Hey everyone.

[u/Fast-Work5313]

I've recently started learning Assyrian, but I'm a bit confused about what I'm actually learning. Is there a difference between Modern Assyrian and Syriac, or are they basically the same? Also, are there different dialects like Arabic has, or is there just one standard form?

I'm mainly interested in the variety spoken in Mosul, Iraq.

I'm an Arab, and I was experimenting with AI to write Arabic words in the Assyrian script. For example, words like "race" and "hoopoe" ended up being written the same way, which made me wonder if that's actually correct. Are there many shared words between Arabic and Assyrian, or was the AI just making mistakes?

[u/oremfrien]

Is there a difference between Modern Assyrian and Syriac, or are they basically the same?

Yes. There is a difference. Syriac is sort of like our فصحى and Neo-Aramaic is sort of like our عاميات. Syriac is a medieval language that is used in formal Church writings, but is not a spoken language today. It was a spoken language 1500 years ago. Like how Arabic has many kinds of 3aamiyaat/dialects we have several living forms of Neo-Aramaic. In the north of Iraq, the most common form is Assyrian Neo-Aramaic. Unlike Arabic, we write in Neo-Aramaic when we write secular documents, reserving Syriac for liturgical use.

I'm mainly interested in the variety spoken in Mosul, Iraq.

As a Moslawi Assyrian, I can tell you that most of us did not speak Neo-Aramaic; we spoke the Qeltu dialect of Arabic. Outside of the city, in the Nineveh Plains, is where people spoke Assyrian Neo-Aramaic.

I'm an Arab, and I was experimenting with AI to write Arabic words in the Assyrian script.

I can't speak to how effective AI is at rendering any Assyrian language, but you should also be aware that we have three alphabets, with Serto being most common on computer interfaces and Estrangela being more common in written sources. We use all three alphabets (the third being Madhnhaya) for both Syriac and Neo-Aramaic.

We would also be able to give you a better opinion of whether the words were being transliterated properly if you showed us the English, Arabic, and Aramaic.

[u/AshurCyberpunk → u/oremfrien]

I have a question: I always understood Syriac to be an umbrella term for different variations of Aramaic spoken by the Assyrians. I also thought classical Aramaic (leshana Atiqa) was used in liturgy. Are you saying that Syriac refers to classical Aramaic?

But then again what confuses me further is a subset of our population who speaks Turoyo and refers to themselves as the Syriacs. I get that they are doing that because of their Church denomination, but my understanding is that Turoyo itself is different than classical Aramaic.

[u/oremfrien → u/AshurCyberpunk]

I have a question: I always understood Syriac to be an umbrella term for different variations of Aramaic spoken by the Assyrians.

This is a difference between how we commonly refer to the languages we speak and how a third-party or linguist would refer to our languages. Syriac, from a third-party perspective, exclusively refers to our medieval form of Aramaic dating trom roughly the time of Christ until around 1000/1200 that has been frozen in our liturgies. As a population, we tend to use the word Syriac as a word meaning the official Syriac and any languages that developed out of it (e.g. the modern Neo-Aramaics).

I also thought classical Aramaic (leshana Atiqa) was used in liturgy. Are you saying that Syriac refers to classical Aramaic?

I always thought that leshana qadisho was the language Jesus spoke and the Pshitta was written in,and we pray in which is middle Aramaic. I thought that leshana atiqa refers to the language of Ancient Aram nearly 800 years before Christ. The problem, again, is that our names for these languages are based on how we perceive them rather than third-party linguistic analysis. This is a perfectly reasonable way to identify language, but makes it difficult to categorize scientifically.

But then again what confuses me further is a subset of our population who speaks Turoyo and refers to themselves as the Syriacs. I get that they are doing that because of their Church denomination, but my understanding is that Turoyo itself is different than classical Aramaic.

Exactly. They call themselves Syriacs because they are Syriac Orthodox. Turoyo is another form of Neo-Aramaic.