Liturgy Institute London

SY411: Beginning Syriac

6 – 31 July 2026, weekdays

Taught by: Elie Zinati, LMO

Previous knowledge

This course is designed for beginners and assumes no prior knowledge of Syriac language or culture.

Content

Week 1: Students will learn the Western Syriac alphabet and will be introduced to gender and number in Syriac nouns and adjectives.

Week 2: The focus will shift to prepositions and personal and suffix pronouns. Students will learn vocabulary such as the days of the week, the months of the year, the four seasons, and cardinal directions, etc. In addition, they will be introduced to the way Syriac expresses the verbs “to be” and “to have” in the present tense.

Week 3: An introduction to Syriac verbal roots, forms, and tenses will be given. Students will study the active voice conjugation of strong verbs in the simple and intensive forms. They will learn to conjugate and use the auxiliary verb, and the future and past expressions of “to be” and “to have”. The course will also cover demonstrative, interrogative, and relative pronouns, and word formations, such as relative adjectives and adverbs, etc.

Week 4: Students will learn the Estrangelo and Eastern Syriac scripts. They will study the passive voice conjugation of strong verbs in the simple form and begin working with verbs of other root types.

Course activities

Throughout the course, students will complete basic exercises in Syriac grammar and read a variety of short texts drawn from the Syriac New Testament, the writings of the Syriac “Fathers”, liturgical texts, and selected secular literature. By the end of the course, students will be able to analyze and translate simple Syriac texts.

Course material

The instructor will provide all necessary course materials based on a method he has developed. He will also recommend online and offline resources to support continued study of Syriac beyond the course.

Recommended (optional) references:

• F. HEALEY, First Studies in Syriac (Birmingham University Semitic Study AIDS), University of Birmingham, Birmingham 1980.
• A. Kiraz, The New Syriac Primer (The Gorgias Handbooks 9), Gorgias Press, Piscataway, NJ, 2016.
• Robinson’s Paradigms and Exercises in Syriac Grammar, 6 ed. rev. J.F. Coakley, Oxford UP, Oxford 2013.

Hours: 10:00 – 11:50 with a break

The course anticipates the student will spend 15 hours in personal reading and study per week.

Cost: £495 per 4 weeks

Location: Liturgy Institute London (at Ealing Abbey)
74 Castlebar Road Ealing London, W5 2DD, UK
Telephone: +44 (0)20 8194 2320

For further details or to register contact the Institute:
E-mail Clare Cogswell, the Registrar, at this linked E-mail address.
Location on Google Maps is found here.

Notes: Students must be over 18 years of age.

This course is designed for all the students to begin together. Once the course has begun, new students may not join in subsequent weeks.

This course is held in the mornings and may be taken alone or in conjunction with our courses offered during afternoon sessions.

If students enrol in two concurrent courses, they may wish to prepare for the intensive schedule by reading suggested texts before the course begins.

The instructor will arrange with the students to be available regularly for some time at the Institute and is also available by appointment.

Students and the public are invited to attend the annual St Bede Lecture, to be held at Ealing Abbey on Saturday afternoon 11 July at 2.30 PM.

Students and the public are invited to attend the annual St Ephrem Lecture, to be held at Ealing Abbey on Saturday afternoon 25 July at 2.30 PM.