Just in order to let my dear readership know that I am still among the living, and that I still might have something of interest to share, I would like to provide you with a list of learning books that are worth getting acquainted with one way or another. They are meant for beginners, or fledgling intermediate learners, of certain languages from ancient or premodern times. Each title mentioned is accompanied with some thoughts of myself on the learner’s special features as well as what I would opine are its respective strong suits and weak points. In Part Two I will present you with two works that are readily (legally!) available online: These would constitute the titles written in languages other than English, namely one in German, and one in Russian. In the description of these items, links to these materials will be included.

Without any further ado, here are the first two works:

Complete Aramaic: A Comprehensive Guide to reading and understanding Aramaic with Original Texts

A learner authored by Eric D. Reymond and published in 2021. A few points of -what I would consider fair- criticisms may be added about this work. First of all, the title might be considered a bit misleading, due to the word “: I am rather skeptical as to whether this learner could, in all good conscience, be considered a guide for all (even when counting only the more well-known) dialects of the Aramaic language. Sure enough, it introduces the Aramaic that is commonly known as Biblical Aramaic to the beginner, while it also notes certain conspicuous differences that should be known when trying to make sense of the Aramaic in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Aramaic translations of the Torah known as the Targums, but I do think that one, after extensively learning Aramaic writ large by means of this book, would be hard pressed for further information on syntax and morphology when dealing with the Aramaic in either of the two Talmuds, for instance. Another aspect of this introduction I personally take issue with are the types of exercises it offers the learner: These are mainly of the fill-in-the-blanks kind, where one only has to determine one specific form of a word (or a couple of words) in order to complete a sentence in Aramaic, the remainder of which is already written out in full in the book. In my opinion, exercises in which one has to translate full sentences into the target language are more enjoyable as well as more helpful in intellectually (and, perhaps even, viscerally) understanding the language.

Nevertheless, I believe this work may enable anyone interested in finding one’s way in the fascinating realm of Aramaic, thanks to its relatively good and to-the-point explanation of that language’s basic grammatical features.

Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs

This relatively well-known introductory work-cum-learner by Sir Alan Gardiner provides copious lessons on many (probably most, if not all, important) grammatical constructions and syntactic characteristics of Egyptian at its oldest well-attested stage that is habitually called Middle Egyptian. Each chapter, which offers the learner clear explications of specific grammatical themes, ends with lists of new words and exercises, with which the serious student can see whether he or she has adequately understood the grammatical features thus far explained. From rather early in these exercises onward, the reader is presented with original texts that are, if at all, only slightly redacted to make it more readily “digestible” for the beginner.

Since this work is rather renowned, it will probably be rather easily obtainable. Although the previous paragraph about this title already gives away its strong points, there may be some weaknesses, one of which should be noted here by way of caveat for the potential enthusiastic novice in the field of Egyptology: Due to its rather old age, some of its grammatical descriptions might have been refuted by modern scholarship. One aspect of (Middle-)Egyptian grammar most certainly has come to be understood differently in the course of time after the completion of Gardiner’s grammar: The verb. What I believe to be its latest edition, the third one, was completed in the 1950s, whereas much groundbreaking scholarship has been conducted on Egyptian since the 1960s, which could lead to some statements in Gardiner’s work to be outdated, i.e., in hindsight inaccurate or even outright wrong. The presentation of information on Egyptian grammar in Gardiner’s book may be most problematic due to its obsolescence when the Egyptian verb system is concerned: Since Hans Jakob Polotsky’s contributions in describing or reconstructing the forms and meanings of verbs in Egyptian, this particular part of the Egyptian grammar has seen relatively numerous new insights, theories and interpretations since the 1960s (to the degree that the verbs and the framework in which they function are understood in a fundamentally different way!), which naturally are not taken into account by Alan Gardiner.

I would certainly recommend anyone seriously interested in Egyptian to obtain this Egyptian Grammar, but the caveat above is surely also to be borne in mind.

(Part Two will follow soon!)