| Suret | |
|---|---|
| Assyrian Neo-Aramaic Chaldean Neo-Aramaic Chaldo-Assyrian Neo-Aramaic | |
| ܣܘܪܝܬSūret | |
.png) Sūret written inSwāḏāyā (vernacular Eastern) Syriac | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈsuːrɪtʰ],[ˈsuːrɪθ] |
| Native to | Iran,Iraq,Syria,Turkey |
| Region | Assyrian heartland (northwesternIran, northernIraq, northernSyria, southernTurkey),Lebanon,Armenia,[1] global diaspora |
| Ethnicity | Assyrians |
Native speakers | 940,000 (2024)[2] |
Early forms | |
| Dialects | |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in |  Armenia (Assyrian, specifically the Suret dialect, is recognized as a minority language in Armenia, meaning it is acknowledged and can be taught as amother tongue)[3]
 Iraq (recognized language and a constitutional right to educate in themother tongue)[5][6] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | syr – inclusive codeIndividual codes: aii – Assyrian Neo-Aramaiccld – Chaldean Neo-Aramaic |
| Glottolog | assy1241 Assyrian Neo-Aramaicchal1275 Chaldean Neo-Aramaic |
| ELP | Aširat Northeastern Neo-Aramaic |
 Suret is classified as Definitely Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010) | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
| Part of a series on |
| Assyrians |
|---|
 |
| Assyrian culture |
| By country |
| Assyrian diaspora |
| Language |
| Subgroups |
| Religion |
| By location |
| Persecution |
Suret (Syriac:ܣܘܪܝܬ,pronounced[ˈsuːrɪtʰ],[ˈsuːrɪθ]), also known asAssyrian,[7] is any of several varieties ofNortheastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) spoken byChristians, namelyAssyrians.[8][9][10] The various NENA dialects descend fromOld Aramaic, thelingua franca in the later phase of theAssyrian Empire, which slowly displaced theEast SemiticAkkadian language beginning around the 10th century BC.[11][12] They have been further heavily influenced byClassical Syriac, theMiddle Aramaic dialect ofEdessa, after its adoption as an officialliturgical language of theSyriac churches, but Suret is not a direct descendant of Classical Syriac.[13]
Suret speakers are indigenous toUpper Mesopotamia, northwesternIran, southeasternAnatolia and the northeasternLevant, which is a large region stretching from the plain ofUrmia in northwesternIran through to theNineveh Plains,Erbil,Kirkuk andDuhok regions in northernIraq, together with the northeastern regions ofSyria and to south-central and southeasternTurkey.[14] Instability throughout the Middle East over the past century has led to aworldwide diaspora of Suret speakers, with most speakers now living abroad in such places as North and South America, Australia, Europe and Russia.[15] Speakers of Suret andTuroyo (Surayt) are ethnic Assyrians and are the descendants of the ancient inhabitants ofMesopotamia.[16][17][18]
SIL distinguishes between Chaldean and Assyrian as varieties of Suret on non-linguistic grounds.[19] Suret is mutually intelligible with some NENA dialects spoken by Jews, especially in the western part of its historical extent.[20] Its mutual intelligibility with Turoyo is partial and asymmetrical, but more significant in written form.[21][22]
Suret is a moderately-inflected,fusional language with a two-gender noun system and rather flexibleword order.[22] There is someAkkadian influence on the language.[23] In its native region, speakers may useIranian,Turkic andArabic loanwords, while diaspora communities may use loanwords borrowed from the languages of their respective countries. Suret is written fromright-to-left and it uses theMadnḥāyā version of theSyriac alphabet.[24][25] Suret, alongside other modern Aramaic languages, is now consideredendangered, as newer generation of Assyrians tend tonot acquire the full language, mainly due toemigration andacculturation into their new resident countries.[26] However, emigration has also had another effect: the language has gained more global attention, with several initiatives to digitize and preserve it, and the number of people learning Suret is considerably higher than before.[27]
Akkadian andAramaic have been in extensive contact since their old periods. Local unwritten Aramaic dialects emerged fromImperial Aramaic inAssyria. In around 700 BCE, Aramaic slowly started to replace Akkadian inAssyria,Babylonia and theLevant. Widespread bilingualism among Assyrian nationals was already present prior to the fall of the empire.[29] The language transition was achievable because the two languages featured similarities in grammar and vocabulary, and because the 22-letteredAramaic alphabet was simpler to learn than theAkkadian cuneiform which had over 600 signs.[30] The converging process that took place between Assyrian Akkadian and Aramaic across all aspects of both languages and societies is known asAramaic-Assyrian symbiosis.[31]
Introduced as the official language of theAssyrian Empire byTiglath-Pileser III (745–727 BCE), it became the language of commerce and trade, thevernacular language of Assyria in the lateIron Age andclassical antiquity,[32][33][34] and thelingua franca of theNeo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BCE),Neo-Babylonian Empire (605–539 BCE), theAchaemenid Empire (539–323 BCE), theParthian Empire (247 BCE–224 AD) and theSasanian Empire (224–651 AD). Following theAchaemenid conquest of Assyria underDarius I, theAramaic language was adopted as the "vehicle for written communication between the different regions of the vast empire with its different peoples and languages". After the conquest of Assyria by theSeleucid Empire in the late 4th century BCE, Imperial Aramaic gradually lost its status as an imperial language, but continued to flourish alongsideAncient Greek.[35]
By the 1st century AD, Akkadian was extinct, though vocabulary and grammatical features still survive in modern NENA dialects.[36] TheNeo-Aramaic languages evolved fromMiddle Syriac-Aramaic by the 13th century.[37][38] There is evidence that the drive for the adoption of Syriac was led by missionaries. Much literary effort was put into the production of an authoritative translation of theBible into Syriac, thePeshitta (ܦܫܝܛܬܐ,Pšīṭtā). At the same time,Ephrem the Syrian was producing the most treasured collection of poetry and theology in the Classical Syriac language.
