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+--- Thread: Syriac Aramaic and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (/showthread.php?tid=2933)
Syriac Aramaic and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic - ScorpioSniper2 - 10-21-2012
How similar are they? I know most Assyrians are bilingual and can speak both. If you can learn Assyrian could you learn Syriac quite easily?
Re: Syriac Aramaic and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic - Paul Younan - 10-22-2012
ScorpioSniper2 Wrote:How similar are they? I know most Assyrians are bilingual and can speak both. If you can learn Assyrian could you learn Syriac quite easily?
Hi SS,
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic is a broad umbrella of many distinct modern dialects, based mostly on tribal affiliation.
It is a Mesopotamian grouping - meaning it contains traces of Sumerian, Akkadian, Syriac, Persian, Arabic and even Kurdish words. All of these languages were at one time, or today, influential in Mesopotamia. Languages form a continuum like that over time.
It's relation to Syriac Aramaic is like the relationship of American English to Shakespearean English. If you know either one, it is possible with study and practice to master the other one.
See this link for an English example that somewhat approximates how different they are.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://nfs.sparknotes.com/shrew/page_2.html">http://nfs.sparknotes.com/shrew/page_2.html</a><!-- m -->
This is from the introduction to Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, with the original English to the modern Neo-English (American) side by side.
+Shamasha
Re: Syriac Aramaic and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic - ScorpioSniper2 - 10-22-2012
Thanks, Brother. I appreciate your help! I'm also glad that you recently put up the 16th chapter of Acts!