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Assyrian people

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Template:Infobox Assyrians The Assyrians (also called Syriacs; see names of Syriac Christians) are an ethnic group whose origins lie in what is today Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria, but many of whom have migrated to the Caucasus, North America and Western Europe during the past century. Hundreds of thousands more live in Assyrian diaspora and Iraqi refugee communities in Europe, the former Soviet Union, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon.

As a result of persecution in the wake of the First World War, there is now a significant Assyrian diaspora. Major events included the Islamic revolution in Iran,Dr. Eden Naby. "Documenting The Crisis In The Assyrian Iranian Community". {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessdaymonth=, |month=, |accessyear=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help) the Simele massacre, and the Assyrian genocide that occurred under Ottoman Turkish rule in the early 1900s. The latest event to hit the Assyrian community is the war in Iraq; of the one million or more Iraqis reported by the United Nations to have fled, forty percent are Assyrian, despite Assyrians comprising only three to five percent of the Iraqi population.[1][2]

History

Main article: History of the Assyrian people

The Assyrian people are descended from the population of the ancient Assyrian Empire, which itself emerged from the Akkadian Empire founded by Sargon of Akkad.[3][4][5] Eventually, Assyrian kings conquered Aramaean tribes and assimilated them into the Assyrian empire,[6][7] and their language, Aramaic, supplanted the native Akkadian language,[5][8][9] due in part to the mass relocations enforced by Assyrian kings of the Neo-Assyrian period.[10][7] The modern Assyrian identity is therefore believed to be a miscegenation, or ethnogenesis, of the major ethnic groups which inhabited Assyria-proper, which were, for the most part, Assyrian, and to some extent, Aramaean.[11] By the 5th century BC, "Imperial Aramaic" had become lingua franca in the Achaemenid Empire.

The Assyrian people are believed to have descended from the ancient Assyrians of Mesopotamia (Aramaic: Bet-Nahrain, "the land of the rivers"), who, in the 7th century BC, controlled a vast empire which stretched from Egypt and Anatolia, across the land between two rivers, to western Iran. Tradition maintains that the history of the Assyrian people stretches back nearly 8 000 years, to the dawn of Mesopotamian civilization.[12] Culturally and linguistically distinct from, although quite influenced by, their neighbours in the Middle East - the Arabs, Persians, Kurds, Turks, and Armenians - the Assyrians have, throughout their recent history, endured much hardship as a result of religious and ethnic persecution.[13]

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Identity

Further information: Names of Syriac Christians

Assyrians are divided among several churches (see below). They speak and many can read and write modern Assyrian, a dialect of Neo-Aramaic.[14]

In certain areas of the Assyrian homeland, identity within a community depends on a person's village of origin (see List of Assyrian villages) or Christian denomination, for instance Chaldean Catholic.[15]

Assyrians and other ethnic groups feel pressure to identify as "Arabs",[16][17] and "Kurds".[18] Assyrians in Syria, are disappearing as an ethnic group, due to assimilation.[19] See Arabization

Neo-Aramaic ("Modern Assyrian")[20][21] exhibits is remarkably conservative features compared with Imperial Aramaic,[22] and the earliest European visitors to northern Mesopotamia in modern times encountered a people called "Assyrians" and men with ancient Assyrian names such as Sargon and Sennacherib.[23][24][25] The Assyrians manifested a remarkable degree of linguistic, religious, and cultural continuity from the time of the ancient Greeks, Persians, and Parthians through periods of medieval Byzantine, Arab, Persian, and Ottoman rule.[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]

Assyrian nationalism emphatically connects Modern Assyrians to the population of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. This connection is disputed,[39] but receives support from Assyriologists like H.W.F. Saggs, Robert D. Biggs and Simo Parpola,[40][41][42] and Iranistics like Richard Nelson Frye.[11][43] They believe that the modern Assyrians truly are the descendants of the ancient Assyrians.[44]

The question of ethnic identity and self-designation is sometimes connected to the scholarly debate on the etymology of "Syria". The question has a long history of academic controversy, but mainstream opinion currently favours that Syria is indeed ultimately derived from the Assyrian term Aššūrāyu.[45][46][47]

The self-designation of ancient to modern Assyrians, have throughout history, changed due to various languages (from Akkadian to Aramaic)[48] and differing dialects. However, the various self-designations in use, are derived from the same common name, Aššūrāyu.[47][49][50][11]

