Eastern Aramaic
| Eastern Aramaic | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution |
Middle East |
| Linguistic classification |
Afro-Asiatic
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Glottolog | east2680 |
Eastern Aramaic languages have developed from the varieties of Aramaic that developed in and around Mesopotamia (Iraq, southeast Turkey, northeast Syria and northwest and southwest Iran), as opposed to western varieties of the Levant (modern Levantine Syria and Lebanon). Most speakers are ethnic Assyrians and/or Arameans (although there are a minority of Jews and Mandeans who also speak varieties of Eastern Aramaic).
Numbers of fluent speakers among Assyrians range from approximately 575,000 to 1,000,000, with the main languages being Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (235,000 speakers), Chaldean Neo-Aramaic (216,000 speakers) and Surayt/Turoyo (112,000 to 450,000 speakers), together with a number of smaller closely related languages with no more than 5,000 to 10,000 speakers between them.
Despite their names, they are not restricted to specific churches; Chaldean Neo-Aramaic being spoken by members of the Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox Church and Assyrian Protestant churches, and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic and Turoyo being spoken by members of the Chaldean Catholic Church etc.
In addition, there are approximately 25,000 speakers of Jewish Eastern Aramaic dialects, and some 6,000 fluent speakers of Mandaic language among the some 50,000 Mandeans, an ethno-religious Gnostic minority in Iraq and Iran.
Historically, eastern varieties of Aramaic have been more dominant, mainly due to their political acceptance in the Neo-Assyrian Empire and Achaemenid Persian empires. With the later loss of political platforms to Greek and Persian, Eastern Aramaic continued to be used by the population of Mesopotamia.
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