Modern Aramaic Assyrinan/Syriac: Swadaya-english / Turyo-english / English-swadaya-turoy: Dicitonary and Phrasebook Review

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Modern Aramaic Assyrinan/Syriac: Swadaya-english / Turyo-english / English-swadaya-turoy: Dicitonary and Phrasebook ReviewAs described in the title, the book is a combination dictionary and phrasebook which covers two contemporary spoken Aramaic dialects, the Turoyo dialect from the Tur-Abdin area of Turkey, and the Mesopotamian-Lake Urmia Swadaya ('colloquial') dialect originally based in Northern Iraq and adjacent areas of Iran. The two dialects seem to be markedly different from one another, but luckily some of the differences fall into regular patterns (for 'hello' Turoyo says "shlomo" and Swadaya says "shlama"). The authors do a good job of integrating the two dialects in the book.
There is a readable, short, historical overview of the sometimes tragic experiences of the language's speakers, generally known as Assyrians or Chaldeans, and a helpful grammar summary that helps you make mores sense of the questions and answers you read in the phrasebook sections. The grammar summary would be more helpful if it had a table showing the full conjugations of half a dozen key verbs and a few sentences explaining the overall pattern (the grammar summary in the Lonely Planet Amharic book is a good example of what I think is ideal).
The striking thing about the phrasebook sections are the number of phrases related to war: "Please show me the minefields" is one of the sentences that caught my attention. I suppose this is a sad commentary on the experiences of people in Iraqi Kurdistan in recent times. I wonder whether a major part of the book's intended audience is the military (I had assumed it would have been mainly the Assyrian-Chaldean ethnic community and some curious individuals interested in Semitic languages, like myself).
I wish, in addition to an expanded grammar section, there was more use of the Eastern or "Nestorian" version of the Syriac script. The authors did present it in a short section, for which I'm grateful, but I would have liked some short texts in the script, as well (perhaps in the dictionary section), even just three of four examples of printed modern Aramaic. I suppose when the script is used the temptation arises to use the classical Syriac form of a word instead of the modern colloquial.
All in all, a fascinating and valuable book. I hope a recorded version is next.
Modern Aramaic Assyrinan/Syriac: Swadaya-english / Turyo-english / English-swadaya-turoy: Dicitonary and Phrasebook OverviewThe enormous success of Mel Gibson's film 'The Passion of Christ' has revived interest in the Aramaic language. It is now recognised throughout the world as the language spoken by Christ and the Apostles. Contrary to popular belief, however, it is very much a 'living' language spoken today by the Assyrian peoples in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. It is also heard in Assyrian emigre communities of the US, Europe and Australia. Modern Aramaic or Assyrian is made up of a number of dialects. The two major ones are Swadaya (Eastern) and Turoyo (Western). This unique dictionary and phrasebook incorporates both dialects in a way that illustrates the differences and gives the reader a complete understanding of both. The dialects are presented in an easy-to-read romanised form that will help the reader to be understood.

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