Rudolf Macuch points out that the Eastern Neo-Aramaic press initially used the term "Syrian" (suryêta) and only much later, with the rise of nationalism, switched to "Assyrian" (atorêta).[51] According to Tsereteli, however, a Georgian equivalent of "Assyrians" appears in ancient Georgian and Armenian documents.[52]

More recent archaeological findings have added to the debate, attesting to the synonymy between the terms "Assyria" and "Syria". In Çineköy, Turkey, a Hieroglyphic Luwian and Phoenician bilingual monumental inscription was found, belonging to Urikki, vassal king of Que (i.e. Cilicia), dating to the eighth century BC. In this monumental inscription, Urikki made reference to the relationship between his kingdom and his Assyrian overlords. The Luwian inscription reads "Sura/i" whereas the Phoenician translation reads ’ŠR or "Ashur", which according to Robert Rollinger, settles the problem once and for all.[45]

Genetics

Modern Assyrians are believed to be mostly descended from the Bronze Age population of Mesopotamia (Ancient Assyria).[citation needed] DNA analysis that has been conducted "shows that [Assyrians] have a distinct genetic profile that distinguishes their population from any other population."[53] Genetic analysis of the Assyrians of Persia demonstrated that they were "closed" with little "intermixture" with the Muslim Persian population.[54]

Culture

Alqosh, located in the midst of Assyrian contemporary civilization.
Assyrian culture
Music
Language
Cuisine
Folk Dance
Religion
Settlements
Tribes
Main article: Assyrian culture

Assyrian culture is dictated by religion. The language is also tied to the church as well for it uses the Syriac language in liturgy. Festivals occur during religious holidays such as Easter and Christmas. There are also secular holidays such as Akitu (the Assyrian New Year).[55]

People often greet and bid relatives farewell with a kiss on each cheek and by saying "Peace be upon you." Others are greeted with a handshake with the right hand only; according to Middle Eastern customs, the left hand is associated with evil. Similarly, shoes may not be left facing up, one may not have their feet facing anyone directly, whistling at night is thought to waken evil spirits, etc.

There are many Assyrian customs that are common in other Middle Eastern cultures. A parent will often place an eye pendant on their baby to prevent "an evil eye being cast upon it". Spitting on anyone or their belongings is seen as a grave insult.

There are Assyrians that are not very religious yet they may be very nationalistic. Assyrians are proud of their heritage, their Christianity, and of speaking the language of Christ. Children are often given Christian or Assyrian names such as Ashur, Sargon, Shamiram, Nineveh, Ninos, Nimrod, etc. Baptism and First Communion are heavily celebrated events similar to how a Bris and a B'nai Mitzvah are in Judaism. When an Assyrian person dies, three days after they are buried they gather to celebrate them rising to heaven (as did Jesus), after seven days they again gather to commomerate their passing. A close family member wears only black clothes for forty days or one year as a sign of respect.

Language

Main article: Neo-Aramaic languages
Syriac alphabet
(200 BCE–present)
ܐ    ܒ    ܓ    ܕ    ܗ    ܘ
ܙ    ܚ    ܛ    ܝ    ܟܟ    ܠ
ܡܡ    ܢܢ    ܣ    ܥ    ܦ
ܨ    ܩ    ܪ    ܫ    ܬ

The ancient Assyrian tongue was referred to as the Akkadian language (also called Assyro-Babylonian),[5] an East Semitic language written in cuneiform script. After the Assyrian empire expanded westward, Aramaic gradually became the dominant tongue.[5] Aramaic was declared an auxiliary language by King Ashur-nirari V in 752 BC[citation needed] and became a lingua franca under Achaemenid Dynasty of Persia.[citation needed] By the first century AD, Akkadian was extinct. Modern Syriac, however, shares some of its vocabulary, as both are Semitic languages,[56] and a result of vocabulary remnants from the Akkadian language still being preserved in the modern Syriac language.[48]

Most Assyrians speak a modern form of Syriac,[57] an Eastern Aramaic language whose dialects include Chaldean and Turoyo as well as Assyrian. All are classified as Neo-Aramaic languages and are written using Syriac script, a derivative of the ancient Aramaic script. Assyrians also may speak one or more languages of their country of residence.

