Lishan Didan language
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2 References 3 See also 4 External links |
Origin and use today
Various Neo-Aramaic dialects were spoken across a wide area from Lake Urmia to Lake Van (in Turkey), down to the plain of Mosul (in Iraq) and back across to Sanandaj (in Iran again). Lishn Didn, at the northeastern extreme of this area, is somewhat intelligible with the Jewish Neo-Aramaic languages of Hulaula (spoken further south, in Iranian Kurdistan) and Lishanid Noshan (formerly spoken around Kirkuk, Iraq). However, the local Christian Neo-Aramaic dialects of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic are unintelligible: Christian and Jewish communities living side by side developed completely different variants of Aramaic that had more in common with their co-religionists living further away than with their neighbours. Lishn Didn is sometimes called Targumic, due to the long tradition of translating the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic, and the production of targums.
There are two major dialect clusters of Lishn Didn. The northern cluster of dialects centred around Urmia and Salmas in West Azarbaijan, and extended into the Jewish villages of the Turkish province of Van. The southern cluster of dialects was focused on the town of Mahabad and villages just south of Lake Urmia. The dialects of the two clusters are intelligible to one another, and most of the differences are due to receiving loanwords from different languages: Persian, Kurdish and Turkish languages especially.
The upheavals in their traditional region after the First World War and the founding of the State of Israel led most of the Azerbaijani Jews to settle in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. However, uprooted from their homes, and thrown together with so many different language groups in the fledgling nation, Lishn Didn began to be replaced in the speech of younger generations by Modern Hebrew. Fewer than 5,000 people are known to speak Lishn Didan, and most of them are over 50 years old. The language faces extinction in the next few decades.
Lishn Didn is written in the Hebrew alphabet. Spelling tends to be highly phonetic, and elided letters are not written.
References
- 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.
See also
External links
| Modern Aramaic languages | ||
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'''Jewish Neo-Aramaic languages Lishanid Noshan | Bijil Neo-Aramaic | Hulaula | Lishana Deni | Lishan Didan Christian Neo-Aramaic languages Assyrian Neo-Aramaic | Bohtan Neo-Aramaic | Chaldean Neo-Aramaic | Hertevin | Koy Sanjaq Surat | Mlahso | Senaya | Turoyo Other Neo-Aramaic languages Western Neo-Aramaic | Mandaic | ||