By the 3rd century AD, churches inUrhay in the kingdom ofOsroene began to use Classical Syriac as the language of worship and it became the literary and liturgical language of many churches in theFertile Crescent. Syriac was the common tongue of the region, where it was the native language of the Fertile Crescent, surrounding areas, as well as in parts ofEastern Arabia. It was the dominant language until 900 AD, till it was supplanted by Greek and later Arabic in a centuries-long process having begun in theArab conquests.[39]
The differences with theChurch of the East led to the bitterNestorian schism in the Syriac-speaking world. As a result of the schism as well as being split between living in theByzantine Empire in the west and theSasanian Empire in the east, Syrian-Aramaic developed distinctiveWestern and Eastern varieties. Although remaining a single language with a high level of comprehension between the varieties, the two employ distinctive variations in pronunciation and writing systems and, to a lesser degree, in vocabulary and grammar. During the course of the third and fourth centuries, the inhabitants of the region began to embrace Christianity. Because of theological differences, Syriac-speaking Christians bifurcated during the fifth century into theChurch of the East, orEast Syriac Rite, under theSasanian Empire, and theSyriac Orthodox, orWest Syriac Rite, under theByzantine Empire. After this separation, the two groups developed distinct dialects differing primarily in the pronunciation and written symbolisation ofvowels.[11][12]
TheMongol invasions of the Levant in the 13th century and the religiously motivated massacres of Assyrians byTimur further contributed to the rapid decline of the language. In many places outside of northern Mesopotamia, even inliturgy, the language was replaced byArabic.[40] "Modern Syriac-Aramaic" is a term occasionally used to refer to the modern Neo-Aramaic languages spoken by Christians, including Suret. Even if they cannot be positively identified as the direct descendants ofattested Middle Syriac, they must have developed from closely related dialects belonging to the same branch of Aramaic, and the varieties spoken in Christian communities have long co-existed with and been influenced by Middle Syriac as a liturgical and literary language. Moreover, the name "Syriac", when used with no qualification, generally refers to one specific dialect of Middle Aramaic but not to Old Aramaic or to the various present-day Eastern andCentral Neo-Aramaic languages descended from it or from close relatives.[41]
In 2004, theConstitution of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region recognized Syriac in article 7, section four, stating, "Syriac shall be the language of education and culture for those who speak it in addition to the Kurdish language."[42] In 2005, theConstitution of Iraq recognised it as one of the "official languages in the administrative units in which they constitute density of population" in article 4, section four.[6][5]
The originalMesopotamian writing system, believed to be the world's oldest, was derived around 3600 BC from this method of keeping accounts. By the end of the 4th millennium BC, the Mesopotamians were using a triangular-shaped stylus made from a reed pressed into soft clay to record numbers.[43] Around 2700 BC,cuneiform began to represent syllables of spokenSumerian, alanguage isolate genetically unrelated to theSemitic andIndo-Iranian languages that it neighboured. About that time, Mesopotamian cuneiform became a general purpose writing system forlogograms,syllables and numbers. This script was adapted to another Mesopotamian language, theEast SemiticAkkadian (Assyrian andBabylonian) around 2600 BC.
With the adoption ofAramaic as thelingua franca of theNeo-Assyrian Empire (911–609 BC), Old Aramaic was also adapted to Mesopotamian cuneiform. The last cuneiform scripts in Akkadian discovered thus far date from the 1st century AD.[44] Various bronze lion-weights found inNineveh featured both the Akkadian and Aramaic text etched on them, bearing the names ofAssyrian kings, such asShalmaneser III (858-824 B.C),King Sargon (721-705 B.C) andSennacherib (704-681 B.C). Indication of contemporaneous existence of the two languages in 4th century B.C. is present in an Aramaic document fromUruk written in cuneiform. InBabylon, Akkadian writing vanished by 140 B.C, with the exclusion of a few priests who used it for religious matters. Though it still continued to be employed for astronomical texts up until thecommon era.[45]
The Syriac script is awriting system primarily used to write theSyriac language from the 1st century AD.[46] It is one of theSemiticabjads directly descending from theAramaic alphabet and shares similarities with thePhoenician,Hebrew,Arabic and the traditionalMongolian alphabets. The alphabet consists of 22 letters, all of which are consonants. It is acursive script where some, but not all, letters connect within a word.[47] Aramaic writing has been found as far north asHadrian's Wall inPrehistoric Britain, in the form of inscriptions in Aramaic, made by Assyrian soldiers serving in theRoman Legions in northern England during the 2nd century AD.[48]
The oldest and classical form of the alphabet isʾEsṭrangēlā (ܐܣܛܪܢܓܠܐ); the name is thought to derive from the Greek adjectiveστρογγύλη (strongúlē) 'round'.[49][50] Although ʾEsṭrangēlā is no longer used as the main script for writing Syriac, it has undergone some revival since the 10th century.
