If we had a country

Nemrud

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What language should we learn?

I am against learning kthobonoyo because our modern language is evolved from it, l would like to see West and East assyrian be learned, and then maybe in The future both languages Merge. And l also think that These Will be The languages spoken in assyria. What do u think? Think about next generation for example. And also because There are more assyrians out of Their homeland this is also a possibility.

Really,  IF u think about it our most differences is our language, IF we somehow could learn both languages and understand its similiairity we could be United, but thats just me.
 
what language? Our language :)
in all seriousness, I say we could have a standard syriac set up or just mix all the dialects together like how every dialect in Hakkari and Urmia became mixed in Iraq and became Iraqi Koine.

I can understand a bit of Turoyo because I learned to read sureth, use a dictionary, and listen to Suryoyo music. When there's a word I don't understand, I just look at my Sureth Dictionary.
 
Eastern Assyrian because it's clearer and more popular. We should use some western Assyrians words though that were preserved from Syriac.
 
I am With mrzurnaci because If we mix them then West assyrians that understand turoyo can easily learn that language. There are more than 200000 fluent West assyrians, u cant expect them to learn East assyrian and to be honest l cant speak East assyrian and l want to learn my children West assyrian so that they can teach that language to the next generation. And cascade think about it, There are more assyrians living out of Their homeland so There are not so many West assyrians that can speak East assyrian and they Will multipla and noone wants to lose Their language. Thats why i think mrzurnazi has right, that we should mix The both languages into one then maybe it would be easier to learn it.
 
The title of this thread to be changed to something more specifically relating to language.

I think there are three options to choose from:

1) merging some or all dialects together (like German did);
2) picking one dialect to act as a standard (like French and Italian did); or
3) using the classical language (like Hebrew and Arabic do).

Cascade said:
Eastern Assyrian because it's clearer and more popular. We should use some western Assyrians words though that were preserved from Syriac.

What do you mean by "clearer?" That's a subjective term. Eastern has way more dialects, for example. The vowel systems are much more complicated as well.

Popularity is not really an argument, either. Every language spoken by Jews (Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic, even Neo-Aramaic) was more popular than Hebrew at the turn of the last century, yet Hebrew overcame them all. Urdu is not the most popular in Pakistan by a long shot, yet it's official there as well. Egyptian Arabic is the most widely spoken variety of Arabic, yet they use fuSHa in the Arab World. :)

Nemrud said:
What language should we learn?

I am against learning kthobonoyo because our modern language is evolved from it, l would like to see West and East assyrian be learned, and then maybe in The future both languages Merge. And l also think that These Will be The languages spoken in assyria. What do u think? Think about next generation for example. And also because There are more assyrians out of Their homeland this is also a possibility.

Really,  IF u think about it our most differences is our language, IF we somehow could learn both languages and understand its similiairity we could be United, but thats just me.

The modern language(s) did not evolve from Kthobonoyo; Kthobonoyo is based off of Classical Syriac, which was the standardized dialect of the city of Edessa. The modern language(s) evolved from Edessan Syriac's sister dialects; hence, Kthobonoyo is not the mother, but an aunt. :)

I think unity can be achieved not by merging the multitude of dialects, but all learning a common, literary language to be used officially and inter-dialectally (while still keeping our modern dialects spoken at home and letting them evolve naturally). It would not be harder than learning any other dialect: a Turoyo speaker, for example, would probably learn Classical Syriac just as easily as modern Urmian Neo-Aramaic.

I can think of a few advantages to that:

  • Preserving history: learning Classical Syriac grants access not only to reading the Pesheetta, but the works of great writers spanning centuries like Bar Hebraeus and Jacob of Edessa. Creating/merging a language means none of that: our literary catalogue is essentially reduced to zero.
  • Avoiding favouritism: since Edessan Syriac is extinct as a spoken language, we don't have to pick a single dialect to act as the official standard, like Turoyo or Urmian, as some suggest in lieu of merging dialects. Doing so might marginalize speakers of other dialects; using Classical Syriac ensures every dialect is equal.
  • Foregoing language creation: creating a language is very arduous. Trying to piece together grammatical points and a lexical vocabulary, especially if you're trying to do it "democratically" by seeing which features are the most common, is no easy task. With a classical language, most of that work is already done (the only thing left would be to coin words for modern terminology).
  • Strengthening ecclesiastical unity: all of our major churches (save maybe for some Protestant/Evangelical ones) use Classical Syriac as the literary language. Learning Classical Syriac might build bridges between the churches, as well as giving some power to the average layman who is now able to read the book and taking some power away from corrupt clergy, lessening their ability to splinter off and start yet another denomination.

