From PaleoJudaica (albeit a bit late from me):
Although it’s a little funny to see Jewish Aramaic written in Estrangela (even when they do use Square “Hebrew” Script as well), it was overall a lot of fun. 🙂
Peace,
-Steve
2 thoughts on “Yah Ribon ‘Alam”
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It’s not that weird that they’re using Estrangela, since it’s essentially the same script as Hebrew (just a different “font”). Using Latin script for writing Akkadian is weirder. 🙂
Anyway, comparing the dialect to my own Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (or even to Classical Syriac), I was surprised at how archaic it is! They still pronounce the “n” in “ant“, have the masculine plural ending in “-ayaa” instead of “-e“, still have the construct state, and a bunch of others.
Oh, and the music is awesome. 🙂
Yah Ribon ‘Alam was written at around the turn of the 17th century by Rabbi Israel Najara (a Kabbalist) so the archaisms I think were more on purpose (and in places I feel the grammar is a bit awkward as a result).
With that in mind, it’s only “not that weird” in modern day to see some dialects improperly typeset; historically, of course, this would never happen. For example, if someone were to ask me for something in Old Galilean Aramaic “like Jesus would have spoken” and I gave them something typeset in Estrangela, that would be incorrect and dishonest. Writing with Jewish Aramaic spellings and grammar in Syriac script are serious errors if not in the context of sourced transcription (like in this video).
Hebrew blockletters, Estrangela, Samaritan, Mandaic, and Old Aramaic really aren’t interchangeable fonts, they’re separate writing systems for separate languages that share base consonants.
Hehe and yeah I find myself getting the melody stuck in my head sometimes. It was very well done. 🙂
Peace,
-Steve