WhenArabic gradually began to be the dominant spoken language in theFertile Crescent after the 7th century AD, texts were often written in Arabic with the Syriac script.Malayalam was also written with Syriac script and was calledSuriyani Malayalam. Such non-Syriac languages written in Syriac script are calledGarshuni orKarshuni.
TheMadnhāyā, or 'eastern', version formed as a form of shorthand developed from ʾEsṭrangēlā and progressed further as handwriting patterns changed. TheMadnhāyā version also possesses optional vowel markings to help pronounce Syriac. Other names for the script includeSwāḏāyā, 'conversational', often translated as "contemporary", reflecting its use in writing modern Neo-Aramaic.
| Syriac alphabet (200 BCE–present) |
| ܐ ܒ ܓ ܕ ܗ ܘ |
| ܙ ܚ ܛ ܝ ܟܟ ܠ |
| ܡܡ ܢܢ ܣ ܥ ܦ |
| ܨ ܩ ܪ ܫ ܬ |
Three letters act asmatres lectionis: rather than being a consonant, they indicate a vowel.ʾĀlep̄ (ܐ), the first letter, represents aglottal stop, but it can also indicate the presence of certain vowels (typically at the beginning or the end of a word, but also in the middle). The letterWaw (ܘ) is the consonantw, but can also represent the vowelso andu. Likewise, the letterYōḏ (ܝ) represents the consonanty, but it also stands for the vowelsi ande. In addition to foreign sounds, a marking system is used to distinguishqūššāyā ('hard' letters) fromrūkkāḵā ('soft' letters). The lettersBēṯ,Gāmal,Dālaṯ,Kāp̄,Pē andTaw, allplosives ('hard'), are able to bespirantised intofricatives ('soft').
The system involves placing a single dot underneath the letter to give its 'soft' variant and a dot above the letter to give its 'hard' variant (though, in modern usage, no mark at all is usually used to indicate the 'hard' value).
In 1930, aLatin alphabet was developed during theSoviet Union'sLatinization program.[51][52] Though this specific script was removed from use in 1938 in favor of a Cyrillic script (which too was abolished at a later unknown point), the Latin script in general is preferred by most Assyrians for practical reasons and its convenience, especially insocial media, where it is used to communicate. Although the Syriac latin alphabet containsdiacritics, most Assyrians rarely utilise the modified letters and would conveniently rely on thebasic Latin alphabet. The Latin alphabet is also a useful tool to present Assyrian terminology to anyone who is not familiar with the Syriac script. A precisetranscription may not be necessary for native Suret speakers, as they would be able to pronounce words correctly, but it can be very helpful for those not quite familiar with Syriac and more informed with the Latin script.[53]
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyn- geal | Glottal | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | emp. | ||||||||||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | |||||||||||||||
| Stop | plain | p | b | t | d | tˤ | (c | ɟ) | k | ɡ | q | ʔ | |||||
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | (cʰ) | kʰ | |||||||||||||
| Affricate | plain | tʃ | dʒ | ||||||||||||||
| aspirated | tʃʰ | ||||||||||||||||
| Fricative | sibilant | s | z | sˤ | ʃ | ʒ | |||||||||||
| non-sibilant | f | v | θ | ð | x | ɣ | ħ | ʕ | h | ||||||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||||||||||||||
| Trill/Tap | ɾ~r | ||||||||||||||||
Notes:
According to linguistEdward Odisho, there are six vowel phonemes in Iraqi Koine.[68] They are as follows:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | /i/ | /u/ | |
| Half-close | /ɪ/ | ||
| Half-open | /e/ | /o/ | |
| Open | /a/ | ||
East Syriac dialects may recognize half-close sounds as[ɛ] and also recognize the back vowel[ɒ] as a long form of/a/.[70]
Iraqi Koine is amerged dialect which formed in the mid-20th century, being influenced by both Urmian and Hakkari dialects.
