Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic and Mandaic are sister languages from one family. Set side by side, their everyday words, names and short phrases sound like relatives, because they are.
This site is about one message, sent through prophets, each speaking in the language of the people he was sent to. The prophets of the Bible and the Quran lived among Semitic-speaking peoples, and the languages they spoke are close kin. Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic (including Syriac) and Mandaic share roots, grammar and a large stock of daily words.
These pages let a visitor see that closeness directly: the word for “peace”, “king”, “water” or “God” in four scripts, with an easy pronunciation under each. It is a study of language, offered to help readers feel how near the traditions stand to one another. It does not argue from vocabulary to theology, and we say plainly where a word is a loan, a different root or only a near match.
Under each native word is an easy pronunciation for readers who do not know the scripts. It is an approximation in English-friendly spelling: syllables are separated by hyphens and stress is not marked.
Hebrew follows modern Israeli pronunciation. Syriac follows the Eastern reading, with soft d and t written plainly d and t. Mandaic is shown with the vowels of the Mandaic dictionary. Each cell also carries the scholarly transliteration in small italics, for those who want it.
Arabic is shown with its vowel marks. Hebrew is shown pointed. Syriac is shown in the Estrangela script without vowel marks. Mandaic is shown in the Unicode Mandaic script (the Mandaic block, U+0840 to U+085F). All four are right to left.
ʾ (aleph, hamza) and ʿ (ayin); ḥ and ḫ (a rough h), ṭ ṣ ḍ (emphatic consonants), š (sh), ṯ (th), ḏ (dh), ḇ ḵ (soft b and k in Hebrew and Syriac). Long vowels carry a macron. Roots are written with hyphens, for example s-l-m.
Every form is checked against a dictionary or a text: Wiktionary entries and their citations, the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon, Sokoloff and Payne Smith for Syriac, BDB and Strong's for Hebrew, Lane for Arabic, and Drower and Macuch for Mandaic. Syriac words are also checked in the Peshitta New Testament. Where we could not confirm a form, the cell is left empty and marked "not verified". Where we could confirm a Mandaic sound but not its Unicode spelling, we show the transliteration alone and mark it "script not verified". We would rather leave a blank than guess.
Shared vocabulary reaches these languages in two ways. Some words are inherited from the common ancestor. Others were borrowed between neighbours, especially religious words that passed from Aramaic and Syriac into Arabic. A dashed tag marks a word our sources describe as borrowed. A filled tag marks a different root or a different sense, and a plain tag is a caution or a note. The root line under each English word is a guide to the family, not a claim that every form was inherited.
The sisters differ by regular sound shifts. Spot the shift and the family resemblance becomes easy to hear.