Aziz Tezel

The project has the Ṣūrayt/ Ṭūrōyo language as its base. Ṣūrayt/ Ṭūrōyo is one of the few living Neo-Aramaic languages; hence its importance, for it is in a living language that one can follow the organic continuation of a language. Ṣūrayt/ Ṭūrōyo occupies the second place after North-eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) dialects in terms of number of speakers in the world. Like the other Neo-Aramaic languages, Ṣūrayt/ Ṭūrōyo is fighting for its existence. In its original home Ṭūr‘ Abdīn, Ṣūrayt/ Ṭūrōyo is spoken only by a few thousand people today, leading thus a languishing life. Its speakers are instead scattered in the Diaspora, where the new generation Ṭūrōyo-speaking people has lost much of the basic vocabulary of the language and is thus already semi-lingual. Ṣūrayt/ Ṭūrōyo belongs thus among the endangered languages in the world. Documenting the language and describing the constant changes it is undergoing worldwide are thus urgent tasks. Three current studies (i) Quadriradical Verbal Formations in Ṣūrayt/ Ṭūrōyo: Their Origin and Etymology; (ii) Foreign Words in Ṭūrōyo: Their Origin and Etymology; (iii) Etymological Studies in the Names of Flora in Ṭūrōyo will form the basis of my research project at the institute. Since all my research is carried out in a comparative context, including all the Semitic languages and non-Semitic languages in the region, each of these studies will make a valuable contribution not only to Ṣūrayt/ Ṭūrōyo but also to the other languages in the region.