I heard that Thomas Lambdin's Introduction to Sahidic Coptic and the New Syriac Primer by George Kiraz were good, so I'll use those. I'll update this forum everyday. I don't want anyone to care I just want to have a log or whatever.

 

[apothecary]

I'm not Assyrian or Coptic by the way.

I also find Coptic really interesting because it's the latest form of Ancient Egyptian. Like Latin and Italian but over a way longer span of time.

 

[Seraphim]

For Coptic, I'd recommend "Coptic in 20 Lessons" by Bentley Layton. While for Assyrian, I'd look into courses or materials on Neo-Aramaic, since that’s the modern dialect closest to the biblical Aramaic tradition.

Aramaic was one of the languages Jesus himself likely spoke so I naturally have taken some interest in the language.

 

[apothecary]

For Coptic, I'd recommend "Coptic in 20 Lessons" by Bentley Layton. While for Assyrian, I'd look into courses or materials on Neo-Aramaic, since that’s the modern dialect closest to the biblical Aramaic tradition.

Aramaic was one of the languages Jesus himself likely spoke so I naturally have taken some interest in the language.

I'll look for these. I was looking for Classical Syriac resources, which is a rather late form of Aramaic and distinct from Biblical Aramaic (from the book of Ezra) and the Galilean Aramaic that Jesus spoke (which was rather country-like)

 

[Adolf Hitler]

I'm going to be learning coptic and assyrian, each an hour or a few hours a day for the next month. Or more, I don't know. I'll continue them until I learn. This is so I can read the bible in different languages and also because coptic and assyrian are cool.

I know, and continue to learn french because I think it sounds nice, so I get learning a language because it seems cool

 

[apothecary]

I'll look for these. I was looking for Classical Syriac resources, which is a rather late form of Aramaic and distinct from Biblical Aramaic (from the book of Ezra) and the Galilean Aramaic that Jesus spoke (which was rather country-like)

For Galilean Aramaic, I have heard that it was seen as an unlearned tongue, that only commoners and the like speak. So there are very little resources for it. Biblical Aramaic on the other hand, is much closer to Biblical Hebrew (which is to be expected.) The different dialects of Aramaic can get very diverse, to the point of mutual unintelligibility

 

[Weebhunter3000]

Kind of sad to hear it’s near extinction though. I’m curious if @SoytanEnthusiast has learned any of these.

 

[apothecary]

Kind of sad to hear it’s near extinction though. I’m curious if @SoytanEnthusiast has learned any of these.

Aramaic is by no means dead, if I recall correctly it has around a million speakers, give or take a few hundred thousand. Coptic is officially dead, although it is still used as a liturgical language by the Coptic church which has around 10 million members, so by no means is it going to stop being spoken anytime soon.

 

[1Based Frog1]

Good luck, man. It'll be worth it when you can dive into those texts without translators messing with the original intent.

 

[apothecary]

Aramaic is by no means dead, if I recall correctly it has around a million speakers, give or take a few hundred thousand. Coptic is officially dead, although it is still used as a liturgical language by the Coptic church which has around 10 million members, so by no means is it going to stop being spoken anytime soon.

Actually, I forgot about Chaldean neo-Aramaic. I think it's more like a few million.

 

[apothecary]

Peshitta New Testament

Peshitta Tool, Browse the verses of the Peshitta New Testament

www.dukhrana.com

I found this neat site. I find firsthand reading experience to be more helpful than the generic book method which teaches you the characters one by one.

 

[SoytanEnthusiast]

Kind of sad to hear it’s near extinction though. I’m curious if @SoytanEnthusiast has learned any of these.

Nah, I'm not christian so I wouldn't really gain anything from it. I do like Ancient Egypt, but if I were to learn a language from it I'd choose something like Middle Egyptian instead.

 

[apothecary]

 

[THE TRUE DIGLET]

I can barely speak in english

 

[apothecary]

This is the setup I've made. The Syriac is still rather hard to read considering I've only just begun, the Coptic is a little easier and the NASB is a pretty good translation.

 

[apothecary]

I'm using flashcards because they make learning vocabulary easier. The prefixes in Coptic are really something.

I will not say that I can understand everything I read, but reading the letters and pronouncing them has become easier.