Suret language
Suret | |
---|---|
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic Chaldean Neo-Aramaic | |
ܣܘܪܝܬ Sūret | |
[ˈsu:rɪθ] | |
Native to | Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey |
Region | Assyrian heartland (northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, northern Syria, southern Turkey), Lebanon, Armenia,[1] global diaspora |
Ethnicity | Assyrians |
Native speakers | 800,000 (2020)[2] |
| |
Dialects |
|
| |
Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
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 | |
Suret is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010) | |
Suret (
Suret speakers are indigenous to
SIL distinguishes between Chaldean and Assyrian as varieties of Suret on non-linguistic grounds.[17] Suret is mutually intelligible with some NENA dialects spoken by Jews, especially in the western part of its historical extent.[18] Its mutual intelligibility with Turoyo is partial and asymmetrical, but more significant in written form.[19][20]
Suret is a moderately-inflected, fusional language with a two-gender noun system and rather flexible word order.[20] There is some Akkadian influence on the language.[21] In its native region, speakers may use Iranian, Turkic and Arabic loanwords, while diaspora communities may use loanwords borrowed from the languages of their respective countries. Suret is written from right-to-left and it uses the Madnḥāyā version of the Syriac alphabet.[22][23] Suret, alongside other modern Aramaic languages, is now considered endangered, as newer generation of Assyrians tend to not acquire the full language, mainly due to emigration and acculturation into their new resident countries.[24]
History
Akkadian and Aramaic have been in extensive contact since their old periods. Local unwritten Aramaic dialects emerged from Imperial Aramaic in Assyria. In around 700 BC, Aramaic slowly started to replace Akkadian in Assyria, Babylonia and the Levant. Widespread bilingualism among Assyrian nationals was already present prior to the fall of the empire.[26] The language transition was achievable because the two languages featured similarities in grammar and vocabulary, and because the 22-lettered Aramaic alphabet was simpler to learn than the Akkadian cuneiform which had over 600 signs.[27] The converging process that took place between Assyrian Akkadian and Aramaic across all aspects of both languages and societies is known as Aramaic-Assyrian symbiosis.[28]
Introduced as the official language of the
By the 1st century AD, Akkadian was extinct, though vocabulary and grammatical features still survive in modern NENA dialects.[33] The Neo-Aramaic languages evolved from Middle Syriac-Aramaic by the 13th century.[34][35] 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 the Bible into Syriac, the Peshitta (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 in Urhay in the kingdom of Osroene began to use Classical Syriac as the language of worship and it became the literary and liturgical language of many churches in the Fertile 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 of Eastern 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 the Arab conquests.[36]
The differences with the
The Mongol invasions of the Levant in the 13th century and the religiously motivated massacres of Assyrians by Timur further contributed to the rapid decline of the language. In many places outside of northern Mesopotamia, even in liturgy, the language was replaced by Arabic.[37] "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 of attested 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 and Central Neo-Aramaic languages descended from it or from close relatives.[38]
In 2004, the Constitution 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."[39] In 2005, the Constitution 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.[4][3]
Script
History
The original Mesopotamian 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.[40] Around 2700 BC, cuneiform began to represent syllables of spoken Sumerian, a language isolate genetically unrelated to the Semitic and Indo-Iranian languages that it neighboured. About that time, Mesopotamian cuneiform became a general purpose writing system for logograms, syllables and numbers. This script was adapted to another Mesopotamian language, the East Semitic Akkadian (Assyrian and Babylonian) around 2600 BC.
With the adoption of
The Syriac script is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language from the 1st century AD.[43] It is one of the Semitic abjads directly descending from the Aramaic alphabet and shares similarities with the Phoenician, Hebrew, Arabic and the traditional Mongolian alphabets. The alphabet consists of 22 letters, all of which are consonants. It is a cursive script where some, but not all, letters connect within a word.[44] Aramaic writing has been found as far north as Hadrian's Wall in Prehistoric Britain, in the form of inscriptions in Aramaic, made by Assyrian soldiers serving in the Roman Legions in northern England during the 2nd century AD.[45]
Modern development
The oldest and classical form of the alphabet is ʾEsṭrangēlā (ܐܣܛܪܢܓܠܐ); the name is thought to derive from the Greek adjective στρογγύλη (strongúlē) 'round'.[46][47] Although ʾEsṭrangēlā is no longer used as the main script for writing Syriac, it has undergone some revival since the 10th century.
When Arabic gradually began to be the dominant spoken language in the Fertile 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 called Suriyani Malayalam. Such non-Syriac languages written in Syriac script are called Garshuni or Karshuni.
