The syriaque (syriaque: ܣܘܪܝܝܐ) is a Semitic Langue spoken in the Middle East, and which belongs to the group of the languages araméennes. The Araméen (ארמית, ܐܪܡܝܐ) exists at least since and evolved/moved during the centuries. The syriaque one indicates alternatives of Araméen which were spread at the beginning of the Christian era.

Classification

The syriaque one is a language of the Afro-Asian family, subfamily of the Semitic Langues and group Eastern Araméen.

Diffusion

At the beginning of the 21e century, the dialects syriaques are spoken by approximately 400.000 very geographically scattered people, but one finds them mainly in the south-east of the Turkey and in the north of the Iraq. One also finds them in small communities in Syria, Iran, Arménie, Georgia and Azerbaïdjan which speaks about the dialects syriaques often influenced by the dominant local languages.

The 20th century saw the appearance of sometimes intolerant nationalist ideologies which have largely affected the communities of syriaque language. Because of the political and religious problems inherent in the the Middle East, the use of the syriaque language, already reduced, strongly moved back. The strong emigration which touches the Christian the East makes that one has found for a few decades of the communities of syriaque language in North America, of the South, like in Europe.

History

Araméen

The Araméen appears in Syria and Mésopotamie, at least as of thousand-year-old Ier before our era. From, tribes araméennes come from the south settle in Syria and Iraq.

Araméens never founded of unit empire, although various city-states araméennes like that of Damas, of Hamath (Hama in Syria) and of Arpad existed. The diffusion of the araméen comes owing to the fact that this language became official under the empires Assyrian, Babylonian and then Persian.

Since one found speakers of this language a little everywhere in the the Middle East and that it was relatively easy to learn for the people from Semitic Langues, the araméen became the Lingua franca of the Middle East, under a relatively uniform version and very rich person known under the name of imperial Araméen. The araméen évince gradually of other Semitic languages like the Hebrew (after the exile of Babylon) and the Phénicien () (the phenician will survive however out of the Middle East under its punic version).

Appearance of the syriaque one

The syriaque one indicates an Eastern dialect of araméen spoken with Édesse and which was spread after the appearance of the Christianisme. The syriaque one thus originates in the araméen spoken in Mésopotamie. The evolution of these dialects can be followed because of their influence on the imperial araméen starting from the O C After the conquest of the Syria and of the Mésopotamie by Alexandre Large the, the syriaque one and other dialects araméens start to be written in reaction to the hellenism dominating. The araméen remains however used as language of exchange, even after the introduction of the Greek . In ~ 132, the kingdom of Osroène, founded with Édesse, made local dialect, the syriaque one, the official language of the kingdom.

The oldest inscription found into syriaque old dates from the year 6 of our era. Its statute of official language makes that the syriaque one has a relatively uniform style and a grammar, contrary to the other dialects of araméen. With the appearance of the Christianity, the syriaque one will supplant the imperial araméen at the beginning of our era like version standard of the araméen.

The syriaque arts person

As from the 3rd century, the syriaque one becomes the language of the Christians of Édesse. The Bible is translated into syriaque (Peshitta Bible) and a rich person literature is born. Éphrem, prolific Christian author and Doctors of the Church, is one of the emblématiques figures of this time. It is the golden age of the syriaque literature with many works original, scientific, philosophical, theological, historical (many chronicles) and liturgical, and biblical or different translations. The generalization of the Peshitta Bible (into syriaque) parallel to will support the extension of syriaque Christianity.

As of the first centuries, religious controversies burst on the nature of Christ (the christologic quarrels). Many syriaques flee towards Persia and Mésopotamie to escape Byzantine persecutions. Successive schisms take place between the churches of syriaque language. To simplify, the Western churches are shown to adopt the Monophysisme and the Eastern churches the Nestorianisme (reality being much more moderate). These doctrines themselves are regarded as heretics by the orthodoxe Greek Église and the syriaques churches are persecuted by the Byzantine Empire. Eastern-Western division goes perdurer and the syriaque arts person will evolve/move in two alternatives, which differ by certain grammatical rules and the typography used. After the Arab conquest at the 7th century, the syriaque one will definitively lose its role of language of exchange. The use of Arabic is spread in the cities and gradually confines the syriaque one in regions increasingly more moved back. Towards the end of the the Middle Ages, the syriaque one starts to disappear.

Periods

  • old Araméen (~ 1100 to 200): mention the oldest found date of. ( the following periods are not exhaustive ).

