Editing Syriac language (section)

===Wider and narrower meanings===
[[File:Roman Orpheus Taming Wild Animals.jpg|thumb|265px|An ancient mosaic from [[Edessa]], from the 2nd century AD, with inscriptions in early Edessan Aramaic (''Old Syriac'')]]

Since the proper dating of the ''[[Cave of Treasures]]'',{{sfn|Toepel|2013|p=531-539}} modern scholars were left with no indications of native Aramaic adoption of Syrian/Syriac labels before the 5th century. In the same time, a growing body of later sources showed that both in Greek, and in native literature, those labels were most commonly used as designations for Aramaic language in general, including its various dialects (both eastern and western),{{sfn|Millar|2013|p=49}} thus challenging the conventional scholarly reduction of the term "Syriac language" to a specific designation for Edessan Aramaic. Such use, that excludes non-Edessan dialects, and particularly those of [[Western Aramaic language|Western Aramaic]] provenience,{{sfn|Rompay|2008|p=366}}{{sfn|Brock|2011|p=96-97}} persist as an accepted convention, but in the same time stands in contradiction both with original Greek, and later native (acquired) uses of Syrian/Syriac labels as common designations for [[Aramaic language]] in general.

[[File:Ambrosianus F128.png|thumb|265px|Syriac "Codex Ambrosianus" (F. 128) from the 11th century (CORRECTION: here the text is in Greek cursive)]]

Those problems were addressed by prominent scholars, including [[Theodor Nöldeke]] (d. 1930) who noted on several occasions that term "''Syriac language''" has come to have two distinctive meanings, wider and narrower, with first (historical and wider) serving as a common [[synonym]] for Aramaic language in general, while other (conventional and narrower) designating only the Edessan Aramaic, also referred to more specifically as the "''Classical Syriac''".{{sfn|Nöldeke|1886|p=649}}{{sfn|Nöldeke|1904|p=XXXI}}

Noting the problem, scholars have tried to resolve the issue by being more consistent in their use of the term "''Classical Syriac''" as a strict and clear scientific designation for the old literary and liturgical language, but the consistency of such use was never achieved within the field.{{sfn|Brock|1989b|p=363–375}}{{sfn|Rompay|1994|p=72}}{{sfn|Healey|2012|p=638}}{{sfn|Gzella|2015|p=367}}{{sfn|Gzella|2019|p=205-207}}

[[File:Bilingual Syriac-New Persian psalter in Syriac script, Bulayik, 12th-13th century AD, paper - Ethnological Museum, Berlin - DSC01760.JPG|thumb|265px|A bilingual Syriac and Neo-Persian [[psalter]], in Syriac script, from the 12th–13th century]]

Inconsistent use of "Syrian/Syriac" labels in scholarly literature has led some researchers to raise additional questions, related not only to terminological issues but also to some more fundamental (methodological) problems, that were undermining the integrity of the field.{{sfn|Ishow|1978|p=359-365}} Attempts to resolve those issues were unsuccessful, and in many scholarly works, related to the old literary and liturgical language, reduction of the term "''Classical Syriac''" to "''Syriac''" (only) remained a manner of convenience, even in titles of works, including encyclopedic entries, thus creating a large body of unspecific references, that became a base for the emergence of several new classes of terminological problems at the advent of the [[informational era]]. Those problems culminated during the process of [[international standardization]] of the terms "''Syriac''" and "''Classical Syriac''" within the [[ISO 639]] and [[MARC standards|MARC]] systems.

