At Jaffa there has lately been likewise established an agricultural colony of Jews from Germany, who have a small but flourishing establishment just outside the city.
Besides the episcopal mission in Jerusalem [see Pal- estine, Mis.sions in], the Church of England has mis- sion stations at Nablfis and various other points in Pal- estine, where religious services are held with more or less regularit}-. At Nazareth is an elegant Protestant church founded by the English Missionary Society in connection with the Anglo-Prussian bishopric of Jerusa- lem, where an ordained clergyman (formerly Rev. J. Zeller, now Rev. F. Bellamy) officiates, assisted by a na- tive catechist. In the same town is a hospital founded by the Edinburgh INIedical Jlissionary Society, which dispenses medical aid to all applicants ; and likewise an orphanage, established by the Ladies' Society for Pro- moting Female Education in the East, which educates and cares for about forty girls, chiefly of Christian pa- rentage. See Turkey.
Statistics of General Protestant anp Evangelical Work in Syria at tub Close of 1877.
Names of Societies.
■si
i|
u
C 1- c
Ii
Scholars.
20 G
7 2
1
135 7
75 9 5 2 33 15
2
2 7 5 7 3 4 8
m 1
2S3S 100
619
83 4
27 2 2 1
23
12
1
1 1 4 2
3,925 103
2,844 624 196 60
1,024 345
63
22
40
110
203
1 1
4
2
40 60 130 120
' 15
Lebanon Schools of the Free Church of Scotland
Auiilo-Americau Friends' Society ((Quaker)
Society for Promoting Female Educatiou in the East) (Enslish) \
3 1 2 1
1 1 1 1 2
20 250
' 21
14
2
1 8
Church of England Mission to the Jews (in Damascus)..
4
7
200 400
Reformed Presbyterian Mission (Latakiah)
150
.50
Total
77
319
83
3708
705
174
10,159
Missionary work has thus a foothold in Syr- ia, but owing to the severe Moslem laws against proselytism, it accomplishes as yet but little direct spirit- ual results (see Collins, Miss. Enterprise in the East, Loud. 1873).
Sy r'ia Ma'achah
(1 Chron.xix,6). See Maachah.
Syr'iac (Dan. ii, 4), or Syrian Tongue (Ezra iv, 7) or Lan- guage (2 Kings xviii, 26; Isa. xxxvii, 11), is the rendering in the
SYRIAC LANGUAGE
106
SYRIAC LANGUAGE
A. V. of the Heb. tT^rlX, AramUh, which is the fern, of ■'rnX, .IrawtEan, used adverbially i.(\. Arama'ice, in Aramaic. See AkajLiEAN.
Syiiac Language. This represents the AVestern diak'ct (if that liraiicli of the Shemitic or Syro-Arabian languages usually ternieil the Arain;ean (q. v.), the East- ern being represented by the Chaldee (q. v.). The affin- ity between the Chaldee and Syriac is indeed so close that but for a few ortliograiihical changes, and especial- ly the (titference in written character, they would scarce- ly be distinguishable. In speech they could hardly have differed more than the several dialects of the (Jreek (e.g. the Doric, ^Eolic, Attic) from each other. While the Ciialdee is written in the square character, now usually calleil the Hebrew, the Syriac is written in a very dif- ferent and more cursive hand, and exhibits (in addition to the peculiar forms for final letters, as usual in all the Sliemitic group) a method of combining certain letters or running them together in writing, similar to the
TABLE OF THE SYRIAC ALPHABET,
practice in Arabic. There are also two forms of the characters (which correspond precisely to the Hebrew in number and power) — the ordinary or light-stroke form now generally used in printing, and an oliler form called the ICstrangelo, of heavier strokes and more un- couth shape. The vowel-points also (of which there are live, corresponding in general to the modern vowels a, e, i, o, and u, as pronounced in Italian) differ entirely from the Hebrew (and Chaldee), and, moreover, vary in these two methods of writing; with the ordinary let- ters they consist of modified forms of the Greek vowels (a, i, (, 0, v), while in the Estrangelo they are denoted by two dots in various positions. Other orthographical peculiarities of the Syriac as compared with the He- brew and Chaldee- are the use of a small line (Itiiea oc- cultiuis) beneath silent letters, the suppression altogeth- er of the Siieva when silent, the disuse of the Dagesh (some writers, however, employing a dot above a Begad- Kephath letter, called Kiishoi. i. e. " hardness," to re- move the aspiration, and a dot beneath it, called Ruhok, i. e. " softness," to retain
1 Simple.
Olaph
Betli
Gonial
Dolath
He
Vau*
Zain
Clietli
Tetli
Jud
Coph
Lomacl
Mim
Nun
Semcath
Ee
Phe
Tsode
Kojili
Rish
Shin
Thau
COMPOtTND LETTERS.
Joined.
Final.
"^
X
^■^
w4 or ^^ ^ or f
Y or y.
^orV
>o or >a. ^or^
_£ff or ^la
Spiritus lenis
B
G
D
H
V
Z German CH
T
Y
K
L
M
N
S Peculiar PH or P
TS
K
R
SH
TH or T
P
n
U r sb
'^ II bb
Pethocho
Rebotso
Chevotso
Form. Power. Greek. Hebrew. a a
or or or
Zekopho or ' Etsotso or o
ESTRAN OKI.O.
^
7.
a
b
V
V-
>
^
m
07
tK
O
\
J
>^
W«t
\
the aspiration), and the indication of the plural (when identical in form ■with the singular) by two horizontal dots placed above it, called Ribhui, i. e. "increase." For the leading differ- ences in the formation and construction of words in Syriac, which are throughout analo- gous with the Chaldee, see Akam^an Lan- guage.