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Turoyo language

Turoyo (Turoyo: ܛܘܪܝܐ), also referred to as Surayt (Turoyo: ܣܘܪܝܬ), or modern Suryoyo (Turoyo: ܣܘܪܝܝܐ), is a Central Neo-Aramaic language traditionally spoken in the Tur Abdin region in southeastern Turkey and in northern Syria. Turoyo speakers are mostly adherents of the Syriac Orthodox Church, but there are also some Turoyo-speaking adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church, especially from the towns of Midyat and Qamishli. The language is also spoken throughout diaspora, among modern Assyrians/Syriacs.[5] It is classified as a vulnerable language.[6][7] Most speakers use the Classical Syriac language for literature and worship.[8] Turoyo is not mutually intelligible with Western Neo-Aramaic, having been separated for over a thousand years;[9] its closest relatives are Mlaḥsô and western varieties of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic like Suret.[10]

Turoyo
Surayt/Suryoyo
ܛܘܪܝܐ Turoyo
Pronunciation[tˤuˈrɔjɔ]
Native toTurkey, Syria
RegionMardin Province of southeastern Turkey; Al-Hasakah Governorate in northeastern Syria
EthnicitySyriac/Assyrian
Native speakers
(undated figure of 250,000)[1]
Syriac alphabet (West Syriac Serṭo)
Latin alphabet (Turoyo alphabet)
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-3tru
Glottologturo1239
ELPTuroyo
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Etymology edit

 
Neo-Aramaic languages, including Turoyo (represented in red colour)

Term Ṭuroyo comes from the word ṭuro, meaning 'mountain', thus designating a specific Neo-Aramaic language of the mountain region of Tur Abdin in southeastern part of modern Turkey (hence Turabdinian Aramaic). Other, more general names for the language are Surayt or Suryoyo.[11][12]

Term Surayt is commonly used by its speakers, as a general designation for their language, modern or historical. It is also used by the recent EU funded programme to revitalize the language, in preference to Ṭuroyo, since Surayt is a historical name for the language used by its speakers, while Turoyo is a more academic name for the language used to distinguish it from other Neo-Aramaic languages, and Classical Syriac. However, especially in the diaspora, the language is frequently called Surayt, Suryoyo (or Surayt, Sŭryoyo or Süryoyo depending on dialect), meaning "Syriac" in general. Since it has developed as one of western variants of the Syriac language, Turoyo is sometimes also referred to as Western Neo-Syriac.[13]

History edit

class=notpageimage|
Red markers represent Christian Neo-Aramaic varieties while blue represents Jewish ones and purple represents both spoken in the same town.

Turoyo has evolved from the Eastern Aramaic colloquial varieties that have been spoken in Tur Abdin and the surrounding plain for more than a thousand years since the initial introduction of Aramaic to the region. However, it has also been influenced by Classical Syriac, which itself was the variety of the Eastern Middle Aramaic spoken farther west, in the city of Edessa, today known as Urfa. Due to the proximity of Tur Abdin to Edessa, and the closeness of their parent languages, meant that Turoyo bears a greater similarity to Classical Syriac than do Northeastern Neo-Aramaic varieties.

The homeland of Turoyo is the Tur Abdin region in southeastern Turkey.[14] This region is a traditional stronghold of Syriac Orthodox Christians.[15][16] The Turoyo-speaking population prior to the Syriac genocide largely adhered to the Syriac Orthodox Church.[14] In 1970, it was estimated that there were 20,000 Turoyo-speakers still living in the area, however, they gradually migrated to Western Europe and elsewhere in the world.[14] The Turoyo-speaking diaspora is now estimated at 250.000 [1][14] In the diaspora communities, Turoyo is usually a second language which is supplemented by more mainstream languages.[5] The language is considered endangered by UNESCO, but efforts are still made by Turoyo-speaking communities to sustain the language through use in homelife, school programs to teach Turoyo on the weekends, and summer day camps.[5][17] Today[when?] only hundreds of speakers remain in Tur Abdin.[14]

Until recently, Turoyo was a spoken vernacular and was never written down: Kthobonoyo (Classical Syriac) was the written language. In the 1880s, various attempts were made, with the encouragement of western missionaries, to write Turoyo in the Syriac alphabet, in the Serto and in Estrangelo script used for West-Syriac Kthobhonoyo. One of the first comprehensive studies of the language was published in 1881, by orientalists Eugen Prym and Albert Socin, who classified it as a Neo-Aramaic dialect.[18]

However, with upheaval in their homeland through the twentieth century, many Turoyo speakers have emigrated around the world (particularly to Syria, Lebanon, Sweden and Germany). The Swedish government's education policy, that every child be educated in his or her first tongue, led to the commissioning of teaching materials in Turoyo. Yusuf Ishaq thus developed an alphabet for Turoyo based on the Latin script. Silas Üzel also created a separate Latin alphabet for Turoyo in Germany.