The Madnhāyā, or 'eastern', version formed as a form of shorthand developed from ʾEsṭrangēlā and progressed further as handwriting patterns changed. The Madnhāyā version also possesses optional vowel markings to help pronounce Syriac. Other names for the script include Swāḏāyā, 'conversational', often translated as "contemporary", reflecting its use in writing modern Neo-Aramaic.
Letters
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 as
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).
Latin alphabet
In the 1930s, following the state policy for minority languages of the Soviet Union, a Latin alphabet was developed and some material published.[48][49] Despite the fact that this innovation did not displace the Syriac script, the usage of the Latin script in the Assyrian community has become rather widespread due to the Assyrian diaspora's predominant settlement in Europe and the English-speaking world, where the Latin script dominates.[50] The Latin alphabet is preferred by most Assyrians for practical reasons and its convenience, especially in social media, where it is used to communicate. Although the Syriac Latin alphabet contains diacritics, most Assyrians rarely utilise the modified letters and would conveniently rely on the basic 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 precise transcription 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.[51]
Phonology
Consonants
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 | r
|
Notes:
- In all NENA dialects, voiced, voiceless, aspirated and emphatic consonants are recognised as distinct phonemes, though there can be an overlap between plain voiceless and voiceless emphatic in sound quality.[55][56][57][54][page needed][58][page needed]
- In Iraqi Koine and many Urmian & Northern dialects, the palatals [c], [ɟ] and aspirate [cʰ] are considered the predominant realisation of /k/, /g/ and aspirate /kʰ/.[54][page needed][59][56]
- In the Koine and Urmi dialects, velar fricatives /x ɣ/ are typically uvular as [χ ʁ].[54][60]
- The phoneme /Hértevin, which merged the two historical phonemes into [ħ], thus lacking [x] instead.[61]
- The pharyngeal /ʕ/, represented by the letter 'e, is a marginal phoneme that is generally upheld in formal or religious speech. Among the majority of Suret speakers, 'e would be realised as [aɪ̯], [eɪ̯], [ɛ], [j], deleted, or even geminating the previous consonant, depending on the dialect and phonological context.
- /
- /f/ is a phoneme heard in the Tyari, Barwari and Chaldean dialects. In most of the other varieties, it merges with /p/,[62] though [f] is found in loanwords.
- The phonemes /t/ and /d/ have allophonic realisations of [θ] and [ð] (respectively) in most Lower Tyari, Barwari and Chaldean dialects, which is a carryover of begadkefat from the Ancient Aramaic period.
- In the Upper Tyari dialects, /θ/ is realised as [t]; in the Marga dialect, the /t/ may at times be replaced with [s].
- In the Urmian dialect, /w/ has a widespread allophone [ʋ] (it may vacillate to [v] for some speakers).[63]
- In the Jilu dialect, /q/ is uttered as a tense [k]. This can also occur in other dialects.[57][56]
- In the Iraqi Koine dialect, a labial-palatal approximant sound [ɥ] is also heard.[64][54]
- /ɡ/ is affricated, thus pronounced as [d͡ʒ] in some Urmian, Tyari and Nochiya dialects.[65] /k/ would be affricated to [t͡ʃ] in the same process.
- /ɣ/ is a marginal phoneme that occurs across all dialects. Either a result of the historic splitting of /g/, through loanwords, or by contact of [x] with a voiced consonant.
- /ʒ/ is found predominately from loanwords, but, in some dialects, also from the voicing of /ʃ/[57] (e.g. ḥašbunā /xaʒbu:na:/, "counting", from the root ḥ-š-b, "to count") as in the Jilu dialect.
- /n/ can be pronounced [ŋ] before velar consonants [x] and [q] and as [m] before labial consonants.[53]
- In some speakers, a dental click (English "tsk") may be used para-linguistically as a negative response to a "yes or no" question. This feature is more common among those who still live in the homeland or in the Middle East, than those living in the diaspora.
Vowels
According to linguist Edward Odisho, there are six vowel phonemes in Iraqi Koine.[66] They are as follows:
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | /i/ | /u/ | |
Half-close
|
/ɪ/ | ||
Half-open
|
/e/ | /o/ | |
Open | /a/ |
- /a/, as commonly uttered in words like naša ("man; human"), is central [
- /ɑ/, a long vowel, as heard in raba ("much; many"), may also be realised as [ɒ], depending on the speaker. It is more rounded and higher in the Urmian dialect, where it is realised as [ɔ].[citation needed]
- /e/, heard in beta ("house") is generally diphthongised to [eɪ̯] in the classical Syriac and thereby may be used in formal speech as well, such as in liturgy and hymns.[67]
- /ɪ/, uttered in words like dədwa ("housefly"), is sometimes realised as [ə] (a schwa).
