me economy across a highway ad – llama
lovin
Bravo birthday on doin emotion idiom
Gouda hello my dad kept TEDx memory but
how about lashana turret hellish annum
checksum economy eczema I am sure you
did not understand a word of that unless
you are a Syrian or you have a Syrian
friends the purpose of this I just
greeted you in this alien language is
for you to have the opportunity of
hearing the music the melody the sounds
of this beautiful ancient yet endangered
language my name is Nina plumber sue I
am a linguist and I specialize in
documenting the Assyrian language I have
dedicated a large part of my adult life
and writing editing publishing in the
language and more power importantly as
an academic documenting the language on
its and its various dialects today I
will speak about who the Assyrians are
very briefly succinctly and what is the
Assyrian language why is it endangered
and what can one do or we do to fight
against this endangerment well who are
the Assyrians the Assyrians are an
ancient and indigenous people their
original homeland is spread across four
modern states Iraq Turkey Syria and Iran
because of persecution and massacres and
genocides
there is a huge Syrian diaspora also in
the West in Europe for example Germany
France Sweden Australia New Zealand and
in the US for example Chicago’s known
generally as the new little Nineveh the
modern Assyrian language is of course
indigenous to Iraq Syria Turkey and Iran
it is the oldest continuously spoken
language in Iraq although it has law
much of its prestige yet it still I say
prestige because I’m sure many of you
know that in the ancient during the it
was the lingua franca of the ancient
world yet it is still spoken by the
Assyrians and Vista jiz of this language
are still found and dominant official
languages of Iraq let’s say Arabic and
Kurdish not only has the classical and
standard modern Arabic lexicon borrowed
abundantly from the Assyrian language
but the collegial Iraqi Arabic is full
of such long words let me miss goof
which is a famous Iraqi dish the name
actually has Assyrian etymology another
good example is HESA now is again from
the Assyrian Russia this is the case
with Kurdish – according to shade who is
a specialist in the Kurdish language and
authority I may say he a Kurdish
agricultural vocabulary has borrowed
extensively from the Assyrian language
he says and I quote the Christian
minorities are Assyrians also possessed
superior agricultural skills Kurds who
have taken over their villages are often
not capable of maintaining or repairing
the terrorist mountain plots and
complicated irrigation systems this
would suggest that Kurdish vocabulary
would include many loanwords
particularly from the languages of the
neighbouring Christian ie Assyrians end
of quote
thus shades authoritative Kurdish
English dictionary fair hanga Carmen
jingle easy attest to the Assyrian
etymology of many such agricultural
vocabularies in fact outside their
cultural vocabulary even the
terminologies associated with us animal
husbandry are full of such lawn words
what comes to mind for example is Zoma
and berry they are again of Assyria
etymology soma and b3 respectively now
let’s come to the nomenclature what is
the language called the borrowing from
anthropology we know there is a tick and
imagem one is what the people the
natives apply to their language and what
is the others called the language the
Assyrian generally referred to their
language as suited which is really an ad
we’ll adverbial form of Surya sir royal
which is to say Surya Surya has
developed etymologically from the
ancient Asher ayah a suryya meaning
Assyrians that’s why you will find the
Assyrians of are referring to the
languages of their neighbors at verbally
so for an Assyrian to say I speak
Kurdish they would say I speak ordered
which means Kurdish Lee now the ethic
term which is used academically is north
eastern new or Aramaic which is a
recently coined academic term a rather
strange and I’m pleasing term to the
native speakers here
the language is endangered yes indeed it
is
according to UNESCO atlas of endangered
languages the Assyrian language has been
recognized as a definitely endangered
language one scholar has actually gone
as far as saying that the language is
bound to die in this century what makes
this language endangered well one
particular contributing factor is the
ongoing massacres and genocides that the
Assyrians have been subjected to
starting from the 1842 massacres of
Bhadra Hamburg 1933 massacre of Somali
which was committed by the Iraqi army
against innocent Syrian citizens and
which I may add remains and recognized
and recognized and apologized for in
Iraq and most recently the ISIS attacks
on the Assyrians in
Syria and in Iraq an example 34 old
Assyrian villages situated along the
river harbor in Syria were forcibly
evacuated by Isis when they attack them
and now as a result of that there are
hardly any Assyrians left the original
inhabitants in these villages they are
they have almost all sought refuge in
the West and scientifically as speaking
