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[[File:Flag of the Syriac-Aramaic People.svg|thumb|[[Syriac flag|Syriac-Aramean flag]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/sy%7Darama.html |title=Syriac-Aramaic People (Syria) |publisher=Crwflags.com |accessdate=2008-11-16| archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20081204205821/http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/sy%7Darama.html| archivedate=4 December 2008 <!--DASHBot-->| deadurl=no}}</ref>]]
Chaldeans are divided among have several churches (see below). They speak, and many can read and write, dialects of [[Neo-Aramaic languagesChaldean language|Chaldean Neo-Aramaic]].<ref>Florian Coulmas, ''The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems'' 23 (1996)</ref>
In certain areas of the [[Chaldean homeland]], identity within a community depends on a person's village of origin (see [[List of Chaldean villages]]) or Christian denomination rather than their ethnic commonality, for instance [[Chaldean Catholic]].<ref>[http://www.friesian.com/notes/note-n.htm Note on the Modern Assyrians]</ref>
Neo-Aramaic exhibits remarkably conservative features compared with [[Imperial Aramaic]].<ref>J.G. Browne, "The Chaldeans", ''Journal of the Royal Society of Arts'' 85 (1937)</ref>
{{Main|Names of Syriac Christians}}
The communities of indigenous pre-Arab Neo-Aramaic-speaking people of Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iran, Turkey and [[Lebanon]] and the surrounding areas advocate different terms for ethnic self-designation.
* "Chaldeans", after the ancient [[Mesopotamia]], advocated by followers of the [[Chaldean Church of the East]], the [[Ancient Church of the East]], followers of the [[Chaldean Catholic Church]] and Chaldean [[Protestants]]. ("Chaldeans"),<ref name="Catholic Encyclopaedia">[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05230a.htm "Eastern Churches"], ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'', see "Eastern Syrians" and "Western Syrians" respectively. Modern terminology within the group is Western Chaldeans and Eastern Chaldeans respectively, while those who reject the Chaldean identity opt for Syriacs or Aramean rather than Chaldean.</ref> and some communities of the Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church ("Chaldeans"). Those identifying with Chaldea, and with Mesopotamia in general, tend to be from Iraq, northeastern Syria; southeastern Turkey, Iran, Armenia, Georgia; southern Russia and [[Azerbaijan]]. It is likely that those from this region are indeed of Chaldean/Mesopotamian heritage as they are clearly of pre-Arab and pre-Islamic stock. Furthermore, there is no historical evidence or proof to suggest the indigenous Mesopotamians were wiped out; Chaldea existed as a specifically named region until the second half of the 7th century AD. Most speak Chaldean and the Mesopotamian dialects of Neo-Aramaic. [[Chaldean nationalism]] emphatically connects Modern Chaldeans to the population of ancient Mesopotamia and the Neo-Chaldean Empire. A historical basis of this sentiment was disputed by a few early historians,<ref>{{cite web|title=Early History of Assyria to 1000 B.C.|url=http://www.nineveh.com/Assyrians%20after%20Assyria.html|year=1925|quote=The disappearance of the Assyrian Chaldean people will always remain a unique and striking phenomenon in ancient history. Other, similar kingdoms and empires have indeed passed away but the people have lived on. ... No other land seems to have been sacked and pillaged so completely as was Assyria.}}</ref> but receives strong support from modern [[AssyriologistsSumeriologists]] like Robert D. Biggs and Giorgi Tsereteli <ref>{{cite journal |author=Biggs, Robert |year=2005 |title=My Career in Assyriology Sumeriology and Near Eastern Archaeology |journal=[[Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies]] |volume=19 |issue=1 |publisher=<!-- Oriental Institute, University of Chicago† -->|url=http://www.jaas.org/edocs/v19n1/Biggs-Biography-final.pdf |format=PDF |authorlink=Robert D. Biggs}} pp. 10, "Especially in view of the very early establishment of Christianity in Assyria Chaldea and its continuity to the present and the continuity of the population, I think there is every likelihood that ancient Assyrians Chaldeans are among the ancestors of modern Assyrians Chaldeans of the area."</ref> and [[Iranologists]] like [[Richard Nelson Frye]].