Jewish Neo-Aramaic (Lišāna Arāmīṯ / אַרָמִית לׅשָנַא)

Jewish Neo-Aramaic languages are members of the Aramaic branch of the Semitic language family. There are a number of varieties of Jewish Neo-Aramaic, including:

Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic (Lišānîd Jānān / לשניד דינן), which is spoken by about 20 people in Jerusalem in Israel, and was originally spoken in Bijil, Barzan and Shahe, three villages near Aqrah in northern Iraq.
Betanure Jewish Neo-Aramaic (lišānā deni), which was spoken by about 36 people in the village of Betanure (בית תנורא‎) in the Barwari region in northern Iraq.

Speakers of Jewish Neo-Aramaic migrated to Israel in the 1950s, and most of them started speaking Hebrew instead of the native language.

Jewish Neo-Aramaic is written with a version of the Hebrew script. It was first used in literature during the 17th century. Most of the literature consists of homiletic literature (midrashim), biblical commentaries, hymns (piyyutim) and similar.

Jewish Neo-Aramaic alphabet and pronunciation

Hebrew script for Jewish Neo-Aramaic

Download Jewish Neo-Aramaic chart provided by Wolfram Siegel (Word doc, in German)

Sample text (The district of Barwari and its fauna and flora)

אַתרְדּ בַּרוַרנָאיֵי דֵּינִי רָ֗אבַּ בַּסִימַ וֵיוַ. אְתוָאבֵּי טֻרָאנֵי ר֗וֹמָאנֵי, אְתוָאבֵּי דָּארֻבַּרֵי, רָ֗אבַּ אִילָאנֵי, אִילָאנְדּ אִילָאנְדּ עַפּצַ, אִילָאנְדּ בַּלוּטֵי, בְּטמָאתַ; אְתוָאבַּ ספְּנדָּארֵי, אְתוָאבַּ גּוֹזָאנֵי, אְתוָאבַּ צֻצָאנֵי, גְּרִיסכֵּי... אֻו גֻּו מָאתַ כֻּדּגְּנתַ אֻו גְּנתַ, אְתוָאבַּ כֻּלֵּי פֵיכֵּי.

Tranliteration

Aṯrəd Barwarnāye deni ṛāba basima wewa. Əṯwābe ṭurāne ṛomāne, əṯwābe dārubare, ṛāba ilāne, ilānəd ilānəd ʕapṣa, ilānəd balūṭe, bəṭmāṯa; əṯwāba spəndāre, əṯwāba gozāne, əṯwāba ṣuṣāne, gəriske... u gu māṯa kudgənṯa u gənṯa, əṯwāba kulle feke.

Translation

Our district of Barwari was very nice. It had high mountains, forests, many trees, gall-nut oak trees, oak trees, terebinth trees; it had poplars, walnut trees, azaroles, wild pears... and in the village each orchard contained apple trees, it had plum trees, there were apricot trees, there were walnut trees, there were grapevines, it had all kinds of fruit.

Source: The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Betanure

Details provided by Michael Peter Füstumum

Sample videos in Jewish Neo-Aramaic

Links

Information about Jewish Neo-Aramaic
http://www.jewish-languages.org/jewish-aramaic.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barzani_Jewish_Neo-Aramaic
http://www.ethnologue.com/language/bjf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betanure_Jewish_Neo-Aramaic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Aramaic_languages

Languages written with the Hebrew script

Aramaic, Bukhori, Domari, Hebrew, Jewish Neo-Aramaic, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Persian, Juhuri, Knaanic, Ladino, Mozarabic, Yiddish, Yevanic

Semitic languages

Akkadian, Amharic, Arabic (Algerian), Arabic (Bedawi), Arabic (Chadian), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Gulf), Arabic (Hassaniya), Arabic (Hejazi), Arabic (Lebanese), Arabic (Modern Standard), Arabic (Moroccan), Arabic (Najdi), Arabic (Sudanese), Arabic (Syrian), Aramaic, Argobba, Assyrian / Neo-Assyrian, Canaanite, Chaha, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, Ge'ez, Hadhramautic, Harari, Hebrew, Himyaritic, Jewish Neo-Aramaic, Maltese, Mandaic, Nabataean, Neo-Mandaic, Phoenician, Punic, Qatabanic, Sabaean, Sabaic, Silt'e, Syriac, Tigre, Tigrinya, Turoyo, Ugaritic, Western Neo-Aramaic

Page last modified: 23.04.21

[top]

You can support this site by Buying Me A Coffee, and if you like what you see on this page, you can use the buttons below to share it with people you know.

If you like this site and find it useful, you can support it by making a donation via PayPal or Patreon, or by contributing in other ways. Omniglot is how I make my living.

Note: all links on this site to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr are affiliate links. This means I earn a commission if you click on any of them and buy something. So by clicking on these links you can help to support this site.

[top]