- The mid vowels, preserved in Tyari, Barwari, Baz and Chaldean dialects, are sometimes raised and mergedwith close vowels in Urmian and some other dialects:
- /o/, as in gora ("big"), is raised to [u]. The Urmian dialect may diphthongise it to [ʊj].
- /e/, as in kepa ("rock"), is raised to [i].
- /o/, as in tora ("bull") may be diphthongised to [ɑw] in some Tyari, Barwari, Chaldean and Jilu dialects.
- Across many dialects, close and close-mid vowels are lax when they occur in a closed syllable:
- /u/ or /o/ is usually realised as [ʊ];
- /i/ or /e/ is usually realised as [ɪ].
East Syriac dialects may recognize half-close sounds as [ɛ] and also recognize the back vowel [ɒ] as a long form of /a/.[68]
Two basic diphthongs exist, namely /aj/ and /aw/. For some words, many dialects have monophthongised them to [e] and [o] respectively. For substantives, A common vowel alteration is apophonically shifting the final -a to -e, so ṭera ('bird') will be ṭere ('birds') in its plural form.[citation needed]
Phonetics of Iraqi Koine
Iraqi Koine is a merged dialect which formed in the mid-20th century, being influenced by both Urmian and Hakkari dialects.
- Iraqi Koine, like the majority of the Suret dialects, realises /w/ as [w] instead of [ʋ].
- Iraqi Koine generally realises the d] respectively.
- Dorsal fricatives /x ɣ/ are heard as uvular as [χ ʁ].
- Predominantly, /q/ in words like qalama ("pen") does not merge with /k/.
- The diphthong /aw/ in words like tawra ("bull"), as heard in most of Hakkari dialects, are realised as [o]: tora.[69]
- The [ʊj] diphthong in zuyze ("money") is retained as [u]: zuze.[31]
- Depending on the speaker, the velar stops /k/ and /ɡ/ may be affricated as [t͡ʃ] and [d͡ʒ] respectively.
- The [t͡ʃ] in some present progressive verbs like či'axla ("[she] eats") is retained as [k]: ki'axla.
Phonetics of Chaldean-Neo-Aramaic
Consonants
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 |
- The Chaldean dialects are generally characterised by the presence of the fricatives /θ/ (th) and /ð/ (dh) which correspond to /t/ and /d/, respectively, in other Assyrian dialects (excluding the Tyari dialect).
- In some Chaldean dialects /r/ is realized as [r].
- Unlike in Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, the guttural sounds of [ʕ] and [ħ] are used predominantly in Chaldean varieties; this is a feature also seen in other Northeastern Neo-Aramaic languages.[70][71]
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | ɨ | u |
Mid | e | o | |
Open | a |
Grammar
NENA is a
Due to
- Verbal stems[74]
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") |
Suffixes
Suret uses verbal inflections marking person and number. The suffix "-e" indicates a (usually masculine)
Possessive suffixes
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 more analytic approach regarding possession, just like English possessive determiners. The following are periphrastic ways to express possession, using the word betā ("house") as a base (in Urmian/Iraqi Koine):
- my house: betā-it dīyī ("house-of mine")
- your (masc., sing.) house: betā-it dīyux ("house-of yours")
- your (fem., sing.) house: betā-it dīyax ("house-of yours")
- your (plural) house: betā-it dīyōxun ("house-of yours")
- 3rd person (masc., sing.): betā-it dīyū ("house-of his")
- 3rd person (fem., sing.): betā-it dīyō ("house-of hers")
- 3rd person (plural): betā-it dīyéh ("house-of theirs")
Stress
Like English, Suret is a
Although Suret, like all Semitic languages, is not a
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 as bābā-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 as wardeh and biyyeh ("flowers"/"eggs" and "their flower(s)"/"their eggs", respectively), would be homophones were it not for the varying, distinctive stress on the penult or ultima.[77]
Determinative
When it comes to a
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 were pallāxā for "the (male) worker" and pallāxtā 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 word merged with the indefinite sense so that pālāxā became "a/the (male) worker" and pālaxtā became "a/the (female) worker."
Consonantal root
Most NENA nouns and verbs are built from triconsonantal roots, which are a form of word formation in which the root is modified and which does not involve stringing morphemes 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.[79][page needed]
The root š-q-l (ܫ-ܩ-ܠ) has the basic meaning of "taking", and the following are some words that can be formed from this root:
- šqil-leh (ܫܩܝܼܠ ܠܹܗ): "he has taken" (literally "taken-by him")
- šāqil (ܫܵܩܸܠ): "he takes"
- šāqlā (ܫܵܩܠܵܐ): "she takes"
- šqul (ܫܩܘܿܠ): "take!"