To the native speaker, "Syriac" is usually called Soureth or Suryoyo. A wide variety of dialects exist, including Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, and Turoyo. Being stateless, Assyrians also learn the language or languages of their adopted country, usually Arabic, Persian or Turkish. In northern Iraq and western Iran, Kurdish is widely spoken.

Recent archaeological evidence includes a statue from Syria with Assyrian and Aramaic inscriptions.[58] It is the oldest known Aramaic text.

Religion

File:Chaldean.jpg
File:Assyrian Church of the East Symbol.JPG
Main article: Syriac Christianity

Assyrians became Christians during the first century AD,[40] though not until during the third century had they all become Christians.[9] Some Assyrians also claim that their ancestors became Christians during the lifetime of Jesus.[59] Jesus spoke of "Men of Nineveh", repenting from their old sins; this, most likely, refers to Assyrians:

The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

— Luke 11:32, King James Version

Many members of the following churches consider themselves Assyrian. Ethnic and national identities are deeply intertwined with religion, a legacy of the Ottoman Millet system.

Main Churches

A small minority of Assyrians accepted the Protestant Reformation in the 20th century, possibly due to British influences, and is now organized in the Assyrian Evangelical Church, the Assyrian Pentecostal Church and other Protestant Assyrian groups.

Based on the following Bible passage, many Assyrians hold apocalyptic beliefs as regards the future of their nation:[60]

In that day there shall be a way from Egypt to the Assyrians, and the Assyrian shall enter into Egypt, and the Egyptian to the Assyrians, and the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrian. In that day shall Israel be the third to the Egyptian and the Assyrian: a blessing in the midst of the land, Which the Lord of hosts hath blessed, saying: "Blessed be my people of Egypt, the work of my hands Assyria, and Israel my inheritance."

— Isaiah 19:23-25

Music

Main article: Assyrian music

Assyrian music is divided into three main periods: ancient music written in Ur, Babylon and Nineveh; a middle period of tribal and folkloric music; and the modern period.

Art

Main article: Assyrian art

An Assyrian artistic style distinct from that of Babylonian art which was the dominant contemporary art in Mesopotamia, began to emerge c.1500 B.C. and lasted until the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC. The characteristic Assyrian art form was the polychrome carved stone relief that decorated imperial monuments.

Cuisine

Main article: Assyrian cuisine

Assyrian cuisine is very closely related to other Middle Eastern cuisines, predating both Arab and Turkish cuisine. It is also similar to Armenian, Persian, Jewish and Greek cuisine. It is believed that Assyrians invented baklava in the eighth century BC.[61]

Institutions

Assyrian child dressed in traditional clothes.

Political parties

Other institutions

Religious divisions

See also

The Assyrian flag.

