Sanandaj Jewish Neo-Aramaic

Sanandaj Neo-Aramaic
Language codes
ISO 639-3–

Sanandaj Jewish Neo-Aramaic is a variety of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic originally spoken by Jews in the city of Sanandaj, Iran. It is much more closely related to other Trans-Zab Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialects than the Neo-Aramaic dialect spoken by Christians in the same town.[1]

Phonology

Consonants[2]
Labial Dental / Alveolar Palato-alveolar Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Laryngeal
Stops / affricates Unvoiced p t tʃ k q ʔ
Voiced b d dʒ g
Emphatic (ṭ)
Fricatives Unvoiced f s ʃ x ħ h
Voiced w z ʒ ɣ ʕ
Emphatic (ṣ), (ż)
Nasal m n
Lateral l (lˤ)
Rhotic ɾ, r, (rˤ)
Approximant j

The historically pharyngealized consonants /ṭ/ and /ṣ/ in the current language have merged with /t/ and /s/ in many environments but sometimes affect the pronunciation of surrounding vowels.[3] /lˤ/ and /rˤ/ are consistently pharyngealized.[4]

Grammar

Transitive verbs in the past tense are inflected for the oblique case with suffixes (which are prepositional phrases in origin), while intransitive verbs in the past tense are inflected by direct (nominative) suffixes.[5] Object-verb (OV) word order is more common in Sanandaj than in some other dialects of Judeo Neo-Aramaic.[6]

References

  1. ^ Khan 2009, pp. 3–4.
  2. ^ Khan 2009, pp. 15–16.
  3. ^ Khan 2009, pp. 17–18.
  4. ^ Khan 2009, pp. 18–20.
  5. ^ Khan, Geoffrey (2024-06-25). "Contact-Induced Change in the Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialects". Journal of Jewish Languages. 12 (1): 13–26. doi:10.1163/22134638-bja10036. ISSN 2213-4387.
  6. ^ Noorlander, Paul M; Molin, Dorota. "Word order typology in North Eastern Neo-Aramaic" (PDF). Word Order Variation: 235.

Sources

  • Khan, Geoffrey (2009). The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Sanandaj. Gorgias Press. ISBN 978-1-60724-134-8.