- šqālā (ܫܩܵܠܵܐ): "taking"
- šqīlā (ܫܩܝܼܠܵܐ): "taken"
Tenses
Suret has lost the perfect and imperfect morphological tenses common in other Semitic languages. The present tense is usually marked with the subject pronoun followed by the participle; 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 of compound tenses that can be used to express varying senses of tense and aspect.[80][page needed] Suret's new system of inflection is claimed to resemble the one of the Indo-European languages, namely the Iranian languages. This assertion is founded on the utilisation of an
Both Modern Persian and Suret build the
A recent feature of Suret is the usage of the
The
Language | Transitive verb | Intransitive verb |
---|---|---|
Modern Persian | košte-am kill.PP-COP.1SG 'I killed' |
āmade-am arrive.PP-COP.1SG 'I arrived' |
Suret[clarification needed] | qṭǝl-li kill.PP-1SG.OBL 'I killed' |
dmǝx-li sleep.PP-1SG.OBL 'I went to sleep' |
Ergativity
Although Aramaic has been a nominative-accusative language historically,
Unique among the Semitic languages, the development of ergativity in Northeastern Neo-Aramaic dialects involved the departure of original Aramaic tensed
Perfective stem | Split-S (Jewish Sulemaniyya )
|
Dynamic-Stative (Jewish Urmi) |
Extended-Erg (Christian Hakkari dialects) |
---|---|---|---|
he opened it | pləx-∅-le open-ABS-ERG |
pləx-∅-le open-ABS-ERG |
ptíx-∅-le open-MASC-ERG |
it opened | plix-∅ open-ABS |
pləx-le open-ERG |
ptíx-le open-ERG |
it got cut | qəṭe-∅ cut-ABS |
qṭe-le cut-ERG |
qṭí-le cut-ERG |
it was ruined | xrəw-∅-le ruin-ABS-ERG |
məxrəw-le-le ruin-ERG-ACC |
xríw-∅-le ruin-ABS-ERG |
Vocabulary
One online Suret dictionary, Sureth Dictionary, lists a total 40,642 words–half of which are root words.[93] Due to geographical proximity,[94] Suret has an extensive number of Iranian loanwords–namely Persian and Kurdish–incorporated in its vocabulary, as well as some Arabic, Russian, Azeri and Ottoman 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 being agricultural terms, being more likely to survive by being spoken in agrarian rural communities rather than the urban centres like Edessa.[21] 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.[95]
Akkadian | Suret | Modern meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cuneiform | Transliteration | |||
𒌉𒌉𒇲 | daqqu | daiqa | very small, tiny | |
𒂊𒄈𒌅 | egirtu | iggarṯa | letter, epistle | Also borrowed into Hebrew ʾiggéreṯ (אִגֶּרֶת). |
elulu | ullul | up, upwards | ||
𒋓 | išku | iškā[citation needed] | testicle | Cognate with Hebrew ʾéšeḵ (אֶשֶׁךְ). |
𒀉 | gappu | gulpa | wing | Cognate with Hebrew ʾagaph (אֲגַף). |
gir-ba-an-nu | qurbana | offering, sacrifice | borrowed into Hebrew as: qorban (קָרְבָּן). | |
𒄀𒅆𒅕𒊑 | gišru | gišra | bridge | borrowed into Classical Syriac gešrā (ܓܫܪܐ), |
hadutu | ḥḏuṯa | joy, happiness | ||
ittimalu | timmal | yesterday | borrowed into Hebrew as: etmol (אֶתְמוֹל) | |
𒌆𒁇𒌆 | kusītu | kosiṯa | hat, headgear | borrowed into Hebrew as: ksut- a garment; a cover (כְּסוּת) & ksayah (כְּסָיָה)- a covering |
kutallu | qḏala | neck | ||
𒈛 | massu'u, mesû | msaya | to clean, wash clothes | |
𒆳 | mātu | maṯa | village; homeland | |
migru | myuqra | favourite, honourable | ||
𒈦𒂗𒆕 | muškēnu | miskena | poor, impoverished | borrowed into Hebrew as: (מִסְכֵּן) |
𒇽𒉽נׇפׇּח | nakru | naḵraya | foreign(er), outlandish | Compare Classical Syriac nūḵrāyā (ܢܘܟܪܝܐ), Hebrew noḵrî (נָכְרִי). |
napahu | npaḥa | blow, exhale | Hebrew napah (נׇפׇּח) | |
𒉈𒋢𒌒 | našāgu | nšaqa | to kiss | Hebrew nšiquah (נְשִׁיקָה) |
𒄩 | nunu | nuna | fish | |
paraku | praḥa | to fly, glide | Hebrew parah (פָּרַח) | |
𒋻 | parāsu | praša | to separate, part | Hebrew parash (פָּרַשׁ) |
𒀭𒁇 | parzillu | prezla | iron, metal | Hebrew barzel (בַּרְזֶל) |