A series of reading books and workbooks that introduce Ishaq's alphabet are called Toxu Qorena!, or "Come Let's Read!" This project has also produced a Swedish-Turoyo dictionary of 4500 entries: the Svensk-turabdinskt Lexikon: Leksiqon Swedoyo-Suryoyo. Another old teacher, writer and translator of Turoyo is Yuhanun Üzel (born in Miden in 1934) who in 2009 finished the translation of the Peshitta Bible in Turoyo, with Benjamin Bar Shabo and Yahkup Bilgic, in Serto (West-Syriac) and Latin script, a foundation for the "Aramaic-Syriac language". A team of AI researchers completed the first translation model for Turoyo in 2023.[19]

Dialects edit

Turoyo has borrowed some words from Arabic,[20] Kurdish, Armenian, and Turkish. The main dialect of Turoyo is that of Midyat (Mëḏyoyo), in the east of Turkey's Mardin Province. Every village have distinctive dialects (Midwoyo, Kfarzoyo, `Iwarnoyo, Nihloyo, and Izloyo, respectively).[citation needed] All Turoyo dialects are mutually intelligible with each other. There is a dialectal split between the town of Midyat and the villages, with only slight differences between the individual villages.[14] A closely related language or dialect, Mlaḥsô, spoken in two villages in Diyarbakır, is now deemed extinct.[14]

Alphabet edit

Turoyo is written both in Latin and Syriac (Serto) characters. The orthography below was the outcome of the International Surayt Conference held at the University of Cambridge (27–30 August 2015).[12][1]

Consonants
Latin letter ' B b V v G g Ġ ġ J j D d Ḏ ḏ H h W w Z z Ž ž Ḥ ḥ Ṭ ṭ Ḍ ḍ Y y
Syriac letter ܐ ܒ ܒ݂ ܓ ܓ݂ ܔ ܕ ܕ݂ ܗ ܘ ܙ ܙ݅ ܚ ܛ ܜ ܝ
Pronunciation [ʔ], ∅ [b] [v] [g] [ɣ] [] [d] [ð] [h] [w] [z] [ʒ] [ħ] [] [] [j]
Latin letter K k X x L l M m N n S s C c P p F f Ṣ ṣ Q q R r Š š Č č T t Ṯ ṯ
Syriac letter ܟ ܟ݂ ܠ ܡ ܢ ܣ ܥ ܦ ܦ݂ ܨ ܩ ܪ ܫ ܫ݂ ܬ ܬ݂
Pronunciation [k] [x] [l] [m] [n] [s] [ʕ] [p] [f] [] [q] [r] [ʃ] [] [t] [θ]
Vowels
Latin letter A a Ä ä E e Ë ë O o Y/I y/i W/U w/u
Syriac vowel mark
(or mater lectionis)
ܰ ܱ ܶ ܷ ܳ ܝ ܘ
Pronunciation [a] [ă] [e] [ə] [o] [j]/[i] [w]/[u]

Attempts to write down Turoyo have begun since the 16th century, with Jewish Neo-Aramaic adaptions and translations of Biblical texts, commentaries, as well as hagiographic stories, books, and folktales in Christian dialects. The East Syriac Bishop Mar Yohannan working with American missionary Rev. Justin Perkins also tried to write the vernacular version of religious texts, culminating in the production of school-cards in 1836.[21]

In 1970s Germany, members of the Aramean evangelical movement (Aramäische Freie Christengemeinde) used Turoyo to write short texts and songs.[22] The Syriac evangelical movement has also published over 300 Turoyo hymns in a compedium named Kole Ruhonoye in 2012, as well as translating the four gospels with Mark and John being published so far.[22]

The alphabet as used in a forthcoming translation of New Peshitta in Turoyo by Yuhanun Bar Shabo, Sfar mele surtoṯoyo – Picture dictionary and Benjamin Bar Shabo's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

In the 1970s, educator Yusuf Ishaq attempted to systematically incorporate the Turoyo language into a Latin orthography, which resulted in a series of reading books, entitled [toxu qorena].[5] Although this system is not used outside of Sweden, other Turoyo speakers have developed their own non-standardized Latin script to use the language on digital platforms.

The Swedish government's "mother-tongue education" project treated Turoyo as an immigrant language, like Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish, and began to teach the language in schools.[22] The staff of the National Swedish Institute for Teaching Material produced a Latin letter-based alphabet, grammar, dictionary, school books, and instructional material. Due to religious and political objections, the project was halted.[22]

There are other efforts to translate famous works of literature, including The Aramaic Students Association's translation of The Little Prince, the Nisbin Foundation's translation of Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood.[22]

Phonology edit

Phonetically, Turoyo is very similar to Classical Syriac. The additional phonemes /d͡ʒ/ (as in judge), /t͡ʃ/ (as in church) /ʒ/ (as in azure) and a few instances of /ðˤ/ (the Arabic ẓāʾ) mostly only appear in loanwords from other languages.

The most distinctive feature of Turoyo phonology is its use of reduced vowels in closed syllables. The phonetic value of such reduced vowels differs depending both on the value of original vowel and the dialect spoken. The Miḏyoyo dialect also reduces vowels in pre-stress open syllables. That has the effect of producing a syllabic schwa in most dialects (in Classical Syriac, the schwa is not syllabic).

Consonants edit

Vowels edit

Turoyo has the following set of vowels:[23]

Lax vowels
Central Back
Close ŭ
Mid ə
Open ă

Morphology edit

The verbal system of Turoyo is similar to that used in other Neo-Aramaic languages. In Classical Syriac, the ancient perfect and imperfect tenses had started to become preterite and future tenses respectively, and other tenses were formed by using the participles with pronominal clitics or shortened forms of the verb hwā ('to become'). Most modern Aramaic languages have completely abandoned the old tenses and form all tenses from stems based around the old participles. The classical clitics have become incorporated fully into the verb form, and can be considered more like inflections.

Turoyo has also developed the use of the demonstrative pronouns much more than any other Aramaic language. In Turoyo, they have become definite articles:

  • masculine singular: u malko (the king)
  • feminine singular: i malëkṯo (the queen)
  • plural common: am malke (the kings), am malkoṯe (the queens).

