The name Syria derives from the ancient Greek name Syrians, Σύριοι, Surioi, which was applied to the Assyrians. Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c The Assyrians are an Ethnic group whose origins lie in what is today Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. ^[1]

The name is often connected to Ασσυρία, Assuria, from the Akkadian Aššur. Early history The most Neolithic site in Assyria is at Tell Hassuna, the center of the Hassuna culture Assur also spelled Ashur, from Assyrian Aššur, was one of the capitals of ancient Assyria. In Greek usage, Syria and Assyria was used almost interchangeably, but in the Roman Empire, Syria and Assyria came to be used as distinct geographical terms. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial Syria was a Roman province, conquered in 64 BC by Pompey, as a consequence of his military presence after pursing victory in the Third Mithridatic Assyria was one of three provinces (Armenia Mesopotamia and Assyria created by the Roman emperor Trajan in 116 C

Theodor Nöldeke in 1881 was the first to give philological support to the assumption that Syria and Assyria have the same etymology,^[2] a suggestion going back to John Selden (1617). Theodor Nöldeke ( March 2, 1836 - December 25 1930 German Semitic scholar was born at Harburg, and studied at Göttingen John Selden ( December 16, 1584 &ndash November 30, 1654) was an English Jurist, scholar of England's ancient laws

Current academic opinion favours the connection. A Hieroglyphic Luwian and Phoenician bilingual monumental inscription found in Çineköy, Turkey, belonging to Urikki, vassal king of Que (i. Hieroglyphic Luwian is a variant of the Luwian language, recorded in official and royal seals and a small number of monumental inscriptions Phoenician was a language originally spoken in the coastal region then called Pūt in Ancient Egyptian Canaan in Phoenician, Hebrew, and A vassal (also called feodary or fedary) in the terminology that both preceded and accompanied the feudalism of Medieval Europe, Quwê &ndash also spelled Que, Kue, Qeve, Coa, Kuê and Keveh &ndash was a " Neo-Hittite " Assyrian e. Cilicia), dating to the eighth century BC, reference is made to the relationship between his kingdom and his Assyrian overlords. Geography Cilicia extended along the Aegean coast east from Pamphylia, to Mount Amanus ( Gavurdağı Mount) which separated it from Syria The 8th century BC started the first day of 800 BC and ended the last day of 701 BC. The Luwian inscription reads su-ra/i whereas the Phoenician translation reads ʾšr, i. e. ašur, which according to Rollinger (2006) "settles the problem once and for all". ^[3]

Various alternatives have been suggested, including derivation from Subartu, the Hurrian toponym Śu-ri, or Ṣūr (the Phoenician name of Tyre). The land of Subar (Sumerian Su-bir4/Subar/Šubur or Subartu (Akkadian Šubartum/Subartum/ina Šú-ba-ri, Assyrian mât Šubarri) was situated Hurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians (Khurrites a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly Phoenician was a language originally spoken in the coastal region then called Pūt in Ancient Egyptian Canaan in Phoenician, Hebrew, and Tyre ( Arabic صور Ṣūr, Phoenician Phoenician wawsvg|12px|ו]] Ṣur, Hebrew Syria is known as Ḫrw (Ḫuru, referring to the Hurrian occupants prior to the Aramaean invasion) in Amarna period Egypt, and as אֲרָם, ʾĂrām in Biblical Hebrew. The Hurrians (also Khurrites; cuneiform Ḫu-ur-ri 𒄷𒌨𒊑 were a people of the Ancient Near East, who lived in northern Mesopotamia "Amarna period" redirects here For information on Amarna see Amarna The Eighteenth Dynasty (1550-1292 BC is perhaps the best known of Biblical Hebrew, also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language in which the Hebrew Bible and various Israelite inscriptions J. A. Tvedtnes has suggested that the Greek Suria is loaned from Coptic, and due to a regular Coptic development of Ḫrw to *Šuri. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation Coptic or Coptic Egyptian ( MetRemenkīmi) is the final stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt ^[4] In this case, the name would directly derive from that of the Hurrians, and be unrelated to the name Aššur. The question has a certain importance in the Assyrian naming dispute. The various communities of adherents of Syriac Christianity and speakers of Neo-Syriac advocate different terms for ethnic self-designation "Assyrians" Tvedtnes' explanation was rejected as unlikely by Frye in 1992. Richard Nelson Frye (born c 1920 is an American scholar of Iranian and Central Asian Studies, and Aga Khan Professor Emeritus

Assyriologist Simo Parpola connects the etymological question to the ethnic identity of the present-day Aramaic-speaking peoples:

Since omission of initial vowels is not a feature of Aramaic phonology, the lack of the initial A- in Sūrāyā/Sūr(y)ōyō cannot be due to internal Aramaic development but must go back directly to Neo-Assyrian. Simo Parpola is professor of Assyriology at the University of Helsinki located in Helsinki, Finland. The phonology of Sūrāyā (Sūrōyō) thus implies that this term, which is crucial to the identity of the present-day Aramaic-speaking peoples, entered the Aramaic language in the seventh century BC, when the Arameans already were a fully integrated part of the Assyrian nation. In contrast to the word Āθūr, which was borrowed into Aramaic when Assyria still was an alien society, it cannot be regarded as a loanword but as an indigenous selfdesignation, which the Aramaic-speaking Assyrians shared with their Akkadian-speaking fellow citizens. ^[5]

The French Ernest Renan also acknowledges the connection of Syria and Assyria;

“	Syria is not but a contraction of Assyria or Assyrian; this according to the Greek pronunciation. Ernest Renan ( February 28, 1823 &ndash October 12, 1892) was a French Philosopher and writer deeply attached to his native The Greeks applied this name to all of Asia Minor. [6]	„

According to Daniel Pipes, however, Syria is derived from the Semitic term "Siryon. Daniel Pipes (born September 9 1949 is a American historian and political commentator who particularly focuses on the Middle East and Islam. "^[7]

See also

• Assyrian naming dispute
• Cinekoy inscription

References

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