The history of Syriac can be divided into three distinct periods:
Old Aramaic, the language of the Syro-Hittite states of the Levant in the Early Iron Age, Old Aramaic was adopted as a lingua franca (besides Akkadian) in the Neo-Assyrian Empire
Middle Syriac/Middle Syriac Aramaic (?????? K????n?y?, "Literary Syriac"), which is divided into:
Eastern Middle Syriac/Eastern Middle Syriac Aramaic (the literary and ecclesiastical language of the ethnic Syriac Christians of the Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Ancient Church of the East and Assyrian Pentecostal Church)
Western Middle Syriac/Western Middle Syriac Aramaic (the literary and ecclesiastical language of the largely Syriac members of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Syriac Catholic Church and Syriac Maronite Church).
"Modern Syriac"/"Modern Syriac Aramaic" is a term occasionally used to refer to the modern Eastern Aramaic languages.[16] Even if they cannot be positively identified as the direct descendants of attested Middle Syriac, they must have developed from closely related dialects belonging to the same branch of Aramaic, and the varieties spoken in Christian communities have long co-existed with and been influenced by Middle Syriac as a liturgical and literary language. In this terminology, Modern Syriac is divided into:
Modern Western Syriac Aramaic (Turoyo and Mlahs?). Note however that these are sometimes excluded from the category of "Modern Syriac".[16]
Modern Eastern Syriac Aramaic (Northeastern Neo-Aramaic, including Assyrian Neo-Aramaic and Chaldean Neo-Aramaic but the term usually is not used in reference to Neo-Mandaic, another variety of Eastern Aramaic spoken by the Mandaeans).
The name "Syriac", when used with no qualification, generally refers to one specific dialect of Middle Aramaic but not to Old Aramaic or to the various present-day Eastern and Central Neo-Aramaic languages descended from it or from close relatives. The modern varieties are, therefore, not discussed in this article.
Now to my question, which of these syriac language are spoken by the indian church? or other unkown churches that isnt assyrian....
What makes the syriac dialect of aramaic more assyrian than the other aramaic languages that exists, for example mandaic? all that are eastern or central aramaic etc....
Why cant maronites be assyrians? is it because they dont identify themselves as it? they do speak western syriac after all....
What is it that makes us assyrians? it cant be the language because many different ethnic groups speak it. is it because we always identify ourselves as assyrians, our forefathers?