𒁔 | pašāru | pšara | to melt, dissolve | Hebrew hafšara (הַפְשָׁרָה) |
qurbu | qurba | nearby | Hebrew qirvah; qeruv & qarov | |
𒃲 | rabû | ra(b)ba | large, great (in quality or quantity) | Hebrew rav; rabu & harbeh |
𒋤 | rêqu | reḥqa | far, distant | Hebrew raḥoq (רָחוֹק) |
sananu | sanyana | hater, rival | Hebrew soneh (שׂוֹנֵא) | |
𒄑𒃴 | simmiltu | si(m)malta, si(m)manta | ladder | Borrowed into Classical Syriac as sebbelṯā (ܣܒܠܬܐ). |
𒀲𒆳𒊏 | sīsû | susa | horse | Compare Hebrew sûs (סוּס). |
𒊭𒁀𒁉𒅎 | ša bābi | šḇaḇa | neighbour | |
𒂄 | šahānu | šḥana | to warm, heat up | Hebrew šahun (שָׁחוּן|), Arabic ساخن (ساخِن) |
𒇽𒁁 | šalamtu | šla(d)da | body, corpse | Hebrew šeled (שֶׁלֶד) |
𒌑 | šammu | samma | drug, poison | Hebrew sam (סַם) |
šuptu | šopa | place, spot | ||
𒄭 | ṭābu | ṭaḇa | good, pleasant | Hebrew ṭovah (טוֹבָה) |
tapahu | tpaḥa | to pour out, spill | compare the Hebrew cognate: to rise (e.g. rising flour) taphaḥ (תָּפַח) | |
tayartu | dyara | to return, come back | compare the Hebrew cognate: a tourist tayar (תַּיָּר) | |
temuru | ṭmara | to bury | ||
𒂡 | zamāru | zmara | to sing | Hebrew: a tune; a singing zimrah (זִמְרָה) |
𒍪𒊻 | zuzu | zuze | money | Also borrowed into Hebrew zûz (זוּז) via Aramaic. |
Dialects
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]
The Urmia dialect has become the prestige dialect of Suret after 1836, when that dialect was chosen by Justin Perkins, an American Presbyterian missionary, for the creation of a standard literary dialect. A second standard dialect derived from General Urmian known as "Iraqi Koine", developed in the 20th century.[96]
In 1852, Perkins's translation of the Bible into General Urmian was published by the American Bible Society with a parallel text of the Classical Syriac Peshitta.[97][98]
Grouping
- Iranian group:
- Urmia (west of Lake Urmia) (Christian Neo-Aramaic dialect of Urmia)
- Sopurghan (north of Urmia)
- Naghadeh (south of Lake Urmia)
- Salmas (north west of Lake Urmia)
- Sanandaj (Iranian Kurdistan) (Senaya dialect)
- Turkey group:
- Nochiya
- Jilu (west of Gavar and south of Qudshanis)
- Gawar (between Salmas and Van)
- Diza
- Baz
- Lower Tyari – Dialects of the Tyari group share features with both the Chaldean Neo-Aramaic dialects in Northern Iraq (below) and Urmian (above).
- Upper Tyari
- Walto
- Upper Barwari
- Tkhuma
- Tal
- Lewin
- Bohtan (Neo-Aramaic dialect of Bohtan)
- northern Iraq (Nineveh Plains):
Iraqi Koine
Iraqi Koine, also known as Iraqi Assyrian and "Standard" Assyrian, is a compromise between the rural Ashiret accents of Hakkari and
During the First World War, many Assyrians living in the Ottoman Empire were forced from their homes, and many of their descendants now live in Iraq. The relocation has led to the creation of this dialect. Iraqi Koine was developed in the urban areas of Iraq (i.e. Baghdad, Basra, Habbaniyah and Kirkuk), 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 from Iraqi cities and it is also used as the standard dialect in music and formal speech.[66]
Some modern Hakkari speakers from Iraq can switch
Dialect continuum
Neo-Aramaic has a rather slightly defined dialect continuum, starting from the Assyrians in northern Iraq (e.g. Alqosh, Batnaya) and ending with those in Western Iran (Urmia). The dialects in Northern Iraq, such as those of Alqosh and Batnaya, would be minimally unintelligible to those in Western Iran.[100]
Nearing the Iraqi-Turkey border, the
In Hakkari, going east (towards
Literature
Early Syriac texts still date to the 2nd century, notably the
Because Assyrian, alongside
This Neo-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 of Alqosh, in northern Iraq.[103] This literature led to the establishment of Assyrian Aramaic as written literary languages.
