Editing Turoyo language (section)

==History==
Turoyo has evolved from the [[Eastern Aramaic]] colloquial varieties that have been spoken in [[Tur Abdin]] and the surrounding plain for more than a thousand years since the initial introduction of [[Aramaic]] to the region. However, it has also been influenced by [[Classical Syriac]], which itself was the variety of the [[Eastern Middle Aramaic]] spoken farther west, in the city of [[Edessa, Mesopotamia|Edessa]], today known as [[Urfa]]. Due to the proximity of Tur Abdin to Edessa, and the closeness of their parent languages, meant that Turoyo bears a greater similarity to Classical Syriac than do Northeastern Neo-Aramaic varieties.

The homeland of Turoyo is the [[Tur Abdin]] region in southeastern Turkey.{{sfn|Jastrow|2011|p=697}} This region is a traditional stronghold of [[Syriac Orthodox Christians]].{{sfn|Palmer|1990|p=}}{{sfn|Barsoum|2008|p=}} The Turoyo-speaking population prior to the [[Sayfo]] largely adhered to the Syriac Orthodox Church.{{sfn|Jastrow|2011|p=697}} In 1970, it was estimated that there were 20,000 Turoyo-speakers still living in the area, however, they gradually migrated to [[Western Europe]] and elsewhere in the world.{{sfn|Jastrow|2011|p=697}} The Turoyo-speaking diaspora is now estimated at {{sigfig|104,900|2}}.<ref>https://www.ethnologue.com/language/tru/</ref> In the [[diaspora]] communities, Turoyo is usually a second language which is supplemented by more mainstream languages.{{sfn|Weaver|Kiraz|2016|p=19-36}} The language is considered endangered by [[UNESCO]], but efforts are still made by Turoyo-speaking communities to sustain the language through use in homelife, school programs to teach Turoyo on the weekends, and summer day camps.{{sfn|Weaver|Kiraz|2016|p=19-36}}<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sibille |first1=Jean |title=Turoyo |url=http://www.sorosoro.org/en/turoyo/ |website=Sorosoro |access-date=30 July 2022 |date=2011}}</ref>

Until recently, Turoyo was a spoken vernacular and was never written down: Kthobonoyo ([[Syriac language|Classical Syriac]]) was the written language. In the 1880s, various attempts were made, with the encouragement of western missionaries, to write Turoyo in the [[Syriac alphabet]], in the ''Serto'' and in ''Estrangelo'' script used for West-Syriac Kthobhonoyo. One of the first comprehensive studies of the language was published in 1881, by orientalists [[Eugen Prym]] and [[Albert Socin]], who classified it as a [[Neo-Aramaic]] dialect.{{sfn|Prym|Socin|1881|p=}}

However, with upheaval in their homeland through the twentieth century, many Turoyo speakers have emigrated around the world (particularly to [[Syria]], [[Lebanon]], [[Sweden]] and [[Germany]]). The Swedish government's education policy, that every child be educated in his or her first language, led to the commissioning of teaching materials in Turoyo. Yusuf Ishaq thus developed an alphabet for Turoyo based on the [[Latin script]]. Silas Üzel also created a separate Latin alphabet for Turoyo in Germany.

A series of reading books and workbooks that introduce Ishaq's alphabet are called {{transliteration|tru|Toxu Qorena!}}, or "Come, Let's Read!" This project has also produced a [[Swedish language|Swedish]]-Turoyo dictionary of 4500 entries: the ''Svensk-turabdinskt Lexikon: Leksiqon Swedoyo-Suryoyo''. Another old teacher, writer and translator of Turoyo is Yuhanun Üzel (1934-2023) who in 2009 finished the translation of the [[Peshitta]] Bible in Turoyo, with Benjamin Bar Shabo and Yakup Bilgic, in [[Serto]] (West-Syriac) and Latin script, a foundation for the "Aramaic-Syriac language". A team of AI researchers completed the first translation model for Turoyo in 2023.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Syriac.IO - Translator |url=https://www.syriac.io/translate |access-date=2023-05-06 |website=www.syriac.io |language=en}}</ref>