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'''Chaldean Neo-Aramaic''' is a [[Northeastern Neo-Aramaic]] language<ref>[[Arthur John Maclean|Maclean, Arthur John]] (1895). ''Grammar of the dialects of vernacular Syriac: as spoken by the Eastern Syrians of Kurdistan, north-west Persia, and the Plain of Mosul: with notices of the vernacular of the Jews of Azerbaijan and of Zakhu near Mosul''. Cambridge University Press, London.</ref> spoken throughout a large region stretching from the plain of [[Urmia]], in northwestern Iran, to the [[Nineveh plains]], in northern Iraq, together with parts of southeastern Turkey.<ref>Beyer, Klaus; John F. Healey (trans.) (1986). The Aramaic Language: its distribution and subdivisions. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. p. 44. ISBN 3-525-53573-2.</ref>
As of the 1990s, the NENA group had an estimated number of speakers just below 1,500,000, spread throughout the Middle East and the Chaldean diaspora. More than 90% of these speak either the Chaldean Neo-Aramaic or Chaldean Neo-Aramaic variety, two varieties of Christian Neo-Aramaic or ''Sureth'' which, contrary to what their names suggest, are ''not'' divided among denominational Chaldean church/Chaldean church lines.<ref>Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Northeastern Neo-Aramaic". Glottolog 2.2. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.</ref><ref>Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List</ref><ref>Khan 2008, pp. 6</ref> A further number speak [[Central Neo-Aramaic]] dialects, with figures for these ranging from 112,000 to 450,000 speakers.<ref>Turoyo at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)</ref> Mutual intelligibility with Chaldean Neo-Aramaic and Chaldean Neo-Aramaic is considerable, but to a limited degree in some dialects.
It is extremely [[mutual intelligibility|closely related]] to [[Assyrian Neo-Aramaic]], both evolving from the same [[Syriac language]], a distinct dialect which evolved in [[Assyria]]<ref>Khan 2008, pp. 6</ref> between the 5th century BC and 1st century AD. The terms ''Syrian'' and thus ''Syriac'' were originally 9th century BC [[Indo-Anatolian]] derivatives of ''Assyrian''.<ref>Tekoglu, R. & Lemaire, A. (2000). La bilingue royale louvito-phénicienne de Çineköy. Comptes rendus de l’Académie des inscriptions, et belleslettres, année 2000, 960-1006.</ref>
