Neo-Mandaic

Neo-Mandaic
Mandɔyí
Pronunciation[mændɔːˈji]
Native toIran, formerly Iraq
EthnicityMandaeans
Native speakers
100–200 (2014)[1]
Early forms
Mandaic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3mid
Glottolognucl1706
ELPNeo-Mandaic
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Neo-Mandaic, also known as Modern Mandaic, sometimes called the "ratna" (Arabic: رطنة raṭna "jargon"), is the modern reflex of the Mandaic language, the liturgical language of the Mandaean religious community of Iraq and Iran. Although severely endangered, it survives today as the first language of a small number of Mandaeans (possibly as few as 100–200 speakers) in Iran and in the Mandaean diaspora.[1] All Neo-Mandaic speakers are multilingual in the languages of their neighbors, Arabic and Persian, and the influence of these languages upon the grammar of Neo-Mandaic is considerable, particularly in the lexicon and the morphology of the noun. Nevertheless, Neo-Mandaic is more conservative even in these regards than most other Neo-Aramaic languages.

An oral history of the Mandaic language.
  1. ^ a b Mutzafi, Hezy (20 February 2014). Comparative Lexical Studies in Neo-Mandaic. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-25705-4.