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Glite Dictionary
📚 Relating to culture 🗣️ An old language ⛪ A Christian group ✍️ A writing system
Syriac

Syriac

9.3
A person from a Middle Eastern Christian community that speaks an old language
  • noun
  • /ˈsɪrɪæk/
translation icon : siríaco
  • Many of the popes of this era were of Syriac or Greek origin.

Examples

  • I have sufficient knowledge of Hebrew and Syriac to read... at sight the Old Testament and the Peshito... to a lesser degree, Aramaic, Arabic, Coptic... and Phoenician to the point where it was left by Genesius.

    The Professor and the Madman (2019)

  • The Syriac community preserves many traditions that date back centuries.

  • The further E churches, the Coptic Church, the Syriac Church, they leave.

  • Who has time to read Luther when there is Syriac (or Coptic or Armenian) to be learned?

    Academic text (2002)

  • The remaining four were sold to Mar and Phineas Yeshu Samuel, the Metropolitan of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Jerusalem.

  • Also, the particular location of Syriac-speaking exegetes within the Antiochene school of interpretation is yet another scholarly conversation that continues to unfold.

    Academic text (2006)

  • The Syriac used by Maronites and other Christians in the Mideast has been a vernacular all along (although rapidly disappearing as a spoken language).

    Blog text (10)

  • She is a member of the Syriac Orthodox Church, which has a rich history.

  • Many scholars study Syriac to understand the early Christian texts and heritage.

Surface Forms

Syriac singular
Syriacs plural

Morphology

Syriac = Syria (semi-transparent) = Syria + ac

The form signals relation to Syria, but 'Syriac' as the name for a specific ethnoreligious community is a specialized extension not predictable from the root alone.

Etymology

Syriac comes from the Greek word Syriakos, meaning 'of Syria', and it is the same root as the word Syrian, while some people think Syria comes from Assyria, a very old empire. So calling someone a Syriac means they belong to a group that comes 'from Syria', especially the Christian communities that keep this language and tradition.