Saim wrote:Syriac is the liturgical language used in Syriac churches (for prayer, rituals, etc.). Followers of Syriac Christianity have different native languages depending on where they live: namely Arabic, various Neo-Aramaic varieties or Malayalam.
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic is one of the vernacular Aramic languages, spoken natively by Assyrians in Northern Iraq, whereas Chaldean Neo-Aramaic is spoken by Assyrians in northern Iraq and Iran. Turoyo is historically spoken in Turkey and northeastern Syria. These are all varieties of Eastern Neo-Aramaic spoken by ethnic Assyrians, whereas Western Neo-Aramaic are limited to a couple of villages in southwestern Syria.
If you want to study some form of Syriac/Aramaic you need to know what your purposes are before choosing which variety to learn. Is it for religious/theological study reasons or do you want to get to know modern Assyrian culture?
księżycowy wrote:'Aramaic' also traces back to the Neo-Babylonain empire, and to Biblical texts such as the book of Daniel.
The terminology can be a bit confusing. But ultimately, do you want to learn to Speak a form of Syriac/Neo-Aramaic, or to read classical literature in it is the ultimate question.
If you want to learn to speak "Aramaic" or "Syriac", you're looking to learn a Neo-Aramaic dialect. But I suspect your interest is in the fact it is just a Semitic language. You're a native speaker of Amharic, right?
The biggest issue is in having resources to learn from. There is little for Neo-Aramaic. Syriac (as in the liturgical/classical language) has a few good books, and there are enough for Biblical Aramaic.
My suggestion at this point is see what your main reason(s) are for learning the language are, as Saim hinted at, and then go from there. It will help clear things up a bit. And if there isn't a major reason aside from curiosity (which is a valid reason), I recommend going with what have the most resources, which in my humble opinion would be either Biblical Aramaic, or Syriac.
And of course, don't be afraid to ask us more questions if you have any.
dawit20 wrote:IAnd thanks for the tips. I'm aware that classical Syriac has quite a lot of resources in-fact. I wouldn't mind learning Classical Syriac, but I'd love to know how similar it is with its descendants such as Chaldean and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic.
I'm confused as to which language this news channel for Syriac also speaks- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GukHoQ3VX_w
dawit20 wrote:Saim wrote:I just wanted to know which is the actually one people study when they say they are learning 'Aramaic' or 'Syriac' and which one there are more resources for. Assyrian and Chaldean Neo-Aramaic seem to have more speakers than Turoyo/Suryoyo, but Suryoyo has a news broadcast on YouTube and various other resources. So I don't know which one to actually learn.
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