The other Central Neo-Aramaic dialect, of Mlahsô and Ansha villages in Diyarbakır Province is somewhat different from Turoyo. It is virtually extinct; its last few speakers live in Qamishli in northeastern Syria and in the diaspora.[23]

Syntax edit

Turoyo has three sets of particles that take the place of the copula in nominal clauses: enclitic copula, independent copula, and emphatic independent copula. In Turoyo, the non-enclitic copula (or the existential particle) is articulated with the use of two sets of particles: kal and kit.[21]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ The right to get an education in one's native tongue has been established as a legal guarantee.

References edit

  1. ^ a b c "Did you know". Surayt-Aramaic Online Project. Free University of Berlin.
  2. ^ Elissa, Jalinos (23 September 2021). "Breakthrough in Syriac school crisis in Zalin (Qamishli) in North and East Syria, Olaf Taw Association explains to SuroyoTV". SuroyoTV (Interview). Interviewed by Jacob Mirza. Zalin, Syria: SyriacPress. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  3. ^ Akbulut, Olgun (2023-10-19). "For Centenary of the Lausanne Treaty: Re-Interpretation and Re-Implementation of Linguistic Minority Rights of Lausanne". International Journal on Minority and Group Rights. -1 (aop): 1–24. doi:10.1163/15718115-bja10134. ISSN 1385-4879.
  4. ^ Erdem, Fazıl Hüsnü; Öngüç, Bahar (2021-06-30). "SÜRYANİCE ANADİLİNDE EĞİTİM HAKKI: SORUNLAR VE ÇÖZÜM ÖNERİLERİ". Dicle Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi (in Turkish). 26 (44): 3–35. ISSN 1300-2929.
  5. ^ a b c d Weaver & Kiraz 2016, p. 19-36.
  6. ^ "Turoyo". Endangered Languages. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. 2022. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  7. ^ Saouk 2015, p. 361-377.
  8. ^ Brock 1989b, p. 363–375.
  9. ^ Owens 2007, p. 268.
  10. ^ Kim, Ronald (2008). ""Stammbaum" or Continuum? The Subgrouping of Modern Aramaic Dialects Reconsidered". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 128 (3): 505–531. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 25608409.
  11. ^ Awde, Nicholas; Lamassu, Nineb; Al-Jeloo, Nicholas (2007). Modern Aramaic-English/English-Aramaic: Dictionary and Phrasebook. New York City, NY: Hippocrene. ISBN 9780781810876. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  12. ^ a b Talay 2017.
  13. ^ Tezel 2003.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Jastrow 2011, p. 697.
  15. ^ Palmer 1990.
  16. ^ Barsoum 2008.
  17. ^ Sibille, Jean (2011). "Turoyo". Sorosoro. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  18. ^ Prym & Socin 1881.
  19. ^ "Syriac.IO - Translator". www.syriac.io. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
  20. ^ Tezel 2015a, p. 554-568.
  21. ^ a b Tomal 2015, p. 29-52.
  22. ^ a b c d e Talay, Shabo (2015). "Turoyo, the Aramaic language of Turabdin and the translation of Alice". In Lindseth, Jon A.; Tannenbaum, Alan (eds.). Alice in a World of Wonderlands: The Translations of Lewis Carroll's Masterpiece. Vol. I: Essays. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll. ISBN 9781584563310.
  23. ^ a b Jastrow 2011, p. 697–707.

