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{{About|the Classical Syriac language|contemporary "Syriac" dialects|Northeastern Neo-Aramaic|other uses|Syriac (disambiguation)}}

|nativename={{rtl-lang|syr|ܠܫܢܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ}} ''{{transl|syr|Leššānā Suryāyā}}''

'''Syriac''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɪr|i|æ|k}} ({{lang|syc|ܠܫܢܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ}} ''{{transl|syc|Leššānā Suryāyā}}''), also known as '''Syriac Aramaic''', is a dialect of Middle [[Aramaic]] that was once spoken across much of the [[Fertile Crescent]] and [[Eastern Arabia]].<ref name=east>{{cite web|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=bJLjAKH7-rIC&pg=PR25&dq|title=Dialect, Culture, and Society in Eastern Arabia: Glossary|work=Clive Holes|year=2001|pages=XXIV-XXVI}}</ref><ref name=ara>{{cite web|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=mrmJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA185&lpg=PA185&dq|title=The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity|work=Averil Cameron|year=1993|pages=185}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=tsZdAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT253&dq|title=Tradition and Modernity in Arabic Language And Literature|work=J R Smart, J. R. Smart|year=2013}}</ref> Having first appeared as a script in 1st century AD [[Assyria]] after being spoken in [[Achaemenid Assyria]] there as an unwritten language since the 5th century BCfor five centuries,<ref>{{cite web |title=Ancient Scripts: Syriac |url=http://www.ancientscripts.com/syriac.html}}</ref> Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the [[Middle East]] from the 4th to the 8th centuries AD,<ref>{{cite book|last=Beyer|first=Klaus|title=The Aramaic Language: its distribution and subdivisions|coauthors=John F. Healey (trans.)|year=1986|location=Göttingen|publisher=Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht|page=44|isbn=3-525-53573-2}}</ref> the [[classical language]] of [[Edessa]], preserved in a large body of [[Syriac literature]]. Indeed, Syriac literature comprises roughly 90% of the extant Aramaic literature.<ref>{{cite thesis|type=phd|last=Tannous|first=Jack|title=Syria Between Byzantium and Islam|publisher=Princeton University|year=2010|page=1}}</ref>

[[Old Aramaic]] was adopted by the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] (911-605 BC) when the former conquered the various [[Aramean]] city-kingdoms to its west, and was preferred to the original [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] of the Assyrians due to its ease of use. The [[Achaemenid Achemenid Empire]] (546-330 BC) which rose after the fall of the Assyrian Empire also adopted Old Aramaic as the language of the empire and Old Aramaic remained quickly became the [[lingua franca]] of the region. During the course of the third and fourth centuries AD, the inhabitants of the region began to embrace Christianity. The Aramaic language at this point in history is linguistically the Middle Aramaic but since most Christian scribes of the Christian manuscripts, who wrote in the Middle Aramaic, lived in this region of Assyria, which had come to refer to both the historical Assyria as well as the Levant, this specific dialect of the Middle Aramaic has come to be known as Syriac.

The terms ''Syrian'' and ''Syriac'' were originally 9th century BC [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] derivatives of ''Assyrian''-''Assurayu'', and meant and specifically and solely referred to Assyria and the Assyrians alone for six hundred years. However, the [[Seleucid Empire]] (323-150 BC) also applied this term for Assyria to the [[Levant]] and its largely [[Aramean]] and [[Canaanite]] inhabitants as well as Assyria proper, and from this point the term was applied without distinction to both Assyria and the Levant, the latter of which had previously been known as [[Eber Nari]] and [[Aramea]], and not ''Syria''/''Assyria''.<ref>Rollinger, Robert (2006). "The terms "Assyria" and "Syria" again". Assyriology. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 65(4). pp. 284–287.</ref>  Between the first and fourth centuries AD, the inhabitants of these regions began to embrace [[Syriac Christianity]]. The Aramaic language at this point in history is linguistically the Middle Aramaic but since most [[Assyrian Christian]] scribes of the Christian manuscripts, who wrote in the Middle Aramaic, lived in this region of Assyria, which had latterly come to refer to both the Levant as well as the historical Assyria, this specific dialect of the Middle Aramaic has come to be known as Syriac. From the 1st century AD Syriac became the vehicle of [[Syriac Christianity]] and culture, and was originally the liturgical language of the [[Assyrian Syriac Orthodox Church of the East]], and thereafter also the subsequently [[Syriac Orthodox Assyrian Churchof the East]], together with the later offshoots of the Assyrian Church; the [[Nestorian Church]], [[Chaldean Catholic Church]], [[Ancient Church of the East]], [[Saint Thomas Christian Churches]], [[Assyrian Evangelical Church]], [[Maronite Church]] and [[Assyrian Pentecostal Church]]. Syriac Christianity and language spread throughout [[Asia]] as far as the Indian [[Malabar Coast]] and Eastern [[China]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Ji|first=Jingyi|title=Encounters Between Chinese Culture and Christianity: A Hermeneutical Perspective|year=2007|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=978-3-8258-0709-2|page=41|url=http://books.google.nl/books?id=DxhyQJEUXq4C&pg=PA41}}</ref> and was the medium of communication and cultural dissemination for the later arriving [[Arabs]] and, to a lesser extent, the [[Parthian Empire]] and [[Sassanid Empire]] [[Persian people|Persians]]. Primarily a [[Semitic people|Semitic]] [[Christian]] medium of expression, Syriac had a fundamental cultural and literary influence on the development of [[Arabic]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Beeston|first=Alfred Felix Landon|title=Arabic literature to the end of the Umayyad period|year=1983|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-24015-4|page=497|url=http://books.google.nl/books?id=Y0QkhaK4kBUC&pg=PA497}}</ref> which largely replaced it towards the 14th century.<ref name=Angold391/> Syriac remains the [[liturgical language]] of the [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]], and Syriac Christianity in general, to this day.