Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialect of Zakho

The Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialect of Zakho^[1][2][3] is a dialect of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic originally spoken by Jews in Zakho, Iraq. Following the exodus of Jews from the Muslim lands, most speakers now live in Israel, principally Jerusalem and surrounding villages.

Rakhma speaking Jewish Neo-Aramaic (Lishana Deni)

Lishana Deni
לשנא דני Lišānā Denī
Pronunciation	[liˈʃɑnɑ ˈdɛni]
Native to	Iraq
Region	Zakho, Iraq
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Northwest Semitic Aramaic Eastern Aramaic Northeastern Neo-Aramaic Lishana Deni
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lsd
Glottolog	lish1247
ELP	Lishana Deni

Grammar

It is unknown exactly how person markers are established as either pronominal affixes, or agreement markers. There are two explanations. The first relies on synchronic change, using evidence from Classical Syriac. This analysis reveals that the same person marker may simply behave differently in different syntactic environments. The second explanation suggests that there is no clear-cut dichotomy between pronominal affixes and agreement markers at all, citing transitional cases as an example.^[4]

See also

• Aramaic alphabet
• Betanure Jewish Neo-Aramaic
• Jewish languages

References

1. Neuman, Yishai (2019). "Categorical Shifts of the Idiom Ribono shel(a)olam: From a Tannaitic Vocative to a Jewish Theocentric Interjection to a Substrate Component in Israeli Hebrew Discourse". Journal of Jewish Languages. 7 (2): 190–226. doi:10.1163/22134638-06011139a.
2. Nissan, Ephraim (2019). "Names for the fishes of the river Tigris in Baghdadi Judaeo-Arabic and in Zakho Jewish Neo-Aramaic". La Linguistique. 55 (1): 97–128. doi:10.3917/ling.551.0097. S2CID 197844219.
3. Nissan, E. (1 January 1999). "REVIEWS". Journal of Semitic Studies. XLIV (2): 320–322. doi:10.1093/jss/XLIV.2.320.
4. Gutman, Ariel (2019). "Personal indices in the verbal system of the Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialect of Zakho". The Mental Lexicon.

Further reading

• Avenery, Iddo, The Aramaic Dialect of the Jews of Zakho. The Israel academy of Science and Humanities 1988.
• Heinrichs, Wolfhart (ed.) (1990). Studies in Neo-Aramaic. Scholars Press: Atlanta, Georgia. ISBN 1-55540-430-8.
• Maclean, Arthur John (1895). Grammar of the dialects of vernacular Syriac: as spoken by the Eastern Syrians of Kurdistan, north-west Persia, and the Plain of Mosul: with notices of the vernacular of the Jews of Azerbaijan and of Zakhu near Mosul. Cambridge University Press, London.
• Sabar, Yona (1975). "The impact of Israeli Hebrew on the Neo-Aramaic dialect of the Kurdish Jews of Zakho: a case of language shift". Hebrew Union College Annual (46): 489–508.
• Sabar, Yona (2002). A Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dictionary. Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-04557-5.

External links

• Lives of Kurdish Jewish women
• Personal indices in the verbal system of the Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialect of Zakho
• The Neo-Aramaic Oral Heritage of the Jews of Zakho