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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Dbachmann (talk | contribs) at 13:49, 14 March 2008 (→Name of the ethno-religious group as a whole). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The following is a proposed Misplaced Pages policy, guideline, or process. The proposal may still be in development, under discussion, or in the process of gathering consensus for adoption.

Naming conventions surrounding topics of Syriac Christianity, the Syriac/Assyrian ethnic group and the Neo-Aramaic languages.

Aramaic language guidelines

ISO 259-2 is recommended for the romanization of the Aramaic alphabet.

Proper names

Background

Syriac Christianity was established among the Syriac (Aramaic) speaking population of Upper Mesopotamia during the 1st to 5th centuries. Until the 7th century Islamic conquests, the group was divided between two empires, Sassanid Persia in the east and Rome/Byzantium in the west. The western group settled in Syria, the eastern in Assyria: the two names, although likely sharing the same etymology, have been separate lexemes since the Roman period. Syriac Christianity was divided from an early date over questions of Christological dogma, viz. Nestorianism in the east and Monophysitism in the west.

The historical (pre-WWII) English term for the group is "Syrians" (as in, e.g., Ephraim the Syrian). It is not now in use, since after the 1936 declaration of the Syrian Arab Republic, the term "Syrian" has come to designate citizens of that state regardless of ethnicity. This gives rise to a number of terminological problems.

Since the 19th century discovery of ancient Assyria (which in its final phase was largely Aramaic speaking), Syriac Christians have often been associated with that culture. The coterminous rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire gave rise to Assyrianism ("Assyrian" flavoured ethnic nationalism) among the Syriac Christian population. Contemporary disputes between hostile factions within the Syriac group are typically not motivated by differences in Christological doctrine, but inherited from "eastern" vs. "western" flavours of ethnic nationalism developed under Ottoman and French/British colonial rule. The three prevalent factions variously identify with Assyria (the 10th to 7th century BC empire), Aramaeans (11th to 8th century BC kingdoms in the Levant) and Chaldea (7th to 6th century BC Babylon), respectively.

A significant fraction of Syriacs/Assyrians today lives in diaspora. Ethnic identity has shifted away from being defined along linguistic and denominational lines, resulting in a greater emphasis on (genetic) ancestry and historiographical currents of ethnic nationalism.

Name of the ethno-religious group as a whole

Adherents of Syriac Christianity are known by various names in English language sources, partly controversially:

• "Syriac Christians": uncontroversial, but emphasizes religious denomination more than ethnic identity.
• "Syriacs" uncontroversial but not widely used in English.
• "Suryoye", an anglicization of the native Aramaic term (Sūryāyē ܣܘܪܝܝܐ). Uncontroversial but not widely used in English.
• "Assyrians" is widespread in 19th to 20th century English literature, but has in recent times come to be associated with Assyrian ethnic nationalism in particular.
  • "Aturaye", "Ashuraye", "Othuroye" or similar is sometimes seen as anglicizations of Āṯūrāyē ܐܬܘܪܝܐ, the Aramaic for "Assyrian".
• "Aramaeans", by adherents of a Syriac-Aramaic identity and detractors of an "Assyrian" identity.
  • "Oromoye" or similar is sometimes seen as an anglicization of Ārāmayē ܐܪܡܝܐ, the Aramaic for "Aramaean".

"Assyrian" is the term used in the majority of (post WW II, AD 1945 to 2000) encyclopedic sources. This may be different in recent (2000s) literature as a reflection of the naming dispute.

On Misplaced Pages, the de facto preferred name is either "Assyrians/Syriacs", or just "Assyrians", as reflected in:

• the current title of the article on the group, Assyrian people (besides many redirects), Assyrian diaspora, Assyrian genocide
• "Assyrians/Syriacs" in: Assyrians/Syriacs in Syria, Assyrians/Syriacs in Sweden, Assyrians/Syriacs in Germany.

• categorization: Category:Assyrian people and subcategories, but note that we have Category:Syriacs with the same scope. This is an unresolved issue and one category needs to be merged into the other (or both into a third one with a more neutral name).

References

Usage in notable English language publications.

• the OED does not record any of the nouns Assyrian, Syriac or Aramæan as referring to the modern ethnic group.

• Assyrians
  • The official censuses of Canada (2001) and New Zealand (2001) use "Assyrian".

• Because of the ethnic disputes involved, some sources have opted for a compositional name.
  • The 2000 US census calls the group "Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac"
  • The 2001 census of Australia uses "Assyrian/Chaldean" (2001)

Subgroups

• adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East are known as Nestorians (after Nestorius), and also as "Madinkhaye", geographically grouped as "Eastern Assyrians"
• adherents of the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Syriac Catholic Church are known as Jacobites (after Jacob Baradaeus), geographically grouped as "Western Assyrians"
• adherents of the Chaldean Catholic Church are known as Chaldean Christians, Chaldean Assyrians, Chaldo-Assyrians, Assyro-Chaldeans, and sometimes, Keldani (Neo-Aramaic: ܟܠܕܝܐ Kaldaye)

Notes

See also

• Misplaced Pages:Assyrian-Syriac wikipedia cooperation board: cooperation between editors from either side of the dispute.
• Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (identity)

other guidelines mediating recurring ethnic disputes

• Kosovo
• Macedonia
• China
• Ireland
• Greece/Turkey

• Misplaced Pages proposals
• WikiProject Assyria
• Assyrian-Syriac wikipedia cooperation board