Where can i learn the assyrian language in chicago?

Question

I want to learn assyrian, but where??

Answer 1

There are three main options to learning Assyrian in Chicago. You may first attend an Assyrian Church (St. Andrews, St. Gewargis, etc...) and ask to be taught Assyrian from the teachers. The second option you have is to call Oakton Community College and register for an introduction to the Assyrian language. There you will be able to learn Assyrian from a fresh start. Or you can try to teach yourself Assyrian online. Hope I helped!

Answer 2

It may depend on how you intend the term"Assyrian language".
See the different uses here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_language

In scholarly usage this term generally means the original language of the ancient Assyrians -- used to refer to a dialect of "Akkadian", the main Semitic language of ancient Mesopotamia (alongside "Babylonian"), or even as an equivalent for Akkadian. In that case, the obvious answer in your locale might be "the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago", an early scholarly center for the study of Akkadian and other languages of that region. See more at
http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/OI_TOC.html

On the other hand, in popular use "Assyrian language" is sometimes used to refer not to the native language of ancient Assyria but to ARAMAIC, a totally distinct Semitic language adopted by people of this region near the middle of the 1st millennium BC and the international lingua franca of the Near East up until the Arabic/Muslim conquest (beginning in the 7th century AD), i.e., for about a millennium.

Aramaic, as suggested, had many offshoots. The most common starting place many use for studying it is with the Aramaic portion of the Old Testament (not very much --about half the OT book of Daniel and a few chapters of Ezra). This, and sometimes other older forms of Aramaic may be taught in any theological seminary or school connected with a seminary that has a good "original languages" program (though, understandably, most attention is paid to Greek and Hebrew). Jewish seminaries may also offer studies in Aramaic..esp since a number of important early Jewish writings are in Aramaic dialects...including Aramaic Targums --translations of biblical books.

(Incidentally, the reason Aramaic has been called by the historically inaccurate name "Assyrian" is that, before 19th century archaeological discoveries we knew virtually nothing of the origial Assyro-Babylonian [Akkadian] language, but only of the Aramaic language that later took over the region. And when Assyrians first appear in the biblical text they are speaking Aramaic, which was rapidly becoming the lingua franca, and NOT in their native language.)

A third major possibility -- some use "Assyrian" to refer to the Aramaic dialect known as "Syriac", a very important dialect as the language for a large branch of the early Christian church... with extensive literature, including a very early Bible translation known as the Peshitta..

Actually, the OI at the University Chicago should have information on ALL of the Semitic languages mentioned so far, and where they are taught in that region.

Finally, if you're talking about MODERN "Assyrian" --that is "Neo-Aramaic" dialects, descended from the older Aramaic languages already mentioned, this would be the most dificult. These languages are very few in number and now spoken only by a relative handful of people (and totally lacking in the sort of extensive writings of Akkadian, older Aramaic and Syriac).

Answer 3

Wow, are not you a smart cookie =] i understand tiny bits of Italian, or in different words, e piccolo italiano, lol, yet i could DIE to learn French. Its this type of suited language to take heed to, and that i've got consistently needed to stay in Paris for a pair of years so it would be fairly obtainable too, plus if I ever bypass to returned, i could prefer to look as though fairly much less of an ignorant vacationer. lol becoming to be fluent in Italian could be useful too, its all so problematic nonetheless, a testomony on your intelligence for sure =]