as an academic we know a language is not
to survive and the Dysport outside its
natural inhabited after second third or
fourth generation another thing is
according to Nabi the Middle East has
been infected with language chauvinism
for the best part of the 20th century
and in Iraq in particular the
suppression of the Assyrian language
started only a year after the
establishment of the modern state of
Iraq
that’s it 1932 that brings us to the
Iraqi Constitution the early Iraqi
constitutions did not recognize but
Arabic as an official language and then
they made slight improvements where they
gave priority to Arabic and then they
recognized Kurdish but not legislating
any legislations where they were
granting the the Syrian citizens much
language rights Hornberger asserts
indigenous languages are under attack
all over the world
and are subjected to seemingly
irresistible social political and
economic pressures yet there is also
accumulating evidence that language
policy and language education can serve
as vehicles for promoting the vitality
and stability of these languages
something positive there therefore let
us talk about what are the Assyrians
trying to do to fight this endangerment
in light of inadequate policies and
legislations in the countries that they
were born at where they are indigenous
to they have exploiting that
is made in technology there are many
apps now teaching the kids how to speak
the language and in fact one particular
project is Hill Gate online which means
lessons online which is a virtual school
aspiring to become a virtual University
where anyone anywhere in the world can
attend these classes and learn the
language as long as they have internet
connections and in Australia in
particular the large community presence
of a large community there has managed
to establish schools running on national
curricula yet managed to squeeze the
Assyrian language there also all this is
great
all this is very welcomed but this is
not enough what is needed to reverse the
endangerment of this language is genuine
government policies and legislations
both here since we are here both in the
KRG and in the central Iraqi government
we are for example in dire need of
legislating and establishing a special
commission consisting of language
experts in the Assyrian language the
core duty of this commission could be to
establish state radios and televisions
broadcasting of the language founding
educational institutions where the
language is told to the people another
important factor which is also needed is
to amend the current constitution and
recognise Assyrian as one of the
official languages in par with Arabic
and Kurdish now I don’t mean in areas
where they form a majority let’s face it
that’s becoming harder in a line of
especially after the ISIS attacks but we
needed to be recognized and par with
Kurdish and in Arabic in another word
equality is not enough what is needed is
equity furthermore for an indigenous
language to survive according to
and remain it can only do so in a
setting where a minimal number of users
ideally around 100,000 speakers living
in a compact and secure environment thus
of the Assyrian people and the language
are to survive in their indigenous
homeland unless we are here Iraq they
can only do so within an area prescribed
to them
however as nabi asserts this would
require a commitment on the part of the
iraqi government to expand
ethno-linguistic recognition to
territory now before I conclude I want
to show you a 20 second long video of an
informant whom I recorded in the summer
of last year in selamanya I was told he
is one of the most fluent speakers of
the Assyrian dialect of ammonia which is
highly endangered now I was trying to
elicit basic lexical terms from this
informant in order not to influence my
dialect to influence his I asked in
Arabic or in Kurdish so I asked them
what is lower light which is a very
simple lexical item used every day and
you can see in this short video how he
struggles to answer it or maybe not well
basically he stares at me and I’ve cut
the video short in order to fit within
the limited time I was given and then he
turns around and says I don’t know can
you tell me what I should be saying if
this does not bring it home for us to
fathom and understand how endangered
this language is I really don’t know
what would but now in conclusion I
really want to pose a question on your
behalf
our ask on your behalf
why does it concern me why should I care
that the Assyrian language is endangered
when I’m not an Assyrian nor do I speak
the Assyrian language well if we
subscribe and I should believe that we
all do to the notion that with the death
of every language a whole and entire
culture dies and every culture that dies
is part of our civilized civilization
dying then we should fathom the fact
that cultural diversity is as important
to human domain as biodiversity is and
the kingdoms of plants and animals both
are essential for our survival what we
learn through the lenses of other
cultures helps inspire and create our
own Kawasaki spas shukran thank you [Music]
lovin
