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=> Fresh air at AINA... (but only a little bit)

Fresh air at AINA... (but only a little bit)

Posted by Jeff (Guest) jeff@attoz.com - Wednesday, June 30 2004, 6:42:09 (CEST)
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...I'd say Tiglath and Qasrani are the only visitors of AINA worth reading...

P.S. I thought that Prof. Abdulsaddih (?) of Chicago was an Assyrian linguist (a real one). Also, I heard a story on NPR about a Chaldean linguist in California.... anyway...

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Re: Tell Muqtada of the Syriac influence of the Quran

Posted By: Qasrani <qasrani2003@yahoo.com> (62-177-177-243.static.bbeyond.nl)
Date: Tuesday, 29 June 2004, at 2:28 a.m.

In Response To: Tell Muqtada of the Syriac influence of the Quran (Nile)

I am no Shi'a cleric, but I don't think that Muqtada al-Sadr would be offended at the idea that the Quran has words similar to Syriac. Afterall, any linguist can tell you that given the way that semetic languages are constructed (that is, around tri-consonant roots) then you would have alot of overlap and similarity, even though they may not be mutually intelligible. Afterall, they are languages and not dialects. That's why you get shalom, shlama and salam in hebrew, syriac and arabic, respectively. And for those that don't know, the "sh" sound and the "s" sound are interchangeable between dialects, if not languages within the same family. In fact, sometimes the "sh" and "s" are interchanged for "th." Linguistics is a funny business and it's actually very interesting. I wish we had true linguistic scholars (you know, the kind that devote their entire lives to the study as opposed to dilettantes).

I didn't quite understand your purpose in posting this, but something about the subject line tells me that you aren't bridging dialogue... Next time, I would appreciate reference to sources more, say, neutral on the issue, not "answering-islam.com."

Whether anyone likes it or not, these are the facts:

1) Assyrians in the Middle East live in a Muslim macroculture;

2) They are outnumbered to the point that their actual population numbers relative to Muslims is neglibible;

3) Arabic is among the most widely spoken languages in the world--definitely in the region--and if you want recognition in the Arab world, you better have a fluent command of the language;

4) Assyrians do not live in a vacuum-sealed environment (as the recent deaths of Assyrians in Iraq makes abundantly clear)...

I am stating the obvious, but the bottomline is this: So, where do you go from here? Insulting the roots of Arab language and culture will not win us favor. It's time to see clearly.

Qasrani

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