Assyrian Neo-Aramaic

Introduction Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (or just Assyrian) is a language spoken mainly in the Middle East by the Assyrian people, a mainly Christian ethnic group. It is a dialect of Syriac, which itself is a dialect of Aramaic, where Hebrew comes from. There are 22 letters in the Assyrian alphabet. It has its own script, but I will show the Latin equivalents to make it a little bit easier. Each one will be listed here below, as follows: Section 1a: Consonants Letter Letter name ExampleIPA ʾ ālap makes no sound b bēyt ballb g gāmal goodgddalatdogdhhēhappyhwwāʾwwaterwzzaynzapzḥḥēyt"k" sound but at the end of your throatṭṭēyt"t" sound but at the back of your tongueyyōdyesjkkāpkeepkllāmadlovelmmīmmothermnnūnnonssemkatsoupsʿʿēmakes no soundppēpalepṣṣādēsoft "s" soundqqōp"k" sound but at the back of your tonguerrēšrealrššīnshoutshttāʾwtapt Section 1b: Vowels Letter Example ā bat a same as "ā", sometimes makes a "u" in "up"ēhelloegripīkeepōhopeūhoop Section 1c: Other letters Letter Example v vase j juiceğ"g" sound at the back of your throatčchappedffluteththud Section 2: Greeting This is a greeting conversation in Assyrian: Name of person Sentence Translation Exact Translation Luke Šlāmā ʿlāḥ! Dāʾḥīt? Hello! How are you?Hello(feminine)! How are you? Sophia Šlāmā ʿlōḥ! Rābā spāy! Dāʾḥīt? Hello! I am very good! How are you?Hello(masculine)! Very good! How are you? Luke Rābā spāy! Very good!Very good!SophiaSpāy!Good!Good! Note that if you say hello to a female, it would be "Šlāmā ʿlāḥ", to a male, it would be, "Šlāmā ʿlōḥ", and, to a whole group of people, you would say, "Šlāmā ʿlōḥōn". Section 3: Word tones In Assyrian, if you add "my" to a word, you would add an "ī" (sounds like ea in beat) at the end. But if something if you add "your", you would add "ōḥ"to it: These are examples: Singular +My +Your baytā (house) baytī (my house) baytōḥ (your house) Section 4: Family English Assyrian father ābā/bābā mother yemāsonbrūnādaugtherbrātā Languages of Asia Category:Subject:Languages