Classical Syriac language
| Syriac | |
|---|---|
| ܠܫܢܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ Leššānā Suryāyā | |
Leššānā Suryāyā in written Syriac (Esṭrangelā script)
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| Pronunciation | lɛʃʃɑːnɑː surjɑːjɑː |
| Region | Upper Mesopotamia, Eastern Arabia |
| Era | Dramatically declined as a vernacular language after the 14th century |
| Syriac abjad | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 |
syc Classical Syriac |
| ISO 639-3 |
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| Glottolog | clas1252 |
Syriac /ˈsɪri.æk/ (ܠܫܢܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ Leššānā Suryāyā), also known as Syriac Aramaic or Classical Syriac, is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that is the minority language of indigenous ethnic Assyrians/Syriacs in south eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, northeastern Syria and North western Iran. It is also the liturgical language of several churches, in particular the Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox Church, Chaldean Catholic Church and Maronite Church.
Emerging in 5th century BC Assyria, it was once spoken across much of the Near East as well as Asia Minor and Eastern Arabia. Having first appeared in the early first century AD in Edessa, classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from the 4th to the 8th centuries,, preserved in a large body of Syriac literature. Indeed, Syriac literature comprises roughly 90% of the extant Aramaic literature.
The Old Aramaic language was adopted by the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC) when the Assyrians conquered the various Syro-Hittite states to its west. The Achaemenid Empire (546-332 BC), which rose after the fall of the Assyrian Empire, also retained Old Aramaic as its official language, and Old Aramaic remained the lingua franca of the region. During the course of the third and fourth centuries AD, the inhabitants of the region began to embrace Christianity.
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