Syriac II B

Teacher(s)

Schmidt Andrea Barbara;

Language

French
> English-friendly

Prerequisites

LGLOR1641 or LGLOR1642

Main themes

In-depth notions of Syriac grammar and literature. Alternately with LGLOR2645, this class deals with the following topics :

• translation and commentary of texts of Western Syriac and Eastern Syriac literature;
• exercises in deciphering the writings of manuscripts;
• codicology of manuscripts.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	vocalise, translate (with dictionary), and analyse vocalised and non-vocalised Syriac texts of different literary genres and epochs.

Content

In alternation with GLOR2646, this course gives an in-depth practice of Syriac, a language of the family of Aramaic languages . The texts that are studied vary from one year to another according to the interests of the students. They are from different periods (3rd c. to the pre-modern era) and include historical texts, hagiography, poetry, popular literature, Christian dialogues with Islam, etc.). The texts are written by Western and Eastern Syriac authors from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran and the Persian Gulf.
The course offers:

• - introduction to the historical context of the text and the author
• bibliographies
• grammatical and literary analysis of texts
• tagging of Syriac texts for preparing a digital concordance, see the website of the GREgORI project
• study of the critical apparatus in text editions
• decipherment and codicology of Syriac manuscripts

Teaching methods

Students are required to the translations of texts and to do small research exercises; their work is discussed during the course. The texts and other materials are available on Moodle (registration required).

Evaluation methods

There will be an oral examination at the end of the  semester. The student has to prepare a text studied in the class and provide a translation with grammatical explanations.

Bibliography

- J. Payne Smith , A Compendious Syriac Dictionary, Oxford 1903;
- M. Sokoloff, A Syriac Lexicon, Gorgias Press 2010;
- J.A. Crichton, Theodor Nöldeke. Compendious Syriac Grammar, Oxford 2001 (= Th. Nöldeke, Kurzgefaßte syrische Grammatik, Leipzig 19773);
- W.H. Hatch, An Album of Dated Syriac Manuscripts, Boston 1946.

Teaching materials

• Moodle

Faculty or entity

EHAC