Learn to Write Aramaic: A Step-by-Step Approach to the Historical & Modern Scripts Paperback – February 21, 2011

This book is exactly what it claims to be: a step-by-step approach to the modern and historical scripts of Aramaic, as well as Hebrew and Syriac. I bought this book because it is one thing to look at a letter (symbol, character, etc.) on a page, and then draw something that looks the same. But if you want to learn how to do that efficiently, with as few strokes as possible, then this book is well worth the money. If you have a teacher or someone to show you how to write these letters clearly, consistently, and efficiently, then that's great. You probably don't need this book. But if you're like me, and trying to get a jump-start on a university program so that you can write and recognize the alphabet (technically, the Abjad) of either Aramaic, Syriac, or Hebrew, then you would do well to buy one less pizza this month, and get yourself a copy of this excellent little book (it isn't really little, being 8 by 10 inches when I measured it). I paid money for my copy. But I would like to thank Joshua Rudder for putting this little gem together. I wish I had found a book like this when I was learning to write Arabic, and I would love to see a book like this for the Sanskrit/Devanagari alphabet. On a related note, while you are learning to write and recognize the Aramaic script, if you want help learning to recite the letters in order (so you can use a dictionary, for example), check out Victoria Hanna's Aleph-bet song (Hosha'ana) on YouTube. Using the Hebrew Aleph-bet, she says Samekh instead of Semkath, but otherwise everything is the same...same sound, same symbol. In the beginning of her song she goes through the aleph-bet in about ten seconds. Using her song and this book, I taught myself to recognize, recite, and write (in order) the "square" Aramaic/Hebrew Abjad in two days. That was much faster than any of the other three writing systems I've learned. This really is a very helpful book.

All I can say is, this book did not address my specific need at all. I have been writing cursive Hebrew (and Judaeo-Aramaic, which uses the very same alphabet) on a regular basis for some fifty years. I did not need the book to teach me how to do that. Rather, I was hoping Rudder's book could show me some similar cursive system for the Syriac alphabet, which I had never before attempted to write by hand.But all I got from this book was instructions on how to draw the strokes to exactly *trace* the letterforms of standard **printed** Syriac characters.That might be useful to someone (I am not quite sure to whom or how), but it is not useful to me at all. To promote flowing, sufficiently fast handwriting -- cursive means "running", after all -- a cursive script needs to be much more than just strokes that trace the characters' standard printed forms. Just compare standard cursive Hebrew script, which *is* covered in the book, to standard printed Hebrew, and you will understand what I mean. Those two are much more different than they are similar.Within fifteen minutes of receiving the book, I thus realized that it fails to address the main question I had purchased it to answer.(And so I ended up just inventing my own cursive Syriac script, for what it is worth. Well, it works for me. But I could have done that without buying the book.)Rather than returning the book for a refund, however, I am holding on to it, because I still have reason to suspect that there is other useful information contained therein, which I hope to get back to reading in due course. But as for my immediate need that motivated me to buy the book in the first place -- that need has not been addressed by the book at all, as just explained at length.Another observation I could make is that a huge percentage of the book is just blank white space, which the author and/or publisher seem to think purchasers will use to practice writing the scripts shown. Well I, for one, would never do practice writing in a book, even in space that has been provided for that very purpose. I have plenty of scrap paper available to me for practicing. Both the size and cost of the book could have been considerably reduced by eliminating all that blank paper.

I was hoping to give this book a 4.5/5 stars but since that wasn't an option I decided to give it a full 5 stars because honestly it deserves it. I literally learned the Aramaic/Hebrew alphabet in literally two days. I'm not sure if it's because I'm an Arabic speaker so other Sematic languages are naturally easy for me or if it's because the book is so well written and easy to progress. Either way I loved it, and I loved the different variations of Syriac as well as cursive Hebrew. It really does cover everything! I do wish in the future they might add an audio CD because I couldn't pronounce the diacritics because I do not speak phonetic symbols.

Very handy book for practicing writing. This is the first resource I've found that clearly shows how to write and recognize each of the Judeo script separately. Other resources make some of the letters look the same. Also, it clarifies why they are so many different versions and what is needed for the particular Aramaic dialect I am interested in. Highly recommend!

Interesting book as it helped my learn more Assyrian Language and characters, before I took the Assyrian Language class at the Turlock Adult School.

Good, clear exercises for writing the various types of Aramaic scripts. One can learn to form the letters quickly and easily.

This is a must have to learn about the Middle Eastern Semitic languages. Languages from the Arabian peninsula are not included.Learn to read and write in the Semitic script.

Good and clear practice workbook. My first intro to Aramaic was through the Hebrew alphabet and then I went to Syriac. There is much Christian material in Syriac

I know people look at the most critical reviews before they buy (I do it) but I cannot give this book few stars so that my review can be read. It would be not fair for the author nor for the publisher.This book teaches how to write Aramaic (as a category of languages not a single one) and it does it very well. It teaches the aleph bet of the different Aramaic scripts (Aramaic here also covers Modern Hebrew). It does not teach grammar, vocabulary, and definitely you should not rely on what is taught for pronunciation. I found the usage and choice of words quite funny. Where did you get these words from? Some of them are neither on Google Translate nor in limited oxford can dictionaries nor even Forvo tell how they are pronounced! Not covering pronunciation fully in a book without audio support is the only mistake that the author did. It is understandable I mean it is a small book. Either talk about pronunciation of letters and words fully for all the scripts – which would be awesome – or don’t talk about it at all. He talked about pronunciation sometime basing on one pronunciation tradition - It seems the author is more Mizrahi/Yemenite near old Hebrew pronunciation than that used by majority of speakers of Modern Hebrew (Ashkenazim/ Spanish Sephardic etc...). I find the exercises about transliteration not helpful at all.No one really knows unfortunately and sadly how the Original Hebrew is pronounced. Modern Hebrew has even different pronunciation systems (Mizrahi/ Sephardic/ Ashkenazi/ Yemenite etc...). I bought the book not to learn how to write the Hebrew script (Modern Hebrew Square Script and cursive writing) but I wanted to learn more on the Estrangela Cursive Script (used by Syrian Orthodox church) actually it called Syriac Aramaic, the Phoenician script (the author called early Aramaic?) and others.I could not give less than 4 stars because it is good book for learning how to write the letters, words and small phrases. The book achieves what the author claims so it deserves 4 stars. I found venturing into pronunciation of the scripts a mistake like sailing in ocean waters.

El libro es practico a la hora de aprender los distintos alfabetos del arameo, especialmente los del siriaco. Es una buena compra por el precio pero tiene para mi varios inconvenientes. Aunque dice que enseñar todos los alfabetos del arameo no es verdad y algunos son inecesarios como el fenicio y faltan algunos como el palmereno, el nabateo y el mandeo. En los alfabetos cursivos no te enseñan las diversas formas de las letras ni como se unen entre ellas. Otra cosa que no me gusta es que no te enseñan en el alfabeto cuadrado (hebreo) el rasgo capital de la resh donde la letras "cuelgan" que lo tipico es este alfabeto. Por lo demás y visto que no hay altenativas en este idioma es una compra interesante para los estudiante de arameo y siriaco.

This is very basic and the way the they have written each letter out for you to copy is not that great so you will struggle to replicate them as they have used what i can only perceive as is a brush? It purely is only helping to write but for me it was confusing. I personally found it easier to buy a blank pad and practice the Aleph-Bet on that.

Money well spent, does exactly what it says in the title.

Very satisfied. That was the guide I was looking for. It's clear (for me). Of course, it seems strange as we are used to write latin letters