Think of the "revive vs. merge" debate like this: you walk into a store, looking for a vase. You see two on the shelf for the same price: one is a beautiful, antique vase that will never go out of style and that just needs a little dusting, while the other is a cheaply-made, modern vase that will be out of style in a few years (also, it's shattered into pieces and you have to glue it back together). Which would you pick? :)
 
Actually now when u mention it, I talked to a syriac and he knows stuff and he said the same thing that classical syriac will probably be The language, is estrangelo classical syriac, what is it name, l cant find it in Wikipedia....
 
Nemrud said:
Actually now when u mention it, I talked to a syriac and he knows stuff and he said the same thing that classical syriac will probably be The language, is estrangelo classical syriac, what is it name, l cant find it in Wikipedia....

Estrangelo (Western pronunciation) or Estrangela (Classical and Eastern pronunciation) is the name for the oldest variant of the alphabet. Classical Syriac was first written using this variant which gradually evolved with the dialects into Eastern and Western variants. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriac_language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriac_alphabet
 
Carlo said:
I think unity can be achieved not by merging the multitude of dialects, but all learning a common, literary language to be used officially and inter-dialectally (while still keeping our modern dialects spoken at home and letting them evolve naturally). It would not be harder than learning any other dialect: a Turoyo speaker, for example, would probably learn Classical Syriac just as easily as modern Urmian Neo-Aramaic.

I can think of a few advantages to that:

  • Preserving history: learning Classical Syriac grants access not only to reading the Pesheetta, but the works of great writers spanning centuries like Bar Hebraeus and Jacob of Edessa. Creating/merging a language means none of that: our literary catalogue is essentially reduced to zero.
  • Avoiding favouritism: since Edessan Syriac is extinct as a spoken language, we don't have to pick a single dialect to act as the official standard, like Turoyo or Urmian, as some suggest in lieu of merging dialects. Doing so might marginalize speakers of other dialects; using Classical Syriac ensures every dialect is equal.
  • Foregoing language creation: creating a language is very arduous. Trying to piece together grammatical points and a lexical vocabulary, especially if you're trying to do it "democratically" by seeing which features are the most common, is no easy task. With a classical language, most of that work is already done (the only thing left would be to coin words for modern terminology).
  • Strengthening ecclesiastical unity: all of our major churches (save maybe for some Protestant/Evangelical ones) use Classical Syriac as the literary language. Learning Classical Syriac might build bridges between the churches, as well as giving some power to the average layman who is now able to read the book and taking some power away from corrupt clergy, lessening their ability to splinter off and start yet another denomination.

Think of the "revive vs. merge" debate like this: you walk into a store, looking for a vase. You see two on the shelf for the same price: one is a beautiful, antique vase that will never go out of style and that just needs a little dusting, while the other is a cheaply-made, modern vase that will be out of style in a few years (also, it's shattered into pieces and you have to glue it back together). Which would you pick? :)

I've always felt this is the best way as well. I didn't realise until now that reverting to Classical Syriac would be a great way to reduce sectarian rivalry and forge new relationships among our churches.

Carlo said:
Estrangelo (Western pronunciation) or Estrangela (Classical and Eastern pronunciation) is the name for the oldest variant of the alphabet. Classical Syriac was first written using this variant which gradually evolved with the dialects into Eastern and Western variants. See:

If we were to revert to Classical Syriac, which Syriac script would we use? Maybe it could be beneficial to use all the scripts but each for a different task, as in one script could be used for official documents and another could be used just for day to day use or something
 
SonOfAssyria said:
If we were to revert to Classical Syriac, which Syriac script would we use? Maybe it could be beneficial to use all the scripts but each for a different task, as in one script could be used for official documents and another could be used just for day to day use or something

Why not all 3? SerTo for handwritting, Madnkhaya for academic, and Estrangelo for religious/governmental writing.
 
mrzurnaci said:
Why not all 3? SerTo for handwritting, Madnkhaya for academic, and Estrangelo for religious/governmental writing.

Who does that really, in sweden There is Only swedish. The same swedish is used everywhere, There should be one language for everything, that language should be estrangelo /classical syriac.
 
Nemrud said:
Who does that really, in sweden There is Only swedish. The same swedish is used ecerywhere

It's not hard, kids can easily learn and use all 3.
I already know all 3 myself.
 
Btw u are talking about writing, well If we had one script then it would be easier to learn, in sweden There is Only one script.
 
mrzurnaci said:
It's not hard, kids can easily learn and use all 3.
I already know all 3 myself.

