01-20-2008, 07:09 PM
Shlama Akhi Albion and everyone else,
Akhi Albion, yes, this is asking way too much of me, especially this late in the game. However, I ask your forebearance and faith for a bit longer, because I have taken into account non-Aramaic speakers in Mari/PEACE in other ways. But, like Paul Younan, I am very much aware of copyright issues with approaching the methodology of the Way International, and for other reasons that I will not get into here, I really don't want to go in their direction anyway. Even if I had time to make such a sweeping change at the last minute, I would not wish to do so.
Having said that, let me explain a little bit about what I have done.
1) I have included tools to show clearly the relationship between ktav ashurri (Hebrew), estrangela and Latin alphabets. To these I have added a key to understanding the vowel markings as well, enabling anyone who is interested enough to make basic progress in approximating the reading of the Aramaic text. All of these underlying tools match up with and are aided by the Estrangela Midyat font, which is basically western vowel pointing combined with Eastern pronunciation of those vowels in a clear to read Estrangela letter format.
2) While the final layout is going through tweaking at this moment, I can tell you that the Aramaic and English text will match up page for page and as precisely line by line as it possibly can. But I don't believe the annotated word order approach is helpful, because it is too much of an easy way out. This is a teaching diglot Akhi. It is meant to meet people where they are but not keep them there. It is meant to gently encourage and challenge, and while informing improve Aramaic skills on the part of the reader. When the reader delves into page after page of this interlinear on both languages, the Aramaic word patterns and expressions become very clear, and I would rather show this Aramaic structure to have a western reader acquire increasing understanding with repeated use than to "dumb down" for lack of a better term and retrofit the Aramaic to where the English reader is upon first read. While I mostly agree with Paul Younan on the utility of showing original word order even in English, I don't think this should be done in places where clarity can be sacrificed, and so not being able to do it universally one way, it must be universally the other way, but with clarifications for the reader at every conceivable point. So while I challenge English readers to be open to the Aramaic, I don't want their first exposure to it to bring them into a syntactical gehenna, where they can't tell how one word is modifying another in a sentence.
3) In general Akhi Albion, you just need to trust me that I have formulated Mari/PEACE for much the goals you are touching on, but the methods are just different. The people who have been assisting me in non-translational issues are very keen and knowledgeable on how to keep the diglot firmly in the grasp of the common person. They have in turn had folks look at the text who have little to no Hebrew/Aramaic training to make sure Mari/PEACE can be well understood.
4) If all else fails in this regard, there are almost 1400 detailed footnotes and 200 pages of essays and articles that deal with the most difficult Aramaic concepts to bring into understandable English. It would be like purchasing a Lamsa NT that had his books on Aramaic meanings appended to the back, along with "real time" notes on how to understand idioms and other odd figures of speech.
5) While I have strived mightily to make Mari/PEACE a potent introduction to Aramaic, I have also been careful to know when to stop. Mari/PEACE is no substitute for a sound and comprehensive Aramaic/Syriac Grammar. It is not meant to have all the definitions of a thesaurus/dictionary like Payne Smith or Jastrow's. Rather, the intention is to give the reader, should they wish it, the ability to begin reading the text for themselves and from there the ability to research other matters on their own. To that end, they need a lot of clarity on the FRONT END but this must be balanced with not making the English itself too alien or fragmented. The English needs to flow in the way we best understand it, but it also needs to be enhanced with detailed Aramaic notes on original intent. How well Mari/PEACE achieves this balance I of course leave to the good judgment of others. But that's what I am shooting for.
6) Finally, you will have to also take my word on the fact that other detailed helps, such as a detailed comparison of the Khabouris with the 1905 and the annotation of all Eastern/Western variants, allow the reader unprecedented access into the Aramaic mindset behind the creation of the Peshitta text as well as how others tried to alter it over the centuries. That is why I view also the restoration of the Eastern readings in the Aramaic and English as so key to the overall success of the diglot.
Hope this helps and sorry if I have disappointed you here. I am sure you understand the volume of ideas I get all the time on this project and that my ability to implement all of them at every stage of the project is extremely limited. Never is this more true than at the end, which is right now. I did say in November that I thought the entire text would be off to the printers by the end of 2007, but we got a bit delayed due to many personal challenges that hit my team at the last minute. Even so, we are s till on track for the overall deadline. I am waiting for one more block of appendix text to edit before the universal edit comes, from which point the text is 100% fixed and off to be bound.
