Aramaic (Modern)

Modern Aramaic languages, such as Suret (Assyrian), are spoken by around 500,000 people, primarily in small communities across Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. These languages descend from Classical Aramaic, which served as a lingua franca of the Near East for centuries. They are written in the Syriac script (and sometimes Hebrew script) and have a fusional morphology with a flexible word order. Despite their rich literary and liturgical heritage especially in Christian traditions they are considered endangered, as many speakers live in diaspora or face cultural assimilation pressures.