Chaldean Neo-Aramaic

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Chaldean Language
ܟܠܕܝܐ Kaldāyâ, ܣܘܼܪܲܝܬ Sōreth
Sureth.png
Sûret in written Syriac
(Madnkhaya script)
Pronunciation [kalˈdɑjɑ], [sorɛθ]
Native to Iraq, Iran, Turkey
Region Iraq; Mosul, Ninawa, now also Baghdad and Basra.
Native speakers
 unknown (undated figure of 3,100,000)[1]
(300,000 in Iraq in 2015)
Syriac (Madenhaya alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3 cld
Glottolog chal1275[2]

Chaldean Neo-Aramaic is a Northeastern Neo-Aramaic language[3] spoken throughout a large region stretching from the plain of Urmia, in northwestern Iran, to the Nineveh plains, in northern Iraq, together with parts of southeastern Turkey.[4]

As of the 1990s, the NENA group had an estimated number of speakers just below 500,000, spread throughout the Middle East and the Chaldean diaspora. More than 90% of these speak either the Chaldean Neo-Aramaic or Chaldean Neo-Aramaic variety, two varieties of Christian Neo-Aramaic or Sureth which, contrary to what their names suggest, are not divided among denominational Chaldean church/Chaldean church lines.[5][6][7] A further number speak Central Neo-Aramaic dialects, with figures for these ranging from 112,000 to 450,000 speakers.[8] Mutual intelligibility with Chaldean Neo-Aramaic and Chaldean Neo-Aramaic is considerable, but to a limited degree in some dialects.

It is extremely closely related to Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, both evolving from the same Syriac language, a distinct dialect which evolved in Assyria[9] between the 5th century BC and 1st century AD. The terms Syrian and thus Syriac were originally 9th century BC Indo-Anatolian derivatives of Assyrian.[10]

Despite the terms Chaldean Neo-Aramaic and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic indicating a separate religious or even ethnic identity, both languages and their native speakers originate from and are indigenous to the same Upper Mesopotamian region (what was Assyria between the 9th century BC and 7th century BC), and both originate directly from Syriac, which was founded in that same region.

History

The Syriac language in turn, had evolved from Imperial Aramaic, an Akkadian infused dialect introduced as the lingua franca of Chaldea and the Neo-Babylonian Empire by Chaldean Kings in the 10th century BC. The term Syrian and thus its derivative Syriac, had originally been 9th century BC Indo-Anatolian and Greek corruptions of Nenivah".[11]

Chaldean Language is one of a number of modern Northeastern Aramaic languages spoken by the Chaldean people, native to the northern region of Iraq from Kirkuk through the Nineveh plains, Irbil and Mosul to Dohuk, Urmia in northwestern Iran, northeastern Syria (particularly the Al Hasakah region) and in southeast Turkey, particularly Hakkari, Bohtan, Harran, Tur Abdin, Mardin and Diyarbakir. The Chaldean Christian dialects have been heavily influenced by Classical Syriac, the literary language of the Chaldean Church and Syriac Christianity in antiquity.

Therefore, Christian Neo-Aramaic has a dual heritage: literary Syriac and colloquial Chaldean Eastern Aramaic. The closely related dialects are often collectively called Soureth, or Syriac in Iraqi Arabic.

Jews, Mandeans and Syriac-Aramean Christians speak different dialects of Aramaic that are often mutually unintelligible.

Dialects

Chaldean Neo-Aramaic and Chaldean Neo-Aramaic are dialects originating in the Nineveh Plains and Upper Mesopotamia[citation needed], a region which was an integral part of ancient Chaldea between the 9th century BC and 7th century BC. They have a number of identifiable dialects, each corresponding to one of the Chaldo-Chaldean Christian villages where the language is spoken. The village/dialects are: Ankawa, Alqosh, Aqrah, Mangesh, Tel Keppe, Baghdeda, Tel Skuf, Baqofah, Batnaya, Bartella, Sirnak-Cizre (Bohtan), Araden and Dahuk.[citation needed]

Phonology

Consonants

Table of Chaldean Neo-Aramaic consonant phonemes
Labial Dental/
Alveolar 		Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
plain emphatic
Nasal m n
Plosive b tˤ k ɡ q ʔ
Fricative sibilant s z sˤ ʃ
non-sibilant f θ ð x ɣ ħ ʕ h
Approximant w l j
Rhotic r
  • Most of the Chaldean dialects are characterised by the presence of the fricatives /θ/ (th) and /ð/ (dh), which correspond to, respectively, /t/ and /d/ in other Chaldean dialects.
  • Most Chaldean Neo-Aramaic varieties would use the phoneme of /f/, which corresponds to /p/ in Chaldean Neo-Aramaic (besides the Tyari dialect).
  • In some Chaldean dialects /r/ is realized as [ɹ]. In others, it's either a tap [ɾ] or a trill [r].

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i
Mid ɛ ə ɔ
Open a ɑ

Script

Chaldean Neo-Aramaic is written in the Madenhaya version of the Syriac alphabet, which is also used for classical Syriac. The School of Alqosh produced religious poetry in the colloquial Neo-Aramaic rather than classical Syriac in the 17th century prior to the founding of the Chaldean Catholic Church and the naming of the dialect as Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, and the Dominican Press in Mosul has produced a number of books in the language.

See also

Notes

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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.

External links

Christian
Jewish
Other
  1. ↑ Chaldean Language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Chaldean Neo-Aramaic". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. 
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ Beyer, Klaus; John F. Healey (trans.) (1986). The Aramaic Language: its distribution and subdivisions. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. p. 44. ISBN 3-525-53573-2.
  5. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Northeastern Neo-Aramaic". Glottolog 2.2. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  6. ↑ Blench, 2006. The Afro-Asiatic Languages: Classification and Reference List
  7. ↑ Khan 2008, pp. 6
  8. ↑ Turoyo at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
  9. ↑ Khan 2008, pp. 6
  10. ↑ Tekoglu, R. & Lemaire, A. (2000). La bilingue royale louvito-phénicienne de Çineköy. Comptes rendus de l’Académie des inscriptions, et belleslettres, année 2000, 960-1006.
  11. ↑ Rollinger, Robert (2006). "The terms "" (PDF). Journal of Near Eastern Studies 65 (4): 284–287. doi:10.1086/511103.
  12. ↑ *Beyer, Klaus (1986). The Aramaic language: its distribution and subdivisions. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. ISBN 3-525-53573-2.
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