Sources edit

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  • Bednarowicz, Sebastian (2018). "Neues Alphabet, neue Sprache, neue Kultur: Was kann die Adaptation der lateinischen Schrift für das Turoyo implizieren?". Neue Aramäische Studien: Geschichte und Gegenwart. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. pp. 203–214. ISBN 9783631731314.
  • Beyer, Klaus (1986). The Aramaic Language: Its Distribution and Subdivisions. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. ISBN 9783525535738.
  • Bilgic, Zeki (2018). "Aramäisch des Tur Abdin schreiben und lesen: Überlegungen, warum die Sprechergemeinschaft des Tur Abdin das Neu-Aramäische nicht als Schriftsprache anerkennt". Neue Aramäische Studien: Geschichte und Gegenwart. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. pp. 215–250. ISBN 9783631731314.
  • Birol, Simon (2018). "Forgotten Witnesses: Remembering and Interpreting the Sayfo in the Manuscripts of Tur 'Abdin". Sayfo 1915: An Anthology of Essays on the Genocide of Assyrians/Arameans during the First World War. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. pp. 327–346. ISBN 9781463207304.
  • Borbone, Pier Giorgio (2017). "From Tur 'Abdin to Rome: The Syro-Orthodox Presence in Sixteenth-Century Rome". Syriac in its Multi-Cultural Context. Leuven: Peeters Publishers. pp. 277–287. ISBN 9789042931640.
  • Brock, Sebastian P. (1989a). "Three Thousand Years of Aramaic Literature". ARAM Periodical. 1 (1): 11–23.
  • Brock, Sebastian P. (1989b). "Some Observations on the Use of Classical Syriac in the Late Twentieth Century". Journal of Semitic Studies. 34 (2): 363–375. doi:10.1093/jss/XXXIV.2.363.
  • Comfort, Anthony (2017). "Fortresses of the Tur Abdin and the Confrontation between Rome and Persia". Anatolian Studies. 67: 181–229. doi:10.1017/S0066154617000047. JSTOR 26571543. S2CID 164455185.
  • Heinrichs, Wolfhart (1990). "Written Turoyo". Studies in Neo-Aramaic. Atlanta: Scholars Press. pp. 181–188. ISBN 9781555404307.
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  • Jastrow, Otto (1987). (PDF). Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies. 1: 7–16. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-07-15.
  • Jastrow, Otto (1990). "Personal and Demonstrative Pronouns in Central Neo-Aramaic: A Comparative and Diachronic Discussion Based on Ṭūrōyo and the Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Hertevin". Studies in Neo-Aramaic. Atlanta: Scholars Press. pp. 89–103. ISBN 9781555404307.
  • Jastrow, Otto (1993) [1967]. Laut- und Formenlehre des neuaramäischen Dialekts von Mīdin im Ṭūr ʻAbdīn. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 9783447033343.
  • Jastrow, Otto (1996). "Passive Formation in Ṭuroyo and Mlaḥsô". Israel Oriental Studies. 16: 49–57. ISBN 9004106464.
  • Jastrow, Otto (2002) [1992]. Lehrbuch der Ṭuroyo-Sprache. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 9783447032131.
  • Jastrow, Otto (2011). "Ṭuroyo and Mlaḥsô". The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook. Berlin-Boston: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 697–707. ISBN 9783110251586.
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  • Khan, Geoffrey (2019a). "The Neo-Aramaic Dialects of Eastern Anatolia and Northwestern Iran". The Languages and Linguistics of Western Asia: An Areal Perspective. Berlin-Boston: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 190–236. ISBN 9783110421743.
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  • Mengozzi, Alessandro (2011). "Neo-Aramaic Studies: A Survey of Recent Publications". Folia Orientalia. 48: 233–265.
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  • Palmer, Andrew (1990). Monk and Mason on the Tigris Frontier: The Early History of Ṭur 'Abdin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521360265.
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  • Sabar, Yona (2003). "Aramaic, once an International Language, now on the Verge of Expiration: Are the Days of its Last Vestiges Numbered?". When Languages Collide: Perspectives on Language Conflict, Language Competition, and Language Coexistence. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. pp. 222–234. ISBN 9780814209134.
  • Saouk, Joseph (2015). "Quo vadis Turoyo? A Description of the Situation and the Needs of the Neo-Aramaic of Tur-Abdin (Turkey)". Parole de l'Orient. 40: 361–377.
  • Sommer, Renate (2012). "The Role of Religious Freedom in the Context of the Accession Negotiations between the European Union and Turkey – The Example of the Arameans". The Slow Disappearance of the Syriacs from Turkey and of the Grounds of the Mor Gabriel Monastery. Münster: LIT Verlag. pp. 157–170. ISBN 9783643902689.
  • Talay, Shabo, ed. (2017). Šlomo Surayt: An Introductory Course in Surayt Aramaic (Turoyo). Glane: Bar Hebraeus Verlag. ISBN 9789050470667.
  • Tezel, Aziz (2003). Comparative Etymological Studies in the Western Neo-Syriac (Ṭūrōyo) Lexicon: With Special Reference to Homonyms, Related Words and Borrowings with Cultural Signification. Uppsala: Uppsala University Library. ISBN 9789155455552.
  • Tezel, Sina (2011). Arabic Borrowings in Ṣūrayt/Ṭūrōyo within the Framework of Phonological Correspondences in Comparison with Other Semitic Languages. Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet. ISBN 9789155480585.
  • Tezel, Sina (2015a). "Arabic or Ṣūrayt/Ṭūrōyo". Arabic and Semitic Linguistics Contextualized: A Festschrift for Jan Retsö. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 554–568.
  • Tezel, Sina (2015b). "Neologisms in Ṣūrayt/Ṭūrōyo". Neo-Aramaic in Its Linguistic Context. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. pp. 100–109.
  • Tezel, Aziz (2015). "The Turkish Lexical Influence on Ṣūrayt/Ṭūrōyo: A Preliminary Selection of Examples". Neo-Aramaic and its Linguistic Context. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. pp. 69–99. doi:10.31826/9781463236489-006. ISBN 9781463236489.
  • Tomal, Maciej (2015). "Towards a Description of Written Ṣurayt/Ṭuroyo: Some Syntactic Functions of the Particle kal". Neo-Aramaic and its Linguistic Context. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. pp. 29–52.
  • Waltisberg, Michael (2016). Syntax des Ṭuroyo. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 9783447107310.
  • Weaver, Christina Michelle; Kiraz, George A. (2016). "Turoyo Neo-Aramaic in Northern New Jersey" (PDF). International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 237: 19–36.
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External links edit

  • Turoyo alphabets and pronunciation at Omniglot
  • Semitisches Tonarchiv: Dokumentgruppe "Aramäisch/Turoyo" (in German)
  • The Turoyo language today 2007-09-25 at the Wayback Machine
  • Syriac Turoyo-Bible
  • Turoyo is studied and taught at the HSE Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies

turoyo, language, turoyo, turoyo, ܛܘܪܝܐ, also, referred, surayt, turoyo, ܣܘܪܝܬ, modern, suryoyo, turoyo, ܣܘܪܝܝܐ, central, aramaic, language, traditionally, spoken, abdin, region, southeastern, turkey, northern, syria, turoyo, speakers, mostly, adherents, syria. Turoyo Turoyo ܛܘܪܝܐ also referred to as Surayt Turoyo ܣܘܪܝܬ or modern Suryoyo Turoyo ܣܘܪܝܝܐ is a Central Neo Aramaic language traditionally spoken in the Tur Abdin region in southeastern Turkey and in northern Syria Turoyo speakers are mostly adherents of the Syriac Orthodox Church but there are also some Turoyo speaking adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldean Catholic Church especially from the towns of Midyat and Qamishli The language is also spoken throughout diaspora among modern Assyrians Syriacs 5 It is classified as a vulnerable language 6 7 Most speakers use the Classical Syriac language for literature and worship 8 Turoyo is not mutually intelligible with Western Neo Aramaic having been separated for over a thousand years 9 its closest relatives are Mlaḥso and western varieties of Northeastern Neo Aramaic like Suret 10 TuroyoSurayt Suryoyoܛܘܪܝܐ TuroyoPronunciation tˤuˈrɔjɔ Native toTurkey SyriaRegionMardin Province of southeastern Turkey Al Hasakah Governorate in northeastern SyriaEthnicitySyriac AssyrianNative speakers undated figure of 250 000 1 Language familyAfro Asiatic SemiticCentral SemiticNorthwest SemiticAramaicEastern AramaicCentral Neo AramaicTuroyoWriting systemSyriac alphabet West Syriac Serṭo Latin alphabet Turoyo alphabet Official statusRecognised minoritylanguage in Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria a 2 Turkey 3 4 Language codesISO 639 3 a href https iso639 3 sil org code tru class extiw title iso639 3 tru tru a Glottologturo1239ELPTuroyoThis article contains IPA phonetic symbols Without proper rendering support you may see question marks boxes or other symbols instead of Unicode characters For an introductory guide on IPA symbols see Help IPA Contents 1 Etymology 2 History 3 Dialects 4 Alphabet 5 Phonology 5 1 Consonants 5 2 Vowels 6 Morphology 7 Syntax 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 Sources 12 External linksEtymology edit nbsp Neo Aramaic languages including Turoyo represented in red colour Term Ṭuroyo comes from the word ṭuro meaning mountain thus designating a specific Neo Aramaic language of the mountain region of Tur Abdin in southeastern part of modern Turkey hence Turabdinian Aramaic Other more general names for the language are Surayt or Suryoyo 11 12 Term Surayt is commonly used by its speakers as a general designation for their language modern or historical It is also used by the recent EU funded programme to revitalize the language in preference to Ṭuroyo since Surayt is a historical name for the language used by its speakers while Turoyo is a more academic name for the language used to distinguish it from other Neo Aramaic languages and Classical Syriac However especially in the diaspora the language is frequently called Surayt Suryoyo or Surayt Sŭryoyo or Suryoyo depending on dialect meaning Syriac in general Since it has developed as one of western variants of the Syriac language Turoyo is sometimes also referred to as Western Neo Syriac 13 History edit nbsp nbsp Turoyo nbsp Hertevin dialect nbsp Qaraqosh nbsp Bohtan nbsp Mlaḥso nbsp Alqosh nbsp Barzani nbsp Inter Zab nbsp Betanure nbsp Zakho nbsp Trans Zab nbsp Barwar nbsp Koy Sanjaq Christian Jewish nbsp Urmia Christian Jewish nbsp Sanandaj Christian Jewish class notpageimage Red markers represent Christian Neo Aramaic varieties while blue represents Jewish ones and purple represents both spoken in the same town Turoyo has evolved from the Eastern Aramaic colloquial varieties that have been spoken in Tur Abdin and the surrounding plain for more than a thousand years since the initial introduction of Aramaic to the region However it has also been influenced by Classical Syriac which itself was the variety of the Eastern Middle Aramaic spoken farther west in the city of Edessa today known as Urfa Due to the proximity of Tur Abdin to Edessa and the closeness of their parent languages meant that Turoyo bears a greater similarity to Classical Syriac than do Northeastern Neo Aramaic varieties The homeland of Turoyo is the Tur Abdin region in southeastern Turkey 14 This region is a traditional stronghold of Syriac Orthodox Christians 15 16 The Turoyo speaking population prior to the Syriac genocide largely adhered to the Syriac Orthodox Church 14 In 1970 it was estimated that there were 20 000 Turoyo speakers still living in the area however they gradually migrated to Western Europe and elsewhere in the world 14 The Turoyo speaking diaspora is now estimated at 250 000 1 14 In the diaspora communities Turoyo is usually a second language which is supplemented by more mainstream languages 5 The language is considered endangered by UNESCO but efforts are still made by Turoyo speaking communities to sustain the language through use in homelife school programs to teach Turoyo on the weekends and summer day camps 5 17 Today when only hundreds of speakers remain in Tur Abdin 14 Until recently Turoyo was a spoken vernacular and was never written down Kthobonoyo Classical Syriac was the written language In the 1880s various attempts were made with the encouragement of western missionaries to write Turoyo in the Syriac alphabet in the Serto and in Estrangelo script used for West Syriac Kthobhonoyo One of the first comprehensive studies of the language