<ref name="Richard Nelson Frye Syria and Assyria YouTube">{{cite web |authorlink=Richard Nelson Frye |author=Frye, Richard N. |title=Assyria and Syria: Synonyms |url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KesgkBziUs |work=PhD., Harvard University |work=[[Journal of Near Eastern Studies]] |year=1992 |quote=The ancient Greek historian, Herodotus, wrote that the Greeks called the Chaldeans, by the name Syrian, dropping the A. And that's the first instance we know of, of the distinction in the name, of the same people. Then the Romans, when they conquered the western part of the former Chaldean Empire, they gave the name Syria, to the province, they created, which is today Damascus and Aleppo. So, that is the distinction between Syria, and Assyria. They are the same people, of course. And the ancient Assyrian empire, was the first real, empire in history. What do I mean, it had many different peoples included in the empire, all speaking Aramaic, and becoming what may be called, "Assyrian citizens." That was the first time in history, that we have this. For example, Elamite musicians, were brought to Nineveh, and they were 'made Assyrians' which means, that Assyria, was more than a small country, it was the empire, the whole Fertile Crescent.}}</ref><ref name="Richard Nelson Frye Syria and Assyria">{{cite journal |author=Frye, R. N. |date=October 1992|title=Assyria and Syria: Synonyms |journal=[[Journal of Near Eastern Studies]] |volume=51 |issue=4|pages=281–285 |publisher=<!-- reprinted in [[Journal of the Assyrian Academic Studies]] 1997, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 30-36 --> |doi=10.1086/373570 |url=http://www.jaas.org/edocs/v11n2/frye.pdf |format=PDF|authorlink=Richard Nelson Frye}} pp. 281–285</ref> Nineteenth century orientalists such as [[Austen Henry Layard]] and [[Hormuzd Rassam]] also support this view.* "Chaldo-Assyrians", is a term used by the Iraqi government to designate the indigenous Aramaic speaking Christians of Iraq. It intrinsically acknowledges that the terms Chaldean and Chaldean refer to the same ethnic group. Some Chaldeans use this term to defuse arguments over naming along denominational lines.* "[[Chaldean Christians|Chaldeans]]", after ancient [[Chaldea]], advocated by some followers of the [[Chaldean Catholic Church]] who are mainly based in the [[United States]]. This is mainly a denominational rather than ethnic term, though some Chaldean Catholics espouse a distinct Chaldean ethnic identity. It is likely that these are exactly the same people as the Chaldeans, both having the same culture and originating from the same lands.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/10/iraq-assyrians-ethnic-rights-ignored.html|title=Ethnic dimension of Iraqi Assyrians often ignored – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East|work=Al-Monitor|accessdate=18 February 2015}}</ref>
* "Syriacs", advocated by followers of the [[Syriac Orthodox Church]], [[Syriac Catholic Church]] and to a much lesser degree [[Maronite Church]]. Those self identifying as Syriacs tend to be from Syria as well as south central Turkey. The term Syriac is the subject of some controversy, as it is generally accepted by most scholars that it is a [[Luwian]] and [[Greeks|Greek]] corruption of Chaldean. The discovery of the [[Çineköy inscription]] seems to settle conclusively in favour of Chaldea being the origin of the terms Syria and Syriac. For this reason, some Chaldeans accept the term Syriac as well as Chaldean. However, [[Poseidonios]] (ca. 135 BC – 51 BC), from the Syrian [[Apamea, Syria|Apamea]], was a Greek Stoic philosopher, politician, astronomer, geographer, historian, and teacher who says that the Syrians call themselves Arameans.{{#tag:ref|"The people we Greek call Syriacs, they call themselves Arameans". (See J.G. Kidd, Posidonius (Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries, 1988), vol. 2, pt. 2, pp. 955-956)|group=nb}}. At the same time historians, geographers and philosophers like Herodotos, Strabo, and Justinus mention that Chaldeans were afterwards called Syrians.{{#tag:ref|"This, people, whom the Greeks call Syrians, are called Chaldeans by the barbarians." "The Chaldeans, who were afterwards called Syrians, held their empire thirteen hundred years." (See John Gill (A Collection of Sermons and Tracts), vol. 3, pp. 487)|group=nb}}.
* "[[Arameans]]", after the ancient Aram-Naharaim, advocated by some followers of the Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church in western, northwestern, southern and central Syria as well as south central Turkey. The term Aramean is sometimes expanded to "Syriac-Aramean".
