Northeastern Neo-Aramaic Explained

Northeastern Neo-Aramaic
Also Known As:	NENA
Region:	Traditionally spoken northeast to the plain of Urmia in Iran, southeast to the plain of Mosul in Iraq, southwest to Al-Hasakah Governorate in Syria and as northwest as Tur Abdin in Turkey. Diaspora speakers in North America, Europe and Israel (the Jewish dialects).
Familycolor:	Afro-Asiatic
Fam2:	Semitic
Fam3:	Central Semitic
Fam4:	Northwest Semitic
Fam5:	Aramaic
Fam6:	Eastern Aramaic
Child1:	Suret
Child2:	Lishanid Noshan
Child3:	Bohtan Neo-Aramaic
Child4:	Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic
Child5:	Hértevin
Child6:	Hulaulá
Child7:	Koy Sanjaq Surat
Child8:	Lishana Deni
Child9:	Senaya
Child10:	Lishán Didán
Child11:	Jewish Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
Child12:	Qaraqosh Neo-Aramaic
Glotto:	nort3241
Glottorefname:	North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic

Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) is a grouping of related dialects of Neo-Aramaic spoken before World War I as a vernacular language by Jews and Assyrian Christians between the Tigris and Lake Urmia, stretching north to Lake Van and southwards to Mosul and Kirkuk. As a result of the Assyrian genocide, Christian speakers were forced out of the area that is now Turkey and in the early 1950s most Jewish speakers moved to Israel. The Kurdish-Turkish conflict resulted in further dislocations of speaker populations.^[1] As of the 1990s, the NENA group had an estimated number of fluent speakers among the Assyrians just below 500,000, spread throughout the Middle East and the Assyrian diaspora. In 2007, linguist Geoffrey Khan wrote that many dialects were nearing extinction with fluent speakers difficult to find.

The other branches of Neo-Aramaic are Western Neo-Aramaic, Central Neo-Aramaic (Turoyo and Mlahso), and Mandaic.^[2] Some linguists classify NENA as well as Turoyo and Mlahso as a single dialect continuum.^[3]

Influences

The NENA languages contain a large number of loanwords and some grammatical features from the extinct East Semitic Akkadian language of Mesopotamia (the original language of the Assyrians) and also in more modern times from their surrounding languages: Kurdish, Arabic, Persian, Azerbaijani and Turkish language. These languages are spoken by both Jews and Christian Assyrians from the area. Each variety of NENA is clearly Jewish or Assyrian.

However, not all varieties of one or other religious groups are intelligible with all others of the group. Likewise, in some places Jews and Assyrian Christians from the same locale speak mutually unintelligible varieties of Aramaic, where in other places their language is quite similar. The differences can be explained by the fact that NENA communities gradually became isolated into small groups spread over a wide area, and some had to be highly mobile due to various ethnic and religious persecutions.

The influence of classical Aramaic varieties – Syriac on Christian varieties and Targumic on Jewish communities – gives a dual heritage that further distinguishes language by faith. Many of the Jewish speakers of NENA varieties, the Kurdish Jews, now live in Israel, where Neo-Aramaic is endangered by the dominance of Modern Hebrew. Many Christian NENA speakers, who usually are Assyrian, are in diaspora in North America, Europe, Australia, the Caucasus and elsewhere, although indigenous communities remain in northern Iraq, south east Turkey, north east Syria and north west Iran, an area roughly comprising what had been ancient Assyria.^[4]

Grouping

SIL Ethnologue assigns ISO codes to twelve NENA varieties, two of them extinct:

• Suret (Assyrian Neo-Aramaic) [{{ethnolink|aii}}], 235,000 speakers (1994)^[5]
• Suret (Chaldean Neo-Aramaic) [{{ethnolink|cld}}], 216,000 speakers (1994)
• Judeo-Aramaic languages, spoken by Jewish communities in Israel
  • Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialect of Barzani [{{ethnolink|bjf}}] (Israel), extinct
  • Trans-Zab Jewish Neo-Aramaic [{{ethnolink|huy}}], 10,000 speakers (1990s)
  • Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialect of Zakho [{{ethnolink|lsd}}] 7,500 speakers (1990s)
  • Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialect of Urmia [{{ethnolink|trg}}], 4,500 speakers (2000)
  • Inter-Zab Jewish Neo-Aramaic [{{ethnolink|aij}}], 2,200 speakers (1990s)
• Neo-Aramaic dialect of Bohtan [{{ethnolink|bhn}}] (Georgia), 1,000 speakers (1990s)
• Neo-Aramaic dialect of Hertevin [{{ethnolink|hrt}}] (Turkey), 1,000 speakers (1990s)
• Koy Sanjaq Christian Neo-Aramaic [{{ethnolink|kqd}}] (Iraq), 900 speakers (1990s)
• Christian Neo-Aramaic dialect of Senaya [{{ethnolink|syn}}] (Iran), 460 speakers (1990s)

List of dialects

Below is a full list of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic dialects from the North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Database Project (as of 2023):^[6]

