Learn Aramaic, Part I

In my first semester of this PhD program, I'm taking an Aramaic class. We are using the Inductive Guide to Reading Biblical Aramaic by E. Cook, F.W. Bush, and W.S. Lasor as the primary organizer. This guide is not a formal textbook which lays out the language in organized fashion. Instead, it directs me to look at the first verse in Aramaic, which is Daniel 2:4b. Then it directs me to examine the first word. Next, the guide tells me to look up facts about that word in A Grammar of Biblical Aramaic by Franz Rosenthal (originally written in German, decades ago, now translated into English). Rosenthal's grammar notes are cryptic. For example, grammar note R12 says:

In a number of cases, according to the Masorites, words written (ketiv) in one way are to be read (qere) in another . . . The often expressed a priori assumption that the consonant text (ketiv) represents the more original form of the text is, as far as BA is concerned, a dangerous oversimplification (16).   

"Well," I say to myself, "that would never do. We do not want to over-simplify the language as we learn it!" So I progress to more advanced notes. Grammar note R18 says:

Seeming exceptions to these rules require an explanation. Thus, "judges" in E 7:27 should be read ****(Hebrew word); consequently it cannot be Aramaic but a loan word from the Canaanite-Hebrew family. *** "innocence" must be a legal loan word from the Akkadian, because the original root was dkw. Likewise, **** "he completed" E 6:15 must be an Akkadian loan word if only because the development of the original root (###, Aramaic, ##, ##) has * (20).

This is the method. I look at the words. I look at the notes. I translate the word (if I can). But I do not attempt to read any Akkadian, since I have not learned it.

Unfortunately, the print in the second grammar is small. Sometimes I can't discern the vowel markings, so I must guess, or I must hunt for the specific Aramaic terms in my Bible software. With this inductive method, translating Daniel 2:4b takes two hours. In the first week, our assignment is to briefly overview the entire language (somehow), translate 19 verses from Daniel 2, and take a quiz on anything in the first 5 verses.

I feel a bit like Dorothy in Oz. I'm a long way from home. So I do as much as I can manage, then I make a strong cup of coffee and stare out the window.

This morning, when I look at the vowel pronunciation chart in Rosenthal's grammar, I read this description for pronouncing the Aramaic vowel ayin:

Voiced laryngeal (similar to the sound of incipient vomiting) (11).

I am not making this up. First, what does that even mean? Second, why would I want to become proficient at it? Third, why on earth would any culture develop such a sound and use it often? What is wrong with these people?

Your comments and condolences are welcome.