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Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac)

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See also: Terms for Syriac Christians

Naming conventions surrounding topics of

Aramaic language guidelines

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ISO 259-2 is recommended for the romanization of the Aramaic alphabet.

Aramaic romanization
Aramaic ܐ ܒ ܓ ܕ ܗ ܘ ܙ ܚ ܛ ܝ ܟ ܠ ܡ ܢ ܣ ܥ ܦ ܨ ܩ ܪ ܫ ܬ
Roman ʾ, ā b g d h w, ū z ḥ, ḫ ṭ y, ī k l m n s ʿ p ṣ q r š t

Proper names

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Background

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Syriac Christianity was established among the Syriac (Aramaic) speaking population of Upper Mesopotamia during the 1st to 5th centuries. Until the 7th century Islamic conquests, the group was divided between two empires, Sassanid Persia in the east and Rome/Byzantium in the west. The western group settled in Syria, the eastern in Assyria: the two names, although likely sharing the same etymology, have been separate lexemes since the Roman period. Syriac Christianity was divided from an early date over questions of Christological dogma, viz. Nestorianism in the east and Monophysitism in the west.

The historical (pre-WWII) English term for the group is "Syrians" (as in, e.g., Ephraim the Syrian). It is not now in use, since after the 1936 declaration of the Syrian Arab Republic, the term "Syrian" has come to designate citizens of that state regardless of ethnicity. This gives rise to a number of terminological problems.

Since the 19th century discovery of ancient Assyria (which in its final phase was largely Aramaic speaking), Syriac Christians have often been associated with that culture. The coterminous rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire gave rise to Assyrianism ("Assyrian" flavoured ethnic nationalism) among the Syriac Christian population. Contemporary disputes between hostile factions within the Syriac group are typically not motivated by differences in Christological doctrine, but inherited from "eastern" vs. "western" flavours of ethnic nationalism developed under Ottoman and French/British colonial rule. The three prevalent factions variously identify with Assyria (the 10th to 7th century BC empire), Aramaeans (11th to 8th century BC kingdoms in the Levant) and Chaldea (7th to 6th century BC Babylon), respectively.

A significant fraction of Syriacs/Assyrians today lives in diaspora. Ethnic identity has shifted away from being defined along linguistic and denominational lines, resulting in a greater emphasis on (genetic) ancestry and historiographical currents of ethnic nationalism.

Name of the ethno-religious group as a whole

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Further information: Names of Syriac Christians
Further information: Syriac (disambiguation) and Syrians

Adherents of Syriac Christianity are known by various names in English language sources, partly controversially:

  • "Syriac Christians": uncontroversial, but emphasizes religious denomination more than ethnic identity.
  • "Syriacs" - the "Syrian" (Suryoyo/Suraya) translation as defined by the Syriac Orthodox Church since 1952.
  • "Suryoye", an anglicization of the native Aramaic term (Sūryāyē ܣܘܪܝܝܐ). Uncontroversial but not widely used in English.
  • "Assyrians" is widespread in 19th to 20th century English literature, but has in recent times come to be associated with Assyrian ethnic nationalism in particular.
    • "Aturaye", "Ashuraye", "Othuroye" or similar is sometimes seen as anglicizations of Āṯūrāyē ܐܬܘܪܝܐ, the Aramaic for "Assyrian".
  • "Aramaeans", by adherents of a Syriac-Aramaic identity and detractors of an "Assyrian" identity.
    • "Oromoye" or similar is sometimes seen as an anglicization of Ārāmayē ܐܪܡܝܐ, the Aramaic for "Aramaean".

"Assyrian" is the term used in the majority of (post WW II, AD 1945 to 2000) encyclopedic sources. This may be different in recent (2000s) literature as a reflection of the naming dispute.

According to Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English), regarding articles that deal with all the groups, Wiki users are to use the most common term used in the English language to describe the group as a whole. Taking this into consideration, on Wikipedia, the de facto preferred name is "Assyrian" when dealing with the group as a whole in pages such as;

"Assyrians/Syriacs", or just When working with articles in specific issues, such that "Assyrians/Chaldeans/Syriacs" in a certain country, the proper term that is used specifically in that country should be used. For example, the group in Sweden, Germany, and Syria uses both "Assyrian" and "Syriac" are used:

  • categorization: Category:Assyrian people and subcategories, but note that we have Category:Syriacs with the same scope. This is an unresolved issue and one category needs to be merged into the other (or both into a third one with a more neutral name).

References

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Usage in notable English language publications.

  • the OED does not record any of the nouns Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac or Aramæan as referring to the modern ethnic group.
  • Because of the ethnic disputes involved, some sources have opted for a compositional name.
    • The 2000 US census calls the group "Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac"[1]
    • The 2001 census of Australia uses "Assyrian/Chaldean" (2001) It is however not clear what exactly is meant by this group, perhaps only members of the Assyrian Church of the East and the Chaldaean Catholic Church. Since 30.9 % of the people categorized as "Syrians" are labelled "Other Christian", it is likely that many Syriac Orthodox and Syrian Catholics are considered to be Syrians.

Subgroups

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Notes

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  1. ^ http://www.aina.org/books/stnd.htm

Guidelines for Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac articles

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These rules should be used when dealing with ACS aricles.

Syriac language

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Assyrian genocide

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See also

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other guidelines mediating recurring ethnic disputes
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