I dont know, lets let the syriac People decide. But IF its not hard then why not, but l still dont like the idea, l would like to see estrangelo Only be used.
 
SonOfAssyria said:
If we were to revert to Classical Syriac, which Syriac script would we use? Maybe it could be beneficial to use all the scripts but each for a different task, as in one script could be used for official documents and another could be used just for day to day use or something

You could definitely use all three. Obviously, you don't teach them all at the same time; you can spread them out in the same way you don't teach cursive at the same time as block letters. :)
 
Nemrud said:
I am With mrzurnaci because If we mix them then West assyrians that understand turoyo can easily learn that language. There are more than 200000 fluent West assyrians, u cant expect them to learn East assyrian and to be honest l cant speak East assyrian and l want to learn my children West assyrian so that they can teach that language to the next generation. And cascade think about it, There are more assyrians living out of Their homeland so There are not so many West assyrians that can speak East assyrian and they Will multipla and noone wants to lose Their language. Thats why i think mrzurnazi has right, that we should mix The both languages into one then maybe it would be easier to learn it.
You're making a strawman. Nobody's saying that you shouldn't speak your language and teach your kids that language. I even did say that we should use the Syriac words that were preserved in Turoyo to replace our dreaded Iranian loanwords. Mixing languages would not really work, or at least, it will take many generations for it to take affect.

Carlo said:
What do you mean by "clearer?" That's a subjective term. Eastern has way more dialects, for example. The vowel systems are much more complicated as well.

Popularity is not really an argument, either. Every language spoken by Jews (Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic, even Neo-Aramaic) was more popular than Hebrew at the turn of the last century, yet Hebrew overcame them all. Urdu is not the most popular in Pakistan by a long shot, yet it's official there as well. Egyptian Arabic is the most widely spoken variety of Arabic, yet they use fuSHa in the Arab World. :)
I would say objectively that Assyrian Neo-Aramaic is a lot pleasant to the ears than Turoyo. Not all languages are equally horrible or pleasant. And I don't think it's always subjective -That's why many people would prefer Italian and French over Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin and Vietnamese. These are harsh languages and many surveyed folks admit that. If Assyrian Neo-Aramaic uses the guttural H and A sounds (heth/ayn, respectively) that Turoyo utilizes, it will sound really unpleasant to the foreign ear and it will be confused with Arabic.

So yes, in a way, Assyrian would be a lot "clearer" than Turoyo for many ears, just the same way Greek is more "nicer" than Berber for many. There's a reason why Fus'ha Arabic and BBC English are used in news and such - They are, well, "clearer" variants and outsiders would prefer those to be standard dialects for information. Turoyo just doesn't fit the bill, as "politically incorrect" as this sounds. So that's why I would opt for Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, namely Urmian or Iraqi Koine. ;)

P.S. Yes, of course, for the actual speaker within the language, his/her language would always be clearer (i.e. English would be a grotesque gibber for a Khoisan). I'm not arguing that. But I'm speaking from an outsider's perspective. You want eastern Assyrian Assyrian to have the sounds of western Assyrian? Then prepare to be listed in the ugliest language list with Arabic and Vietnamese. :)
 
Furthermore, the Assyrian Neo-Aramaic speech samples that I uploaded on Wikipedia get compliments from foreigners. If we sounded like Turoyos, I do not think foreigners would praise our language and instead would think of it as an offshoot Arabic. Look at this attachment:
 
Cascade said:
I would say objectively that Assyrian Neo-Aramaic is a lot pleasant to the ears than Turoyo. Not all languages are equally horrible or pleasant. And I don't think it's always subjective -That's why many people would prefer Italian and French over Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin and Vietnamese. These are harsh languages and many surveyed folks admit that. If Assyrian Neo-Aramaic uses the guttural H and A sounds (heth/ayn, respectively) that Turoyo utilizes, it will sound really unpleasant to the foreign ear and it will be confused with Arabic.

So yes, in a way, Assyrian would be a lot "clearer" than Turoyo for many ears, just the same way Greek is more "nicer" than Berber for many.

. . .

P.S. Yes, of course, for the actual speaker within the language, his/her language would always be clearer (i.e. English would be a grotesque gibber for a Khoisan). I'm not arguing that. But I'm speaking from an outsider's perspective. You want eastern Assyrian Assyrian to have the sounds of western Assyrian? Then prepare to be listed in the ugliest language list with Arabic and Vietnamese. :)

Ah, so by "clearer," you mean "nicer sounding." We've had this discussion before; you say "it's not always subjective" and then immediately say "many people." That sounds subjective to me.

