Saturday, October 18, 2008

Lesson 38 - How to say "Please" & "Thank You" in Surath

Taken from "A Dictionary of the Dialects of Vernacular Syriac as Spoken by the Eastern Syrians of Kurdistan, Northwest Persia, and the Plain of Moṣul" By Arthur John Maclean

Many people in our community believe that there is no way to say such pleasantries as "Please" or "Thank you" in Surath. I would like to challenge this commonly held belief, utilizing an entry in the aforementioned dictionary, as follows:

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The moral of the story is... while there isn't an "exact" translation of "Please" or "Thank You", the phrases Basmalookh (if you please), Basma Gyanookh, Gyanookh Bassymta, Bassymootookh, and Hawe Bassymta all would be appropriate pleasantries that could be used.

...your thoughts?


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Although I agree that theses are pleasantries that can be used, they are technically "blessings"

Anonymous said...

i say shookeren for thank you in sureth, everybody knows what i mean.

Anonymous said...

Shookrun is Arabic and people know what you mean because they most likely speak Arabic. Also, Surath is becoming more and more Arabized as its native speakers become lazy speakers by substituting Surath with Arabic for words they don't know how to say.

Jeffrey said...

Anonymous #3 is correct: "Shookeren", Shookrun, Shookran, or any variation of that is Arabic. No problem, just don't call it Sureth, because it ain't.

Anonymous said...

The way you say thank you in Surath is Mamnoon