since the 1980s, a dispute between, on the one hand, the east aramaic speaking assyrians (aka chaldo-assyrians, who are indigenous christians from northern iraq, northwestern iran, southeastern turkey, northeastern syria and the caucasus, and derive their national identity from the bronze and iron age assyria. on the other hand, the now largely arabic-speaking, but previously west aramaic speaking arameans, who are mainly from central, south, west and northwestern syria, south-central turkey, and israel, emphasizing their descent from the levantine arameans instead) has become ever more pronounced. in the light of this dispute, the traditional english designation "assyrians" has come to appear taking an assyrianist position, for which reason some official sources in the 2000s have come to use emphatically neutral terminology, such as "assyrian/chaldean/syriac" in the us census, and "assyrier/syrianer" in the swedish census.