Demonstration Tools
Collected on this page are some of the tools that I developed to aid in my analysis
of the Syriac text of the essays or demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage.
Aphrahat was a Church Father, most likely from Persia, who wrote a total of twenty-three
demonstrations from about 336-345 C.E. All of these tools can be selected from the
Tools menu on the right. A description of each of the tools will be found below.
Additionally, there is a collection of Frequently Asked Questions in the menu on
the right.
- Interlinear Browser
- The Interlinear Browser allows one to display text from the
demonstrations with optional morphological information and English glosses for
the root of the word. Additionally, information about the manuscript, demonstration,
and author of the manuscript or work is available. The base texts and morphology were provided by the
Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon (CAL). I then made
corrections to the texts. When information about variants was provided by the CAL database,
that information was encoded within my database designed to recreate the original texts upon
which the CAL database was based. However, not all variations were maintained in the CAL
database and so a source, for example that by Willam Wright, is not an exact represention of
Wright's text. I will continue correcting the variants so that at some time all of the
underlying texts (Wright, Parisot, and the various manuscripts) can be recreated at this site.
- Lexeme Browser
- The Lexeme Browser is generated from the same morphological database used by the Interlinear
Browser. The difference lies in the purpose of the two displays. While the Interlinear Browser
displays the base text and optional morhphological and gloss information, the Lexeme Browser displays
the text as sequential undeclined lexemes.
- Gloss Browser
- The Gloss Browser is generated from the same morphological database used by the Interlinear
Browser. The difference lies in the purpose of the two displays. While the Interlinear Browser
displays the base text and optional morhphological and gloss information, the Gloss Browser displays
the text as sequential English glosses.
- Graph Common Words
- The Graph Common Words page allows the graphing of any word that Aphrahat used more
than two-hundred times in the demonstrations. The word can be graphed either as a total number of uses
in each demonstration or as a percentage of words in each demonstration.
- Graph Persons
- The Graph Persons page allows the graphing of any personal name that Aphrahat used
in the demonstrations. The name can be graphed either as a total number of uses
in each demonstration or as a percentage of words in each demonstration.
- Graph Places
- The Graph Places page allows the graphing of any geographical name that Aphrahat used
in the demonstrations. The name can be graphed either as a total number of uses
in each demonstration or as a percentage of words in each demonstration.
- Graph words over range
- The Graph words over range page graphs the twenty most common words used by Aphrahat over
a specific range of text within the demonstrations.
- Flashcards
- The Flashcards page generates flashcards for all words that Aphrahat used more than two-hundred
times within the demonstrations. Export to XML is under development and when it is available you should be
be able to use the XML file produced to print flash cards for testing and study.