was published in 1881 by orientalists Eugen Prym and Albert Socin who classified it as a Neo Aramaic dialect 18 However with upheaval in their homeland through the twentieth century many Turoyo speakers have emigrated around the world particularly to Syria Lebanon Sweden and Germany The Swedish government s education policy that every child be educated in his or her first tongue led to the commissioning of teaching materials in Turoyo Yusuf Ishaq thus developed an alphabet for Turoyo based on the Latin script Silas Uzel also created a separate Latin alphabet for Turoyo in Germany A series of reading books and workbooks that introduce Ishaq s alphabet are called Toxu Qorena or Come Let s Read This project has also produced a Swedish Turoyo dictionary of 4500 entries the Svensk turabdinskt Lexikon Leksiqon Swedoyo Suryoyo Another old teacher writer and translator of Turoyo is Yuhanun Uzel born in Miden in 1934 who in 2009 finished the translation of the Peshitta Bible in Turoyo with Benjamin Bar Shabo and Yahkup Bilgic in Serto West Syriac and Latin script a foundation for the Aramaic Syriac language A team of AI researchers completed the first translation model for Turoyo in 2023 19 Dialects editTuroyo has borrowed some words from Arabic 20 Kurdish Armenian and Turkish The main dialect of Turoyo is that of Midyat Meḏyoyo in the east of Turkey s Mardin Province Every village have distinctive dialects Midwoyo Kfarzoyo Iwarnoyo Nihloyo and Izloyo respectively citation needed All Turoyo dialects are mutually intelligible with each other There is a dialectal split between the town of Midyat and the villages with only slight differences between the individual villages 14 A closely related language or dialect Mlaḥso spoken in two villages in Diyarbakir is now deemed extinct 14 Alphabet editTuroyo is written both in Latin and Syriac Serto characters The orthography below was the outcome of the International Surayt Conference held at the University of Cambridge 27 30 August 2015 12 1 Consonants Latin letter B b V v G g Ġ ġ J j D d Ḏ ḏ H h W w Z z Z z Ḥ ḥ Ṭ ṭ Ḍ ḍ Y y Syriac letter ܐ ܒ ܒ ܓ ܓ ܔ ܕ ܕ ܗ ܘ ܙ ܙ ܚ ܛ ܜ ܝ Pronunciation ʔ b v g ɣ dʒ d d h w z ʒ ħ tˤ dˤ j Latin letter K k X x L l M m N n S s C c P p F f Ṣ ṣ Q q R r S s C c T t Ṯ ṯ Syriac letter ܟ ܟ ܠ ܡ ܢ ܣ ܥ ܦ ܦ ܨ ܩ ܪ ܫ ܫ ܬ ܬ Pronunciation k x l m n s ʕ p f sˤ q r ʃ tʃ t 8 Vowels Latin letter A a A a E e E e O o Y I y i W U w u Syriac vowel mark or mater lectionis ܝ ܘ Pronunciation a ă e e o j i w u Attempts to write down Turoyo have begun since the 16th century with Jewish Neo Aramaic adaptions and translations of Biblical texts commentaries as well as hagiographic stories books and folktales in Christian dialects The East Syriac Bishop Mar Yohannan working with American missionary Rev Justin Perkins also tried to write the vernacular version of religious texts culminating in the production of school cards in 1836 21 In 1970s Germany members of the Aramean evangelical movement Aramaische Freie Christengemeinde used Turoyo to write short texts and songs 22 The Syriac evangelical movement has also published over 300 Turoyo hymns in a compedium named Kole Ruhonoye in 2012 as well as translating the four gospels with Mark and John being published so far 22 The alphabet as used in a forthcoming translation of New Peshitta in Turoyo by Yuhanun Bar Shabo Sfar mele surtoṯoyo Picture dictionary and Benjamin Bar Shabo s Alice s Adventures in Wonderland In the 1970s educator Yusuf Ishaq attempted to systematically incorporate the Turoyo language into a Latin orthography which resulted in a series of reading books entitled toxu qorena 5 Although this system is not used outside of Sweden other Turoyo speakers have developed their own non standardized Latin script to use the language on digital platforms The Swedish government s mother tongue education project treated Turoyo as an immigrant language like Arabic Turkish Kurdish and began to teach the language in schools 22 The staff of the National Swedish Institute for Teaching Material produced a Latin letter based alphabet grammar dictionary school books and instructional material Due to religious and political objections the project was halted 22 There are other efforts to translate famous works of literature including The Aramaic Students Association s translation of The Little Prince the Nisbin Foundation s translation of Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood 22 Phonology editPhonetically Turoyo is very similar to Classical Syriac The additional phonemes d ʒ as in judge t ʃ as in church ʒ as in azure and a few instances of dˤ the Arabic ẓaʾ mostly only appear in loanwords from other languages The most distinctive feature of Turoyo phonology is its use of reduced vowels in closed syllables The phonetic value of such reduced vowels differs depending both on the value of original vowel and the dialect spoken The Miḏyoyo dialect also reduces vowels in pre stress open syllables That has the effect of producing a syllabic schwa in most dialects in Classical Syriac the schwa is not syllabic Consonants edit Labial Dental Alveolar Palato alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn geal Glottal plain emphatic Nasal m n nˤ Plosive p b t d tˤ dˤ k ɡ q ʔ Affricate tʃ dʒ Fricative f v 8 d s z sˤ dˤ ʃ ʒ x ɣ ħ ʕ h Approximant w l lˤ j Trill r rˤ Vowels edit Turoyo has the following set of vowels 23 Front Central Back Close i u Mid e o Open a Lax vowels Central Back Close ŭ Mid e Open ăMorphology editThe verbal system of Turoyo is similar to