Assyrian

Assyrian may commonly refer to:

In antiquity

Assyrian Neo-Aramaic

Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, or Assyrian, is a Northeastern Neo-Aramaic language spoken by an estimated 200,000 people throughout a large region stretching from the plain of Urmia in northwestern Iran, to the Nineveh plains, and the Irbil, Mosul, Kirkuk and Duhok regions in northern Iraq, together with the Al Hasakah region of northeastern Syria, and formerly parts of southeastern Turkey. In recent years, Assyrian Neo-Aramaic has spread throughout the Assyrian diaspora.

Assyrian Neo-Aramaic is closely related to Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, both evolving from the same distinct Syriac dialect which evolved in Assyria between the 5th century BC and 1st century AD. There is also some Akkadian vocabulary and influence in the language. Assyrian Neo-Aramaic is written from right to left, and it uses the Madnhāyā version of the Syriac alphabet.

Speakers of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic and Turoyo are ethnic Assyrians and are descendants of the ancient Assyrian inhabitants of Northern Mesopotamia. Assyrian Neo-Aramaic is the largest speaking Neo-Aramaic group (232,000 speakers), which follows Chaldean Neo-Aramaic (206,000 speakers) and Turoyo (112,000 speakers).

Assyrian people

Assyrian people (Syriac: ܐܫܘܪܝܐ‎), also known as Chaldeans,Syriacs, and Arameans, (see names of Syriac Christians) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Middle East. Most Assyrians speak a Semitic Neo-Aramaic language, whose subdivisions include Northeastern, Central, and Western Neo-Aramaic, as well as another language, dependent on the country of residence.

The Assyrians are a Christian people who follow various Eastern Churches that use East Syrian and West Syrian liturgical rites. Churches that use the East Syrian rite include the Assyrian Church of the East, Ancient Church of the East, Assyrian Evangelical Church, Assyrian Pentecostal Church, and Chaldean Catholic Church, whose followers commonly speak Northeastern Neo-Aramaic whereas Churches that use the West Syrian rite include the Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church and followers speak Central Neo-Aramaic.

The Assyrians are descended from one of the oldest civilizations in the world, dating at 2500 BC, in ancient Mesopotamia, making them one of the oldest and longest surviving ethnic and cultural groups in Asia. Today, the indigenous Assyrian homeland areas are "part of today's northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and northeastern Syria". Many have migrated outside of the indigenous Assyrian homeland areas to other regions in the Caucasus, Levant, United States, Canada, Australia and Europe during the past century or so.Emigration was triggered by such events as the Assyrian Genocide by the Ottoman Empire during World War I, the Simele massacre in Iraq (1933), the Islamic revolution in Iran (1979), Arab Nationalist Baathist policies in Iraq and Syria, the Al-Anfal Campaign of Saddam Hussein