Aramaic Online: Lifeline for an Endangered Tongue

BERLIN — In a quiet digital classroom hosted by the Free University of Berlin, a handful of students of all ages scattered across the world lean into their screens. On keyboards and tablets, they tap out their first sentences in a language that once echoed through the stone alleys of Tur Abdin and the mountain churches of northern Syria.

Surayt — also called Turoyo — is more than a dialect. It’s a vessel of memory, the everyday speech of grandparents and village life, of lullabies and liturgies. Known to scholars as a branch of Neo-Aramaic — and to many simply as “our language” — Surayt carries the same linguistic roots as the Aramaic spoken by Jesus Christ. But today, with fewer than 250,000 speakers, mostly dispersed by war and migration, the language hovers near silence. 

To stop that silence from settling in permanently, an ambitious project was born in the 2010s. 

A Consortium Across Continents

Launched in 2017 and running through 2020, the Surayt-Aramaic Online Project (SAOP) brought together a passionate coalition of linguists, historians, technologists, and community leaders from five countries, co-funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ program. Their mission: create a modern, accessible curriculum to teach Surayt to the children and grandchildren of those who once spoke it fluently. 

At the center of it all is the Free University of Berlin. But the project’s heart beats in a rhythm shared with Stockholm University, the St. Ephrem Syriac Orthodox Monastery in the Netherlands, Beth Mardutho in the US, and the Midyat Süryani Cultural Association in Turkey. Together, they pooled expertise in applied linguistics, digital pedagogy, and community outreach to develop a scalable, online curriculum. 

The goal was not just to archive grammar charts, “but to reconnect a displaced population with its living heritage,” said Professor Shabo Talay, SAOP’s scientific coordinator and one of Europe’s foremost authorities on Surayt. 

An advisory board of senior scholars—including Prof. Otto Jastrow (University of Tallinn), Prof. Geoffrey Khan (University of Cambridge), Prof. Werner Arnold (University of Heidelberg), and Dr. Jan van Ginkel (FU Berlin) — steered the project’s academic rigor. Meanwhile, associated partners such as the Inanna Foundation (Netherlands), Kano Suryoyo Foundation (Germany), and ABF-Södertälje/Nykvarn (Sweden) ensured tight ties to Europe’s Syriac-speaking congregations.   

From Proto-Aramaic to Pixelated Pedagogy

Surayt’s lineage extends over 3,000 years, evolving from Imperial Aramaic to a family of dialects spoken by mostly Christian Syriac communities across the Fertile Crescent. But it was never a standardized written language. It lived and breathed orally: told in stories, sung in chants, whispered in the kitchens of exiles. War, persecution, and migration fractured its landscape. Now, UNESCO lists Surayt as “severely endangered.”

SAOP wanted to invert that trend by harnessing Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) technologies — and heart. Developers, building on the successes of Arabic e-learning platforms from Leipzig University, have created a mobile-friendly course that combines tradition with innovation. Learners can record their voices, get real-time feedback on pronunciation, and even join forums to chat with speakers across generations. 

It’s a virtual village — a place where digital pixels become something sacred: a spoken breath of identity. 

Building on a Proven Foundation

The Surayt-Aramaic Online Project stood on the shoulders of an earlier initiative, the Aramaic-Online Project (2014–2017). That consortium — led by the University of Bergen and including FU Berlin, Leipzig, Cambridge’s Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (FAMES), and St. Ephrem Monastery — pioneered many pedagogical frameworks now in use. Bergen’s linguists first secured Erasmus+ seed funding, while Berlin’s team under Prof. Talay refined syllabi and recorded native-speaker dialogues. Leipzig integrated CALL best practices, Cambridge hosted scholarly conferences on language revitalization, and the monastery provided immersive summer courses for second- and third-generation learners. 

SAOP’s leaders say the project expanded those foundations, offering richer content, deeper community engagement, and more robust technical support. “We’ve learned that language learning succeeds when it’s community-driven,” notes Dr. Van Ginkel of FU Berlin. “Our online platform connects learners with elders, clergy, and scholars — ensuring that Surayt remains a living, breathing vehicle of identity.”   

Beyond the Screen: A Cultural Revival

For participants like 28-year-old Sarah Mousa of Stockholm, the platform is already a lifeline. “My grandparents spoke Surayt at home,” she says. “But without resources, I was losing my connection to our songs, stories, and prayers. Now I can practice daily, even join virtual liturgies in the monastery’s dialect.” 

A Model for Endangered Languages

The Surayt-Aramaic Online Project encapsulates a broader European strategy to sustain minority tongues through digital innovation and cross-border cooperation. As Erasmus+ winded down SAOP in 2020, the Surayt-Aramic Online Project transitioned into Aramaic Online. Project directors are planning successor programs, seeking new grants and corporate sponsorships to maintain platform hosting and content updates.   

“In five years, we hope to see at least 5,000 active learners and a network of certified instructors across Europe and the Middle East,” said Professor Talay back then. “Surayt’s survival depends on us — scholars, clergy, and communities — working together to turn pixels into people who speak, sing, and pray in the language of their forefathers.”   

Should they succeed, Surayt may reclaim its place not only in dusty manuscripts or the memories of a few elders but in the daily lives of a vibrant, diasporic community determined to keep an ancient voice alive.