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Sureth
Page by Jean Sibille, 2009.
Data on the Sureth language
Alternative names:
– in French: néo-araméen du Nord-Est.
– in English: North Eastern Neo-Aramaic, NENA, Assyrian Aramaic, Modern Assyrian (sic).
– in Sureth: lišana swadaya, lišana suraya, lišana atoraya.
– in Jewish communities: (Jews don’t use the term Sureth because it can also mean “Christian”): youdet, lišana deni, lišan didan, lišana d-nošan.
Classification: African-Asian family, Semitic languages, North-West Semitic, Western Aramaic
Area:
- “Ancestral” territories
Historically, Sureth is (or was) spoken in Christian villages or within Jewish communities, amongst territories where other languages prevail (Kurdish, Azeri, Arabic…):
– Turkish Kurdistan, south of Lake Van and east of Siirt and Cizre: All the Aramaic-speaking villages in these regions have been abandoned, most of them in 1915, during the 1980’s for eight of them located near the Iraqi border, in an area that the English wanted to belong to Iraq but was eventually given to Turkey in 1924. Sureth speakers would nevertheless remain in Turkey, in the area of the Hakkâri mountains.
– Iraqi Kurdistan: before the Kurd uprising in the seventies, there were about 4,000 Kurd villages and 200 Aramaic-speaking Christian villages in the area. Most of the Christian villages were then abandoned or evacuated and their populations have gathered in the surrounding cities or have moved to Bagdad or Mosul. This region currently appears as a relatively calm area, even as a shelter, compared to the tragic situation occurring in Mosul and Bagdad, so much so that communities are strengthening and people are moving back to the villages. Within three or four years, the population of the city of Ainkawa (mostly Aramaic-speaking) near Erbil has grown from 10,000 to 20,000 inhabitants.
– Plain of Mosul (Iraq): Near Kurd, Arab, Turkmen, “Shabak” (Persian) villages, the area has a certain amount of Aramaic-speaking villages with several thousand residents (Alqosh, Qaraqosh, Tell Keyf…). On the other hand, most Christians from the very town of Mosul are Arabic-speaking (as are most Christians in Bagdad).
– Iranian Azerbaijan and Kurdistan (regions of Salmas, Urmia, Sanandadj): many villages have been harshly struck by the flight from the countryside from the 50’s to the 70’s, so much so that a large part of Aramaic-speaking populations from the area has moved abroad or now lives in Tehran.
- Georgia and Armenia
A few villages founded back during the 19th century.
- Establishment in Khabur, Syria
In the 1930’s, about 30 villages were founded in the area of Khabur in Syria – then under French domination – by refugees belonging to Nestorian tribes who flew from Hakkari (Turkey) in 1915).
- Jewish communities
Today, most Aramaic-speaking Jews live in Israel. Historically, Aramaic-speaking Jewish communities existed in Iraqi Kurdistan and Iranian Azerbaijan. There are currently no Aramaic-speaking Jews left in Iraq, almost all Iraqi Jews moved to Israel between 1945 and 1952. The migration of Iranian Jews was not as massive and was more spread out over time. Jewish communities remain in the country but no one knows how many of them speak Aramaic (most of them have Persian for mother tongue).
- The diaspora
The United States have been a major Aramaic migration centre since the beginning of the 20th century. There are compact communities in Chicago and California. Communities also exist in Lebanon, Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Australia… There has been a mass migration to France of the population of Turkish villages abandoned during the 1980’s, who have settled in Sarcelles (North-East of Paris) and in surrounding cities (St-Brice, Villiers-le-Bel, Arnouville, Garges-les-Gonesse).
Number of speakers:
There are no truly reliable figures. The amount often announced is approximately 500,000.
Before the first Gulf War, they were spread out as follows:
– Iraq: 350,000 to 400,000 of more than 1,200,000 Christians. It should be underlined that most of those who don’t speak Sureth (essentially urban population) claim it as an ethnic or communitarian language.
