Koy Sanjaq Syriac language
Koy Sanjaq Surat (Arabic: سورث كوي سنجق) is a modern Eastern Syriac language. Speakers of the language call it simply Surat, or 'Syriac'. It is spoken in the town of Koy Sanjaq in the Erbil Governorate. The speakers of Koy Sanjaq Surat have traditionally been Assyrians and thus the language has generally been considered a dialect of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic. The Madnhâyâ version of the Syriac alphabet is used in writing, but most written material is in the Syriac language used in worship.
| Koy Sanjaq Surat | |
|---|---|
| ܣܘܪܬ Sûrat | |
| Native to | Iraq |
| Region | Koy Sanjaq and Armota in Erbil Governorate |
Native speakers | (800 cited 1995)[1] |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kqd |
| Glottolog | koys1242[2] |
Origins
Koy Sanjaq Surat seems to be related to Senaya, which is spoken by Assyrians who originally lived east of Koy Sanjaq, in the city of Sanandaj in Iran. Not enough is known about the language to make any definite comment, but it seems that Koy Sanjaq Surat may have developed as the language of Assyrian settlers from Sanandaj.
Influences
The dialect also has much more Kurdish influences then other dialects of Syriac. It does not appear to be intelligible with Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, which is spoken by co-ethnics further north, or with the Jewish Neo-Aramaic language of Lishanid Noshan, which was traditionally spoken by the Jews of Koy Sanjaq.
References
- Koy Sanjaq Surat at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Koy Sanjaq Jewish Neo-Aramaic". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.