The term "''Classical Syriac''" was accepted in 2007 and codified (ISO code: [https://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/langcodes_name.php?code_ID=511 syc]) as a designation for the old literary and liturgical language, thus confirming the proper use of the term.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_changes_bycode.php?code_ID=511 |title=ISO 639-2 Registration Authority: Change History (syc) |website=Library of Congress |access-date=2023-02-21}}</ref> In the same time, within the MARC standard, code syc was accepted as designation for ''Classical Syriac'', but under the name "''Syriac''", while the existing general code syr, that was until then named "''Syriac''", was renamed to "''Syriac, Modern''".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/marc/tn071022.html |title=Additions to MARC Code List for Languages |date=2007-10-22 |website=Library of Congress |access-date=2023-02-21}}</ref> Within ISO 639 system, large body of unspecific references related to various linguistic uses of the term "''Syriac''" remained related to the original [[ISO 639-2]] code syr (''Syriac''),<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/langcodes_name.php?code_ID=434 |title=ISO 639-2 Registration Authority: Change History (syr) |website=Library of Congress |access-date=2023-02-21}}</ref> but its scope is defined within the [[ISO 639-3]] standard as a [[macrolanguage]] that currently includes only some of the [[Neo-Aramaic]] languages.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://iso639-3.sil.org/code/syr |title=639 Identifier Documentation: syr |website=SIL.org |access-date=2023-02-21}}</ref> Such differences in classification, both terminological and substantial, within systems and between systems (ISO and MARC), led to the creation of several additional problems, that remain unresolved.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://syriaca.org/documentation/isostandards.html |title=Language and Script Identifiers |access-date=2023-02-21}}</ref>

Within linguistics, mosaic of terminological ambiguities related to Syrian/Syriac labels was additionally enriched by introduction of the term "''Palaeo-Syrian language''" as a variant designation for the ancient [[Eblaite language]] from the third millennium BC,{{sfn|Garbini|1981|p=81}}{{sfn|Lipiński|2001|p=51-52}} that is unrelated to the much later Edessan Aramaic, and its early phases, that were commonly labeled as Old/Proto- or even Paleo/Palaeo-Syrian/Syriac in scholarly literature. Newest addition to the terminological mosaic occurred {{circa|2014}}, when it was proposed, also by a scholar, that one of regional dialects of the [[Old Aramaic]] language from the first centuries of the [[1st millennium BC]] should be called "''Central Syrian Aramaic''",{{sfn|Gzella|2014|p=73}}{{sfn|Gzella|2015|p=11, 67–87}} thus introducing another ambiguous term, that can be used, in its generic meaning, to any local variant of Aramaic that occurred in central regions of Syria during any period in history.

After more than five centuries of [[Syriac studies]], which were founded by western scholars at the end of the 15th century,{{sfn|Burnett|2005|p=421-436}}{{sfn|Wilkinson|2019|p=751-769}} main terminological issues related to the name and classification of the language known as Edessan Aramaic, and also referred to by several other names combined of Syrian/Syriac labels, remain opened and unsolved. Some of those issues have special [[sociolinguistic]] and [[ethnolinguistic]] significance for the remaining [[Neo-Aramaic]] speaking communities.{{sfn|Heinrichs|1990|p=}}

Since the occurrence of major political changes in the [[Near East]] (2003), those issues have acquired additional complexity, related to legal recognition of the language and its name.{{sfn|Naby|2004|p=197-203}} In the [[Constitution of Iraq]] (Article 4), adopted in 2005, and also in subsequent legislation, term "''Syriac''" ({{langx|ar|السريانية|al-suriania}}) is used as official designation for the language of [[Neo-Aramaic]]-speaking communities,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://zaidalali.bookswarm.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Iraqs-constitution-FINAL-official-gazette-copy.pdf |title=Constitution of the Republic of Iraq |work=Official Gazette of Iraq |volume=4012 |date=2005-12-28 |language=ar |access-date=2023-02-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iraqinationality.gov.iq/attach/iraqi_constitution.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110304074809/http://www.iraqinationality.gov.iq/attach/iraqi_constitution.pdf |archive-date=2011-03-04 |access-date=2023-02-21 |language=en |title=Iraqi Constitution}}</ref> thus opening additional questions related to linguistic and cultural identity of those communities. Legal and other practical (educational and informational) aspects of the linguistic [[self-identification]] also arose throughout Syriac-speaking [[diaspora]], particularly in European countries (Germany, Sweden, Netherlands).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://userblogs.fu-berlin.de/saop/events/who-are-we/project-description |title=Surayt-Aramaic Online Project (SAOP) |access-date=2023-02-21}}</ref>