Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2017 December 26

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December 26[edit]

Father Serafim’s emotional Aramaic chant for the Pope in Georgia[edit]

Which Psalm is chanted here? Father Serafim’s emotional Aramaic chant for the Pope in Georgia [Georgian Journal, 2016-10-02]

(Note: Psalms#Numbering discusses the numbering discrepancy between the Hebrew (Masoretic) and Greek (Septuagint) texts, with Catholics and Protestants typically using the Hebrew numbering and the Eastern Orthodox using the Greek numbering. Thus, for instance, Miserere mei is Ps. 51 in the West but Ps. 50 in the East.)

Most occurrences of this video describe it as Ps. 53, but several include comments that this is incorrect and it is actually Ps. 51 [Septuagint 50]. This instance includes a comment by an Indonesian student of Aramaic ("yulius ap") with a their transliteration of the Aramaic for the first six verses, which appear to match the chant. Also, მამა სერაფიმის,სულის შემძვრელი გალობა !! 53-ე ფსალმუნი არამეულად! from 2015 has Father Serafim chanting what I suspect to be Psalm 54 [Septuagint 53] (though I don't know how to check) and it sounds quite different from the 2016 chant.

Is there a general on-line source for the Psalms in Aramaic or Syriac, transliterated into the Latin alphabet? -- 173.72.212.180 (talk) 10:24, 26 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not finding any transliterations, but you can find the Syriac version of the whole book of Psalms here, if that helps. There is a translation, the "Aramaic Bible in Plain English", at BibleHub, but no transliteration there. Adam Bishop (talk) 19:43, 27 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Hey, that's a great start. Thanks! I should be able to find a transliteration / romanization tool, and that will give me something to work with. Glosbe Syriac Latin transliteration doesn't seem to do anything, though their other languages seem to work. I just sent them an email asking what's up. -- 173.72.212.180 (talk) 20:16, 27 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]