The ETCBC Syriac Corpus

This is the Text-Fabric dataset of the ETCBC database of Syriac literature. It is the result of a collaboration of the ETCBC and the CACCHT project (Creating Annotated Corpora of Classical Hebrew Texts).

Texts

Version 0.6 of the dataset (based on the morphologically parsed file s8-out) is based on the following texts:

• Peshitta
  • Genesis
  • Exodus
  • Leviticus
  • Deuteronomy
  • Joshua
  • Judges
  • 1 and 2 Kings
  • Psalms 1-30
  • Sirach
  • Ezekiel 1-26
  • Daniel
  • Jonah
• Syrohexapla: Psalms 1–32
• Bardaisan, The Book of the Laws of the Countries
• Oratio Manasseh, Prayer of Manasseh (versions A and B)
• Epistle of Baruch (versions A and B)
• Ephrem's Prose Refutation against Mani
• Ephrem’s Sermon on the Ninevites
• Pseudo-Methodius
• The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ezra

Features

All the text features are based on the ETCBC transcription. The dataset contains a representation of the consonantal text in Estrangela script as well.

The texts are annotated with the following word level features:

g_cons: the text of a word in ETCBC transcription
g_cons_utf8: the text of a word in estrangela script
lex: lexeme in ETCBC transcription
gloss: English gloss
sp: part of speech
vs: verbal stem
vt: verbal tense
ps: person
gn: gender
nu: number
vo: voice
st: state
ls: lexical set of a word
trailer: comes after a word, can be empty space or None
vpm: vowel pattern marker

Morphemes
g_lex: Realization of the lexeme in ETCBC transcription
g_emf: Realized form of the emphatic state morpheme
emf: Paradigmatic form of the emphatic state morpheme
g_nme: Realized form of the nominal ending morpheme
nme: Paradigmatic form of the nominal ending morpheme
g_pfm: Realized form of the preformative morpheme
pfm: Paradigmatic form of the preformative morpheme
g_pfx: Realized form of the passive prefix morpheme
pfx: Paradigmatic form of the passive prefix morpheme
g_vbe: Realized form of the verbal stem morpheme
vbe: Paradigmatic form of the verbal stem morpheme
g_vbs: Realized form of the verbal stem morpheme
vbs: Paradigmatic form of the verbal stem morpheme

And finally, of course:
book, chapter and verse.

The dataset is work in progress.

Acknowledgements

The following people contributed to the dataset:

• Dirk Bakker
• Gegham Bdoyan
• Matthias Benabdellah
• Mignon van Bokhoven
• Hans Rutger Bosker
• Logan Copley
• Janet Dyk
• Ariel Gutman
• Piotr Jutkiewicz
• Percy van Keulen
• Willem van Peursen
• Constantijn Sikkel
• Umut Var
• Geert Jan Veldman

The texts are based on the following editions, we thank the editors for their permission to use them in our dataset.

• For the Peshitta, the text is taken from Vetus Testamentum Syriace prepared by the Peshitta Institute Amsterdam (formerly Leiden), also electronically integrated in the Brill Scholarly editions. Our text does not include the critical apparatus. The text of Ben Sira is a preliminary version. The official edition is in preparation.
• The Book of the Laws of the Countries was prepared by Dirk Bakker on the basis of Drijvers' edition as part of his PhD project (2006–2010).
• The text of the sermon of Ephrem the Syrian on Nineveh and Jonah was prepared by Constantijn Sikkel and Geert-Jan Veldman. It is based on the running text in Des heiligen Ephraem des Syrers Sermones II (Corpus scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 311 = Scriptores Syri 134), with application of Beck's emendations introduced by "Lege", "Corrige", or "Omitte", provided that they are based on a manuscript.
• The text of Pseudo-Methodius is based on the edition by Reinink (Corpus scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium).
• We used a slightly corrected version of the text of The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Ezra that was prepared by Laura Locke Estes for her MA Thesis.