Suret language

Suret (Syriac: ܣܘܪܝܬ, pronounced [ˈsuːrɪtʰ], [ˈsuːrɪθ]), also known as Assyrian, is any of several varieties of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) spoken by the modern Assyrian people. The various NENA dialects descend from Old Aramaic, the lingua franca in the later phase of the Assyrian Empire, which slowly displaced and was influenced by the East Semitic Akkadian language beginning around the 10th century BC. They have been further heavily influenced by Classical Syriac, the Middle Aramaic dialect of Edessa, after its adoption as an official liturgical language of the Syriac churches, but Suret is not a direct descendant of Classical Syriac. Suret-speaking Assyrians are indigenous to Upper Mesopotamia, northwestern Iran, southeastern Anatolia and the northeastern Levant, which is a region encompassing the plain of Urmia in northwestern Iran through to the Nineveh Plains, Erbil, Kirkuk and Duhok regions in northern Iraq, together with the northeastern regions of Syria and to south-central and southeastern Turkey. Instability throughout the Middle East since the 20th century has led to a worldwide diaspora of Suret speakers, with most speakers now living abroad in such places as North America, Australia, western Europe, and Russia. Speakers of Suret and Turoyo (Surayt) are ethnic Assyrians and are the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia. SIL distinguishes between 'Chaldean' and 'Assyrian' as varieties of Suret on non-linguistic grounds. Suret is mutually intelligible with some NENA dialects spoken by Jews, especially in the western part of its historical extent. Its mutual intelligibility with Turoyo is partial and asymmetrical, but more significant in written form. Suret is a moderately-inflected, fusional language with a two-gender noun system and rather flexible word order. There is some Akkadian influence on the language and its grammar. In its native region, speakers may use Iranian, Turkic and Arabic loanwords, while diaspora communities may use loanwords borrowed...