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | emph. | ||||||||||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | |||||||||||||||
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | tˤ | k | ɡ | q | ʔ | ||||||||
| Affricate | tʃ | dʒ | |||||||||||||||
| Fricative | sibilant | s | z | sˤ | ʃ | ʒ | |||||||||||
| non-sibilant | f | v | θ | ð | ðˤ | x | ɣ | ħ | ʕ | h | |||||||
| Approximant | w | l | ɫ | j | |||||||||||||
| Rhotic | r | rˤ | |||||||||||||||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ɨ | u |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
NENA is apro-drop,null-subject language with bothergative morphology and anominative-accusative system.[74]
Due tolanguage contact, Suret may share similar grammatical features withPersian andKurdish in the way they employ the negativecopula in its full form before the verbalconstituent and also with thenegated forms of thepresent perfect.[75]
| Aspect | Stem |
|---|---|
| Imperative | ptux ("open!") |
| Indicative | patx- ( +k- / ki- present,bit- future,qam- past, transitive, definite object) ("opens") |
| Perfect | ptix- (perfect participle, f.ptixta, m.ptixa, pl.ptixe) ("opened") |
| Gerund | (bi-)ptaxa ("opening") |
Suret uses verbal inflections marking person and number. The suffix "-e" indicates a (usually masculine)plural (i.e.warda, "flower",becomeswarde, "flowers").Enclitic forms ofpersonal pronouns are affixed to various parts of speech. As with theobject pronoun,possessive pronouns aresuffixes that areattached to the end of nouns to express possession similar to the English pronounsmy, your, his, her, etc., which reflects the gender and plurality of the person or persons.[77] This is asynthetic feature found in other Semitic languages and also in unrelated languages such asFinnish (Uralic),Persian (Indo-European) andTurkish (Turkic).
Moreover, unlike many other languages, Suret has virtually no means ofderiving words by adding prefixes or suffixes to words. Instead, they are formed according to a limited number of templates applied to roots.[78] Modern Assyrian, like Akkadian but unlike Arabic, has only "sound" plurals formed by means of a plural ending (i.e. nobroken plurals formed by changing theword stem). As in all Semitic languages, some masculine nouns take the prototypically feminine plural ending (-tā).[citation needed]
| singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | betī (my house) | betan (our house) | |
| 2nd person | masc. | betux (your house) | betōxun (your house) |
| fem. | betax (your house) | ||
| 3rd person | masc. | betū (his house) | betéh (their house) |
| fem. | betō (her house) | ||
Although possessive suffixes are more convenient and common, they can be optional for some people and seldom used, especially among those with the Tyari and Barwari dialects, which take a moreanalytic approach regarding possession, just like Englishpossessive determiners. The following areperiphrastic ways to express possession, using the wordbetā ("house") as a base (in Urmian/Iraqi Koine):
Hakkari dialects are generallystress-timed, whereas the Urmian and Iraqi Koine dialects may be moresyllable-timed:
Although Suret, like all Semitic languages, is not atonal language, a tonal stress is made on a plural possessive suffix -éh (i.e.dīyéh; "their") in the final vowel totonally differentiate it from an unstressed -eh (i.e.dīyeh; "his"), which is a masculinesingular possessive, with a standard stress pattern falling on the penult. The -eh used to denote a singularthird person masculine possessive (e.g.bābeh, "his father";aqleh, "his leg") is present in most of the traditional dialects inHakkari andNineveh Plains, but not for Urmian and some Iraqi Koine speakers, who instead use -ū for possessive "his" (e.g.bābū, "his father";aqlū, "his leg"), whilst retaining the stress in -éh for "their".[78]
This phenomenon however may not always be present, as some Hakkari speakers, especially those from Tyari and Barwar, would use analytic speech to denote possession. So, for instance,bābeh (literally, "father-his") would be uttered asbābā-id dīyeh (literally, "father-of his"). In Iraqi Koine and Urmian, the plural form and the third person plural possessive suffix of many words, such aswardeh andbiyyeh ("flowers"/"eggs" and "their flower(s)"/"their eggs", respectively), would behomophones were it not for the varying, distinctive stress on the penult or ultima.[79]
When it comes to adeterminative (like in Englishthis,a,the,few,any,which, etc.), Suret generally has an absence of anarticle (English "the"), unlike other Semitic languages such asArabic, which does use adefinite article (Arabic:ال,al-).Demonstratives (āhā,āy/āw andayyāhā/awwāhā translating to "this", "that" and "that one over there", respectively, demonstratingproximal, medial and distal deixis) are commonly utilised instead (e.g.āhā betā, "this house"), which can have the sense of "the". An indefinite article ("a(n)") can mark definiteness if the word is adirect object (but not a subject) by using the prepositional prefix "l-" paired with the proper suffix (e.g.šāqil qālāmā, "he takesa pen" vs.šāqil-lāh qālāmā, "he takesthe pen").Partitive articles may be used in some speech (e.g.bayyītonxačča miyyā?, which translates to "do you [pl.] wantsome water?").[80]
In place of a definite article, Ancient Aramaic used the emphatic state, formed by the addition of the suffix: "-ā" for generally masculine words and "-t(h)ā" (if the word already ends in-ā) for feminine. The definite forms werepallāxā for "the (male) worker" andpallāxtā for "the (female) worker". Beginning even in the Classical Syriac era, when the prefixed preposition "d-" came into more popular use and replaced state Morphology for marking possession, the emphatic (definite) form of the word became dominant and the definite sense of the wordmerged with the indefinite sense so thatpālāxā became "a/the (male) worker" andpālaxtā became "a/the (female) worker."