I don't think we should pander to outsiders and base our language on how "nice" it sounds or how similar it sounds to other languages. Our language is our language, warts and all. It's for us, not others.

Cascade said:
There's a reason why Fus'ha Arabic and BBC English are used in news and such - They are, well, "clearer" variants and outsiders would prefer those to be standard dialects for information.

That's actually not why at all. FuSHa is based on Classical Arabic, whereas BBC English is just the dialect spoken by the upper-class of the London area. These are just prestige dialects--they're standard because they're spoken by the powerful. It's the same reason why Standard French is based on Parisian (because Paris is the capital) and Standard Italian is based on Florentine (because Florence was an economic powerhouse at the time Italian was standardized) and Mandarin is the "official" Chinese (because it's native to northern China/Beijing).

Cascade said:
Turoyo just doesn't fit the bill, as "politically incorrect" as this sounds. So that's why I would opt for Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, namely Urmian or Iraqi Koine. ;)

I actually prefer the way Turoyo sounds over Urmian, personally. Not that my opinion matters. :)

Cascade said:
Furthermore, the Assyrian Neo-Aramaic speech samples that I uploaded on Wikipedia get compliments from foreigners. If we sounded like Turoyos, I do not think foreigners would praise our language and instead would think of it as an offshoot Arabic. Look at this attachment:

You can use anecdotal evidence to make the case for or against how "nice" any language sounds, all it takes is a simple Google search.

If anything, I think Urmian sounds like an offshoot of Persian (at least Arabic is a fellow Semitic language). Even if the standard dialect we choose happened to have the exact same phonological inventory as Arabic, it still wouldn't matter: we shouldn't let outside perceptions affect our decision. Again, our language is our language. :)
 
Carlo said:
Ah, so by "clearer," you mean "nicer sounding." We've had this discussion before; you say "it's not always subjective" and then immediately say "many people." That sounds subjective to me.

I don't think we should pander to outsiders and base our language on how "nice" it sounds or how similar it sounds to other languages. Our language is our language, warts and all. It's for us, not others.
I know that "many people" is still subjective, because they have their own opinion. But the thing is, they are a majority, aren't they not? Ask a lot of people, survey them about the nicest sounding languages and the ugliest. Odds are, they'll mostly say Italian, Spanish and French, among others, being the most "beautiful", and languages like Vietnamese, Cantonese and Arabic as being the "ugliest". You make a point about us not pandering to foreigners. But hey, it's always good to be well-represented to others, huh? I'm sure you'd get irked if someone listens to Assyrian and be like "my my, what an ugly language". It's a good thing to be a bit pandering for outsiders. But that's just my opinion. I understand if you disagree. :)

You're right that our language is our language. Last time I checked, on ABN, they don't speak Turoyo, but eastern Assyrian. Although on Suroyo TV they do speak western. Nobody has changed those anyway. ;)

Furthermore, I'm not trying to change the language. I actually wish that more and more Syriac and Akkadian words enter our vocabulary and replace those dreaded Iranian words. I just want the dialects to change a bit and sound more, if I may be subjective here, Iraqi Koine (not too Urmian though). There's a reason why so many people with Ashiret and even Urmian dialects put an effort to sound like Iraqi Koiners (Assyrian singers for starters usually sing in Iraqi Koine mostly, even if they're Tyari/others). It's a prestigious and refined dialect today. Have I got anything against those who speak hardcore Jilu or Tyari dialects? No, of course not. Much respect to them. But if people like Mrzurnaci want to combine or merge our languages, we should start teaching people to speak in a standard, universal dialect (in my opinion, being Iraqi Koine). One of my pet peeves is the over-usages of "ch" and "th". Really hurts my ears. But oh well...

That's actually not why at all. FuSHa is based on Classical Arabic, whereas BBC English is just the dialect spoken by the upper-class of the London area. These are just prestige dialects--they're standard because they're spoken by the powerful. It's the same reason why Standard French is based on Parisian (because Paris is the capital) and Standard Italian is based on Florentine (because Florence was an economic powerhouse at the time Italian was standardized) and Mandarin is the "official" Chinese (because it's native to northern China/Beijing).
Fair enough. But why does Fus'ha Arabic sound relatively nicer and pleasant than other Arabic forms? Same thing with BBC English. Don't they just sound good to the ears? Incidentally, from what I heard, (upper class?) Brits in the renaissance and middle ages spoke with an accent similar to West Country English. The poetic works of Shakespeare don't rhyme well in a London accent, but they do so in southwestern English. So SWE was a prestigious dialect at that time as well. Why don't they use it anymore? Okay, maybe accents evolve, or maybe, just maybe, it started to sound too comical and risible by modern standards, so they switched to the RP accent in the Victorian Era or so. I do not know. I'm just theorizing.

