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I have heard people translate "Adoneinu Moreinu VeRabeinu" (please don't ask where) into Aramaic as "Adonana Morana Verabana". I assume that the "a" is an aleph at the end. However, I realized that Adonana should translate as Ha'adon (the teacher) rather then Adoneinu.

How do you translate "our" in Aramaic?

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of interest: Aramaic Grammar #4 chart at the bottom of this page: vbm-torah.org/talmud2/vocab.htm – Menachem Mar 13 at 6:27

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You are getting confused between Biblical Aramaic and Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic. In Biblical Aramaic, the first person plural possessive suffix is -na (נא-). Adonana (אדוננא) means "our lord", not the lord. "The lord" would be adona (אדונא), with the addition of an aleph only. As such, the phrase that you are looking for would be Adonana Marana veRabbana (אדוננא מרנא ורבנא).

In Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic, the first person plural possessive suffix is -an (ן-). The phrase would be rendered as Adonan Maran veRabban (אדונן מרן ורבן).

If you want to see this in an Aramaic textbook, you can consult the following:

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aha, so Sifra, Malka (Hamelech) is in Eretz Israel Aramaic. – Shmuel Brin Mar 13 at 3:49
@ShmuelBrin, No - that's also in Babylonian Aramaic. The definite article is an aleph on the ends of words whichever Aramaic you are speaking. I only included that part in my first paragraph because you asked about that in relation to the word adonana. Sorry if that was confusing of me. – Shimon bM Mar 13 at 3:57
Re: your second paragraph. You sure that's not "our master, our teachers, and our rabbis"? – Seth J Mar 13 at 4:04
@SethJ - Yes, I'm positive. Unfortunately, Biblical Aramaic doesn't differentiate between the singular and the plural noun when they feature a first person plural suffix, but BT Aramaic does. If you wanted to pluralise each of those nouns, you would get Adonayin Maranayin veRabbanayin. (As Frank points out, the "common" pronunciation of this would be Adonin Maranin veRabbanin). – Shimon bM Mar 13 at 4:10
Interesting. Hence my uncertainty in my first paragraph. But then what about the examples of Rabban and Maran? And why isn't it Adonanan? – Seth J Mar 13 at 4:15
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up vote 1 down vote

I believe either "an" or "ein" would most likely be the correct suffix. This would be Adonan/Adonein (not Adonanan/Adoneinan).

Moreinu is be a bit different, since it is a weak consonant at the end. First of all, the "o" gets reduced to a Patah. I initially thought of Zimmun. The MeZamen calls "My teachers" first. I thought it should be similar vocalization at the beginning (Shvah). But then I realized that's because it's plural, and the Patah is further reduced to a Shvah. In singular it's Maran; think R' Yosef Karo.

As for Rabbeinu, it would be Rabban. Think Rabban Gamliel, for example.

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Can you write the words you are saying in Hebrew letters too so people are sure to understand what you are saying exactly. Transliteration is never an exact science. – Double AA♦ Mar 13 at 3:20
Not totally sure I can do that with the tools at my disposal. I just tried a bit, and it didn't go well. Had to abandon my edit. – Seth J Mar 13 at 3:22
About Maran, though, isn't RaMBa"M called Maran by the B"Y or somebody? And I think the Tur is also called something similar by the Ba"Ch, though I'm not totally sure. – Seth J Mar 13 at 3:24
@DoubleAA, see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maran – Seth J Mar 13 at 3:25
@DoubleAA, I'm still not using Ashuri, but is this clearer? – Seth J Mar 13 at 3:29
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up vote 0 down vote

Actually, the question supposes that אָדוֹן (English transliteration: adon) and its 1st person pronominal inflection אֲדֹנֵנוּ (English transliteration: adonenu) are actual Aramaic words, but they are not (unless I am mistaken).

An an example, if I asked someone how to conjugate the Spanish verb llover (what we understand as the infinitive "to rain" in English) into German, you would get a puzzled look, because llover is simply not a German verb.

The Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew word אָדוֹן is generally רַב. The inflection of the form indicating 1st person plural ("our") and a singular "lord" (opposed to "lords") would be רִבוֹנַנָא (English transliteration: rivonana).

As an example, see the Targum Yonatan of 1 Samuel 16:16:

Masoretic:

יֹאמַר-נָא אֲדֹנֵנוּ, עֲבָדֶיךָ לְפָנֶיךָ--יְבַקְשׁוּ, אִישׁ יֹדֵעַ מְנַגֵּן בַּכִּנּוֹר; וְהָיָה, בִּהְיוֹת עָלֶיךָ רוּחַ-אֱלֹהִים רָעָה--וְנִגֵּן בְּיָדוֹ, וְטוֹב לָךְ.

Targum Yonatan:

יֵימַר כְעַן רִבוֹנַנָא עַבדָך קֳדָמָך יִבעוֹן גֻברָא דְיָדַע לְנַגָנָא בְכִנָרָא וִיהֵי״והוה#3#״ כַד תִשרֵי עְלָך רֻוחַ בִישָא מִן קֳדָם יְיָ וִינַגֵין בִידֵיה וְיִיטַב לָך

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Adon appears in the Sokoloff dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic (second edition) on page 35. – Seth J Mar 17 at 0:16
@Seth J: Thank you for the correction. I wonder why Onkelos didn't use it in his targum? Or did he? – H3br3wHamm3r81 Mar 17 at 13:12

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