June 15, 2014

His Grace, Mar Polous, bishop of the Assyrian Church of the East;

Honored leaders of the Assyrian community of Chicago;

Esteemed scholars;

The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary is a big deal. 21 volumes, 9,700 pages, 28,000 entries. Started by the archeologist James Henry Breasted, who was the founder of the Oriental Institute in 1919. It took 88 scholars and nearly a century. It is finally done.

It is a lens into the language of the past; the language of our forefathers; the language of the beginning of civilization in Mesopotamia. As Dr. Martha Roth, who is present here today has stated, "every term, every word becomes a window into the culture."

Indeed it does. The dictionary presents each word in a meaningful context, with a full idiomatic translation, giving us not merely a glossary of words, but an encyclopedia. It is, in the words of Dr. Gil Stein, the current director of the Oriental Institute, it "is an indispensable research tool for any scholar anywhere who seeks to explore the written record of the Mesopotamian civilization."

Dr. Jerrold Cooper, Professor of Semitic Languages at Johns Hopkins University said the dictionary's importance can't possibly be overestimated" because it opens up for study "the richest span of cuneiform writing."

Many words with multiple meanings and extensive associations with history are followed by page after page of discourse ranging through literature, law, religion, commerce and everyday life. There are, for example, 17 pages devoted to the word "umu," meaning "day."

For us as Assyrians, we are incredibly grateful for this Dictionary helps us to understand our political and cultural history and the achievements of our forefathers in the sciences of medicine, astronomy, mathematics, linguistics and what one writer described as "the timeless beauty of their poetry."

One reporter wrote "some might wonder if it is a bit late in the game, but scholars at the university of Chicago's Oriental Institute have finally completed the Assyrian Dictionary, listing words of a language that hasn't been used for more than 2000 years.

Assyrians take issue with that and respond with the assertion that theirs is a complicated history, one full of torments and tragedies, but also of adherence to identity and faith, and of survival despite the odds.

Today, as we express our gratitude to you, and to all of those who were not able to be among us, we recall that our people in the Nineveh Plain, the heart of Assyria, brace for difficulties, day after day and year after year, but cling to their survival with hope of living a dignified existence and being proud of their heritage, much of it in ruins and mounds next to their towns and villages.

As our people are threatened with physical annihilation in the East, as their monuments and sculptures are destroyed, and as their collective bond to the land of their ancestors nears an apparent end, it is all the more important, all the more significant, that projects like the Assyrian Dictionary are praised and those who work on them appreciated.

Esteemed scholars: We are deeply appreciative of your efforts, and the efforts of those who are no longer with us. We thank you and hold you in high honor.