– Iran: approximately 20,000
– Khabur, Syria: 20,000 to 30,000
– The rest in the diaspora
This division was disrupted following the events which occurred in Iraq since the beginning of the 1990’s. There currently would be less than 600,000 Christians, Arabic- and Aramaic speakers included. In France, the number of speakers is estimated at approximatively 18,000, half of them in Sarcelles and surrounding cities.
According to available sources, the number of Aramaic-speaking Jews would have reach more than 20,000 to 30,000 people during modern times, which represents a relatively low proportion of Iraqi or Iranian Jews, most of them having Arabic or Persian as mother tongue. Nowadays, this figure probably is lower, given migration to Israel, leading to the end of language transmittal.
Status of the language:
No status in Turkey, Syria or Iran. Teaching Sureth is however permitted in Iran, but forbidden in Turkey.
Since 1972 in Iraq, Sureth speakers have been recognized as a national minority under the name of an-nâtiqun bil-suryaniya (literally “those who speak Sureth) and teaching the language is permitted.
Vitality and transmission:
Sureth is listed as an “endangered” language in Iraq by the UNESCO.
Media and teaching:
Newspapers
Periodical magazines and reviews: essentially in Iraq and the United States. No daily.
Radio
Radio stations or broadcasts on stations speaking mostly another language: in Iraq and the diaspora.
Television
One TV channel in Iraqi Kurdistan, several TV channels in the United States, broadcasted via satellite.
In Sweden, a channel of the Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac community, SouroyoTV, broadcasts programs in Sureth and Turoyo.
Cinema
Several fictions made in the United States, Australia, Armenia. A few educational films and reports.
Music
Sureth music is flourishing, CDs regularly come out in the United States, in Australia and Europe.
Teaching
- In the language
From the middle of the 19th century to the first World War, Sureth was used as teaching language along with English and French in primary and secondary schools depending on the Anglican and Vincentian Presbyterian missions of Urmia or the mission of French Dominicans of Mosul. Sureth is currently the language used for teaching in a few Christian primary and secondary schools, located in the independent Iraqi Kurdistan.
In the Chaldean parishes of the diaspora, religious education (catechism) and Syriac writing classes are sometimes taught in Sureth.
- Of the language
A few teaching experiences along with the editing of educational material were tested in Iran during the sixties and seventies. There are currently no data on the situation of the country. Since 1973, Sureth has been taught in Iraq but the courses have always been quantitatively marginal. Sureth is currently being taught in Christian schools in the Kurd area. At the international high school of Dehok (Iraqi Kurdistan), Kurd students are learning Sureth and Aramaic-speaking students are learning Kurdish. In Syria, Sureth and Syriac are taught by priests and deacons in Assyrian parishes in the Khabur area. There is no current data on a prospective teaching of the language in the Syrian educational system.
In the diaspora: Sureth courses are given within organisations or parishes.
In 2006/2007, an Sureth initiation course was inaugurated in Paris at the INALCO (National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilisations).
Religion:
In Iraq, with catholic Chaldeans (mostly Iraqi Christians), in big cities such as Mosul or Bagdad, church services are often given in Arabic. In villages and small towns on the other hand, liturgy takes place in Syriac or Sureth, readings and sermons in Sureth. In the independent Kurd area, the use of Sureth for liturgy tends to develop at the expense of Syriac. Assyrians (Nestorians) celebrate liturgy in Syriac exclusively.
At least since the 16th century, Jews from Iraq and Iran followed the tradition of written targums (translations of the Bible) and midrashes (method of biblical exegesis) in Neo-Aramaic of the North-East. Oral targums also existed, memorised by rabbis.
Use of the language
In ancestral territories and Khabur villages, Sureth is usually spoken on a daily basis.
The occasional use of the language may be found especially within the diaspora, among the young generations or by people from older migration generations.