Bravo birthday on doin emotion idiom
Gouda hello my dad kept TEDx memory but
how about lashana turret hellish annum
checksum economy eczema I am sure you
did not understand a word of that unless
you are a Syrian or you have a Syrian
friends the purpose of this I just
greeted you in this alien language is
for you to have the opportunity of
hearing the music the melody the sounds
of this beautiful ancient yet endangered
language my name is Nina plumber sue I
am a linguist and I specialize in
documenting the Assyrian language I have
dedicated a large part of my adult life
and writing editing publishing in the
language and more power importantly as
an academic documenting the language on
its and its various dialects today I
will speak about who the Assyrians are
very briefly succinctly and what is the
Assyrian language why is it endangered
and what can one do or we do to fight
against this endangerment well who are
the Assyrians the Assyrians are an
ancient and indigenous people their
original homeland is spread across four
modern states Iraq Turkey Syria and Iran
because of persecution and massacres and
genocides
there is a huge Syrian diaspora also in
the West in Europe for example Germany
France Sweden Australia New Zealand and
in the US for example Chicago’s known
generally as the new little Nineveh the
modern Assyrian language is of course
indigenous to Iraq Syria Turkey and Iran
it is the oldest continuously spoken
language in Iraq although it has law
much of its prestige yet it still I say
prestige because I’m sure many of you
know that in the ancient during the it
was the lingua franca of the ancient
world yet it is still spoken by the
Assyrians and Vista jiz of this language
are still found and dominant official
languages of Iraq let’s say Arabic and
Kurdish not only has the classical and
standard modern Arabic lexicon borrowed
abundantly from the Assyrian language
but the collegial Iraqi Arabic is full
of such long words let me miss goof
which is a famous Iraqi dish the name
actually has Assyrian etymology another
good example is HESA now is again from
the Assyrian Russia this is the case
with Kurdish – according to shade who is
a specialist in the Kurdish language and
authority I may say he a Kurdish
agricultural vocabulary has borrowed
extensively from the Assyrian language
he says and I quote the Christian
minorities are Assyrians also possessed
superior agricultural skills Kurds who
have taken over their villages are often
not capable of maintaining or repairing
the terrorist mountain plots and
complicated irrigation systems this
would suggest that Kurdish vocabulary
would include many loanwords
particularly from the languages of the
neighbouring Christian ie Assyrians end
of quote
thus shades authoritative Kurdish
English dictionary fair hanga Carmen
jingle easy attest to the Assyrian
etymology of many such agricultural
vocabularies in fact outside their
cultural vocabulary even the
terminologies associated with us animal
husbandry are full of such lawn words
what comes to mind for example is Zoma
and berry they are again of Assyria
etymology soma and b3 respectively now
let’s come to the nomenclature what is
the language called the borrowing from
anthropology we know there is a tick and
imagem one is what the people the
natives apply to their language and what
is the others called the language the
Assyrian generally referred to their
language as suited which is really an ad
we’ll adverbial form of Surya sir royal
which is to say Surya Surya has
developed etymologically from the
ancient Asher ayah a suryya meaning
Assyrians that’s why you will find the
Assyrians of are referring to the
languages of their neighbors at verbally
so for an Assyrian to say I speak
Kurdish they would say I speak ordered
which means Kurdish Lee now the ethic
term which is used academically is north
eastern new or Aramaic which is a
recently coined academic term a rather
strange and I’m pleasing term to the
native speakers here
the language is endangered yes indeed it
is
according to UNESCO atlas of endangered
languages the Assyrian language has been
recognized as a definitely endangered
language one scholar has actually gone
as far as saying that the language is
bound to die in this century what makes
this language endangered well one
particular contributing factor is the
ongoing massacres and genocides that the
Assyrians have been subjected to
starting from the 1842 massacres of
Bhadra Hamburg 1933 massacre of Somali
which was committed by the Iraqi army
against innocent Syrian citizens and
which I may add remains and recognized
and recognized and apologized for in
Iraq and most recently the ISIS attacks
on the Assyrians in
Syria and in Iraq an example 34 old
Assyrian villages situated along the
river harbor in Syria were forcibly
evacuated by Isis when they attack them
and now as a result of that there are
hardly any Assyrians left the original
inhabitants in these villages they are
they have almost all sought refuge in
the West and scientifically as speaking
as an academic we know a language is not
