Aramaic Vowels: Shurek

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The next Aramaic vowel is one we have already met when we looked at the Aramaic letter Waw. It is called Shurek, pronounced shoo-rek. (Not shoe-rack!)

Shurek is represented by a single dot inside the letter Waw. It is pronounced with a fairly long oo sound, as in the English words fool or pool. It is neither the very short oo sound of words like put or soot, nor the very long oo sound of words like true or blue.

Here are a few common words from the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) with the vowel Shurek:

  arise, get up, 46 times
  return, 33 times

Occasionally, what looks like the Aramaic vowel Shurek is actually a Dagesh (dot) inside the Aramaic letter Waw. However, if there is a Dagesh, the Waw is pronounced w, not oo. For example, the Aramaic name Hawa (Eve) is written like this:

  Hawa (Eve)

Although this looks like it should be pronounced Ha-oo-a, the dot inside the letter Waw is a Dagesh, not Shurek, and the Waw is therefore pronounced w.

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