In the nineteenth century, printing presses were established in Urmia, in northern Iran. 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. The Urmia Bible, published in 1852 by Justin Perkins was based on the Peshitta, 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.[104][105]
See also
Notes
- ^ Many Akkadian and Aramaic words share the same Semitic root and have cognates in Arabic and Hebrew as well. Therefore, the list below focuses on words that are direct loanwords (not cognates) from Akkadian into Suret. Other Semitic languages that have borrowed the word from Akkadian may be noted as well.
References
- ^ UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
- ^ Suret at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
Chaldean Neo-Aramaic at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) - ^ a b "Iraq's Constitution of 2005" (PDF). constituteproject.org. 1 February 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
- ^ a b The Comprehensive Policy to Manage the Ethnic Languages in Iraq (CPMEL)
- ISBN 978-3-11-080874-2.
- ISBN 978-1-4632-1660-3.
the majority of the Christian NENA speakers belong to the Eastern Syriac Churches, who are called Assyrians and Chaldeans.
- ^ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Northeastern Neo-Aramaic". Glottolog 2.2. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- ^ Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List
- ^ a b Beyer 1986, p. 44.
- ^ a b Bae, C. Aramaic as a Lingua Franca During the Persian Empire (538-333 BCE). Journal of Universal Language. March 2004, 1-20.
- JSTOR 605827.
- Maclean, Arthur John(1895). Grammar of the dialects of vernacular Syriac: as spoken by the Eastern Syrians of Kurdistan, north-west Persia, and the Plain of Mosul: with notices of the vernacular of the Jews of Azerbaijan and of Zakhu near Mosul. Cambridge University Press, London.
- ^ Assyrians After Assyria, Parpola
- ^ The Fihrist (Catalog): A Tench Century Survey of Islamic Culture. Abu 'l Faraj Muhammad ibn Ishaq al Nadim. Great Books of the Islamic World, Kazi Publications. Translator: Bayard Dodge.
- ^ From a lecture by J. A. Brinkman: "There is no reason to believe that there would be no racial or cultural continuity in Assyria, since there is no evidence that the population of Assyria was removed." Quoted in Efrem Yildiz's "The Assyrians" Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, 13.1, pp. 22, ref 24
- ^ Biggs, Robert D. (2005). "My Career in Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology" (PDF). Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies. 19 (1): 1–23. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 February 2008. p. 10:
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.
- ISBN 9789231040962.
. . . Suret (divided by SIL on non-linguistic grounds into Assyrian Neo-Aramaic and Chaldean Neo-Aramaic) . . .
- JSTOR 25608409.
- ISBN 91-554-5555-7.
- ^ a b Khan 2008, pp. 6
- ^ ISBN 978-0-903472-21-0.
- ^ The Nestorians and their Rituals; George Percy Badger.
- ^ A Short History of Syriac Christianity; W. Stewart McCullough.
- ^ Naby, Eden. "From Lingua Franca to Endangered Language". Assyrian International News Agency.
- ^ Manishtusu Obelisk, Louvre
- Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies. 18 (2). JAAS. Archived from the original(PDF) on 17 July 2011.
- ^ Sabar, Yona (1975). "The impact of Israeli Hebrew on the Neo-Aramaic dialect of the Kurdish Jews of Zakho: a case of language shift". Hebrew Union College Annual (46): 489–508.
- ISBN 978-3-447-04557-5.
- OCLC 938036352.
- ^ "Microsoft Word - PeshittaNewTestament.doc" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 December 2008. Retrieved 16 November 2008.
- ^ Aramaic Documents of the Fifth Century B. C. by G. R. Driver
- ^ a b The British Survey, By British Society for International Understanding, 1968, page 3
- ISBN 978-90-04-06050-0.
- ^ Kaufman, Stephen A. (1974),The Akkadian influences on Aramaic. University of Chicago Press
- ^ Shaked, Saul (1987). "Aramaic". Encyclopedia Iranica. Vol. 2. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 250–261. p. 251
- JSTOR 2718444. p. 457.
- OCLC 747412055.
- ^ Bird, Isabella, Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, including a summer in the Upper Karun region and a visit to the Nestorian rayahs, London: J. Murray, 1891, vol. ii, pp. 282 and 306
- ISBN 978-90-429-0815-4.
- ^ "Kurdistan: Constitution of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region". Retrieved 14 April 2019.
- ^ Odisho, Edward Y. (2001). „ADM’s educational policy: A serious project of Assyrian language maintenance and revitalization “, Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, Xv/1:3–31.
- ^ The Origin and Development of the Cuneiform System of Writing, Samuel Noah Kramer, Thirty Nine Firsts in Recorded History pp. 381–383
- Helsinki UniversityPress.
