Assyrian: What language does it sound like to you?

[Aren]

Shelati I'm curious about your dialect. Can you post a vid with someone singing/speaking in your dialect?

[Iloko]

Like halfway German halfway Hindi

[Tauromachos]

A mix of Hebrew and Arabic maybe

I guess the real ancient Hebrew spoken by the Israelites might have sounded similar

[Bobby Martnen]

It sounds a lot like Hebrew to me, which is a sister language to it anyway, so I guess that makes sense (speech starts at 12 seconds).

Here's a way cooler Assyrian video - do you understand it?

[Tauromachos]

[Zroota]

The woman in the first post is clearly speaking Assyrian with an English accent(Australian or Canadian English perhaps). Also there's some heavy dialectal differences. I could understand most easily, but the pronuncation is somewhat different. Her Assyrian sounds like the one spoken in certain villages in Iran.

No, she is actually speaking Assyrian in a light Urmian accent. Most Assyrians understand her and our educated spokespeople tend to sound like that as well.

Shelati I'm curious about your dialect. Can you post a vid with someone singing/speaking in your dialect?

Listen to Linda George. We sound exactly like her.

Here's a way cooler Assyrian video - do you understand it?

Only understood like one word. The person doing the voice work is obviously not a native speaker. And I think he's speaking ancient Aramaic or Akkadian. It's not modern Assyrian. Lol.

[Aren]

No, she is actually speaking Assyrian in a light Urmian accent. Most Assyrians understand her and our educated spokespeople tend to sound like that as well.


Listen to Linda George. We sound exactly like her.

Hmm yeah I understand it rather easily. The biggest difference is that you guys have so few interdentals and you use more diphtongs. Like "Eyina" for "eye", when we say "Ena".

Here's the best representation of my dialect(start at 1:52). We speak a less "pure" form with more Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish loanwords.

[Zroota]

Hmm yeah I understand it rather easily. The biggest difference is that you guys have so few interdentals and you use more diphtongs. Like "Eyina" for "eye", when we say "Ena".

Here's the best representation of my dialect(start at 1:52). We speak a less "pure" form with more Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish loanwords.

Those who use the most diphthongs are Urmians ("paykha", "zooyzeh", "tooy", "bayta"). But then again, some Syrian-Tyari speakers use diphthongs on words too ("kayna", "psheyna").

Chaldean just has more Arabic loanwords. Actually, it tends to replace the classical Iranian and Kurdish loanwords (in Assyrian) with Arabic words as well. Lol.

[Aren]

Those who use the most diphthongs are Urmians ("paykha", "zooyzeh", "tooy", "bayta"). But then again, some Syrian-Tyari speakers use diphthongs on words too ("kayna", "psheyna").

Chaldean just has more Arabic loanwords. Actually, it tends to replace the classical Iranian and Kurdish loanwords (in Assyrian) with Arabic words as well. Lol.

The most obvious difference is the lack of interdentals. And yeah we do have a weird amount of Arabic loanwrods despite living almost exclusively among Kurds and Turkmen.

[Aren]

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Help me identify the dialect of these songs. I know they are horrible and annoying to listen to but bear with me.

I'm hearing some interdentals, but overall it doesn't sound like the Chaldean spoken in the Ninawa plains. Tyari or Barwari?


This one probably also from the Iraqi-Turkish border I presume, sounds like Tyari. Very few arabic elements. Quite distinct from my own dialect.


The first song here("hala edokh") sounds like the Ninawa plain dialect atleast the one spoke in the western part? Easy to understand for me but there are some other elements more similar to Hakkri/Tyari dialects like the word for small/little she's saying "súrah" whilst I think most Chaldean speakers would say "Zorah"


Start at 5:00. Few interdentals but still quite understandable, I'm thinking eastern Hakkari dialect?


Also I found this one which is pretty interesting. Assyrian from Sanandaj in Western Iran. Sounds identical to my dialect of Arbel but with s instead of θ(like Besa instead of Betha). You know if the Assyrians of Sanandaj are Catholic or Nestorian?