Most NENAnouns and verbs are built fromtriconsonantal roots, which are a form of word formation in which theroot is modified and which does not involve stringingmorphemes together sequentially. Unlike Arabic,broken plurals are not present. Semitic languages typically utilise triconsonantal roots, forming a "grid" into which vowels may be inserted without affecting the basic root.[81][page needed]
The rootš-q-l (ܫ-ܩ-ܠ) has the basic meaning of "taking", and the following are some words that can be formed from this root:
Suret has lost theperfect andimperfectmorphological tenses common in other Semitic languages. Thepresent tense is usually marked with thesubjectpronoun followed by theparticiple; however, such pronouns are usually omitted in the case of the third person. This use of the participle to mark the present tense is the most common of a number ofcompound tenses that can be used to express varying senses of tense and aspect.[82][page needed] Suret's new system of inflection is claimed to resemble that of the Indo-European languages, namely theIranian languages. This assertion is founded onthe utilisation of anactive participle concerted with acopula and apassive participle with a genitive/dative element which is present inOld Persian and in Neo-Aramaic.[83]
Both Modern Persian and Suret build thepresent perfect tense around the past/resultative participle in conjunct with the copula (though the placing and form of the copula unveil crucial differences). The more conservative Suret dialects lay the copula in its full shape before the verbalconstituent. In the Iraqi and Iranian dialects, the previous construction is addressable with different types of the copula (e.g.deictic) but with the elemental copula only the cliticised form is permitted. Among conservative Urmian speakers, only the construction with the enclitic ordered after the verbal constituent is allowed. Due tolanguage contact, the similarities between Kurdish and Modern Persian and the Urmian dialects become even more evident with theirnegated forms of present perfect, where they display close similarities.[84]
A recent feature of Suret is the usage of theinfinitive instead of the present base for the expression of thepresent progressive, which is also united with the copula. Although the language has some other varieties of the copula precedent to the verbal constituent, the common construction is with the infinitive and the basic copula cliticised to it. In theJewish Neo-Aramaic dialect of Urmia, the symmetrical order of the constituents is with the present perfect tense. This structure of the NENA dialects is to be compared with the present progressive in Kurdish andTurkish as well, where the enclitic follows the infinitive. Such construction is present in Kurdish, where it is frequently combined with thelocative element "in, with", which is akin to the preposition bi- preceding the infinitive in Suret (as in "bi-ktawen" meaning 'I'm writing'). The similarities of the constituents and theiralignment in the present progressive construction in Suret is clearly attributed to influence from the neighbouring languages, such as the use of the infinitive for this construction and the employment of the enclitic copula after the verbal base in all verbal constructions, which is due to the impinging of the Kurdish and Turkish speech.[85]
Themorphology and the valency of the verb, and the arrangement of thegrammatical roles should be noticed when it comes to the similarities withKurdish. UnlikeOld Persian,Modern Persian made no distinction betweentransitive andintransitive verbs, where it unspecialised theabsolutive type of inflection. Different handling of inflection with transitive and intransitive verbs is also nonexistent in the NENA dialects. In contrast with Persian though, it was the ergative type that was generalised in NENA.[86][87]
| Language | Transitive verb | Intransitive verb |
|---|---|---|
| Modern Persian | ||
| Suret[clarification needed] |
Although Aramaic has been a nominative-accusative language historically,split ergativity in Christian and Jewish Neo-Aramaic languages developed through interaction with ergativeIranian languages, such asKurdish, which is spoken by the Muslim population of the region.[88] Ergativity formed in theperfective aspect only (theimperfective aspect is nominative-accusative), whereas thesubject, the originalagentconstruction of the passive participle, was expressed as anoblique withdative case, and is presented byverb-agreement rather than case. The absolutive argument intransitive clauses is the syntacticobject.[89][90] The dialects of Kurdish make a concordant distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs by using a tense-split ergative pattern, which is present in the tense system of some NENA dialects; The nominative accusative type is made use of in the present for all the verbs and also for intransitive verbs in past tense and the ergative type is used instead for transitive verbs.[91]
Unique among the Semitic languages, the development of ergativity in Northeastern Neo-Aramaic dialects involved the departure of original Aramaic tensedfinite verbal forms.[92] Thereafter, the active participle became the root of the Suret imperfective, while thepassive participle evolved into the Suret perfective.[93][page needed] The Extended-Ergative dialects, which include Iraqi Koine, Hakkari and Christian Urmian dialects, show the lowest state of ergativity and would markunaccusative subjects andintransitive verbs in an ergative pattern.[94]
| Perfective stem | Split-S (JewishSulemaniyya) | Dynamic-Stative (Jewish Urmi) | Extended-Erg (Christian Hakkari dialects) |
|---|---|---|---|
| he opened it | |||
| it opened | |||
| it got cut | |||
| it was ruined |
One online Suret dictionary,Sureth Dictionary, lists a total 40,642 words–half of which areroot words.[95] Due to geographical proximity,[96] Surethas an extensive number ofIranianloanwords–namelyPersian and Kurdish–incorporated in its vocabulary, as well as some Arabic, Russian, Azeri andOttoman Turkish and, increasingly within the last century, English loanwords.
