O.T and N.T. Aramaic

[Paul Younan]

AYT X) $WYX) D'L)MSH PL+ RY$) MN MNY) DSWT) W(YMN MLYL) KSH )XL RY$HDYH

Alrighty. Relaxing with a snack and let's see. Assuming Syriac orthography I'm going to have at this.

Neo-Aramaic dialects are far from my fort?. :-)

AYT - There is
X) - one
$WYX) - "melting?" from $WX (to melt)? - buggered if this one is in my working vocabulary
D'L)MSH - D-L-MSY - MSY is "to melt" or "condense" but I do not know its nuance in Aphel (if that's what it is).
PL+ - escape, remove, dislocate
RY$) - the head
MN - from
MNY) - count
DSWT) - D-SWH - of - joyful(s)? desireable(s)? (from SWY?)
W(YMN - W-(M-N - and with us? Not feeling this one. Then again, it could be that it's 2:30 AM.
MLYL) - it is said
KSH - KS-H - his cup
)XL - ate
RY$HDYH - his chief leader?

Ugh, the only thing I could somewhat confidently piece together is "There is one [???] remove the head/best from the multitude of desirables, and with us it is said 'His cup ate his chief leader?'"

The only pun I can readily guess is the one between RY$) and RY$HDYH.

That portion I can't wrap my head around is probably crucial and not being able to look at a dictionary or lexicon is bugging the heck out of me. Please share the translation and analysis! :-)

.

Shlama Akhi,

First off, very well done. You correctly recognized that this is from a neo-Aramaic dialect. Secondly, your identification of the subject, verb and object in both phrases is awesome. Thirdly, you were spot on not only with the identification of the source of the pun, but also in many of the definitions of the words.

I'm not sure any dictionary would have been able to help you with the nuances of this particular dialect, since it diverges significantly from modern "koine" Aramaic that is used when tribes of various affiliations want to communicate in a standard way. Additionally, no dictionary would have been able to assist with the two very distinct idioms present in no other Aramaic family.

I wanted you to know that this sentence was about me. It is how I felt after having more food than I should have eaten that night, and also dealing with a lack of self worth due to not readily understanding your challenge. Following is the translation (broken up into phrases):

"Ayt kha shweekha" (there is an idiot)

"d'lamseh" (who is unable to) (think of it as an aggregation of: d'la mishkah in classical Syriac. Neo-Aramaic aggregates a lot)

"pale+ reesha men" (literally "pull the head from", an idiom meaning "comprehend")

"manaya d'sawtha" (literally, "meaning of the saying", an idiom meaning, well, "the idiom")

"w'eman" (and when)

"maleela" ( he fills )

"kaseh" (his stomach)

"akhel reeshediye" (literally, "he eats his own head", an idiom meaning "he is a glutton")

+Shamasha