page_title: Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
hierarchical_section_title: Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
caption_attribution_description: English: Suret in the Madnkhaya script ܐܪܡܝܐ&#160;: ܣܘܪܝܬ ܓܘ ܟܬܘܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܝܐ
context_page_description: Assyrian Neo-Aramaic or simply Assyrian, also known as Syriac, Eastern Syriac and Neo-Syriac, is an Aramaic language within the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family that is spoken by the Assyrian people. The various Assyrian dialects descend from Old Aramaic, the lingua franca in the later phase of the Assyrian Empire, which slowly displaced the East Semitic Akkadian language beginning around the 10th century BC. They have been further heavily influenced by Classical Syriac, the Middle Aramaic dialect of Edessa, after its adoption as an official liturgical language of the Syriac churches.
  Assyrian-speakers are native to Upper Mesopotamia, Iranian Azerbaijan, southeastern Anatolia and the northeastern Levant, which is a large region stretching from the plain of Urmia in northwestern Iran through to the Erbil, Kirkuk and Duhok regions in northern Iraq, together with the northern regions of Syria and to southcentral and southeastern Turkey. Instability throughout the Middle East over the past century has led to a worldwide diaspora of Assyrian speakers, with most speakers now living abroad in such places as North and South America, Australia, Europe and Russia.
context_section_description: Assyrian Neo-Aramaic or simply Assyrian (ܣܘܪܝܬ or ܣܘܪܬ Sūreṯ), also known as Syriac, Eastern Syriac and Neo-Syriac, is an Aramaic language within the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family that is spoken by the Assyrian people. The various Assyrian dialects descend from Old Aramaic, the lingua franca in the later phase of the Assyrian Empire, which slowly displaced the East Semitic Akkadian language beginning around the 10th century BC. They have been further heavily influenced by Classical Syriac, the Middle Aramaic dialect of Edessa, after its adoption as an official liturgical language of the Syriac churches.
  Assyrian-speakers are native to Upper Mesopotamia, Iranian Azerbaijan, southeastern Anatolia and the northeastern Levant, which is a large region stretching from the plain of Urmia in northwestern Iran through to the Erbil, Kirkuk and Duhok regions in northern Iraq, together with the northern regions of Syria and to southcentral and southeastern Turkey. Instability throughout the Middle East over the past century has led to a worldwide diaspora of Assyrian speakers, with most speakers now living abroad in such places as North and South America, Australia, Europe and Russia. Speakers of Assyrian and Turoyo are ethnic Assyrians and are the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia.
  Chaldean is not considered its own independent language from Assyrian; rather, the separation of the two is a designation created by SIL on non-linguistic grounds, rendering 'Chaldean' and 'Assyrian' as dialects of 'Suret'. Assyrian is the largest extant Syrian-Aramaic language (828,930 speakers), with Turoyo (103,300 speakers) making up most of the remaining Syrian-Aramaic speakers. Both however, evolved from Middle Syrian-Aramaic which was, along with Latin and Greek, one of "the three most important Christian languages in the early centuries" of the Common Era. Assyrian Aramaic is to a moderate degree, intelligible with Senaya, Lishana Deni, Bohtan Neo-Aramaic which are at times, also considered to be dialects of Assyrian. A similar circumstance exists with Lishan Didan, Hulaulá and Lishanid Noshan. Its mutual intelligibility with Turoyo is partial and asymmetrical, but more significant in written form.
  Assyrian is a moderately-inflected, fusional language with a two-gender noun system and rather flexible word order. There is some Akkadian influence on the language. 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. Assyrian is written from right-to-left and it uses the Madnḥāyā version of the Syriac alphabet. Assyrian, 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.
caption: Sūreṯ written in Syriac 
  (Madnḥaya script)
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