Editing Assyria (section)

=== Languages ===

==== Akkadian ====
{{main|Akkadian language}}
[[File:Cuneiform tablet- caravan account MET DP-13441-005.jpg|thumb|An [[Old Assyrian period|Old Assyrian]] [[cuneiform]] tablet, containing an account of a caravan journey]]
The ancient Assyrians primarily spoke and wrote the Assyrian language, a [[Semitic languages|Semitic language]] (i.e. related to modern [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and [[Arabic]]) closely related to [[Babylonian language|Babylonian]], spoken in southern Mesopotamia.{{Sfn|Radner|2015|p=2}} Both Assyrian and Babylonian are generally regarded by modern scholars to be dialects of the Akkadian language.{{Sfn|Düring|2020|p=39}}{{Sfn|Radner|2015|p=2}}{{Sfn|Garfinkle|2007|p=54}}{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=313}} This is a modern convention since contemporary ancient authors considered Assyrian and Babylonian to be two separate languages.{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=313}} Only Babylonian was referred to as ''akkadûm'', with Assyrian being referred to as ''aššurû'' or ''aššurāyu''.{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=314}} Though both were written with cuneiform script, the signs look quite different and can be distinguished relatively easily.{{Sfn|Radner|2015|p=2}}

Given the vast timespan covered by ancient Assyria, the Assyrian language developed and evolved over time. Modern scholars broadly categorize it into three different periods, roughly (though far from precisely) corresponding to the periods used to divide Assyrian history: the Old Assyrian language (2000–1500&nbsp;BC), Middle Assyrian language (1500–1000&nbsp;BC) and Neo-Assyrian language (1000–500&nbsp;BC).{{Sfn|Deutscher|2009|p=20}} Because the record of Assyrian tablets and documents is still somewhat spotty, many of the stages of the language remain poorly known and documented.{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=315}}

The signs used in Old Assyrian texts are for the most part less complex than those used during the succeeding Middle and Neo-Assyrian periods and they were fewer in number, amounting to no more than 150–200 unique signs,{{sfn|Michel|2017|p=100}} most of which were syllabic signs (representing syllables).{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=315}} Due to the limited number of signs used, Old Assyrian is relatively easier to decipher for modern researchers than later forms of the language, though the limited number of signs also means that there are in cases several possible alternative phonetic values and readings.{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=315}}{{sfn|Veenhof|Eidem|2008|p=111}} This means that while it is easy to decipher the signs, many researchers remain uncomfortable with the language itself.{{sfn|Veenhof|Eidem|2008|p=111}} Though it was a more archaic variant of the later Assyrian language,{{sfn|Veenhof|Eidem|2008|p=111}} Old Assyrian also contains several words that are not attested in later periods, some being peculiar early forms of words and others being names for commercial terms or various textile and food products from Anatolia.{{sfn|Veenhof|Eidem|2008|p=112}}

In the Middle and Neo-Assyrian empires, the later versions of the Assyrian language were not the only versions of Akkadian used. Though Assyrian was typically used in letters, legal documents, administrative documents,{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=315}} and as a vernacular,{{Sfn|Radner|2021|p=149}} Standard Babylonian was also used in an official capacity.{{Sfn|Radner|2021|p=149}}{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=316}} Standard Babylonian was a highly codified version of ancient Babylonian, as used around 1500 BC, and was used as a language of high culture, for nearly all scholarly documents, literature, poetry{{Sfn|Radner|2021|p=149}}{{Sfn|Frahm|2017b|p=162}} and royal inscriptions.{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=315}} The culture of the Assyrian elite was strongly influenced by Babylonia in the south; in a vein similar to how [[Ancient Greece|Greek civilization]] was respected in, and influenced, [[ancient Rome]], the Assyrians had much respect for Babylon and its ancient culture.{{Sfn|Radner|2021|p=149}}

Because of the multilingual nature of the vast empire, many loan words are attested as entering the Assyrian language during the Neo-Assyrian period.{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=321}} The number of surviving documents written in cuneiform grow considerably fewer in the late reign of Ashurbanipal, which suggests that the language was declining since it is probably attributable to an increased use of Aramaic, often written on perishable materials such as leather scrolls or papyrus.{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=318}} The ancient Assyrian language did not disappear completely until around the end of the 6th century BC, well into the subsequent post-imperial period.{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=314}}

==== Aramaic and other languages ====
[[File:Syriac papyri.jpg|thumb|A 9th-century AD piece of [[papyrus]], with [[Syriac language]] writing]]
Because the Assyrians never imposed their language on foreign peoples whose lands they conquered outside of the Assyrian heartland, there were no mechanisms in place to stop the spread of languages other than Akkadian. Beginning with the migrations of Arameans into Assyrian territory during the Middle Assyrian period, this lack of linguistic policies facilitated the spread of the Aramaic language.{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=318}} As the most widely spoken and mutually understandable of the Semitic languages (the language group containing many of the languages spoken through the empire),{{Sfn|Radner|2021|p=147}} Aramaic grew in importance throughout the Neo-Assyrian period and increasingly replaced the Neo-Assyrian language even within the Assyrian heartland itself.{{Sfn|Frahm|2017b|p=180}} From the 9th century BC onward, Aramaic became the ''[[de facto]]'' lingua franca of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, with Neo-Assyrian and other forms of Akkadian becoming relegated to a language of the political elite.{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=318}}

From the time of Shalmaneser III, in the 9th century BC, Aramaic was used in state-related contexts alongside Akkadian and by the time of Tiglath-Pileser III, the kings employed both Akkadian and Aramaic-language royal scribes, confirming the rise of Aramaic to a position of an official language used by the imperial administration.{{Sfn|Radner|2021|p=149}}{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=319}} During the time after the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the old Assyrian language was completely abandoned in Mesopotamia in favor of Aramaic.{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=314}} By 500 BC, Akkadian was probably no longer a spoken language.{{Sfn|Deutscher|2009|p=20}}

Modern Assyrian people refer to their language as "[[Suret language|Assyrian]]" (''Sūrayt'' or ''Sūreth'').{{sfn|Donabed|2019|p=117}} Though it has little in common with the Assyrian dialect of the Akkadian language,{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=314}} it is a modern version of the ancient Mesopotamian Aramaic. The language retains some influence of ancient Akkadian,{{sfn|Donabed|2019|pp=117–118}} particularly in the form of loanwords.{{sfn|Kaufman|1974|p=164}} Modern Assyrian varieties of Aramaic are often referred to by scholars as [[Neo-Aramaic]] or Neo-Syriac. As a [[liturgical language]], many Assyrians also speak [[Syriac language|Syriac]], a codified version of classical Aramaic as spoken at Edessa during the Christianization of Assyria.{{sfn|Donabed|2019|pp=117–118}}

Another language sometimes used in ancient Assyria as a language of scholarship and culture, though only in written form, was the ancient [[Sumerian language]].{{Sfn|Wagensonner|2018|p=228}}{{sfn|Luukko|Van Buylaere|2017|p=321}} At the height of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, various other local languages were also spoken within the imperial borders, though none achieved the same level of official recognition as Aramaic.{{Sfn|Radner|2021|p=147}}