- ^ "Syriac alphabet". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
- ^ Pennacchietti, Fabrizio A. (1997). „On the etymology of the Neo-Aramaic particle qam/kim; in Hebrew“, M. Bar-Aher (ed.): Gideon Goldenberg Festschrift, Massorot, Stud
- ^ Higgins, Charlotte (13 October 2009). "When Syrians, Algerians and Iraqis patrolled Hadrian's Wall | Charlotte Higgins". The Guardian.
- ISBN 1-931956-53-7.
- ^ Nestle, Eberhard (1888). Syrische Grammatik mit Litteratur, Chrestomathie und Glossar. Berlin: H. Reuther's Verlagsbuchhandlung. [translated to English as Syriac grammar with bibliography, chrestomathy and glossary, by R. S. Kennedy. London: Williams & Norgate 1889. p. 5].
- ^ Syriac Romanization Table
- ^ Brock 1989, p. 11–23.
- ^ Friedrich, Johannes (1959). "Neusyrisches in Lateinschrift aus der Sowjetunion". Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft (in German) (109): 50–81.
- .
- ^ Hertzron, Robert (1997). The Semitic Languages. Routledge. pp. 348–352.
- ^ a b Khan, Geoffrey (2016). The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of the Assyrian Christians of Urmi. Brill. p. 107.
- ^ a b c d e f Odisho, Edward Y (1988). The Sound System of Modern Assyrian (Neo-Aramaic). Harrassowitz.
- ^ a b Khan, Geoffrey (2008). The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Barwar. Brill. p. 29.
- ^ a b c Khan, Geoffrey (2016). The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of the Assyrian Christians of Urmi. Brill. p. 93.
- ^ a b c Fox, Samuel Ethan (1997). The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Jilu. Harrassowitz. p. 8.
- ^ Mutzafi, Hezy (2004). The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Koy Sanjaq (Iraqi Kurdistan). Harrassowitz.
- ^ Khan, Geoffrey (2008). The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Barwar. Brill. p. 30.
- ^ Khan, Geoffrey (2016). The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of the Assyrian Christians of Urmi. p. 48.
- ISBN 0-415-05767-1.
- ISBN 978-1461021421Includes the Estrangela (pp. 59–113), Madnhaya (pp. 191–206), and the Western Serto (pp. 173–190) scripts.
- ISBN 0-8028-2402-1.
- ISBN 1-55540-430-8.
- ^ Tsereteli, Konstantin G. (1990). „The velar spirant 0 in modern East Aramaic Dialects“, W. Heinrichs (ed.): Studies in Neo-Aramaic (Harvard Semitic Studies 36), Atlanta, 35-42.
- ^ a b c d e Odisho, Edward: The Sound System of Modern Assyrian (Neo-Aramaic) - Weisbaden, Harrassowitz, 1988
- ^ Tsereteli, Konstantin G. (1972). „The Aramaic dialects of Iraq“, Annali dell’Istituto Ori-entale di Napoli 32 (n. s. 22):245-250.
- ^ Kaye, Alan S.; Daniels, Peter T. (1997). Phonologies of Asia and Africa; Volume 2. Eisenbrauns. pp. 127–140.
- ^ Sabar, Yona (2003). "Aramaic, once a great language, now on the verge of extinction," in When Languages Collide: Perspectives on Language Conflict, Language Competition, and Language Coexistence, Joseph, DeStefano, Jacobs, Lehiste, eds. The Ohio State University Press.
- ISBN 3-525-53573-2.
- ^ Sara (1974).
- ^ The Debate on Ergativity in Neo-Aramaic EDIT DORON & GEOFFREY KHAN (2010). The Hebrew University of Jerusalem & University of Cambridge
- ^ 8 Cf. M. Tomal, Studies in Neo-Aramaic Tenses, Kraków 2008, pp. 108 and 120.
- ^ Goldenberg, G. 2002 'Early Neo-Aramaic and Present-day dialectal diversity'. Journal of Semitic Studies XLV: 69-89.
- ^ Zwicky, Arnold M. "Clitics and Particles." Language 61.2 (1985): 283–305. Print.
- ^ a b Solomon, Zomaya S. (1994). Basic sentence structure in Assyrian Aramaic, Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, VIII/1:83–107
- ^ Fox, S. E., 1997, The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Jilu, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz
- ^ Solomon, Zomaya S. (1997). Functional and other exotic sentences in Assyrian Aramaic, Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, XI/2:44–69.
- ISBN 0-340-76026-5.
- ^ Comrie, Bernard, Tense, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1985.
- The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities1969, pp. 132–151
- ^ Cf. M. Tomal, Studies in Neo-Aramaic Tenses, Kraków 2008, pp. 108 and 120.
- ^ E. McCarus, op. cit., p. 619, Kapeliuk gives further examples, see O. Kapeliuk, The gerund and gerundial participle in Eastern Neo-Aramaic, in: "Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung" 1996, Vol. 51, p. 286.
