Syriac A

lglor2645  2019-2020  Louvain-la-Neuve

Syriac A
Note from June 29, 2020
Although we do not yet know how long the social distancing related to the Covid-19 pandemic will last, and regardless of the changes that had to be made in the evaluation of the June 2020 session in relation to what is provided for in this learning unit description, new learnig unit evaluation methods may still be adopted by the teachers; details of these methods have been - or will be - communicated to the students by the teachers, as soon as possible.
5 credits
30.0 h
Q1

This biannual learning unit is being organized in 2019-2020
Teacher(s)
Schmidt Andrea Barbara;
Language
French
Prerequisites
LGLOR1641 and LGLOR1642.
Main themes
Detailed notions of the Syriac grammar and literature. Alternately with LGLOR2646, this class deals with the following topics:
  • translation and commentary of different historical, hagiographic and exegetic texts, especially hiostorical texts; exercises in manuscript reading (22h);
  • personal préparation and translation of texts read during class (8h).
Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

1 At the end of this course, the student will be capable of vocalising, translating (with a dictionary), and analysing non-vocalised Syriac texts of different literary genres and epochs.
 

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.
Content
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. They are from different periods (3rd to 16th c.), historical contexts and literary genres (history, poetry, hagiography, popular literature, Islamo-Christian dialogue, etc.). The texts are written by Syro-Oriental ("Nestorian") and Syro-Occidental ("Jacobite") writers from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran and the Persian Gulf.
The course offers:
  • 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.
  • codicology of Syriac manuscripts
  • decipherment and exercises in different types of writing in Syriac manuscripts (according to the knowledge of students)
Evaluation methods
The evaluation is continuous, the final mark is based on the preparation of texts for the course (30%), and at the end by an oral examination (70%): reading and translation of a Syriac text, grammatical explanations.
Online resources
http://www.dukhrana.com/lexicon/search.php
https://uclouvain.be/fr/instituts-recherche/incal/ciol/gregori-project.html
Bibliography
Moodle
  • J. Payne Smith , A Compendious Syriac Dictionary, Oxford 1903 (plusieurs éditions);
  • 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
GLOR


Programmes / formations proposant cette unité d'enseignement (UE)

Title of the programme
Sigle
Credits
Prerequisites
Aims
Master [60] in Ancient Languages and Literatures : Oriental Studies

Master [120] in Ancient Languages and Literatures: Oriental Studies