Turoyo ( ܣܘܪܝܬ, Surayth) ,the mountain Aramaic, also known as Surayt, Suroyo, Suryoyo - is a Central Neo-Aramaic language spoken nowadays mainly by the diaspora by the Assyrian people, about 100 thousand.
Origin
It originally appeared in the Tur Abdin region of South-Eastern Turkey where few people speak it now mainly in the Mardin Province and Al-Hasanak governate in North-easternen Syria.It's name comes from the word turo for mountain.
Name
Turoyo is a term used by scholars for the sake of avoiding confusion with other Neo-Aramaic languages .Its speakers call it Surayth,Suroyo,Suryoyo,lishana Swaddaya and otherwise.
Speakers
It is mainly spoken by the diaspora after the Assyrian Genocide by the Neo-Turks and subsequent wars in the region which led to massive migration initially to Western Europe in the 1970s.
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| Turoyo in Mardin,SE Turkey Yellow-19nth century Orange-end of 1960s |
Origin
It originally appeared in the Tur Abdin region of South-Eastern Turkey where few people speak it now mainly in the Mardin Province and Al-Hasanak governate in North-easternen Syria.It's name comes from the word turo for mountain.
Name
Turoyo is a term used by scholars for the sake of avoiding confusion with other Neo-Aramaic languages .Its speakers call it Surayth,Suroyo,Suryoyo,lishana Swaddaya and otherwise.
Speakers
It is mainly spoken by the diaspora after the Assyrian Genocide by the Neo-Turks and subsequent wars in the region which led to massive migration initially to Western Europe in the 1970s.
It is estimated that Turoyo is spoken by about 100 thousand speakers and is now considered endangered.
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Script for Turoyo
It is written mostly in the Serto script. In Sweden a Latin version was standardized for the language in the 1970s due to Swedish policy that everyone should be tought his/her mothertongue as a child.Latin is also used unofficially by private individuals over the internet,for letters,etc.
Russian expeditions in Tur Abdin
In 2018 two Russian expeditions by the Russian Institute of Classical East and Antiquity took place in the Tur Abdin region whose purpose was to attempt to document and describe the Turoyo language.
Ggg
Script for Turoyo
It is written mostly in the Serto script. In Sweden a Latin version was standardized for the language in the 1970s due to Swedish policy that everyone should be tought his/her mothertongue as a child.Latin is also used unofficially by private individuals over the internet,for letters,etc.
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| Surayth in the Serto alphabet |
In 2018 two Russian expeditions by the Russian Institute of Classical East and Antiquity took place in the Tur Abdin region whose purpose was to attempt to document and describe the Turoyo language.
These expeditions gathered audio recordings ,folklore tales and memories from native speakers of Turoyo.They also studied the morphology,phonology,semantics and grammar of the language.
External links
Shlomo Surayt (Learn Turoyo pdf)
Turoyo Neo-Aramaic in northern New Jersey
External links
Shlomo Surayt (Learn Turoyo pdf)
Turoyo Neo-Aramaic in northern New Jersey
Basic Turoyo phrases