Dialect	Religion	Country	Region
	Jewish		NE
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Jewish		W
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Jewish		NE
	Jewish		NE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		NW
	Christian		SE
	Christian		W
	Jewish		NE
	Jewish		NW
	Jewish		NE
	Jewish		W
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Jewish		NW
	Jewish		NW
	Jewish		NW
	Jewish		W
	Jewish		NW
	Christian		NW
	Jewish		NW
	Jewish		NW
	Christian		NE
	Jewish		W
	Christian		SE
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		SE
	Christian		NW
	Jewish		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		SE
	Jewish		W
	Christian		NE
	Jewish		W
	Jewish		W
	Jewish		W
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Jewish		NW
	Christian		NE
	Jewish		NE
	Jewish		NE
	Jewish		NE
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Jewish		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian
	Christian		SE
	Christian		NW
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Jewish		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NE
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NE
	Christian		NW
	Jewish		W
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Jewish		NW
	Jewish		NW
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Jewish		NW
	Christian		SE
	Christian		SE
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NE
	Jewish		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Jewish		SE
	Jewish		SE
	Christian		NW
	Christian		SE
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW
	Jewish		NW
	Jewish		NE
	Christian		NW
	Christian		SE
	Christian		NW
	Christian		NW

Sources

• Book: Coghill . Eleanor . Neo-Aramaic Dialect Studies . Gorgias Press . 978-1-4632-1161-5 . 91–104 . Some notable features in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic dialects of Iraq.
• Fox . Samuel Ethan . The Relationships of the Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects . Journal of the American Oriental Society . 1994 . 114 . 2 . 154–162 . 10.2307/605827 . 605827 . 0003-0279.
• Book: Fox . Samuel Ethan . Neo-Aramaic Dialect Studies . 2008 . Gorgias Press . 978-1-4632-1161-5 . 1–18 . North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic and the Middle Aramaic Dialects.
• Book: Gutman . Ariel . Attributive constructions in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic. 2018 . Language Science Press . 978-3-96110-081-1 . en.
• Book: Khan . Geoffrey . Empirical Approaches to Language Typology [EALT] . Mouton de Gruyter . 978-3-11-019919-2 . 10.1515/9783110199192.197 . Grammatical borrowing in North-eastern Neo-Aramaic. 2007. 197–214 .
• Book: Khan . Geoffrey . The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook . 2012 . Walter de Gruyter . 978-3-11-025158-6 . 708–724 . en . North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic.
• Book: Khan . Geoffrey . Napiorkowska . Lidia . Neo-Aramaic in Its Linguistic Context . 2015 . Gorgias Press . 978-1-4632-0410-5 . en.
• Khan . Geoffrey . Remarks on the Historical Development and Syntax of the Copula in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects . Aramaic Studies . 2018 . 16 . 2 . 234–269 . 10.1163/17455227-01602010. 195503300 .
• Book: Khan . Geoffrey . Perfects in Indo-European Languages and Beyond . 2020 . John Benjamins Publishing Company . 978-90-272-6090-1 . en . The Perfect in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic.
• Book: Khan . Geoffrey . Noorlander . Paul . Studies in the Grammar and Lexicon of Neo-Aramaic . Semitic Languages and Cultures . 2021 . 5 . Open Book Publishers . 10.11647/OBP.0209 . 978-1-78374-952-2 . 231785174 . English . free .
• Book: Ragagnin . Elisabetta . Eine hundertblättrige Tulpe - Bir ṣadbarg lāla . 2020 . De Gruyter . 978-3-11-220924-0 . 361–371 . Some Notes on Turkic and Mongolic Elements in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Varieties.
• Mutzafi . Hezy . Etymological Notes on North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic . Aramaic Studies . 2005 . 3 . 1 . 83–107 . 10.1177/1477835105053516.
• Mutzafi . Hezy . On the Etymology of Some Enigmatic Words in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic . Aramaic Studies . 2006 . 4 . 1 . 83–99 . 10.1177/1477835106066037.
• Mutzafi . Hezy . Folk Etymology in the North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects . Aramaic Studies . 2018 . 16 . 2 . 215–233 . 10.1163/17455227-01602007. 195509710.

External links

• The North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Database Project by Geoffrey Khan et al. (University of Cambridge)

Notes and References

1. Bird, Isabella, Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, including a summer in the Upper Karun region and a visit to the Nestorian rayahs, London: J. Murray, 1891, vol. ii, pp. 282 and 306
2. Khan . G. . The North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects . Journal of Semitic Studies . 1 January 2007 . 52 . 1 . 1–20 . 10.1093/jss/fgl034.
3. Kim . Ronald . "Stammbaum" or Continuum? The Subgrouping of Modern Aramaic Dialects Reconsidered . Journal of the American Oriental Society . 2008 . 128 . 3 . 505–531 . 25608409 . 0003-0279.
4. [Wolfhart Heinrichs|Heinrichs, Wolfhart]
5. Web site: Assyrian Neo-Aramaic. 18th. Lewis. M. Paul. Gary F. Simons. Charles D. Fennig . 2015. Ethnologue

   Languages of the World

   . Dallas, Texas. SIL International.
6. Web site: Khan . Geoffrey . Geoffrey Khan . Dialects . The North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic Database Project . 2023-10-07.