Ashurian Aramaic
| Assyrian Aramaic | |
|---|---|
| ܠܫܢܐ ܐܣܘܪܝܐ Leššānā Assūrāyā | |
Leššānā Asūrāyā in its own alphabet
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| Pronunciation | /lɛʃʃɑːnɑː Assurɑːjɑː/ |
| Region | Upper Mesopotamia |
| Era | Dramatically declined as a vernacular language after the 14th century |
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Afro-Asiatic
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| Hatran alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | assy1241 |
Ashurian (ܠܫܢܐ ܐܣܘܪܝܐ Leššānā Assūrāyā) is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once that was once the dialect of the region encompassing the cities of Assur and Hatra and the Nineveh plains in the centre, up to Tur Abdin in the north, Dura-Europos in the west and Tikrit in the south. The majority of the evidence of the language comes from inscriptions within the cities dating between 100 BC and the mid-200s AD, coinciding with Shapur I's destruction of Hatra in 241 AD and Assur in 257 AD. As a result of Hatra being the site with the most attestation, it is often referred to as Hatran Aramaic. Having conquered the Aramaen city-states to the west, the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-605 BC) adopted Old Aramaic as the official language alongside the Assyrian Akkadian language. With the Achaemenid Empire succeeding them and adopting Old Aramaic, it rose to become the lingua franca of Iran, Mesopotamia and the Levant.
Ashurian, also referred to as Hatran Aramaic, developed through dialectic deviation as well as producing its own script. Various dialects of Aramaic developed around major cities or regions including the sister dialect of Syriac (city of Edessa), Mandaic (region surrounding the head of the Persian Gulf, Nabataean (from the Negev to the east bank of the Jordan River and the Sinai Peninsula), Jewish Babylonian Aramaic (Babylon), Palmyrene (Palmyra) and various Palestinian sub dialects (Palestine). Syriac, Mandaic and Christian Palestinian Aramaic also developed their own variants of the original script which is still employed today by Western Neo-Aramaic speakers as well as members of the Jewish nation for Hebrew who refer to it as ‘Ktāḇ Āšūrī’ (Assyrian writing) since it was the Assyrian monarchs who promulgated it.
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