ʿAlma holds place and time in one breath: the inhabited world around you, and the age that carries it. In Matthew, the field is the world and the harvest marks the completion of the age, with the same Aramaic word beneath both.
| Form | Pattern | Transliteration | Script | Standard | Qala rendering |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noun | ʿalm- + -a | ʿalma | עלמא ܥܳܠܡܳܐ | world | world · age · this present world |
| Adverbial | l- prefix, no ending | l-ʿalam | — | forever | forever, never (with a negative): "to the age" |
| With prepositions | b-, d- prefixes | b-ʿalma, d-ʿalma | — | in / of the world | in this age; of the age |
| Stem | Force | This root | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peal | simple | not attested | — |
| Ethpeel | simple passive | not attested | — |
| Pael | intensive | not attested | — |
| Ethpaal | intensive passive | not attested | — |
| Aphel | causative | not attested | — |
| Ettaphal | causative passive | not attested | — |
| Shaphel | rare causative | not attested | — |
Stand at a window. Notice the street, weather, and people, then name the age shaping this view. Ask which worry of this age is choking what might grow.
Say ʿalma slowly: let world and age meet in the final breath.
The Hebrew cognate is ʿolam (עוֹלָם), the l'olam va'ed , "forever and ever," of the Psalms, and Biblical Aramaic uses ʿalma the same way in Daniel. It appears 131 times, and every translator has to keep choosing which half to show. The glossary's curated sense: the inhabited world and the stretch of time that holds it, at once the ordered place where people live and the long age that runs on without end; it points both at the world around you and at the span of duration, even eternity.