Syriac Language

Syriac Language (Leššānā Suryāyā)

  

          Syriac belongs to the Semitic family of languages, and is a dialect of Aramaic. Aramaic is one of the oldest languages known to the world. The history of Aramaic goes back to the second millennium B.C. In the time of Alexander the Great, Aramaic was the official language of all the nations from Asia Minor to Persia, from Armenia to Arabian Peninsula. It was divided into two dialects: the western, used in Palestine and Syria by the Jews, Palmyrans, and Nabateans; the eastern, spoken in Babylonia by the Jews, Mandeans, Manichaens, and the people of Upper Mesopotamia. Aramaic is a member of Western Asian family, called Semitic group (the name Semitic-after Shem, Noah’s son). Other members of the family include Ethiopic, Phoenician, Akkadian, Hebrew, Arabic etc. Among all other Semitic languages, Aramaic has the pre-eminence.

Origin and Development of Syriac
Syriac emereged as an independent Aramaic dialect in the early 1st centuary A.D. It started out simply as the local Aramaic dialect of Edessa. Later it came to be adopted as the literary language of Aramaic speaking christians all over Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia was a part of Assyrian empire. When This Aramaic dialect became the spoken language of the whole Assyrian empire, it was called the Assyrian or Syrian language. In course of time the names Arameans and Aramaic were changed into Syrians and Syriac.

The Syriac language, as we know it from its literature, did not spring from the dialect spoken in Syria, but from the Eastern Mesopotamian dialect. When the weakened Seleucides ceased to defend the Euphrates, small independent principalities were formed in that region. The most famous was the little Kingdom of Edessa whose capital Osrhoene was the religious centre of the country. This city also became an intellectual centre, and even then the language of its people attained great perfection. A little later under the influence of Christianity it developed considerably, and eventually became the liturgical and literary language of all the Churches from the shores of the Mediterranean to the centre of Persia.. In Syria proper and western Mesopotamia Syriac was first used simultaneously with Greek, but after the Monophysite schism Greek gradually fell into disuse. The period from the middle of the 5th century to the end of the 7th was the most brilliant period of Syriac literature.

Syriac influenced the common people more than any other Semitic languages. If we go through history we can see that Syrian Colonies were there in Asia Minor, India, Assyria, and in Babylon, and in these regions Syriac flourished as a language

Two centers of learning which helped the development of Syriac

The development in the Syriac language was initiated and fostered by two centers of thought-Edessa and Nisibis. Edessa was a center of Aramaen culture even before the 1st century AD. Certain developments in Syriac language were initiated at Edessa in the 3rd century AD. During this period Edessa was part of Roman Empire. Large number of Christians fearing persecution under the Persian king Sapor II came to this Christian centre and settled there. St. Ephrem was one among them. It was St. Ephrem who founded the Christian school of Edessa. The development of the Syriac language was pushed forward in the 3rd and succeeding centuries by the famous Christian school of Edessa. The Syriac developed in Edessa is known as west Syriac. Nisibis was another center, which helped the development of Syriac language. Nisibis became a center of learning after the origin of Nestorianism. The famous school of Nisibis was established by Narsai the greatest among the Nestorian writers. He began his career in Edessa. But as a Nestorian he and his colleagues were expelled from Edessa. They went to Nisibis and developed the school of Nisibis. The Syriac language that developed in Nisibis is called East Syriac.

The development of East Syriac and West Syriac
There were some progressive changes in Syriac language in the 3rd and succeeding centuries. The Syriac language developed in two lines- into East Syriac and West Syriac.

Estrangela is the most ancient form of Aramaic script. The word Estrangela is a composite of two words ‘Sitrum’= Character and ‘Ingil’ = Gospel. Thus Estrangela means Bible character. This script was used for writing copies of the Bible, hence the name. It had no proper vowel system. Words were pronounced according to the meaning and circumstances. East Syriac and West Syriac are two dialects of Estrangela originated due to the division of territories where Syriac was a living language, as Eastern part under the dominion of the Persian Sassanids (upto seventh century) and Western part dominated by emperors of Greek Byzantium. In fact these two dialects are not two different languages but are only modified versions of Estrangela. Both these dialects have same vocabulary, grammar and literature. The main differences consist in the script, vowel system and pronunciation.

Development in Script(alphabet)

In the 4th and following centuries certain important changes took place in the form of alphabet. The form of the alphabet was improved. In the early centuries the Syriac language made use of a script which was known as the estrangela script. The estrangela characters (script) were used in Pshitta and other versions of the Bible. Later during the 4th and the following centuries a script was developed out of the school of Nisibis. This is known as Eastern or Chaldean or Nestorian script. It achieved permanent shape before the 7th century. The second script was developed by the school of Edessa and brought to final shape before the 9th century. It is called the Western or Peshitha or Jacobite or Maronite script. With the adoption of these two scripts for common use, the estrangela script became an ornamental script for titles of books and chapters.

Origin and Development of the Vowel System in Syriac

As in other semitic languages so also in Syriac there are twenty two letters in the alphabet, which are all consonants. Hence they can be pronounced only by the help of vowels. The vowels were indicated initially by three letters only and they were alap, waw and yod. These letters were called mothers of reading. But this system of vowels were not sufficiently defined in writing and correct pronunciation of words by the common people became almost difficult.

Later a system of dots was adopted. It consisted of putting dots above or below the consonants in order to denote the vowels. This system was also inadequate. So another one was developed. In the new system one or more dots placed in different position above or below the consonants represented the various vowels. It was developed in Nisibis by East Syrians like Narsai and Joseph Houzaya. The West Syrians began to use the forms of Greek vowels in the place of East syrian dots. The East Syrian vowel system of dots is more satisfactory. The East Syrians in most cases have kept the original pronunciation.