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Notes and References

  1. ^ "Assyrian Christians 'Most Vulnerable Population' in Iraq" (HTML). The Christian Post. Retrieved 2006-12-05. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ "Iraq's Christian community, fights for its survival" (HTML). Christian World News. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  3. ^ Early History of Assyria, By Sidney Smith, University of Michigan, 1928
  4. ^ http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=AE_Chart
  5. ^ a b c d http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9005290/Akkadian-language#62711.hook
  6. ^ see e.g. Jewish Encyclopedia, s.v. Aram.
  7. ^ a b Frye, Richard Nelson (1992). "Assyria and Syria: Synonyms" (PDF). PhD., Harvard University. Journal of Near Eastern Studies. The reasons for the spread of the Aramaic language were not only the expansion of the Aramaeans themselves into the Fertile Crescent, as early as the second millennium B.C., but also the policies of transfer of populations by the Assyrian state, especially in the 8th century B.C. under Sargon II and Tiglath-Pileser III. Large numbers of people were moved, and inhabitants of ancient Assyria (present-day northern Iraq) were also settled all over the Fertile Crescent. The spread of the use of Aramaic coincided with the political expansion of the Assyrian Empire, with the consequent mixture of the political term "Assyrian" and the linguistic term "Aramaic speaker". The use of the term "Assyrian" for the Aramaic language and alphabet is even found as late as the 6th century of our era when the rabbis of the Talmudic period speak of their Aramaic (modern Hebrew) alphabet as "Ashuri." {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ "The History of Ancient Mesopotamia" (HTML). Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. By this time the process of "Aramaicization" had reached even the oldest cities of Babylonia and Assyria. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  9. ^ a b Parpola, Simo (1999). "Assyrians after Assyria" (HTML). Assyriologist. Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, Vol. XIII No. 2,. Distinctively Assyrians names are also found in later Aramaic and Greek texts from Assur, Hatra, Dura-Europus and Palmyra, and continue to be attested until the beginning of the Sasanian period. These names are recognizable from the Assyrian divine names invoked in them; but whereas earlier the other name elements were predominantly Akkadian, they now are exclusively Aramaic. This coupled with the Aramaic script and language of the texts shows that the Assyrians of these later times no longer spoke Akkadian as their mother tongue. In all other respects, however, they continued the traditions of the imperial period. The gods Ashur, Sherua, Istar, Nanaya, Bel, Nabu and Nergal continued to be worshiped in Assur at least until the early third century AD; the local cultic calendar was that of the imperial period; the temple of Ashur was restored in the second century AD; and the stelae of the local rulers resemble those of Assyrian kings in the imperial period. It is also worth pointing out that many of the Aramaic names occurring in the post-empire inscriptions and graffiti from Assur are already attested in imperial texts from the same site that are 800 years older. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  10. ^ Hooker, Richard. "Mesopotamia, the Assyrians, 1170-612, The Assyrian Period" (HTML). Washington State University. The Assyrian conquerors invented a new policy towards the conquered: in order to prevent nationalist revolts by the conquered people, the Assyrians would force the people they conquered to migrate in large numbers to other areas of the empire. Besides guaranteeing the security of an empire built off of conquered people of different cultures and languages, these mass deportations of the populations in the Middle East, Mesopotamia, and Armenia, turned the region into a melting pot of diverse cultures, religions, and languages. Whereas there would be little cultural contact between the conquered and the conquerors in early Mesopotamian history, under the Assyrians the entire area became a vast experiment in cultural mixing. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  11. ^ a b c Frye, Richard N. (1992). "Assyria and Syria: Synonyms" (HTML). PhD., Harvard University. Journal of Near Eastern Studies. The ancient Greek historian, Herodotus, wrote that the Greeks called the Assyrians, by the name Syrian, dropping the A. And that's the first instance we know of, of the distinction in the name, of the same people. Then the Romans, when they conquered the western part of the former Assyrian Empire, they gave the name Syria, to the province, they created, which is today Damascus and Aleppo. So, that is the distinction between Syria, and Assyria. They are the same people, of course. And the ancient Assyrian empire, was the first real, empire in history. What do I mean, it had many different peoples included in the empire, all speaking Aramaic, and becoming what may be called, "Assyrian citizens." That was the first time in history, that we have this. For example, Elamite musicians, were brought to Nineveh, and they were 'made Assyrians' which means, that Assyria, was more than a small country, it was the empire, the whole Fertile Crescent. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  12. ^ http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9110693/Mesopotamian-religion
  13. ^ "Assyrians" (HTML). World Culture Encyclopedia. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  14. ^ Florian Coulmas, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems 23 (1996)
  15. ^ Note on the Modern Assyrians
  16. ^ Iraqi Assyrians: A Barometer of Pluralism
