Aramaic Annotations: Pt.

10
© 2010, T. Michael W. Halcomb | www.MichaelHalcomb.com
1. The Noun & Adjective Team: In Aramaic, the noun and the adjective
work closely with one another. In fact, they are “declined” the same way and
therefore, share the same “paradigm”. It has been said that there is no distinction
between the Aramaic noun and adjective.
2. How They Work: Basically, nouns / adjectives have 6 ways of changing:
1. The use of varying vowel points
2. The doubling or “gemination” of the 2nd or 3rd consonants
3. The doubling or “gemination” of a “two consonant root”
4. The doubling or “gemination” of the last 2 consonants of a
“three consonant root”
5. Attached prefixes
6. Attached suffixes

3. Examples: Here are some examples of the 5 things mentioned taking place:

ְ ‫ָטבְתָּ א‬
‫שׁפ ְַרפ ַָרא ה ְַרה ִֹרין ָטבְתָּ א יהְוּדָ י ַא‬
(1) Use of vowel points (3) Gemination of 2 cons. (6) Attached Suffix “ ‫”◌ָ א‬
(5) Attached prefix Root (heh + resh)
(2) Gemination of 3rd consonant (4) Gemination of last 2 cons. of a 3 cons. Root (peh + resh)

4. Declensions: In grammatical terms, a “declined” noun or adjective is one

that is “inflected” or bent, that is, changed from its original form. Whereas in
Greek a “declined” word has to do with “gender”, “number” and “case”, Aramaic
focuses on “gender”, “number” and “state”. While we have already looked at
“gender” and “number” and will say more about them in the future, for now, let’s
take a brief look at “state”.
5. State: In Aramaic, “state” basically refers to what the noun is doing and how it
might be in relationship to the other words around it. There are 3 states in
Aramaic which we may memorize using the mnemonic “ACE”. They are:
Absolute, Construct and Emphatic (a.k.a. “determined state”). While these will
be given more attention later, here are their basic definitions:
a. Absolute: The simple or indefinite noun form: E.g.: a child, a dog, a king
b. Construct: Connected intimately to following word, often by hyphen:
E.g.: child of…, dog of…, king of…
c. Emphatic: Definite article added to noun: E.g.: the child, the dog, the king

Table of Declined Nouns & Patterns

Gender / State Singular Plural
Masc. Absolute ‫ֶמלְֶך‬ ‫ַמ ֶלכִין‬
Fem. Absolute ‫ַמ ְלכָּה‬ ‫ַמ ְלכָן‬
Masc. Construct ‫ֶמלְֶך‬ ‫ַמ ֶלכֵי‬
Fem. Construct ‫ַמ ְלכָּת‬ ‫ַמ ְלכָת‬
Masc. Emphatic ‫ַמ ְלכָּא‬ ‫ַמ ְל ַכיּ ָא‬
Fem. Emphatic ‫ַמ ְלכְּתָ א‬ ‫ַמ ְלכָתָ א‬
*Note: the word ‫ מלך‬is only used as a consonantal placehold here, what is important are the vowel point
patterns.