Learn Assyrian (Sureth) for free

hamzem is a free app for learning everyday spoken Assyrian — also called Sureth or Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, the modern Aramaic of the Assyrian people. A few minutes a day of flashcards, listening, phrases and stories, with the Syriac script and pronunciation for every word.

What you can learn

• 1,500 everyday Assyrian words with meanings, the Syriac script, pronunciation, examples and verb conjugations
• Common Assyrian phrases — greetings, manners, family, food and daily life (13 situations)
• A plain-language Assyrian grammar — 152 short topics, from pronunciation to linking sentences
• 74 Assyrian stories with English translation and native speakers' recordings
• The Assyrian alphabet — the Syriac letters, their names and sounds

How it works

hamzem uses spaced repetition: each word comes back just before you would forget it, so a few minutes a day adds up. You can practice saying words, listen hands-free, read stories with a tap for any word's meaning, and build your own sentences.

Questions

Is hamzem free?

Yes. hamzem is free, with no account and no ads. Your progress is saved in your browser, and you can keep it in sync across devices with a five-word code.

What is Assyrian (Sureth)?

Assyrian, also called Sureth (Suret, Soureth) or Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, is the modern Aramaic language spoken by Assyrians in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey and the diaspora. It is written in the Syriac script.

Is Assyrian the same as Aramaic?

Assyrian is a modern Aramaic language — a living descendant of the Aramaic family, in the North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic group. It is not the same as Classical Syriac, the literary and church language, though they share the script and much vocabulary.

Which dialect does hamzem teach?

Everyday spoken Assyrian of Urmi (Christian). With a little code-switching it carries to other Eastern dialects, including those spoken by families from Iraq.

Can I learn to read the Syriac script?

Yes. Every word is shown in the Syriac script as well as Latin letters, and the alphabet page teaches the letters one at a time.

Sources

Every Assyrian word, form and sentence in hamzem traces to a published source. The words and examples come from Geoffrey Khan, The Neo-Aramaic Dialect of the Assyrian Christians of Urmi (Brill, 2016): volume 3, the dictionary, and volume 4, the texts. The stories' recordings are from the NENA database (University of Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). shlama.io and Sharrukin are great learning resources that showed the art of the possible.