  17. ^ http://www.aina.org/releases/20070416140021.htm
  18. ^ http://www.aina.org/news/20061120133220.htm
  19. ^ http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-29952/Syria#404105.hook
  20. ^ "Assyrians". Historians and linguists use the term "modern Assyrian" to refer to the language spoken by the modern Assyrians. see: Andrew Dalby, Dictionary of Languages: The definitive reference to more than 400 languages (2004): 32; Dr. J. F. Coakley, "The First Modern Assyrian Printed Book," Journal of the Assyrian Academic Society, vol. 9 (1995)
  21. ^ Eden Naby & Michael E. Hopper eds., The Assyrian Experience: Sources for the study of the 19th and 20th centuries: from the holdings of the Harvard University Libraries (with a selected bibliography) (Cambridge, MA: Harvard College Library, 1999)
  22. ^ J.G. Browne, ‘‘The Assyrians,’’ Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 85 (1937)
  23. ^ George Percy Badger, The Christians of Assyria Commonly Called Nestorians (London: W.H. Bartlett, 1869)
  24. ^ J.F. Coakley, The Church of the East and the Church of England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), pp. 5, 89, 99, 149, 366–67, 382, 411
  25. ^ Michael D. Coogan, ed., The Oxford History of the Biblical World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 279
  26. ^ Fred Aprim, Assyrians: The Continuous Saga (Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2004)
  27. ^ ‘‘Parthia,’’ in The Cambridge Ancient History: The Roman Republic, 2nd ed., vol. 3, pt. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 597–98
  28. ^ Patricia Crone and Michael Cook, Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 55–60
  29. ^ ‘‘Ashurbanipal and the Fall of Assyria,’’ in The Cambridge Ancient History: The Assyrian Empire, vol. 3 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954), 130–31
  30. ^ A.T. Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948), 168
  31. ^ Albert Hourani, Minorities in the Arab World (London: Oxford University Press, 1947), 99
  32. ^ Aubrey Vine, The Nestorian Churches (London: Independent Press, 1937)
  33. ^ Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, trans. William Whiston (1737), bk. 13, ch. 6, http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/ant-13.htm
  34. ^ Simo Parpola, ‘‘National and Ethnic Identity in the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Assyrian Identity in the Post-Empire Times,’’ Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 18, 2 (2004): 16–17
  35. ^ Simo Parpola, ‘‘Assyrians after Assyria,’’ Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 12, 2 (2000): 1–13
  36. ^ R.N. Frye, ‘‘A Postscript to My Article [Assyria and Syria: Synonyms],’’ Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 11 (1997): 35–36; R.N. Frye, ‘‘Assyria and Syria: Synonyms,’’ Journal of the Near East Society 51 (1992): 281–85
  37. ^ Michael G. Morony, Iraq after the Muslim Conquest (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 336, 345
  38. ^ J.G. Browne, ‘‘The Assyrians,’’ Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 85 (1937)
  39. ^ Smith, Sidney (1925). "Assyrians after Assyria" (HTML). The disappearance of the Assyrian people will always remain a unique and striking phenomenon in ancient history. Other, similar kingdoms and empires have indeed passed away but the people have lived on... No other land seems to have been sacked and pillaged so completely as was Assyria. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  40. ^ a b Saggs, H.W.F. (1984). "The Might That Was Assyria". Assyriologist. p. 290. The destruction of the Assyrian empire did not wipe out its population. They were predominantly peasant farmers, and since Assyria contains some of the best wheat land in the Near East, descendants of the Assyrian peasants would, as opportunity permitted, build new villages over the old cities and carry on with agricultural life, remembering traditions of the former cities. After seven or eight centuries and various vicissitudes, these people became Christians. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  41. ^ Biggs, Robert D. (2005). "'My Career in Assyrialogy and Near Eastern Archaeology'". Assyriologist, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University. Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, vol. 19 No. 1. p. 14. I think there is very likelihood that ancient Assyrians are among the ancestors of the modern Assyrians of the area. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  42. ^ Parpola, Simo (2003). "Assyrian Identity in Ancient Times and Today" (PDF). Assyriologist. University of Helsinki. p. 18. Today, the Assyrian nation largely lives in diaspora, split into rivaling churches and political factions. The fortunes of the people that constitute it have gone different ways over the millennia, and their identities have changed accordingly. The Syriacs in the west have absorbed many influences from the Greeks, while the Assyrians in the east have since ancient times been under Iranian cultural influence. Ironically, as members of the Chaldean Catholic Church (established in 1553 but effectively only in 1830), many modern Assyrians originating from central Assyria now identify with "Chaldeans", a term associated with the Syriac language in the 16th century but ultimately derived from the name of the dynasty that destroyed Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire! Disunited, dispersed in exile, and as dwindling minorities without full civil rights in their homelands, the Assyrians of today are in grave danger of total assimilation and extinction (April 2003). In order to survive as a nation, they must now unite under the Assyrian identity of their ancestors. It is the only identity that can help them to transcend the differences between them, speak with one voice again, catch the attention of the world, and regain their place among the nations. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  43. ^ http://www.aina.org/articles/frye.pdf