Suret has numerous words borrowed into its vocabulary directly from Akkadian, some of them also being borrowed into neighbouring Semitic languages such as Arabic and Hebrew. Several of these words are not attested in Classical Edessan Syriac, many of them beingagricultural terms, being more likely to survive by being spoken in agrarian rural communities rather than the urban centres like Edessa.[23] A few deviations in pronunciation between the Akkadian and the Assyrian Aramaic words are probably due to mistranslations of cuneiform signs which can have several readings. While Akkadian nouns generally end in "-u" in the nominative case, Assyrian Neo-Aramaic words nouns end with the vowel "-a" in their lemma form.[97]
| Akkadian | Suret | Modern meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cuneiform | Transliteration | |||
| 𒌉𒌉𒇲 | daqqu | daiqa | very small, tiny | Compare Arabicdaqīq (دَقِيق) "fine, thin, little" |
| 𒂊𒄈𒌅 | egirtu | iggarṯa | letter, epistle | Also borrowed into Hebrewʾiggéreṯ (אִגֶּרֶת), Turoyo/Suraytegarṯo. Compare Classical Mandaicengirta (ࡏࡍࡂࡉࡓࡕࡀ). |
| elulu | ullul | up, upwards | Classical Syriaclʕel, Western Neo-Aramaicelʕel, Turoyo/Suraytlalʕal. | |
| 𒋓 | išku | iškā[citation needed] | testicle | Cognate with Hebrewʾéšeḵ (אֶשֶׁךְ). |
| 𒀉 | gappu | gulpa | wing | Cognate with Hebrewʾagaph (אֲגַף), Classical Syriacgeppā, Turoyo/Suraytgefo. |
| gir-ba-an-nu | qurbana | offering, sacrifice | Cognate with Arabicqurbān (قُرْبَان), borrowed into Hebrew as:qorban (קָרְבָּן). | |
| 𒄀𒅆𒅕𒊑 | gišru | gišra | bridge | borrowed into Classical Syriacgešrā (ܓܫܪܐ), Arabicǧisr (جِسْر), Hebrewgéšer (גֶּשֶׁר), Western Neo-Aramaicġešra, Turoyo/Suraytgešro. |
| hadutu | ḥḏuṯa | joy, happiness | Western Neo-Aramaicḥḏawṯa. | |
| ittimalu | timmal | yesterday | borrowed into Hebrew as:etmol (אֶתְמוֹל), Turoyo/Suraytaṯmel. | |
| 𒌆𒁇𒌆 | kusītu | kosiṯa | hat, headgear | Compare Arabickuswa (كُسْوَة), borrowed into Hebrew as:ksut - a garment; a cover (כְּסוּת) &ksayah (כְּסָיָה) - a covering |
| kutallu | qḏala | neck | Arabicqaḏāl (قَذَال) "occiput", Western Neo-Aramaicqḏola, Turoyo/Suraytqḏolo. | |
| 𒈛 | massu'u,mesû | msaya | to clean, wash clothes | Classical Syriacmšiġ, Western Neo-Aramaicimšiġ, Turoyo/Suraytmašeġ. |
| 𒆳 | mātu | maṯa | village; homeland | Borrowed into Turoyo/Surayt asmoṯo (homeland). |
| migru | myuqra | favourite, honourable | Borrowed into Turoyo/Surayt asmiaqro. | |
| 𒈦𒂗𒆕 | muškēnu | miskena | poor, impoverished | Arabicmiskīn (مِسْكِين), borrowed into Hebrew as: (מִסְכֵּן), Western Neo-Aramaicmiskina. |
| 𒇽𒉽נׇפׇּח | nakru | naḵraya | foreign(er), outlandish | Compare Arabicnakira (نَكِرَة) "unknown", Classical Syriacnūḵrāyā (ܢܘܟܪܝܐ), Hebrewnoḵrî (נָכְרִי), Western Neo-Aramaicnuḵray, Turoyo/Suraytnuḵroyo. Compare Classical Mandaicnukraia (ࡍࡅࡊࡓࡀࡉࡀ). |
| napahu | npaḥa | blow, exhale | Arabicnafaḵ (نَفَخ), Hebrewnapah (נׇפׇּח), Classical Syriacnfaḥ, Western Neo-Aramaicinfaḥ, Turoyo/Suraytnfoḥo. | |
| 𒉈𒋢𒌒 | našāgu | nšaqa | to kiss | Arabicnašaq (نَشَق) "to snuff", Hebrewnšiquah (נְשִׁיקָה), Classical Syriacnšaq, Western Neo-Aramaicinšaq, Turoyo/Suraytnošaq. |
| 𒄩 | nunu | nuna | fish | Arabicnūn (نُون), Turoyo/Suraytnuno. Compare Classical Mandaicnuna (ࡍࡅࡍࡀ). |
| paraku | praḥa | to fly, glide | Arabicfarḵ (فَرْخ) "chick", Hebrewparah (פָּרַח), Turoyo/Suraytforaš. | |
| 𒋻 | parāsu | praša | to separate, part | Arabicfaraš (فَرَش), Hebrewparash (פָּרַשׁ), Turoyo/Suraytfošar. |
| 𒀭𒁇 | parzillu | prezla | iron, metal | Hebrewbarzel (בַּרְזֶל) |
| 𒁔 | pašāru | pšara | to melt, dissolve | Hebrewhafšara (הַפְשָׁרָה) |
| qurbu | qurba | nearby | Arabicqurb (قُرْب), Hebrewqirvah;qeruv &qarov, Western Neo-Aramaicqura, Turoyo/Suraytqariwo. | |
| 𒃲 | rabû | ra(b)ba | large, great (in quality or quantity) | Hebrewrav;rabu &harbeh, Western Neo-Aramaicrappa, Turoyo/Suraytrabo. Compare Mandaicrabbā (Classical Mandaic:ࡓࡁࡀ,romanized: rba). |
| 𒋤 | rêqu | reḥqa | far, distant | Hebrewraḥoq (רָחוֹק), Turoyo/Suraytraḥuqo. |
| sananu | sanyana | hater, rival | Hebrewsoneh (שׂוֹנֵא), Western Neo-Aramaicsanyona. | |
| 𒄑𒃴 | simmiltu | si(m)malta, si(m)manta | ladder | Borrowed into Classical Syriac assebbelṯā (ܣܒܠܬܐ), Western Neo-Aramaicsemla. |
