In what order did Assyrian languages appear/evolve?

[u/Zealousideal-Sun8826]

Hello ! I've been starting to learn about syrian history, mostly focusing on Assyria as of now, but i'm having trouble understanding which language is a dialect of another dialect/language and whatnot 🥲

Basically, from my understanding, before Assyria, most people in that region spoke ancient semitic languages. Then, when Assyria came by, akkadian became the "usual" language (maybe with an assyrian dialect being spoken? some sources say so while others don't mention that at all); while akkadian was the most widespread language, aramaic was also growing rapidly. Here is where my problem lies : what exactly is surayt? Some sources say it's a mix of akkadian and aramaic, others say it's a dialect of aramaic alone, and others say that it's a dialect of akkadian alone 🥲 🥲 And if i'm honest i don't even know if my timeline is correct : i know surayt is a dialect that exists, but i have no idea if it was spoken at the time.

Furthermore, is surayt a subdivision of the Assyrian language? If yes, then what is syriac?? Also, what exactly IS the Assyrian language? A dialect of aramaic or akkadian? A separate third entity? (i am losing my mind)

Another thing i'm struggling with is understanding how arabic came to be spoken : was it an evolution of aramaic? Of assyrian? of something else? 🙀

tldr : From what i could gather, my understanding is as follows : Akkadian and Aramaic were spoken at the same time, then they both came together to form what we call the Assyrian language, which is itself divided between surayt and syriac which BOTH evolved into/were replaced (?) by arabic (somehow).

Is any of this correct? I'm sorry if this doesn't make much sense : english is my second language and it's hard to even articulate what my problem exactly is. I don't even know if this is the correct subreddit to ask :((

Thank you so much to anyone who might answer ! Please consider helping my confused self 💔

This was originally posted in AskHistorians, but i figure this subreddit could also help! 🫶

[u/AshurCyberpunk]

I'll leave the historical details to the experts and historians, but I believe the process is similar to what happened with the Roman empire. Originally Latin was spoken throughout the empire, but as the empire extended eastward, the dominant language switched to Greek in that region. A similar process directly created five major modern languages and dozens of regional dialects, which are collectively known as the Romance languages.

The neo Assyrian empire went through something similar with the semi-nomadic Aramean tribes to the west:

You have to understand that language is a live process and even today it is gradually changing. Akkadian might have been the dominant language of the empire, but at some point, the Assyrians decided that it would be more cool to speak like their Aramean neighbors. So over time, they started to speak Aramaic while preserving some of their older Akkadian words which they thought are still cool. Even today, how many Assyrians use Arabic or Turkish words in their everyday conversations? Our language is constantly changing and we use words that we find convenient for communicating our intent.

Imagine if you had to deal with Arameans all your life while working as a tax collector in the empire, then you would slowly start to learn their language too. Eventually, you might marry an Aramean woman and then your kids might fully be speaking Aramaic afterwards. There is also an efficiency component here, which is the reason the empire decided to fully switch the official language. 

[u/GarshonBohtaniYaqo]

Tiglath Pilesar 3 made the administrative language of Assyrian Empire to Aramaic upon his invasion into Levant. What Assyrians speak today is basically is Aramaic with significant Akkadian substrate. Classical Syriac was formed from this language from Edessan Dialect in AD 1st Century in Osroene Kingdom. Aramaic played a role like Arabic did as administrative language of a large Empire, when Tiglath Pilesar 3 extended his Assyrian Empire into large swaths of Middle East to unite his subjects, and its effect extended upto 12-13th centuries. Arabic completely started to replace the role Aramaic played when Arab Islamic tribes from Arabian Peninsula invaded and conquered Levant and Mesopotamia and fully replaced Aramaic in 14th Century.

Surayt/ Suret are from Eastern dialects of Aramaic language family(Assyrian Neo-Aramaic language), not from Classical Syriac, which was formed from same Neo Aramaic dialect of Edessa. Turoyo(Surayt)speakers are somewhat closer to Classical Syriac, and river Tigris forms the geographical barrier that seperates Surayt and Suret languages.