How to Read Our Transliterations

Each hymn verse ends with a transliteration line — the Syriac sounds written in Latin letters so you can sing before you can read Serto. This page defines the spelling rules the site uses, so a transliteration always means the same sound.

Vowels

We write	It sounds like	Syriac vowel
a	“father”	ftoho
e	“let”	rbosso
é	“café” — at the end of a word	rbosso
i	“machine”	hbosso
o	“more”	zqofo
ou / u	“you”	esoso

The vowel o is the signature of Western Syriac: Aloho, Moryo, shlomo. See Western pronunciation for why Eastern sources write these with “a”.

Consonants

We write	It sounds like
’	the deep throat sound ܥ (Arabic ع): ’al — on, me’adr — helper
h	both plain ܗ and strong ܚ (Arabic ح): hayé — life
kh	soft Kof ܟ (Arabic خ): lokh — to you, malakhé — angels
gh	soft Gomal ܓ (Arabic غ): faghro — body
sh	ܫ: shubho — glory
q	deep k ܩ (Arabic ق): qadisho — holy
t	ܬ and ܛ: malkouto — kingdom
s	ܣ and ܨ: slouto — prayer

The apostrophe and small words

Syriac attaches one-letter words to the front of the next word. The transliteration marks the seam with an apostrophe:

• d’ — of, that: d’Aloho — of God
• w’ — and: w’lokh — and to you
• b’ — in: b’shmayo — in heaven
• l’ — to: l’Moryo — to the Lord

When the little word carries its own vowel, the apostrophe follows the vowel: wa’layn (and upon us), da’mshabhin (who glorify), ba’shmayo (in heaven). Sing straight through the apostrophe — it marks grammar, not a pause.

Reading a real line

From Lokh da’Mchabhin Malakhé:

Lokh da’mshabhin malakhé — “You, whom the angels glorify”

• Lokh — “to you”: rhymes with “yoke” plus kh
• da’mshabhin — “whom (they) glorify”: d’ + a + mshabhin
• malakhé — “angels”: final é as in “café”

W’lokh yo’e shubho Aloho — “and to you glory is fitting, O God”

• yo’e — the apostrophe is the throat sound ܥ between two vowels
• Aloho — three o’s, all zqofo: the sound of Western Syriac