Syria (etymology)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The name Syria derives from the ancient Greek name Syrians, Σύριοι, Surioi, which was applied to the Assyrians.[1]

The name is often connected to Ασσυρία, Assuria, from the Akkadian Aššur. 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.

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).

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.e. Cilicia), dating to the eighth century BC, reference is made to the relationship between his kingdom and his Assyrian overlords. 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). 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. J. A. Tvedtnes has suggested that the Greek Suria is loaned from Coptic, and due to a regular Coptic development of Ḫrw to *Šuri.[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. Tvedtnes' explanation was rejected as unlikely by Frye in 1992.

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. 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. The Greeks applied this name to all of Asia Minor.[6] „

According to Daniel Pipes, however, Syria is derived from the Semitic term "Siryon."[7]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Herodotus. Herodotus VII.63 (HTML) (English). “VII.63: The Assyrians went to war with helmets upon their heads made of brass, and plaited in a strange fashion which is not easy to describe. They carried shields, lances, and daggers very like the Egyptian; but in addition they had wooden clubs knotted with iron, and linen corselets. This people, whom the Hellenes call Syrians, are called Assyrians by the barbarians. The Chaldeans served in their ranks, and they had for commander Otaspes, the son of Artachaeus.”
  2. ^ cf. Harper, Douglas (November 2001). Syria. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved on 2007-06-13..
  3. ^ Rollinger, Robert (2006). The terms “Assyria” and “Syria” again (HTML) (English). Assyriology 284-287. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 65(4).
  4. ^ Tvedtnes, John A. (1981). "The Origin of the Name "Syria"". Journal of Near Eastern Studies 40: 139. doi:10.1086/372868. 
  5. ^ Parpola, Simo. Assyrian Identity in Ancient Times and Today (PDF) (English). Assyriology 14. Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies.
  6. ^ Sa Grandeur Mgr. David, Archevêque Syrien De Damas, Grammair De La Langue Araméenne Selon Les Deux Dialects Syriaque Et Chaldaique Vol. 1,, (Imprimerie Des Péres Dominicains, Mossoul, 1896), 12.
  7. ^ Pipes, Daniel. Greater Syria: The History of an Ambition (in English). Middle East Forum, pp. 13. ISBN 0195060229.