Aramaic Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Aspectual tense==== Aramaic has two proper [[grammatical tense|tenses]]: [[perfective aspect|perfect]] and [[imperfective aspect|imperfect]]. These were originally [[grammatical aspect|aspectual]], but developed into something more like a [[preterite]] and [[future tense|future]]. The perfect is [[Markedness|unmarked]], while the imperfect uses various [[prefix|preformatives]] that vary according to person, number and gender. In both tenses the third-person singular masculine is the unmarked form from which others are derived by addition of [[Suffix|afformatives]] (and preformatives in the imperfect). In the chart below (on the root כת״ב K-T-B, meaning "to write"), the first form given is the usual form in Imperial Aramaic, while the second is [[Syriac language|Classical Syriac]]. {| class="wikitable" |- ! rowspan="2" | Person & gender ! colspan="2" | Perfect ! colspan="2" | Imperfect |- ! Singular ! Plural ! Singular ! Plural |- ! 3rd m. | כתב kəṯaḇ ↔ kəṯaḇ | כתבו ↔ כתב(ו)\כתבון kəṯaḇû ↔ kəṯaḇ(w)/kəṯabbûn | יכתוב ↔ נכתוב yiḵtuḇ ↔ neḵtoḇ | יכתבון ↔ נכתבון yiḵtəḇûn ↔ neḵtəḇûn |- ! 3rd f. | כתבת kiṯbaṯ ↔ keṯbaṯ | כתבת ↔ כתב(י)\כתבן kəṯaḇâ ↔ kəṯaḇ(y)/kəṯabbên | תכתב tiḵtuḇ ↔ teḵtoḇ | יכתבן ↔ נכתבן yiḵtəḇān ↔ neḵtəḇān |- ! 2nd m. | כתבת kəṯaḇt ↔ kəṯaḇt | כתבתון kəṯaḇtûn ↔ kəṯaḇton | תכתב tiḵtuḇ ↔ teḵtoḇ | תכתבון tiḵtəḇûn ↔ teḵtəḇûn |- ! 2nd f. | (כתבתי ↔ כתבת(י kəṯaḇtî ↔ kəṯaḇt(y) | כתבתן kəṯaḇtēn ↔ kəṯaḇtên | תכתבין tiḵtuḇîn ↔ teḵtuḇîn | תכתבן tiḵtəḇān ↔ teḵtəḇān |- ! 1st m./f. | כתבת kiṯḇēṯ ↔ keṯḇeṯ | כתבנא ↔ כתבן kəṯaḇnâ ↔ kəṯaḇn | אכתב eḵtuḇ ↔ eḵtoḇ | נכתב niḵtuḇ ↔ neḵtoḇ |} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page