    • : first known mention of the tribes araméennes. The tribes araméennes come from the south are spread in the East.
    • : the Assyrian Empire makes araméen an official language, spreading it in the whole of the fertile Croissant . Thereafter, the Babylonian Empire will make in the same way, transforming the araméen into Lingua franca of the the Middle East. The language is spread in all East but loses of its homogeneity.
    • : biblical Araméen or imperial Araméen () adopted by the Hebrew following their captivity with Babylon. The araméen gradually will replace Hebrew like language spoken about the Jews. Part of the Jewish Bible is thus written in araméen (the Jews will stop using the alphabet phenician; at the 4th century, they adopt the current Hebrew alphabet which comes from the Aramean alphabet).
    • : the king Cyrus II of the Persian dynasty of the Achéménides overcomes Babylon (~ 538) and releases the Hebrew (~ 537). In ~ 500, Darius I {{er}} formalizes the araméen and makes of it the official language in the oriental party of the Empire Perse.
    • the araméen of Jesus known as Palestinian Araméen
  • literary or syriaque Syriaque of church ( Kthâbânâyâ - syriaque arts person), (200 to approximately 1200): it is the araméen used with Édesse (become Urfa in Turkey) at the beginning of our era and formalized as from the 3rd century. Used for the translation of the Bible known as peshitta. The syriaque one was spread in the East with Christianity. With time, it was declined in two alternatives:
    • Western intermediate Syriaque: used in particular by the Church Maronite, the orthodoxe syriaque Church, Church syriaque-catholic.
    • Eastern intermediate Syriaque: used in particular by the Church chaldéenne or Assyrian-catholic, the Assyrian Church and the Mandéen modern S.
  • Syriaque: a whole series of vernacular languages includes/understands after 1200. Only the syriaque traditional one being written, the majority of these languages evolved/moved or disappeared without one having the trace of it.
    • modern Syriaque (spoken) Western
      • Western Néo-araméen: extinct with the Lebanon since the end of the 18th century, still spoken in some villages about the Syrian Anti Lebanon around Maaloula (15 000 people)
      • Turoyo and Mlahso: (quasi-extinct) in Turkey
    • modern Syriaque (spoken) Eastern
      • Néo-araméen chaldéen and néo-Assyrian Néo-araméen in Iraq, Turkey and Arménie.

The syriaque Bible

One of the oldest known versions of the New Testament is written into syriaque (Bible known as Peshittô or Peshitta, always of use in certain Eastern churches). It was translated out of the Greek version written into Koinè, oldest which is known. A controversy exists in connection with the original language of the Bible. Part of the specialists think that the Greek Bible comes from the translation of former texts syriaques/araméens. The majority of the specialists think that the first written version of the Bible was directly written in Greek. To note that, even in the Greek version, there exist sentences araméennes scattered in the text, particularly of the sentences pronounced by Jesus and preserved in the original version for religious reasons. It is however certain that Jesus preached in the language of the people which were the Palestinian araméen.

With Hebrew, the Greek and Latin, the syriaque one and the araméen are one of the major languages of Christianity.

The syriaque writing

The syriaque one is written from right to left and, as for the other Semitic languages, its alphabet is derived from the Alphabet phenician. The syriaque Alphabet is composed of 22 letters which can be dependant or not according to their position in the mot. It exists three principal forms of typographies:

  • the style estrangelâ (comes from the Greek description of this typography, στρογγυλη , strongylê , “round”). This typography fell in disuse, but it is often used by the specialists. The vowels can be indicated by small signs.
  • the syriaque Westerner is generally written with a typography sertâ (“line”). It is a simplification of the style estrangelâ . The vowels are indicated by a diacritic system derived from the Greek vowels.
  • the syriaque Eastern one is written by using the style madnhâyâ ( of the east , “Eastern”). It is called sometimes nestorien because it was considered that the syriaques ones is (wrongly) followed the ideas of Nestorius. It is closer to estrangelâ than the serta . The vowels are indicated thanks to different sytème diacritic, namely of the points around the consonants, similar to Arabic.

When Arabic started to assert in the fertile Croissant , the Christians started by writing Arabic with characters syriaques. These writings are called Karshuni or Garshuni . The Arabic alphabet as for him derives from a form of araméen called nabatéen used in the area of Pétra.

The syriaque contemporary

The syriaque one suffered much from its statute of minority language and the rise of the nationalist ideologies in the Middle East. Most of syriaques of Turkey died with the Armenian during the genocide of 1915 and the syriaque community is always the object of vexatious measurements in this country.

They were variously repressed in Iraq, particularly during the years 1930. An important part of the communities of syriaque language left the area and the emigrants were established in various Western countries. The rise of the political Islam these last years amplified the movement of emigration. More recently, the war of Iraq (2003) which ended in an anarchy in fact involved a recrudescence of the attacks with religious motivation.

Recently, an effort was made to write the spoken dialects and to equip them with a grammar, inter alia trying to mitigate the disappearance of these languages become extremely fragile. In Sweden, the syriaque community speaking Eastern one constituted itself and the Swedish law imposes the language teaching of origin. A shy person literature was born thus there.

The use wants that one qualifies the Syrian people speaking syriaque Westerner about , because this language was that which was spoken in Syria before the Arab conquest. However one uses the syriaque term of more and more instead of Syrian to avoid confusion with the citizens of the current Syria. The speakers of syriaque Eastern are called chaldéens or Assyrian, of the name of their churches.

See too

References

  • Robert Alaux, the Last Assyrians , Lieurac Productions, Paris, documentary 52 minutes evoking the history of the syriaque language.
  • F. Briquel-Chatonnet, Mr. Debié, A. Desreumaux, syriaques Inscriptions , syriaques Studies 1, Paris, Geuthner, 2004.
  • Mr. Debié, A. Desreumaux, C. Julien, F. Julien, Apocryphal books syriaques , syriaques Studies 2, Paris, Geuthner, 2005.
  • F. Cassingena, I. Jurasz, syriaques Liturgies , syriaques Studies 3, Paris, Geuthner, 2006.

Related articles

External bonds

  • syriaques Survey firm
  • Club of the catholic syriaques young people
  • Catholic Circle Syriaque , texts and information on syriaque spirituality.
  • Committee of the Araméens young people of Liege
  • Article on the villages araméens of the Anti Lebanon
  • Dictionary Handwritten Syriaque-English-French in line
  • of Peshitta (bible into syriaque)

Simple: Syriac language

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