Syriac grammar questions

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Floopynoopster
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Syriac grammar questions

Postby Floopynoopster » Fri Feb 26, 2021 1:59 am

Hi there. I'm trying to translate an equivalent of "...who(m) is..." For example : ...who is the king of the city. Would this be "d'hu malka-w d'mditta"? (pardon my lack of a syriac keyboard). I'm wondering about adding the dalet, because I know when applying to a verb it means "who verbed", such as gabra d'ezal - the man who came. So my real question is , does that Also apply with the he/she is copula? Also, assuming this construct is correct, would an adjective be affected? Such as in malka tava? Thanks!
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Querneus
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Re: Syriac grammar questions

Postby Querneus » Fri Mar 05, 2021 3:18 pm

Floopynoopster wrote:Hi there. I'm trying to translate an equivalent of "...who(m) is..." For example : ...who is the king of the city. Would this be "d'hu malka-w d'mditta"? (pardon my lack of a syriac keyboard). I'm wondering about adding the dalet, because I know when applying to a verb it means "who verbed", such as gabra d'ezal - the man who came. So my real question is , does that Also apply with the he/she is copula? Also, assuming this construct is correct, would an adjective be affected? Such as in malka tava? Thanks!

Languages very often treat the equivalents of these two "who"s pretty differently...

ܡܲܢ ܡܲܠܟ݁ܵܐ ܕܡܕܝܼܢܬܵܐ
man malkâ d-mdyittâ
is what you want.

No equivalent of 'is' is needed, although you can sometimes have the pronouns 'he/she/they' standing in as the verb 'to be'. An example from the Gospels:

ܡܲܢ ܗ݈ܝ ܐܸܡܝ ܘܡܲܢ ܐܸܢܘܿܢ
man hi ´emm-i? w-man ´enon?
'Who is my mother? And who are [my] brothers?' (Matthew 12:48)

man hi ´emm-i = "who she mother-my"...
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Re: Syriac grammar questions

Postby vonPeterhof » Fri Mar 05, 2021 5:59 pm

Querneus wrote:ܡܲܢ ܡܲܠܟ݁ܵܐ ܕܡܕܝܼܢܬܵܐ
man malkâ d-mdyittâ
is what you want.

I thought that the OP was asking about the relative "who", not the interrogative one. Or are you saying that ܡܲܢ can play the role of a relative pronoun before clauses containing a copula? I would have assumed that the relative clause would be something like ܕܡܲܠܟ݁ܵܐ ܗ݈ܘ ܕܡܕܝܢܬܵܐ , but I've struggled to find any examples.
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Re: Syriac grammar questions

Postby Querneus » Fri Mar 05, 2021 6:27 pm

vonPeterhof wrote:
Querneus wrote:ܡܲܢ ܡܲܠܟ݁ܵܐ ܕܡܕܝܼܢܬܵܐ
man malkâ d-mdyittâ
is what you want.

I thought that the OP was asking about the relative "who", not the interrogative one. Or are you saying that ܡܲܢ can play the role of a relative pronoun before clauses containing a copula? I would have assumed that the relative clause would be something like ܕܡܲܠܟ݁ܵܐ ܗ݈ܘ ܕܡܕܝܢܬܵܐ , but I've struggled to find any examples.

Ah, pfff, you're right, I misread his post as asking about the interrogative pronoun due to the use of ' "? ', and the use of an incomplete example sentence. :lol:

I think an apposition would typically be used for the present tense? That is, "Hoham, who is the king of Hebron" would become "Hoham, king of Hebron", seeing that there's typically no verb at all... I notice the KJV translators felt the need to add "who is" in Revelation 1:5 ("Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead"), although it appears Greek and Syriac have an apposition there:

ܝܼܫܘܿܥ ܡܫܝܼܚܵܐ ܣܵܗܕ݁ܵܐ ܡܗܲܝܡܢܵܐ
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