that used in other Neo Aramaic languages In Classical Syriac the ancient perfect and imperfect tenses had started to become preterite and future tenses respectively and other tenses were formed by using the participles with pronominal clitics or shortened forms of the verb hwa to become Most modern Aramaic languages have completely abandoned the old tenses and form all tenses from stems based around the old participles The classical clitics have become incorporated fully into the verb form and can be considered more like inflections Turoyo has also developed the use of the demonstrative pronouns much more than any other Aramaic language In Turoyo they have become definite articles masculine singular u malko the king feminine singular i malekṯo the queen plural common am malke the kings am malkoṯe the queens The other Central Neo Aramaic dialect of Mlahso and Ansha villages in Diyarbakir Province is somewhat different from Turoyo It is virtually extinct its last few speakers live in Qamishli in northeastern Syria and in the diaspora 23 Syntax editTuroyo has three sets of particles that take the place of the copula in nominal clauses enclitic copula independent copula and emphatic independent copula In Turoyo the non enclitic copula or the existential particle is articulated with the use of two sets of particles kal and kit 21 See also editAramaic language Neo Aramaic languages Central Neo Aramaic languages Aramaic studies Bible translations into Aramaic Bible translations into Syriac Syriac language Syriac alphabet Syriac literature Syriac studies Syriac Christianity Romanization of SyriacNotes edit The right to get an education in one s native tongue has been established as a legal guarantee References edit a b c Did you know Surayt Aramaic Online Project Free University of Berlin Elissa Jalinos 23 September 2021 Breakthrough in Syriac school crisis in Zalin Qamishli in North and East Syria Olaf Taw Association explains to SuroyoTV SuroyoTV Interview Interviewed by Jacob Mirza Zalin Syria SyriacPress Retrieved 14 April 2022 Akbulut Olgun 2023 10 19 For Centenary of the Lausanne Treaty Re Interpretation and Re Implementation of Linguistic Minority Rights of Lausanne International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 1 aop 1 24 doi 10 1163 15718115 bja10134 ISSN 1385 4879 Erdem Fazil Husnu Onguc Bahar 2021 06 30 SURYANICE ANADILINDE EGITIM HAKKI SORUNLAR VE COZUM ONERILERI Dicle Universitesi Hukuk Fakultesi Dergisi in Turkish 26 44 3 35 ISSN 1300 2929 a b c d Weaver amp Kiraz 2016 p 19 36 Turoyo Endangered Languages University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa 2022 Retrieved 30 April 2017 Saouk 2015 p 361 377 Brock 1989b p 363 375 Owens 2007 p 268 Kim Ronald 2008 Stammbaum or Continuum The Subgrouping of Modern Aramaic Dialects Reconsidered Journal of the American Oriental Society 128 3 505 531 ISSN 0003 0279 JSTOR 25608409 Awde Nicholas Lamassu Nineb Al Jeloo Nicholas 2007 Modern Aramaic English English Aramaic Dictionary and Phrasebook New York City NY Hippocrene ISBN 9780781810876 Retrieved 17 August 2012 a b Talay 2017 Tezel 2003 a b c d e f g Jastrow 2011 p 697 Palmer 1990 Barsoum 2008 Sibille Jean 2011 Turoyo Sorosoro Retrieved 30 July 2022 Prym amp Socin 1881 Syriac IO Translator www syriac io Retrieved 2023 05 06 Tezel 2015a p 554 568 a b Tomal 2015 p 29 52 a b c d e Talay Shabo 2015 Turoyo the Aramaic language of Turabdin and the translation of Alice In Lindseth Jon A Tannenbaum Alan eds Alice in a World of Wonderlands The Translations of Lewis Carroll s Masterpiece Vol I Essays New Castle DE Oak Knoll ISBN 9781584563310 a b Jastrow 2011 p 697 707 Sources editBarsoum Ignatius Aphram 2008 The History of Tur Abdin Piscataway NJ Gorgias Press ISBN 9781593337155 Bednarowicz Sebastian 2018 Neues Alphabet neue Sprache neue Kultur Was kann die Adaptation der lateinischen Schrift fur das Turoyo implizieren Neue Aramaische Studien Geschichte und Gegenwart Frankfurt am Main Peter Lang pp 203 214 ISBN 9783631731314 Beyer Klaus 1986 The Aramaic Language Its Distribution and Subdivisions Gottingen Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht ISBN 9783525535738 Bilgic Zeki 2018 Aramaisch des Tur Abdin schreiben und lesen Uberlegungen warum die Sprechergemeinschaft des Tur Abdin das Neu Aramaische nicht als Schriftsprache anerkennt Neue Aramaische Studien Geschichte und Gegenwart Frankfurt am Main Peter Lang pp 215 250 ISBN 9783631731314 Birol Simon 2018 Forgotten Witnesses Remembering and Interpreting the Sayfo in the Manuscripts of Tur Abdin Sayfo 1915 An Anthology of Essays on the Genocide of Assyrians Arameans during the First World War Piscataway NJ Gorgias Press pp 327 346 ISBN 9781463207304 Borbone Pier Giorgio 2017 From Tur Abdin to Rome The Syro Orthodox Presence in Sixteenth Century Rome Syriac in its Multi Cultural Context Leuven Peeters Publishers pp 277 287 ISBN 9789042931640 Brock Sebastian P 1989a Three Thousand Years of Aramaic Literature ARAM Periodical 1 1 11 23 Brock Sebastian P 1989b Some Observations on the Use of Classical Syriac in the Late Twentieth Century Journal of Semitic Studies 34 2 363 375 doi 10 1093 jss XXXIV 2 363 Comfort Anthony 2017 Fortresses of the Tur Abdin and the Confrontation between Rome and Persia Anatolian Studies 67 181 229 doi 10 1017 S0066154617000047 JSTOR 26571543 S2CID 164455185 Heinrichs Wolfhart 1990 Written Turoyo Studies in Neo Aramaic Atlanta Scholars Press pp 181 188 ISBN 9781555404307 Ishaq Yusuf M 1990 Turoyo from Spoken to Written Language Studies in