Okay, now you might say that since we're used to listening to fus'ha and BBC English, they'll "sound better" as we're accustomed to them. But I really beg to differ. I mean, I've been surrounded by Iraqi Arab speakers and Australian English speakers all my life. And I still think that Iraqi Arabs have a trashy accent and Australian English (its lower class form) is rather grating. So it's not always about what we're used to. At least, it's not always in my case. :)

I actually prefer the way Turoyo sounds over Urmian, personally. Not that my opinion matters. :)
Fair enough. Like I said, they've rightfully retained some classical Syriac words. Wish we had done the same, as instead of replacing them with Iranian words. Mind you, I'm also not the biggest fan of that hardcore, psuedo-Persian sounding Urmian variant (where they say "raba" like "robo" - gee, relax Lol). This is the Urmian dialect I find nice to hear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTrxXOQpk4 But, I still prefer Iraqi Koine or "standard Assyrian" (listen to Linda George).

You can use anecdotal evidence to make the case for or against how "nice" any language sounds, all it takes is a simple Google search.
Anecdotal or not, two people already admire the sound of our language within a span of months and from an unpopular Wikipedia page. A personal opinion is not really anecdotal anyway. Describing an alleged apparition of a religious figure or saying you were visited by a ghost is. To an extent, everything is anecdotal and subjective anyway. Hell, most people find Angelina Jolie beautiful. Subjective? Of course. But the views of the mass matters. You can't be like "well that's anecdotal and subjective, maybe she isn't beautiful to some people". Come on, that's a bit overreaching. ;)

If anything, I think Urmian sounds like an offshoot of Persian (at least Arabic is a fellow Semitic language). Even if the standard dialect we choose happened to have the exact same phonological inventory as Arabic, it still wouldn't matter: we shouldn't let outside perceptions affect our decision. Again, our language is our language. :)
It does sound Persian. Like I said, I was never a fan of the thicker Urmian variants. Listen to Sargis Sangari. I really dislike his accent. He's just speaking Assyrian in a Farsi accent for crying out loud. However, personally, I would still prefer it over Turoyo. I really don't understand, and dislike, why they've replaced their "A" with "O". But that's just me. Yes, our language is our language, but we can still clean it up a bit. :mrgreen:

P.S. This reply was not having a go at your linguistic skills. I'm only speaking on my own perspective and view (aka, my beautiful ears Lol). I admire and commend your skills, as always.
 
Just curious, if we somehow regain assyria, what would u want to see as our capital? I myself would want assur, because it was our first and our name is from the city
 
Nemrud said:
Just curious, if we somehow regain assyria, what would u want to see as our capital? I myself would want assur, because it was our first and our name is from the city

Ashur shifted from being a capital to a more cultural center. Nineveh has and always has been regarded as the Capital.
 
mrzurnaci said:
Ashur shifted from being a capital to a more cultural center. Nineveh has and always has been regarded as the Capital.

Nineveh we might be able to get, but Ashur unlikely, if we one Day get a country it will probably be a small one. Also the reason why l choose Ashur is because some empires which derived their name from a city is their capital, for example akkadians, Romans, babylonians etc, their name is also their capital.
 
Nemrud said:
Nineveh we might be able to get, but Ashur unlikely, if we one Day get a country it will probably be a small one. Also the reason why l choose Ashur is because some empires which derived their name from a city is their capital, for example akkadians, Romans, babylonians etc, their name is also their capital.

why not ashur? Ashur has nobody living there. Ashur hasn't been inhabited since Timur. The Iraqis won't care whether we get Ashur back or not.
 
mrzurnaci said:
why not ashur? Ashur has nobody living there. Ashur hasn't been inhabited since Timur. The Iraqis won't care whether we get Ashur back or not.

Would u make it our capital? 

I was thinking that they wont let us expand that far, nineveh plains is our future country, if we are Lucky we get mosul.
 
Nemrud said:
Would u make it our capital? 

I was thinking that they wont let us expand that far, nineveh plains is our future country, if we are Lucky we get mosul.

yes, I would.

Why would they not let us expand that far? Ashur doesn't have oil to it and there's nobody living there. The only argument the Iraqis in general would use against us is that there's no Assyrians there so it can't be part of Nineveh Plains region at all...
 
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