1 Classification

Syriac is a member of the Afro-Asiatic language family, the Semitic language sub-family, the West Semitic language branch, and the Aramaic language group.

Syriac is written in the Syriac alphabet.

2 Geographic distribution

Syriac was originally a local Aramaic dialect in northern Mesopotamia. Before Arabic became the dominant language, Syriac was a major language among Christian communities in the Middle East, Central Asia and southern India. It is now spoken as a first language in small, scattered communities in Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Azerbaijan. These communities have, over the years, settled throughout the Middle East, Europe, North and South America, and Australia.

3 History

The history of Syriac can be divided into three distinct periods:

• Old Syriac (the language of the kingdom of Osrhoene),
• Middle Syriac (Kthâbânâyâ: Literary Syriac), which divided into:
  • Western Middle Syriac (the literary and ecclesiastical language of Syriac and Maronite Christians),
  • Eastern Middle Syriac (the literary and ecclesiastical language of Chaldean and Assyrian Christians),
• Modern Syriac (a Modern Eastern Aramaic language), which remains divided:
  • Modern Western Syriac (Turoyo: the language of Tur Abdin),
  • Modern Eastern Syriac.

3.1 Origins

Syriac began as an unwritten spoken dialect of Old Aramaic in northern Mesopotamia. The first evidence we have of such dialects is their influence on the written Imperial Aramaic from the fifth century BC. After the conquests of Syria and Mesopotamia by Alexander the Great, Syriac and other Aramaic dialects became written languages in a reaction to Hellenism. Old Syriac orthography is drawn from Arsacid Aramaic. In 132 BC, the kingdom of Osrhoene was founded in Edessa with Syriac as its official language. Syriac-speakers still look to Edessa as the cradle of their language. There are about eighty extant Old Syriac inscriptions, dated to the first three centuries AD (the earliest example of Syriac, rather than Imperial Aramaic, is in an inscription dated to AD 6, and the earliest parchment is a deed of sale dated to AD 243). All of these early examples of the language are non-Christian. As an official language, Old Syriac was given a relatively coherent form, style and grammar that is lacking in other Old Eastern Aramaic dialects.

3.2 Literary Syriac

In the third century, churches in Edessa began to use Syriac as the language of worship. There is evidence that the adoption of Syriac, the language of the people, was to effect mission. Much literary effort was put into the production of a authoritative translation of the Bible into Syriac (the Pšittâ or Peshitta). At the same time, St Ephrem was producing the most treasured collection of poetry and theology in the Syriac language.

The sixth beatitude (Matthew 5:8) from an East Syriac Peshitta.
Tuvayhon l'aylên dadkên blebhon: dhenon nehzon l'alâhâ.
'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.'

In 489, many Syriac-speaking Christians living in the Roman Empire fled to Persia to escape persecution and growing animosity with Greek-speaking Christians. The dubbing of the Persian church as ' Nestorian' heretics by the West led to a bitter division in the Syriac-speaking world. Thus, Syriac developed separate western and eastern literary languages, with distinct pronunciation, scripts and grammar.

Western Middle Syriac is the official language of the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Syrian Catholic Church, the Maronite Church, the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, the Mar Thoma Church and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church.

Eastern Middle Syriac is the liturgical language of the Assyrian Church of the East, the Chaldean Catholic Church and the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.

Syriac literature is by far the most prodigious of the various Aramaic languages. Its corpus covers poetry, prose, theology, liturgy, hymnody, history, philosophy, science, medicine and natural history. Much this wealth remains unavailable in critical editions or modern translation.

From the seventh century onwards, Syriac gave way to Arabic as the spoken language of the region. The Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century led to the rapid decline of the language. In many places, even in liturgy, it was replaced by Arabic. Revivals of Syriac in recent times have led to some success. Among the Syriac churches of Kerala, Malayalam often replaces Syriac.

3.3 Modern Syriac vernaculars

Syriac is still spoken by small, isolated groups throughout the Middle East. Modern Western Syriac is often called Turoyo, the language of Tur Abdin in eastern Turkey. Due the upheavals in that region over the last two centuries, many speakers of Turoyo can be found living in al-Jazira region of north-eastern Syria, or in Europe or North America.

Modern Eastern Syriac consists of a diverse group of dialects spoken by Assyrian and Chaldean Christians, and some Jewish communities (who call their language Targumic) living in north-eastern Iraq, north-western Iran and southern Azerbaijan.

Contrary to popular belief, the 'Aramaic' language spoken in the Ma'lula area of the Anti-Lebanon mountains in Syria is not Syriac, but an isolated dialect of Modern Western Aramaic.

4 Appendices

4.1 Related Topics

• Syriac alphabet.
• Aramaic language.
• Peshitta.
• Ephraim the Syrian.

4.2 References

• Beyer, Klaus (1986). The Aramaic language: its distribution and subdivisions. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. BooksEnthsiast.com.
• Healey, John F (1980). First studies in Syriac. University of Birmingham/Sheffield Academic Press. BooksEnthsiast.com.
• Maclean, Arthur John (2003). 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. Gorgias Press. BooksEnthsiast.com.
• Payne Smith, Jessie (Ed.) (1903). A compendious Syriac dictionary founded upon the Thesaurus Syriacus of R Payne Smith. Oxford University Press, reprinted in 1998 by Eisenbraums. BooksEnthsiast.com.
• Robinson, Theodore Henry (1915). Paradigms and exercises in Syriac grammar. Oxford University Press. BooksEnthsiast.com.

4.3 External links

• Beth Mardutho - The Syriac Institute
• Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies
• Ethnologue report on Syriac

Aramaic languages Semitic languages Afro-Asiatic languages Late Antiquity Languages of Turkey

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