Neo Aramaic Atlanta Scholars Press pp 189 199 ISBN 9781555404307 Jastrow Otto 1987 The Turoyo Language Today PDF Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 1 7 16 Archived from the original PDF on 2020 07 15 Jastrow Otto 1990 Personal and Demonstrative Pronouns in Central Neo Aramaic A Comparative and Diachronic Discussion Based on Ṭurōyo and the Eastern Neo Aramaic Dialect of Hertevin Studies in Neo Aramaic Atlanta Scholars Press pp 89 103 ISBN 9781555404307 Jastrow Otto 1993 1967 Laut und Formenlehre des neuaramaischen Dialekts von Midin im Ṭur ʻAbdin Wiesbaden Harrassowitz Verlag ISBN 9783447033343 Jastrow Otto 1996 Passive Formation in Ṭuroyo and Mlaḥso Israel Oriental Studies 16 49 57 ISBN 9004106464 Jastrow Otto 2002 1992 Lehrbuch der Ṭuroyo Sprache Wiesbaden Harrassowitz Verlag ISBN 9783447032131 Jastrow Otto 2011 Ṭuroyo and Mlaḥso The Semitic Languages An International Handbook Berlin Boston Walter de Gruyter pp 697 707 ISBN 9783110251586 Keser Kayaalp Elif 2019 Church Building in the Ṭur Abdin in the First Centuries of the Islamic Rule Authority and Control in the Countryside From Antiquity to Islam in the Mediterranean and Near East Sixt Tenth Century Leiden Boston Brill pp 176 209 ISBN 9789004386549 Khan Geoffrey 2019a The Neo Aramaic Dialects of Eastern Anatolia and Northwestern Iran The Languages and Linguistics of Western Asia An Areal Perspective Berlin Boston Walter de Gruyter pp 190 236 ISBN 9783110421743 Khan Geoffrey 2019b The Neo Aramaic Dialects and Their Historical Background The Syriac World London Routledge pp 266 289 ISBN 9781138899018 Krotkoff Georg 1990 An Annotated Bibliography of Neo Aramaic Studies in Neo Aramaic Atlanta Scholars Press pp 3 26 ISBN 9781555404307 Macuch Rudolf 1990 Recent Studies in Neo Aramaic Dialects Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 53 2 214 223 doi 10 1017 S0041977X00026045 S2CID 162559782 Mengozzi Alessandro 2011 Neo Aramaic Studies A Survey of Recent Publications Folia Orientalia 48 233 265 Owens Jonathan 2007 Endangered Languages of the Middle East Language Diversity Endangered Berlin New York Walter de Gruyter pp 263 277 ISBN 9783110170504 Palmer Andrew 1990 Monk and Mason on the Tigris Frontier The Early History of Ṭur Abdin Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521360265 Prym Eugen Socin Albert 1881 Der neu aramaeische Dialekt des Ṭur Abdin Gottingen Vandenhoeck amp Ruprecht s Verlag Saadi Abdul Massih 2018 Interdependence of Classical Syriac and Suryoyo of Tur Abdin STA Orthography for the STA Neue Aramaische Studien Geschichte und Gegenwart Frankfurt am Main Peter Lang pp 169 192 ISBN 9783631731314 Sabar Yona 2003 Aramaic once an International Language now on the Verge of Expiration Are the Days of its Last Vestiges Numbered When Languages Collide Perspectives on Language Conflict Language Competition and Language Coexistence Columbus Ohio State University Press pp 222 234 ISBN 9780814209134 Saouk Joseph 2015 Quo vadis Turoyo A Description of the Situation and the Needs of the Neo Aramaic of Tur Abdin Turkey Parole de l Orient 40 361 377 Sommer Renate 2012 The Role of Religious Freedom in the Context of the Accession Negotiations between the European Union and Turkey The Example of the Arameans The Slow Disappearance of the Syriacs from Turkey and of the Grounds of the Mor Gabriel Monastery Munster LIT Verlag pp 157 170 ISBN 9783643902689 Talay Shabo ed 2017 Slomo Surayt An Introductory Course in Surayt Aramaic Turoyo Glane Bar Hebraeus Verlag ISBN 9789050470667 Tezel Aziz 2003 Comparative Etymological Studies in the Western Neo Syriac Ṭurōyo Lexicon With Special Reference to Homonyms Related Words and Borrowings with Cultural Signification Uppsala Uppsala University Library ISBN 9789155455552 Tezel Sina 2011 Arabic Borrowings in Ṣurayt Ṭurōyo within the Framework of Phonological Correspondences in Comparison with Other Semitic Languages Uppsala Uppsala Universitet ISBN 9789155480585 Tezel Sina 2015a Arabic or Ṣurayt Ṭurōyo Arabic and Semitic Linguistics Contextualized A Festschrift for Jan Retso Wiesbaden Harrassowitz Verlag pp 554 568 Tezel Sina 2015b Neologisms in Ṣurayt Ṭurōyo Neo Aramaic in Its Linguistic Context Piscataway NJ Gorgias Press pp 100 109 Tezel Aziz 2015 The Turkish Lexical Influence on Ṣurayt Ṭurōyo A Preliminary Selection of Examples Neo Aramaic and its Linguistic Context Piscataway NJ Gorgias Press pp 69 99 doi 10 31826 9781463236489 006 ISBN 9781463236489 Tomal Maciej 2015 Towards a Description of Written Ṣurayt Ṭuroyo Some Syntactic Functions of the Particle kal Neo Aramaic and its Linguistic Context Piscataway NJ Gorgias Press pp 29 52 Waltisberg Michael 2016 Syntax des Ṭuroyo Wiesbaden Harrassowitz Verlag ISBN 9783447107310 Weaver Christina Michelle Kiraz George A 2016 Turoyo Neo Aramaic in Northern New Jersey PDF International Journal of the Sociology of Language 237 19 36 Yildiz Efrem 2000 The Aramaic Language and its Classification Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies 14 1 23 44 External links editTuroyo alphabets and pronunciation at Omniglot nbsp Turoyo language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator Semitisches Tonarchiv Dokumentgruppe Aramaisch Turoyo in German The Turoyo language today Archived 2007 09 25 at the Wayback Machine Syriac Turoyo Bible Turoyo is studied and taught at the HSE Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Turoyo language amp oldid 1209408566, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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