User talk:AntonSamuel

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Syriac place names

As you appear to know the Syriac language, per your recent edit in the Rojava article, could you add the Syriac names to more of the towns in the "population centers" table in that article? -- 2A1ZA (talk) 20:04, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

Syriac

As you appear to be the only editor of the Rojava article who has a first hand knowledge of Syriac language issues, I would like to thank you here as well for your respective edits. One curious question: Concerning the spoken Neo-Aramaic languages, is the information true that Assyrians in Rojava (Gozarto) almost exclusively speak "Turoyo" (and not "Assyrian" or "Chaldean")? -- 2A1ZA (talk) 11:40, 25 May 2017 (UTC)

Thanks! Happy to help :) Yeah the majority of Assyrians/Syriacs in Gozarto speak Turoyo/Surayt, a lot of them are descendants from refugees from Tur Abdin (Turkey), especially in Qamishlo, Ras al Ayn, Hasakah, Derik, Amuda, Qabre Hewore and the smaller Syriac villages near the Turkish border. Though skills vary and many have switched over partially or fully to Arabic. In Tell Tamer and in the Khabour Valley though, the predominant Neo-Aramaic language is various dialects of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, since most descend from refugees from the Hakkari areas in Turkey and from around Simele in Iraq. This Syriac population is smaller compared to the Turoyo-speaking population though. Chaldean Neo-Aramaic is pretty rare in Syria I believe, there are followers of the Chaldean Church in Gozarto but Chaldean speakers are not necessary members of the Chaldean church. The Syriacs that lived in Tabqa were a mixture of both people from Northeastern Gozarto and the Khabour Valley so both varieties existed there. If you're interested in learning more about the Assyrians-Syriacs of Northern Syria I recommend these articles; http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/the-assyrians-of-syria-history-and-prospets-by-mardean-isaac/, http://www.aina.org/releases/20130802050632.htm AntonSamuel (talk) 12:22, 25 May 2017 (UTC)

I am looking

File:Pictures of bas reliefs with Hebrew.jpg

for someone to translate what I believe to be Hebrew on a frame around a bas relief (actually two) and I think your user page suggest to you do. Are you interested? Can I send you the pictures? Do you need the background story? Einar aka Carptrash (talk) 18:11, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

@Carptrash: Sure, I can give it a go! Can't promise anything though since Hebrew isn't my native language. And yeah, the background story might help. AntonSamuel (talk) 18:28, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

Background. These two reliefs, that I take to be David & Ruth, were done on the Jewish Community Center building in Detroit Michigan USA in the 1950s. Since then an awning has been add that for some reason had to be in the reliefs. I am wondering what the Hebrew (?) text says. Thanks for taking a look. Oh yes, basically this is being done for a project outside wikipedia. about the life and works of Corrado Parducci. Carptrash (talk) 20:30, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

@Carptrash: The first one is from Psalm 133, I've heard it many times in many renditions. "Hine ma tov uma nayim shevet achim gam yachad" -
הנה מה טוב ומה נעים שבת אחים גם יחד - "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers (also) to dwell together!" Here is a link to it, it's the first verse on the page: http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16354/jewish/Chapter-133.htm

Seems like the second one consists of snippets from Proverbs 31:25; עוז והדר לבושה - "Oz Ve'Hadar Lebusha" - "Strength and beauty/splendor is her clothing" and 31:26; ותורת חסד על לשונה - "Ve'Torat Chesed Al Leshona" - "And the instruction of kindness is on her tongue" - You can find translations here if you scroll down to 25 and 26: http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16402/jewish/Chapter-31.htm, also more detailed description of the individual meaning of the words here: http://biblehub.com/lexicon/proverbs/31-25.htm, http://biblehub.com/lexicon/proverbs/31-26.htm AntonSamuel (talk) 21:07, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

As much, or more, than I was hoping for. Thank you very much, Einar aka Carptrash (talk) 21:10, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