Main languages in ancestral territories:
Turkish Kurdistan: Kurdish, Turkish
Iraqi Kurdistan: Kurdish
Plain of Mosul: Arabic, Kurdish
Iranian Azerbaijan: Azeri, Persian
Historical observations
Aramaic and origin of Sureth
- Aramaic and Syriac
The first written proof of Aramaic dates back to the first millennium before the Christian era. Beginning 7th century before our era, Aramaic became the administrative language of the Neo-Assyrian empire, than of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian empires, before it became the lingua franca in the whole Near and Middle-East. During the Antiquity, there was a eastern branch (Mesopotamia) and a western branch (Palestine, Lebanon, Western Syria). Lapidary inscriptions and texts (Aramaic extract from the Bible, Palestinian Targum, Babylonian Targum, Qumran manuscripts, Talmud…) testify to many dialects.
In the beginning of the Christian era, Syriac, which would be the Aramaic dialect of Edessa (now Ourfa or Urfa in Turkey) became the classic languages of Western Christians. Syriac literature remained active until the 13th century. Syriac then became more confined to religious usage.
- Origin of Sureth
It appears Sureth comes from Babylonian Aramaic. Indeed, no modern form of Aramaic stems directly from Syriac, although Syriac did influence Sureth on some level, especially in the field of religious and intellectual vocabulary.
During modern times, Syriac was often used to create new words.
Sureth is the only modern form of Aramaic in which books and periodicals regularly come out and significant literature was produced.
Historical proofs of Sureth
The oldest texts known in Neo-Aramais of the North-East are Jewish texts (midrashim) of the 16th century. The first Christian texts appeared in the 17th century. Most of them were religious or narrative poetry. Literature and written use of Sureth started to develop in the 1850’s thanks to Catholic and Protestant missions.
The first printed texts appeared in the middle of the 19th century, as well as the first periodical publication. In the 20th century, there were also translations of Syriac literature classics. However, the major part of Sureth-speakers is still illiterate in their mother tongue.
Linguistic observations
Internal variations
There is (or at least there were) many village dialects, Christian or Jewish, which are difficult to regroup under wider sub-categories. The attempts to do so may be discussed since we’re dealing with a dialectic continuum. In the same town, Jewish dialect usually differ from Christian dialect. Relatively negligible on the west side, those differences increase progressively while going East, to the point of mutual understanding becoming a real problem.
Writing and spelling in Sureth
The alphabet usually used for Sureth is the Oriental Syriac alphabet (and Estranghelo for capital letters). Jewish communities used the Hebrew alphabet. A few isolated attempts at transcribing Sureth into Latin alphabet were made.
The usual spelling of Sureth is inspired by Syriac (classic language of Middle-East Christians). It stabilized in the 19th century under the influence of European and American missions. It is therefore an historical spelling including etymological letters which are not always uttered. There are a few differences between the simpler Iraqi and the more etymological Iranian use of the language (prevailing in the United States).
In scientific reviews, phonological transcriptions into Latin characters are usually used.
Standardization in Sureth
There are no unique standards. However, written Sureth answers to standards which do not reflect a vernacular language. There are:
– Literary Sureth in the region of Urmia (Iran) essentially used by Nestorians (or Assyrians) as well as Catholics (or Chaldeans) of the region. Most texts printed since the 19th century have been issued in this form.
– A form of written Sureth used since the 19th century by Chaldeans of Iraq, based on dialects from the plain of Mosul and the surroundings of Dehok.
– an Iraqi Koine, close to the previous variety but which includes a few features from mountain dialects. It was created in the 1970’s for the purpose of education.
Bibliography
Language
Awde (Nicholas), Lamassu (Nineb) & Al-Jeloo (Nicholas) Modern Aramaic (Assyrian / Syriac). Dictionary and phrasebook, Hippocrene Books INC, New York 2007, 304 p. [Sureth-English, Turoyo-English, English-Sureth-Turoyo glossaries + English-Sureth-Turoyo (Latine transcription) phrasebook. Quite basic book. The system of transcribing into Latin characters isn’t very good for vowels]
David (Rev. Samuel), The first English-Chaldean dictionary, Chicago, 1924, 423 p. (followed by a 140 page Chaldean-English glossary) [reprint http://www.lulu.com/atourpub or www.assyrianmarket.com )
Maclean (Arthur John), Dictionary of the dialects of vernacular Syriac, Oxford 1901, 334 p. [reprint : Gorgias Pres, 2003 www.gorgiaspress.com and Atourpub http://www.lulu.com/atourpub]
Maclean (Arthur John), Grammar of the dialects of vernacular Syriac, Oxford 1895, 364 p. [reprint : Gorgias Pres, 2003 www.gorgiaspress.com and Atourpub http://www.lulu.com/atourpub]
Poizat (Bruno) Manuel de soureth. Initiation à l’araméen d’aujourd’hui parlé et écrit, Geuthner, Paris, 2008, 320 p.