Shlama w'burkate
Andrew Gabriel Roth
Akhi Albion, yes, this is asking way too much of me, especially this late in the game. However, I ask your forebearance and faith for a bit longer, because I have taken into account non-Aramaic speakers in Mari/PEACE in other ways. But, like Paul Younan, I am very much aware of copyright issues with approaching the methodology of the Way International, and for other reasons that I will not get into here, I really don't want to go in their direction anyway. Even if I had time to make such a sweeping change at the last minute, I would not wish to do so.
Having said that, let me explain a little bit about what I have done.
1) I have included tools to show clearly the relationship between ktav ashurri (Hebrew), estrangela and Latin alphabets. To these I have added a key to understanding the vowel markings as well, enabling anyone who is interested enough to make basic progress in approximating the reading of the Aramaic text. All of these underlying tools match up with and are aided by the Estrangela Midyat font, which is basically western vowel pointing combined with Eastern pronunciation of those vowels in a clear to read Estrangela letter format.
2) While the final layout is going through tweaking at this moment, I can tell you that the Aramaic and English text will match up page for page and as precisely line by line as it possibly can. But I don't believe the annotated word order approach is helpful, because it is too much of an easy way out. This is a teaching diglot Akhi. It is meant to meet people where they are but not keep them there. It is meant to gently encourage and challenge, and while informing improve Aramaic skills on the part of the reader. When the reader delves into page after page of this interlinear on both languages, the Aramaic word patterns and expressions become very clear, and I would rather show this Aramaic structure to have a western reader acquire increasing understanding with repeated use than to "dumb down" for lack of a better term and retrofit the Aramaic to where the English reader is upon first read. While I mostly agree with Paul Younan on the utility of showing original word order even in English, I don't think this should be done in places where clarity can be sacrificed, and so not being able to do it universally one way, it must be universally the other way, but with clarifications for the reader at every conceivable point. So while I challenge English readers to be open to the Aramaic, I don't want their first exposure to it to bring them into a syntactical gehenna, where they can't tell how one word is modifying another in a sentence.
3) In general Akhi Albion, you just need to trust me that I have formulated Mari/PEACE for much the goals you are touching on, but the methods are just different. The people who have been assisting me in non-translational issues are very keen and knowledgeable on how to keep the diglot firmly in the grasp of the common person. They have in turn had folks look at the text who have little to no Hebrew/Aramaic training to make sure Mari/PEACE can be well understood.
4) If all else fails in this regard, there are almost 1400 detailed footnotes and 200 pages of essays and articles that deal with the most difficult Aramaic concepts to bring into understandable English. It would be like purchasing a Lamsa NT that had his books on Aramaic meanings appended to the back, along with "real time" notes on how to understand idioms and other odd figures of speech.
5) While I have strived mightily to make Mari/PEACE a potent introduction to Aramaic, I have also been careful to know when to stop. Mari/PEACE is no substitute for a sound and comprehensive Aramaic/Syriac Grammar. It is not meant to have all the definitions of a thesaurus/dictionary like Payne Smith or Jastrow's. Rather, the intention is to give the reader, should they wish it, the ability to begin reading the text for themselves and from there the ability to research other matters on their own. To that end, they need a lot of clarity on the FRONT END but this must be balanced with not making the English itself too alien or fragmented. The English needs to flow in the way we best understand it, but it also needs to be enhanced with detailed Aramaic notes on original intent. How well Mari/PEACE achieves this balance I of course leave to the good judgment of others. But that's what I am shooting for.
6) Finally, you will have to also take my word on the fact that other detailed helps, such as a detailed comparison of the Khabouris with the 1905 and the annotation of all Eastern/Western variants, allow the reader unprecedented access into the Aramaic mindset behind the creation of the Peshitta text as well as how others tried to alter it over the centuries. That is why I view also the restoration of the Eastern readings in the Aramaic and English as so key to the overall success of the diglot.
Hope this helps and sorry if I have disappointed you here. I am sure you understand the volume of ideas I get all the time on this project and that my ability to implement all of them at every stage of the project is extremely limited. Never is this more true than at the end, which is right now. I did say in November that I thought the entire text would be off to the printers by the end of 2007, but we got a bit delayed due to many personal challenges that hit my team at the last minute. Even so, we are s till on track for the overall deadline. I am waiting for one more block of appendix text to edit before the universal edit comes, from which point the text is 100% fixed and off to be bound.
Shlama w'burkate
Andrew Gabriel Roth