Causing problems

Recent edits by an IP user(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/2602:306:31B4:1C10:FDD8:D71B:A0BB:984E) to this and several other pages consistently make Chaldean Christians their own ethnic group rather than being Assyrian. I don't know enough about the subject matter to know if this is correct. However, similar past edits were reverted, and the current edits also make claims beyond what is in the cited sources. Thus the placement of the flags int he hopes they'll attract someone more knowledgeable. 2601:401:502:320A:44E6:16AF:15FF:6799 (talk) 03:47, 26 August 2017 (UTC)

Hi! I've reverted his changes now. In some places he has only changed the name from Assyrian -> Syriac and changed it to Chaldean if there is a Chaldean Catholic or Chaldean Neo-Aramaic speaking majority in the town/area. It's clear he has a biased purpose for this and in some cases he has removed any historical mention of Assyrians and removed entire sections. Assyrian is still the catch-all name for Christian Northeastern Neo-Aramaic speakers, the Chaldean identity represents a minority and is not totally parallell to linguistic and religious lines. AntonSamuel (talk) 10:42, 26 August 2017 (UTC)

This type of editing seems to be a recurring problem with IP users. Would it be worth trying to get all pages relating to modern-day Assyrians semi-protected so that only auto-confirmed users could edit them? LacrimosaDiesIlla (talk) 14:36, 28 August 2017 (UTC)

Yeah, I think that might be warranted, I just reverted another bunch of biased edits. I'm not an administrator though but raise the issue with one of them and I'm sure they'll agree! AntonSamuel (talk) 17:26, 31 August 2017 (UTC)

Hello

Hi Anton. I have some concerns regarding such removals [1]. Of course, the term "Assyrian" is an umbrella term for all Eastern Neo-Aramaic speakers, there is nothing wrong with that. However, censoring "Syriac" and using simply "Assyrian" is not constructive. I am partly Syro-Aramean living in Turkey (now using VPN, because Erdogan blocked Wikipedia). Syro-Arameans have different culture, clothes, etc. For example, Iraqi Assyrians celebrate Akitu, we do not. Things like that. Language and ethnogenesis are also not the same at all. Assyrian Neo-Aramaic has Akkadian substratum, Turoyo and other Syro-Aramean dialects do not. They are purely Aramean. I am against removing "Assyrian" and using only "Syriac". HOWEVER, I am also against censoring "Syriac"!! It is aggressive and not constructive. Syriac is commonly used for describing Syro-Arameans living in Tur Abdin. Even in Turkey, where the Tur Abdin is located, we are known as "Süryani" which means "Syriac". It is common name for those from Tur Abdin. "Assyrian" is also shared identity as well. So, to compromise, can we use both, instead of pushing only one term? "Syriac/Assyrian" is a good term and reflects both Assyrian and Syro-Aramean identities. (The term "Assyrian" includes many sub-groups, e.g. Chaldeans. The readers must know that those from Tur Abdin and North Syria are not Chaldeans, etc.) 107.190.38.35 (talk) 16:59, 31 August 2017 (UTC)

Hi! I agree, I expanded the name to Syriac-Assyrian in the Rojava article since most Syriac-Assyrians in Syria are Surayt speakers and many of these identify as Syriac/Aramean. The naming and historical controversy is pretty complex and I can't say I know of any solution/consensus that has been found that most agree to. Here in Sweden where I live the official politically correct term is "Assyrier/Syrianer" - Assyrians/Syriacs and in the US it's "Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriacs". Since the name "Syriac" mostly also represents those who identify as Aramean, and because (from what I've gathered) most of Chaldean Catholics and Chaldean Neo-Aramaic speakers identify as Assyrian or Chaldo-Assyrians since the division is mostly religious and (more or less) dialectal rather than historical, ethnic or linguistic I think Syriac-Assyrian is appropriate to include. I suppose there is a point that it's a cumbersome because of the length of the term to use it everytime you refer to the Syriac-Assyrian people so I'll change back to Syriac-Assyrian in the demographic section and in the introduction while leaving most references in the text as "Assyrian" since it is still the catch-all name, it might turn into a debate on the talk page though, so we'll see what happens. AntonSamuel (talk) 17:19, 31 August 2017 (UTC)

Okay friend, thank you. I have made some minor corrections for consistency. Regards. 107.190.38.35 (talk) 17:43, 31 August 2017 (UTC)