Which language is closely related to Assyrian?

Cascade

Cascade

Well-known member
Which language, alive or dead (not counting classical Syriac), is the closest to Assyrian Neo-Aramaic?

For instance, English's closest languages are Frisian and Dutch. Spanish sounds the closest to Portuguese. Etc.

(Turoyo/Western Assyrian is considered a dialect, not sure if it would count as a closely related "language"?)
 
ins001 said:
Hebrew and Arabic
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Obviously I'm aware of them both. I just wanted to know if there are CLOSER sounding languages?

Arabic sounds more like Berber and Amharic.

Hebrew is kinda close to Assyrian though.
 
Neon said:
Obviously I'm aware of them both. I just wanted to know if there are CLOSER sounding languages?

Arabic sounds more like Berber and Amharic.

Hebrew is kinda close to Assyrian though.
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Berber and Amharic?
hahaha,no.
 
Neon said:
Obviously I'm aware of them both. I just wanted to know if there are CLOSER sounding languages?

Arabic sounds more like Berber and Amharic.

Hebrew is kinda close to Assyrian though.
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I think Hebrew and Arabic are the closest to it with Hebrew closer to Assyrian. To a Semitic language speaker,one can easily know it's a Semitic language but, any outsider would mix it with Kurdish or Persian due to the "kh" sounds. So yah, just the first two really.
 
Etain said:
Berber and Amharic?
hahaha,no.
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Loool? Amharic is Semitic and they have a lot of Arabic cognates, unlike us. Amharic even evolved from Arabic! So yes, unfortunately for you, Arabic would sound more like Amharic and eastern African Semitic languages than Assyrian.

Hebrew and Assyrian are a lot more closely related. They're like siblings, whilst Arabic is a first cousin.

Whilst Berber is not Semitic, they do use a lot of pharyngeals (akin to Arabic).
Googoo said:
I think Hebrew and Arabic are the closest to it with Hebrew closer to Assyrian. To a Semitic language speaker,one can easily know it's a Semitic language but, any outsider would mix it with Kurdish or Persian due to the "kh" sounds. So yah, just the first two really.
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Even in my Semitic ears, if I hear somebody speaking Kurdish or Pashto in the distance, or in the next room, I would think it's Assyrian for a few seconds.
 
Neon said:
Loool? Amharic is Semitic and they have a lot of Arabic cognates, unlike us. Amharic even evolved from Arabic! So yes, unfortunately for you, Arabic would sound more like Amharic and eastern African Semitic languages than Assyrian.

Hebrew and Assyrian are a lot more closely related. They're like siblings, whilst Arabic is a first cousin.
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Amharic is south semitic,whereas both Syriac and Arabic are central Semitic.
Neon said:
Amharic is Semitic and they have a lot of Arabic cognates, unlike us.
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And that's gotta be the biggest whopper you ever posted.
There are countless instances of Syriac and Arabic words that are virtually identical.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Semitic_languages.svg
 
Etain said:
Amharic is south semitic,whereas both Syriac and Arabic are central Semitic.And that's gotta be the biggest whopper you ever posted.
There are countless instances of Syriac and Arabic words that are virtually identical.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Semitic_languages.svg
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Yes, and the regions matter because? That's like saying, English (a Germanic language) is more like Celtic because it's spoken in the UK (where Celtic evolved). Amharic, unlike Assyrian, has a lot pharyngeals. And that feature evolved from the Arabic in Southern Saudi Arabia.

What are you talking about? You don't even know (nor speak) Syriac and Arabic, so you can't tell if they have "countless" identical words. Please, you were the one who's asked me to translate Assyrian songs for you.
 
Neon said:
Yes, and the regions matter because? That's like saying, English (a Germanic language) is more like Celtic because it's spoken in the UK (where Celtic evolved). Amharic, unlike Assyrian, has a lot pharyngeals. And that feature evolved from the Arabic in Southern Saudi Arabia.
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The regions are based on linguistic similarities. Amharic is most similar to the South Arabian dialects spoken in Yemen and Oman which are actually quite Arabic. It's ludicrous to compare Arabic to it.

Neon said:
What are you talking about? You don't even know (nor speak) Syriac and Arabic, so you can't tell if they have "countless" identical words. Please, you were the one who's asked me to translate Assyrian songs for you.
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I have seen quite a few cognates from what little I know of either. Enough to know they're a whole lot more similar than Amharic!
 
Etain said:
The regions are based on linguistic similarities. Amharic is most similar to the South Arabian dialects spoken in Yemen and Oman which are actually quite Arabic. It's ludicrous to compare Arabic to it.
I have seen quite a few cognates from what little I know of either. Enough to know they're a whole lot more similar than Amharic!
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Yes, the regions are based on the similarities, but that wasn't the point. South Arabian dialects are still Arabic. They'd probably be more related to classical Arabic, since the language evolved around there. And you said it yourself - "Amharic is most similar to the South Arabian dialects" - That's true (and that was what I meant). Maybe I should've been more specific, but Arabic is Arabic.
 
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