Who we are

At home we spoke Surayt

I was born and raised in Södertälje. At home we spoke Surayt, and that is how it has been my whole life: Surayt with the family and the family's friends, Swedish with everyone else. The language has always been close to me. The best thing I know is drinking coffee with my ammos, my uncles, speaking Surayt and listening to their life stories.

But something has happened. The younger ones do not speak it any more. And it did not start with them, it started in my own generation. I know so many people who understand every word their grandmother says but answer in Swedish. Who cannot hold a conversation with their own cousins in the language they actually share.

To me that is a big thing. Surayt is part of who I am. They say a new language gives you a new soul, and Surayt is the soul I want to pass on to my children. When a language goes quiet, the culture goes with it.

Then I talked to Eric

Eric Kurtto is also from Södertälje. We first met when we were six, at Genetaskolan, and again years later at Rönninge gymnasium.

Surayt was not his language at home, but it was around him his whole childhood: his friends spoke it, it was there in everyday life. He just never bothered to learn it properly. What he can do is build apps.

I told him what I saw happening. He told me how you build something that actually ends up in people's pockets. Seven months later the app existed.

The funny part is what happened to him. Today he understands the basics. The words were already sitting there somewhere, lodged during his childhood long before he started, but this was the first time anyone laid them out properly, in several different ways. He knew more than he thought. The app was the last piece of the puzzle.

Why it is free

Most of the new generation already know more than they think. The words are there, from home, from church, from the family. What is missing is not the ability. It is someone laying it out so you can get at it: something in your pocket, ten minutes, and the feeling of moving forward straight away.

So the app is free. No subscription and no purchases. We want anyone to be able to talk to their parents, their grandparents and their friends in the language that carries the culture, the tradition and the love. It is one of the things that holds my people together. It should not sit behind a paywall.

Where the words come from

We have not invented anything. Spelling, diacritics and transliteration follow Šlomo Surayt, the coursebook from the Surayt-Aramaic Online Project (surayt.com, coursebook at textbook.surayt.com). The project was scientifically coordinated by Professor Shabo Talay at Freie Universität Berlin, in a consortium including Stockholm University, the Mor Ephrem monastery in the Netherlands and the Beth Mardutho Syriac Institute in the USA, and was funded by Erasmus+ between 2017 and 2020.

Without the database they built this app would never have happened, and we are grateful for it. At the same time it should be said: the project is independent of us and has not reviewed or endorsed the app. If you want to go deeper than we do, their course is the way.

More of the team

Alfred and Jakob tested the app before anyone else saw it. Today they are part of the team, along with George.

Alfred speaks Arabic, English, French, Judeo-Arabic, Surayt and Swedish. The best thing he knows is dancing bagiye.

The best thing Jakob knows is his mother's home cooking: kibbeh, aprach and above all jokat, a recipe passed down in the family for generations.

George has a big interest in trends, technology and innovation. The best thing he knows is curling up on the sofa with the series Bab Al-Hara.

Eric speaks Thai, Spanish, English, Japanese and Swedish, and is learning Surayt. The best thing he knows is Tälje kebab, the hot sauce above all, and hubo, love.

Get in touch

We are a small team, not a company. If you find a mistake, if a word sounds different in your home, or if you just want to say something: email hej@surayt.se. The app itself is in Swedish only.