| 𒀲𒆳𒊏 | sīsû | susa | horse | Compare Arabicsīsī (سيسي) "pony", Hebrewsûs (סוּס), Western Neo-Aramaicsusya, Turoyo/Suraytsusyo. |
| 𒊭𒁀𒁉𒅎 | ša bābi | šḇaḇa | neighbour | Western Neo-Aramaicšboba. |
| 𒂄 | šahānu | šḥana | to warm, heat up | Arabicsāḵin (ساخِن), Hebrewšahun (שָׁחוּן), Classical Syriacšḥen, Western Neo-Aramaic:išḥen, Turoyo/Suraytšoḥan. |
| 𒇽𒁁 | šalamtu | šla(d)da | body, corpse | Hebrewšeled (שֶׁלֶד), Turoyo/Suraytšlado (corpse). |
| 𒌑 | šammu | samma | drug, poison | Arabicsumm (سُمّ), Hebrewsam (סַם), Western Neo-Aramaicsamma, Turoyo/Suraytsamo. |
| šuptu | šopa | place, spot | ||
| 𒄭 | ṭābu | ṭaḇa | good, pleasant | Arabicṭāb (طَابَ), Hebrewṭovah (טוֹבָה), Western Neo-Aramaicṭoba, Turoyo/Suraytṭowo. Compare Classical Mandaicṭaba (ࡈࡀࡁࡀ). |
| tapahu | tpaḥa | to pour out, spill | Arabicfāḵ (فَاخَ), compare the Hebrew cognate: to rise (e.g. rising flour)taphaḥ (תָּפַח) | |
| tayartu | dyara | to return, come back | Arabicdār (دَار), compare the Hebrew cognate: a touristtayar (תַּיָּר), Turoyo/Suraytdoʕar. | |
| temuru | ṭmara | to bury | ||
| 𒂡 | zamāru | zmara | to sing | Arabiczammar (زَمَّر), Hebrew: a tune; a singingzimrah (זִמְרָה), Turoyo/Suraytzomar. |
| 𒍪𒊻 | zuzu | zuze | money | Also borrowed into Hebrewzûz (זוּז) via Aramaic. |
SIL Ethnologue distinguishes five dialect groups: Urmian, Northern, Central, Western and Sapna, each with sub-dialects. Mutual intelligibility between the Suret dialects is as high as 80%–90%.[citation needed]
TheUrmia dialect has become the prestige dialect of Suret after 1836, when that dialect was chosen byJustin Perkins, an AmericanPresbyterian missionary, for the creation of a standard literary dialect. A second standard dialect derived from General Urmian known as "IraqiKoine", developed in the 20th century.[98]
In 1852, Perkins's translation of the Bible into General Urmian was published by theAmerican Bible Society with a parallel text of the Classical SyriacPeshitta.[99][100]
Iraqi Koine, also known as Iraqi Assyrian and "Standard" Assyrian, is a compromise between the rural Ashiret accents of Hakkari andNineveh Plains (listed above) and the former prestigious dialect inUrmia. Iraqi Koine does not really constitute a new dialect, but an incomplete merger of dialects, with some speakers sounding more Urmian, such as those fromHabbaniyah, and others more Hakkarian, such as those who immigrated from northernIraq. Koine is more analogous or similar to Urmian in terms of manner of articulation, place of articulation and itsconsonant cluster formations than it is to the Hakkari dialects, though it just lacks the regionalPersian influence in some consonants and vowels, as thefront vowels in Urmian tend to be more fronted and theback ones more rounded.[102] For anEnglish accent equivalence, the difference between Iraqi Koine and Urmian dialect would be akin to the difference betweenAustralian andNew Zealand English.[68]
During theFirst World War, many Assyrians living in theOttoman Empire wereforced from their homes, and many of their descendants now live inIraq. The relocation has led to the creation of this dialect. Iraqi Koine was developed in theurban areas of Iraq (i.e.Baghdad,Basra, Habbaniyah andKirkuk), which became the meccas for the rural Assyrian population. By the end of the 1950s, vast number of Assyrians started to speak Iraqi Koine. Today, Iraqi Koine is the predominant use of communication between the majority of the Assyrians fromIraqi cities and it is also used as the standard dialect in music and formal speech.[68]
Some modern Hakkari speakers from Iraq can switchback and forth from their Hakkari dialects to Iraqi Koine when conversing with Assyrian speakers of other dialects. SomeSyrian-Assyrians, who originate from Hakkari, may also speak or sing in Iraqi Koine. This is attributed to the growing exposure to Assyrian Standard-based literature, media and its use as aliturgical language by theChurch of the East, which is based in Iraq. Elements of originalAshiret dialects can still be observed in Iraqi Koine, especially in that of older speakers. Furthermore,Assyrian songs are generally sung in Iraqi Koine in order for them to be intelligible and have widespread recognition. To note, the emergence of Koine did not signify that the rest of the spoken dialects vanished. TheAshiret dialects are still active today and widely spoken in northernIraq and northeastern Syria as some Assyrians remained in the rural areas and the fact that thefirst generation speakers who relocated in urban areas still maintained their native dialects.[68]
