Syriac | Ethnologue

A language of Turkey

ISO 639: syc
Alternate Names: Ancient Syriac, Classical Syriac, Lishana Atiga, Suryaya, Suryoyo, Syriac Aramaic, Syrian Aramaic, Syro-Aramaic
Autonym: ܠܫܢܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ‎ (Leššānā Suryāyā)
Population: No known L1 speakers. Ethnic population: No ethnic community.
Location:: Sanliurfa province.
Language Status: 9 (Second language only).
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, Aramaic, Eastern
Dialects: Western Syriac, Eastern Syriac. Syrian churches: Eastern (Nestorian), Syrian Orthodox (Jacobite), and Syrian Catholic (Melkite, Maronite) developed a vast literature based on the Edessa (currently Sanliurfa, southeastern Turkey) variety of the Syrian dialect. Assyrian group (see Assyrian Neo-Aramaic in Iraq and elsewhere) separated denominationally from Chaldean (see Chaldean Neo-Aramaic in Iraq) and Jacobite (see Turoyo in Turkey and Syria) in the Middle Ages. Neo-Eastern Aramaic languages spoken by Christians are often dubbed Neo-Syriac although not directly descended from Syriac.
Language Use: Was used in Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. Became extinct in the 10th to 12th centuries. Still used, but rarely, as a secular literary language among followers of the churches listed.
Language Development: Bible: 1645–1891.
Language Resources: OLAC resources in and about Syriac
Writing: Syriac script [Syrc].
Other Comments: Christian.

Location: Sanliurfa province.