12-09-2007, 06:22 AM
Karl,
You know, being an Assyrian - everyone you run into asks "Do you speak Assyrian?"...."Can you read Assyrian?"...."Are you teaching your children Assyrian?", etc.
Yeah, our ancestors made the switch from Akkadian to Aramaic a few centuries before the fall of the empire, but really ... is our language properly called "Assyrian?" Technically, the vernacular spoken by modern Assyrians is Neo-Aramaic, just like the Jews from Zakho or Dohuk in Iraq still speak in Israel today.
The old Assyrians who originally spoke Akkadian wouldn't understand the language Meshikha spoke, let alone what we speak today.
Was there ever really an "Assyrian" language? After all, the Assyrians were just Babylonians who emigrated northward. The Babylonians spoke Akkadian, from the old city-state of Akkad.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't think there's ever been a time that Assyrians spoke anything unique. They had a shared language with southern Mesopotamia (from where they originated), and then after that they adopted the language of the Arameans, whom they later transferred to the captive Israelites and Jews....who originally started out as Arameans.
If they wanted to call it "Hebrew" back then, I guess it's no different than us calling it "Assyrian" today.
If that's not enough to confuse anyone....it's late and I need to be at the Altar in the morning.
You know, being an Assyrian - everyone you run into asks "Do you speak Assyrian?"...."Can you read Assyrian?"...."Are you teaching your children Assyrian?", etc.
Yeah, our ancestors made the switch from Akkadian to Aramaic a few centuries before the fall of the empire, but really ... is our language properly called "Assyrian?" Technically, the vernacular spoken by modern Assyrians is Neo-Aramaic, just like the Jews from Zakho or Dohuk in Iraq still speak in Israel today.
The old Assyrians who originally spoke Akkadian wouldn't understand the language Meshikha spoke, let alone what we speak today.
Was there ever really an "Assyrian" language? After all, the Assyrians were just Babylonians who emigrated northward. The Babylonians spoke Akkadian, from the old city-state of Akkad.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't think there's ever been a time that Assyrians spoke anything unique. They had a shared language with southern Mesopotamia (from where they originated), and then after that they adopted the language of the Arameans, whom they later transferred to the captive Israelites and Jews....who originally started out as Arameans.
If they wanted to call it "Hebrew" back then, I guess it's no different than us calling it "Assyrian" today.
If that's not enough to confuse anyone....it's late and I need to be at the Altar in the morning.