Neo-Aramaic has a rather slightly defineddialect continuum, starting from the Assyrians in northernIraq (e.g.Alqosh,Batnaya) and ending with those in WesternIran (Urmia). The dialects in Northern Iraq, such as those of Alqosh and Batnaya, would be minimally unintelligible to those in Western Iran.[102]
Nearing the Iraqi-Turkey border, theBarwari andTyari dialects are more "traditionally Assyrian" and would sound like those in theHakkari province in Turkey. Furthermore, the Barwar and Tyari dialects are "transitional", acquiring both Assyrian and Chaldean phonetic features (though they do not use /ħ/). Gawar, Diz andJilu are in the "centre" of the spectrum, which lie halfway between Tyari and Urmia, having features of both respective dialects, though still being distinct in their own manner.[68]
In Hakkari, going east (towardsIran), theNochiya dialect would begin to sound distinct to the Tyari/Barwar dialects and more like the Urmian dialect inUrmia,West Azerbaijan province, containing a few Urmian features. The Urmian dialect, alongside Iraqi Koine, are considered to be "Standard Assyrian", though Iraqi Koine is more widespread and has thus become the more common standard dialect in recent times. Both Koine and Urmian share phonetic characteristics with the Nochiya dialect to some degree.[98]
Early Syriac texts still date to the 2nd century, notably theSyriac Bible and theDiatesseron Gospel harmony. The bulk of Syriac literary production dates to between the 4th and 8th centuries.Classical Syriac literacy survives into the 9th century, though Syriac Christian authors in this period increasingly wrote inArabic. The emergence of spokenNeo-Aramaic is conventionally dated to the 13th century, but a number of authors continued producing literary works in Syriac in the later medieval period.[103]
Because Assyrian, alongsideTuroyo, is the most widely spoken variety of Syriac today, modern Syriac literature would therefore usually be written in those varieties.[104] The conversion of theMongols to Islam began a period of retreat and hardship forSyriac Christianity and its adherents, although there still has been a continuous stream of Syriac literature inUpper Mesopotamia and theLevant from the 14th century through to the present day. This has included the flourishing of literature from the various colloquialEastern AramaicNeo-Aramaic languages still spoken byAssyrians.
ThisNeo-Syriac literature bears a dual tradition: it continues the traditions of the Syriac literature of the past and it incorporates a converging stream of the less homogeneous spoken language. The first such flourishing of Neo-Syriac was the seventeenth century literature of the School ofAlqosh, in northernIraq.[105] This literature led to the establishment of Assyrian Aramaic as written literary languages.
In the nineteenth century,printing presses were established inUrmia, in northernIran. This led to the establishment of the 'General Urmian' dialect of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic as the standard in much Neo-Syriac Assyrian literature up until the 20th century. TheUrmia Bible, published in 1852 by Justin Perkins was based on thePeshitta, where it included a parallel translation in the Urmian dialect. The comparative ease of modern publishing methods has encouraged other colloquial Neo-Aramaic languages, like Turoyo, to begin to produce literature.[106][107]
the majority of the Christian NENA speakers belong to the Eastern Syriac Churches, who are called Assyrians and Chaldeans.
Especially in view of the very early establishment of Christianity in Assyria and its continuity to the present and the continuity of the population, I think there is every likelihood that ancient Assyrians are among the ancestors of modern Assyrians of the area.
. . . Suret (divided by SIL on non-linguistic grounds into Assyrian Neo-Aramaic and Chaldean Neo-Aramaic) . . .
Links to related articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.svg)