- ^ O. Kapeliuk, Is Modern Hebrew the Only "Indo-Europeanized" Semitic Language? And What About Neo-Aramaic?, "Israel Oriental Studies" 1996, Vol. 16, pp. 59–70
- ^ M. Chyet, Neo Aramaic and Kurdish. An Interdisciplinary Consideration of their Influence on Each Other, "Israel Oriental Studies" 1997, Vol. 15, pp. 219–252.
- ^ Cf. G. Khan, Ergativity in North Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects in: Alter Orient und Altes Testament. Studies in Semitics and General Linguistics Honor of Gideon Goldenberg, (334) 2007, pp. 147–157.
- ^ Ura, Hiroyuki. 2006. A Parametric Syntax of Aspectually Conditioned Split-ergativity. In Alana Johns, Diane Massam, and Juvenal Ndayiragije (eds.) Ergativity: Emerging issues. Dordrecht: Springer. 111-141.
- ^ A. Mengozzi, Neo-Aramaic and the So-called Decay of Ergativity in Kurdish, in: Proceedings of the 10th Meeting of Hamito-Semitic (Afroasiatic) Linguistics (Florence, 18–20 April 2005), Dipartamento di Linguistica Università di Firenze 2005, pp. 239–256.
- ^ W. Thackston, op. cit. and E. McCarus, Kurdish Morphology, in: A. Kaye (ed.) Morphologies of Asia and Africa (Including the Caucasus)
- ^ Nash, Lea. 1996. The Internal Ergative Subject Hypothesis. Proceedings of NELS 26: 195–210.
- ^ Alexiadou, Artemis. 2001. Functional Structure in Nominals: Nominalization and Ergativity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- ^ Hoberman, Robert. 1989. The Syntax and Semantics of Verb Morphology in Modern Aramaic: A Jewish Dialect of Iraqi Kurdistan. New Haven: American Oriental Society.
- ^ Sureth dictionary by Association Assyrophile de France
- ^ Younansardaroud, Helen, Synharmonism in the Särdä:rïd Dialect, Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 12:1 (1998): 77–82.
- ^ Samuel A.B. Mercer, "Assyrian Grammar with Chrestomathy and Glossary" Frederick Ungar Publishing, New York, 1961
- ^ a b Perkins, Justin (1843). A residence of eight years in Persia among the Nestorian Christians. New York. p. 304.
- ^ Wilmshurst, David (2000). The ecclesiastical organisation of the Church of the East, 1318–1913. Leuven: Peeters Publishers. p. 278.
- ^ Odisho, Edward, 1988
- ^ Yildiz 2000a, p. 42.
- ^ a b Beth-Zay‘ā, Esha‘yā Shamāshā Dāwīd, Tash‘īthā d-Beth-Nahreyn, Tehran: Assyrian Youth Cultural Society Press, 1963, p. 895
- ^ Brock 1996.
- ^ Sebastian P. Brock, Aaron Michael Butts, George Anton Kiraz & Lucas Van Rompay (eds.), Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage, Piscataway (NJ), Gorgias Press, 2011
- ^ William Wright: A Short History of Syriac Literature, 1894, 1974 (reprint)
- ^ Brock 1992.
- ^ Brock 2006.
Sources
- Beyer, Klaus (1986). The Aramaic Language: Its Distribution and Subdivisions. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 9783525535738.
- Brock, Sebastian P. (1989). "Three Thousand Years of Aramaic Literature". ARAM Periodical. 1 (1): 11–23.
- ISBN 9780860783053.
- Brock, Sebastian P. (1996). Syriac Studies: A Classified Bibliography, 1960-1990. Kaslik: Parole de l'Orient.
- ISBN 9780754659082.
- ISBN 9781555404307.
- Remarks on the Historical Background of the Modern Assyrian Language, Geoffrey Khan, University of Cambridge
- Maclean, Arthur John(1895). Grammar of the dialects of vernacular Syriac: as spoken by the Eastern Syrians of Kurdistan, north-west Persia, and the Plain of Mosul: with notices of the vernacular of the Jews of Azerbaijan and of Zakhu near Mosul. Cambridge University Press, London.
- Yildiz, Efrem (1999). "The Assyrians: A Historical and Current Reality". Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies. 13 (1): 15–30.
- Yildiz, Efrem (2000a). "The Aramaic Language and Its Classification". Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies. 14 (1): 23–44.
- Yildiz, Efrem (2000b). "Los Asirio-Caldeos, Cristianos orientales arameoparlantes" (PDF). Dialogo Ecumenico. 35 (112): 263–282.
- Yildiz, Efrem (2012). "The Assyrian Linguistic Heritage and its Survival in Diaspora". The Assyrian Heritage: Threads of Continuity and Influence. Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet. pp. 201–220.