Pronunciation [kalˈdɑjɑ], [sorɛθ] Native speakers 200,000 (1994) | Native to Iraq, Iran, Turkey | |
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Region Iraq; Mosul, Ninawa, now also Baghdad and Basra. Language family Afro-Asiatic
Semitic
Central Semitic
Northwest Semitic
Aramaic
Eastern Aramaic
Northeastern
Chaldean Neo-Aramaic Writing system Syriac (Madenhaya alphabet) | ||
Chaldean Neo-Aramaic is a Northeastern Neo-Aramaic language spoken by ethnic Assyrians throughout a large region stretching from the plain of Urmia, in northwestern Iran, to the Nineveh plains, in northern Iraq, together with parts of southeastern Turkey.
Contents
Chaldean Neo-Aramaic is closely related to Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, where it is at times considered a dialect of that language. Both evolved from the same Syriac language, a language which developed in Assyria between the 5th century BC and 1st century AD. The terms Syrian and thus Syriac were originally 9th century BC Indo-Anatolian derivatives of Assyrian.
More than 90 percent of Assyrian Christians speak either the Chaldean Neo-Aramaic or Assyrian Neo-Aramaic variety, two varieties of Christian Neo-Aramaic or Sureth (Turoyo). Despite the two terms seeming to indicate a separate religious or even ethnic identity, both languages and their native Assyrian speakers originate from and are indigenous to the same Upper Mesopotamian region (what was Assyria between the 25th century BC and 7th century AD), and both originate directly from Syriac, which was founded in that same region. The term Chaldean and Assyrian were coined by modern linguists based simply upon which religious denomination was most common among speakers; Assyrian Church of the East or Chaldean Catholic Church.
History
The Syriac language in turn, had evolved from Imperial Aramaic, which was adopted as the second language of the Neo-Assyrian Empire by Tiglath-Pileser III in the 8th century BCE. On the Western periphery of Assyria there had been widespread Aramean-Akkadian bilingualism at least since the mid-9th century BCE. Aramaic would supplant Akkadian throughout the entire empire.
The term Syrian and thus its derivative Syriac, had originally been 9th century BC Indo-Anatolian and Greek corruptions of Assyria. (See Etymology of Syria)
Chaldean Neo-Aramaic is one of a number of modern Northeastern Aramaic languages spoken by Assyrian Christians native to the northern region of Iraq from Kirkuk through the Nineveh plains, Irbil and Mosul to Dohuk, Urmia in northwestern Iran, northeastern Syria (particularly the Al Hasakah region) and in southeast Turkey, particularly Hakkari, Bohtan, Harran, Tur Abdin, Mardin and Diyarbakir. The Assyrian Christian dialects have been heavily influenced by Classical Syriac, the literary language of the Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox Church and the Chaldean Catholic Church in antiquity.
Therefore, Christian Neo-Aramaic has a dual heritage: literary Syriac and colloquial Neo-Assyrian Eastern Aramaic. The closely related dialects are often collectively called Soureth, or Syriac in Iraqi Arabic.
Jews, Mandeans and Syriac-Aramean Christians speak different dialects of Aramaic that are often mutually unintelligible.
Dialects
Chaldean Neo-Aramaic and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic originate in the Nineveh Plains and Upper Mesopotamia, a region which was an integral part of ancient Assyria between the 9th century BC and 7th century BC. Chaldean (Assyrian) Neo-Aramaic bears a resemblance to the Assyrian tribal dialects of Tyari and Barwar in the Hakkari Province, although the Assyrian dialects do not use the pharyngeals /ħ/ and /ʕ/.
Loanwords of Arabic, Persian and Kurdish origin exist in the language, as with Assyrian.
Consonants
Script
Chaldean Neo-Aramaic is written in the Madenhaya version of the Syriac alphabet, which is also used for classical Syriac. The School of Alqosh produced religious poetry in the colloquial Neo-Aramaic rather than classical Syriac in the 17th century prior to the founding of the Chaldean Catholic Church and the naming of the dialect as Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, and the Dominican Press in Mosul has produced a number of books in the language. Alternatively, the Syriac Latin alphabet may also be used to transliterate the Syriac script into Latin.