  44. ^ Parpola, Simo. "Assyrians after Assyria" (HTML). Assyriologist. University of Helsinki. Retrieved 1999-09-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  45. ^ a b Rollinger, Robert (2006). "The terms “Assyria” and “Syria” again" (PDF). Assyriology. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 65(4). pp. 284–287. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  46. ^ Richard N. Frye Ph.D., Harvard University (1992), "Assyria and Syria: Synonyms", Journal of Near Eastern Studies
  47. ^ a b Parpola, Simo (April 2003). "Assyrian Identity in Ancient Times and Today" (PDF). p. 11. In this context it is important to draw attention to the fact that the Aramaic-speaking peoples of the Near East have since ancient times identified themselves as Assyrians and still continue to do so. The self-designations of modern Syriacs and Assyrians, Sūryōyō and Sūrāyā, are both derived from the ancient Assyrian word for "Assyrian", Aššūrāyu, as can be easily established from a closer look at the relevant words. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help) Cite error: The named reference "Assurayu Suraya 1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  48. ^ a b "Assyria" (HTML). Assyrians have used two languages throughout their history: ancient Assyrian (Akkadian), and Modern Assyrian (neo-syriac). The Arameans, would eventually see their language, Aramaic, supplant Ancient Assyrian because of the technological breakthrough in writing. Aramaic was made the second official language of the Assyrian empire in 752 B.C. Although Assyrians switched to Aramaic, it was not wholesale transplantation. The brand of Aramaic that Assyrians spoke was, and is, heavily infused with Akkadian words, so much so that scholars refer to it as Assyrian Aramaic. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  49. ^ Parpola, Simo. "Assyrian Identity in Ancient Times and Today" (PDF). Assyriology. Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies. p. 14. Since omission of initial vowels is not a feature of Aramaic phonology, the lack of the initial A- in Sūrāyā/Sūr(y)ōyō cannot be due to internal Aramaic development but must go back directly to Neo-Assyrian. The phonology of Sūrāyā (Sūrōyō) thus implies that this term, which is crucial to the identity of the present-day Aramaic-speaking peoples, entered the Aramaic language in the seventh century BC, when the Arameans already were a fully integrated part of the Assyrian nation. In contrast to the word ĀӨūr, which was borrowed into Aramaic when Assyria still was an alien society, it cannot be regarded as a loanword but as an indigenous selfdesignation, which the Aramaic-speaking Assyrians shared with their Akkadian-speaking fellow citizens. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  50. ^ Parpola, Simo. "Assyrian Identity in Ancient Times and Today" (PDF). Assyriology. Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies. p. 12. Since unstressed vowels were often dropped in Neo-Assyrian at the beginning of words (Hameen-Anttila 2000, 37), this name form later also had a shorter variant, Sūr, attested in alphabetic writings of personal names containing the element Aššur in late seventh century BC Aramaic documents from Assyria. The word Assūrāyu, "Assyrian", thus also had a variant Sūrāyu in late Assyrian times. This variant is hidden behind standard orthography in Assyrian cuneiform texts, but its existence is confirmed by the classical Greek words for Assyrians and Assyria, which display a corresponding variation between forms with initial A- (Assúrios/Assuría) and ones without it (Súrios/Súros/Suría; see Table II). The Greeks, who were in frequent contact with Assyria in the eighth and seventh centuries BC (Rollinger 2001), would not have borrowed the word without the initial A-, had the Assyrians themselves not omitted it, since omission of initial vowels is not a feature of classical Greek phonology. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Text "date" ignored (help)
  51. ^ Rudolf Macuch, Geschichte der spät- und neusyrischen Literatur, New York: de Gruyter, 1976.
  52. ^ Tsereteli, Sovremennyj assirijskij jazyk, Moscow: Nauka, 1964.
  53. ^ Nissman, David. "Assyrians Highlighted by Genetics Study, Radio Free Europe, vol. 3, Dec. 8, 2000" (HTML). Analysis of the Assyrians shows that they have a distinct genetic profile that distinguishes their population from any other population. It is important to understand that this applies to the population as a whole, not to any one individual. The study thus does two things: it confirms the uniqueness of the Assyrian population as a whole, and it establishes genetics as a major criterion of a population group, potentially overriding elements such as language, religion, and other social and historical components which were formerly considered to be primary determinants. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  54. ^ M.T. Akbari, Sunder S. Papiha, D.F. Roberts, and Daryoush D. Farhud, ‘‘Genetic Differentiation among Iranian Christian Communities,’’ American Journal of Human Genetics 38 (1986): 84–98
  55. ^ The Assyrian New Year
  56. ^ Akkadian Words in Modern Assyrian
  57. ^ The British Survey, By British Society for International Understanding, 1968, page 3
  58. ^ A Statue from Syria with Assyrian and Aramaic Inscriptions
  59. ^ http://www.abc.net.au/rn/religionreport/stories/2007/1937124.htm
  60. ^ Assyria in Prophecy
  61. ^ History of Baklava, Turkish Culture: Baklava, Baklava War Intesifies, Baklava
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