Language..
The ancient Assyrian tongue was referred to as the Akkadian language (also called Assyro-Babylonian),[24] an East Semitic language written in cuneiform script. After the Assyrian empire expanded westward, Aramaic gradually became the dominant tongue.[24] Aramaic was declared an auxiliary language by King Ashur-nirari V in 752 BC[citation needed] and became a lingua franca under Achaemenid Dynasty of Persia.[33] By the first century AD, Akkadian was extinct. Modern Syriac, however, shares some of its vocabulary, as both are Semitic languages,[63] and a result of vocabulary remnants from the Akkadian language still being preserved in the modern Syriac language.[31]
Most Assyrians speak a modern form of Syriac,[64] an Eastern Aramaic language whose dialects include Chaldean and Turoyo as well as Assyrian. All are classified as Neo-Aramaic languages and are written using Syriac script, a derivative of the ancient Aramaic script. Assyrians also may speak one or more languages of their country of residence.
To the native speaker, "Syriac" is usually called Soureth or Suryoyo. A wide variety of dialects exist, including Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, and Turoyo. By modern linguistics, a more common classification for the language is "neo-Syriac". Being stateless, Assyrians also learn the language or languages of their adopted country, usually Arabic, Armenian, Persian or Turkish. In northern Iraq and western Iran, Kurdish is widely spoken.
Recent archaeological evidence includes a statue from Syria with Assyrian and Aramaic inscriptions.[65] It is the oldest known Aramaic text.