to survive and the Dysport outside its
natural inhabited after second third or
fourth generation another thing is
according to Nabi the Middle East has
been infected with language chauvinism
for the best part of the 20th century
and in Iraq in particular the
suppression of the Assyrian language
started only a year after the
establishment of the modern state of
Iraq
that’s it 1932 that brings us to the
Iraqi Constitution the early Iraqi
constitutions did not recognize but
Arabic as an official language and then
they made slight improvements where they
gave priority to Arabic and then they
recognized Kurdish but not legislating
any legislations where they were
granting the the Syrian citizens much
language rights Hornberger asserts
indigenous languages are under attack
all over the world
and are subjected to seemingly
irresistible social political and
economic pressures yet there is also
accumulating evidence that language
policy and language education can serve
as vehicles for promoting the vitality
and stability of these languages
something positive there therefore let
us talk about what are the Assyrians
trying to do to fight this endangerment
in light of inadequate policies and
legislations in the countries that they
were born at where they are indigenous
to they have exploiting that
is made in technology there are many
apps now teaching the kids how to speak
the language and in fact one particular
project is Hill Gate online which means
lessons online which is a virtual school
aspiring to become a virtual University
where anyone anywhere in the world can
attend these classes and learn the
language as long as they have internet
connections and in Australia in
particular the large community presence
of a large community there has managed
to establish schools running on national
curricula yet managed to squeeze the
Assyrian language there also all this is
great
all this is very welcomed but this is
not enough what is needed to reverse the
endangerment of this language is genuine
government policies and legislations
both here since we are here both in the
KRG and in the central Iraqi government
we are for example in dire need of
legislating and establishing a special
commission consisting of language
experts in the Assyrian language the
core duty of this commission could be to
establish state radios and televisions
broadcasting of the language founding
educational institutions where the
language is told to the people another
important factor which is also needed is
to amend the current constitution and
recognise Assyrian as one of the
official languages in par with Arabic
and Kurdish now I don’t mean in areas
where they form a majority let’s face it
that’s becoming harder in a line of
especially after the ISIS attacks but we
needed to be recognized and par with
Kurdish and in Arabic in another word
equality is not enough what is needed is
equity furthermore for an indigenous
language to survive according to
and remain it can only do so in a
setting where a minimal number of users
ideally around 100,000 speakers living
in a compact and secure environment thus
of the Assyrian people and the language
are to survive in their indigenous
homeland unless we are here Iraq they
can only do so within an area prescribed
to them
however as nabi asserts this would
require a commitment on the part of the
iraqi government to expand
ethno-linguistic recognition to
territory now before I conclude I want
to show you a 20 second long video of an
informant whom I recorded in the summer
of last year in selamanya I was told he
is one of the most fluent speakers of
the Assyrian dialect of ammonia which is
highly endangered now I was trying to
elicit basic lexical terms from this
informant in order not to influence my
dialect to influence his I asked in
Arabic or in Kurdish so I asked them
what is lower light which is a very
simple lexical item used every day and
you can see in this short video how he
struggles to answer it or maybe not well
basically he stares at me and I’ve cut
the video short in order to fit within
the limited time I was given and then he
turns around and says I don’t know can
you tell me what I should be saying if
this does not bring it home for us to
fathom and understand how endangered
this language is I really don’t know
what would but now in conclusion I
really want to pose a question on your
behalf
our ask on your behalf
why does it concern me why should I care
that the Assyrian language is endangered
when I’m not an Assyrian nor do I speak
the Assyrian language well if we
subscribe and I should believe that we
all do to the notion that with the death
of every language a whole and entire
culture dies and every culture that dies
is part of our civilized civilization
dying then we should fathom the fact
that cultural diversity is as important
to human domain as biodiversity is and
the kingdoms of plants and animals both
are essential for our survival what we
learn through the lenses of other
cultures helps inspire and create our
own Kawasaki spas shukran thank you [Music]
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