RhÉtorÉ (Jacques), Grammaire de la langue soureth ou chaldéen vulgaire, selon le dialecte de la plaine de Mossoul et des pays adjacents, Imprimerie des pères dominicains, Mossoul, 1912, 276 p. [reprint http://www.lulu.com/atourpub ]
Oraham (Alexander J.), Oraham’s dictionary of the stabilized and enriched assyrian language and english, Consolidated Press, Chicago, 1943. [reprint www.assyrianmarket.com]
Sabar (Yona), A Jewish Neo-aramaic dictionary, Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2002, 338 p. [headwords in Hebrew characters + transcription in Latin characters + translation into English ; based on the dialect of Jews from Zakho ; http://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de ]
History, Culture
Alichoran (Joseph) « Du génocide à la diaspora : les Assyro-Chaldéens au XXe siècle », Istina, n°4, octobre-décembre 1994 [tiré à part, 1995, 40 p.]
Alichoran (Joseph) « Irak, un peuple sous embargo », Histoire du christianisme magazine, N°9, mars 2002, pp.30-35.
Alichoran (Joseph) « Drame des chrétiens d’Iraq, d’hier à nos jours », published in 2010 in the Revue du monde arménien moderne et contemporain.
Bohas (Georges) Les Araméens du bout du monde, la mémoire des chrétiens d’Orient, coll. Monde Arabe, Éd. Universitaires du Sud, Toulouse 1994, 183 p. + 25 planches h. t.
Bohas (Georges) & Hellot-Bellet (Florence), Les Assyriens du Hakkari au Khabour : mémoire et histoire, Geuthner, Paris, 2008.
Courtois (Sébastien de –) Le génocide oublié. Chrétiens d’Orient, les derniers araméens, Ellipses, Paris, 2002, 300 p.
Le Coz (Raymond) Histoire de l’Eglise d’Orient. Chrétiens d’Irak, d’Iran et de Turquie, Editions du Cerf, Paris, 1995.
Rhétoré (Jacques) Les Chrétiens aux bêtes, étude et présentation par Joseph Alichoran, Editions du Cerf, Paris 2005, 398 p.
Weibel-Yacoub (Claire) Surma l’Assyro-Chaldéenne (1883-1975). Dans la tourmente de la Mésopothamie, L’Harmattan, Paris 2007, 278 p.
Yakoub (Joseph), Les Assyro-Chaldéens, Nation, Église, Identité, coffret de 5 livrets : « Plus de 5000 ans d’histoire » (60 p.), « Un peuple aujourd’hui » (72 p.), « La pensée religieuse de l’Église de l’Orient » (60 p.), « Un patrimoine riche et varié » (72 p.), « Architecture et liturgie de l’Église de l’Orient » (60 p.), Thierry Quinqueton éditeur, Domont (95), 2000.
Yousif (Ephrem-Isa) Une chronique mésopotamienne (1830-1976), L’Harmattan, Paris 2004, 242 p.
Download the complete bibliography here (PDF)
Liens
In French
http://www.mission-chaldeenne.org
In English
http://nena.ames.cam.ac.uk:16080/index-new.php
http://www.ankawa.com/english/
http://www.assyrianlanguage.com
Audio documents in Sureth
http://www.semarch.uni-hd.de/dokumentgruppen.php4?ST_ID=5
http://nena.ames.cam.ac.uk/dialects
Sureth/English/French dictionary
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Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have more information on this language: contact@sorosoro.org