Western Neo-Aramaic

Western Neo-Aramaic
ܣܪܝܘܢ (ܐܰܪܳܡܰܝ)
siryōn (arōmay)
Pronunciation[sirˈjo:n]
Native toSyria
RegionBab Touma District, Damascus; Anti-Lebanon Mountains: Maaloula, Bakhʽa and Jubb'adin
EthnicityAramean (Syriac)[1][2]
Native speakers
30,000 (2023)[3]
Early forms
Dialects
  • Maalouli, Bakh'a, Jubb'adin
Maalouli square script[a]
Syriac alphabet (Serṭā)
Phoenician alphabet[b]
Arabic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3amw
Glottologwest2763
ELPWestern Neo-Aramaic
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Western Neo-Aramaic (ܐܰܪܳܡܰܝ arōmay), more commonly referred to as Siryon[4] (ܣܪܝܘܢ, siryōn, "Syriac"),[5][6][7] is a modern variety of the Western Aramaic branch consisting of three closely related dialects.[8] Today, it is spoken by Christian and Muslim Arameans (Syriacs)[9][10][11][12][13][14][15] in only two villages – Maaloula and Jubb'adin, until the Syrian civil war also in Bakhʽa – in the Anti-Lebanon mountains of western Syria.[16] Bakhʽa was destroyed during the war and all the survivors fled to other parts of Syria or Lebanon.[17] Western Neo-Aramaic is believed to be the closest living language to the language of Jesus, whose first language, according to scholarly consensus, was Galilean Aramaic belonging to the Western branch as well; all other remaining Neo-Aramaic languages are Eastern Aramaic.[18]

  1. ^ Abū al-Faraj ʻIshsh. اثرنا في الايقليم السوري (in Arabic). Al-Maṭbaʻah al-Jadīdah. p. 56. السريان في معلولا وجبعدين ولا يزال الأهلون فيها يتكلمون
  2. ^ iنصر الله، إلياس أنطون. إلياس أنطون نصر الله في معلولا (in Arabic). لينين. p. 45. ... معلولا السريان منذ القديم ، والذين ثبتت سريانيتهم بأدلة كثيرة هم وعين التينة وبخعا وجبعدين فحافظوا على لغتهم وكتبهم أكثر من غيرهم . وكان للقوم في تلك الأيام لهجتان ، لهجة عاميّة وهي الباقية الآن في معلولا وجوارها ( جبعدين وبخعا ) ...
  3. ^ Western Neo-Aramaic at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  4. ^ Daniel King (12 December 2018). The Syriac World. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781317482116. There are no significant differences in the dialect of Malula between the speech of Christians and Muslims. The native name is siryōn or arōmay.
  5. ^ Jules Ferrette (1863). On a Neo-Syriac language still spoken in the Anti-Lebanon. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain. p. 433. I then requested them to translate for me the Lord's Prayer into Ma'lulan Syriac for me; but a universal outcry was raised from every side as to the exorbitant nature of my demand. Some of the priests affirmed, ex cathedra, that not only had the Lord's Prayer never been uttered in modern Syriac, but that to translate it would be a mere impossibility.
  6. ^ Western Neo-Aramaic: The Dialect of Jubaadin , p. 446
  7. ^ Maaloula (XIXe-XXIe siècles). Du vieux avec du neuf, p. 95
  8. ^ From a Spoken to a Written Language. p. 3. ISBN 9789062589814. Western Neo-Aramaic. This group consists of the dialects of the three villages Ma'lula, Bax'a, and Jubb'adin in western Syria. It is the only remnant of the dialects of Western Aramaic in the earlier periods.
  9. ^ Rafik Schami (25 July 2011). Märchen aus Malula (in German). Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH & Company KG. p. 151. ISBN 9783446239005. Ich kenne das Dorf nicht, doch gehört habe ich davon. Was ist mit Malula?‹ fragte der festgehaltene Derwisch. >Das letzte Dorf der Aramäer< lachte einer der…
  10. ^ Yaron Matras; Jeanette Sakel (2007). Grammatical Borrowing in Cross-Linguistic Perspective. De Gruyter. p. 185. doi:10.1515/9783110199192. ISBN 9783110199192. The fact that nearly all Arabic loans in Ma'lula originate from the period before the change from the rural dialect to the city dialect of Damascus shows that the contact between the Aramaeans and the Arabs was intimate…
  11. ^ Dr. Emna Labidi (2022). Untersuchungen zum Spracherwerb zweisprachiger Kinder im Aramäerdorf Dschubbadin (Syrien) (in German). LIT. p. 133. ISBN 9783643152619. Aramäer von Ǧubbˁadīn
  12. ^ Prof. Dr. Werner Arnold; P. Behnstedt (1993). Arabisch-aramäische Sprachbeziehungen im Qalamūn (Syrien) (in German). Harassowitz. p. 42. ISBN 9783447033268. Die arabischen Dialekte der Aramäer
  13. ^ Prof. Dr. Werner Arnold; P. Behnstedt (1993). Arabisch-aramäische Sprachbeziehungen im Qalamūn (Syrien) (in German). Harassowitz. p. 5. ISBN 9783447033268. Die Kontakte zwischen den drei Aramäer-dörfern sind nicht besonders stark.
  14. ^ Prof. Dr. Werner Arnold (2006). Lehrbuch des Neuwestaramäischen (in German). Harrassowitz. p. 133. ISBN 9783447053136. Aramäern in Ma'lūla
  15. ^ Prof. Dr. Werner Arnold (2006). Lehrbuch des Neuwestaramäischen (in German). Harrassowitz. p. 15. ISBN 9783447053136. Viele Aramäer arbeiten heute in Damaskus, Beirut oder in den Golfstaaten und verbringen nur die Sommermonate im Dorf.
  16. ^ "Brock Introduction" (PDF). meti.byu.edu.
  17. ^ Al-Tamimi, Aymenn Jawad (2020-01-26). "The Village of Bakh'a in Qalamoun: Interview". Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
  18. ^ "Easter Sunday: A Syrian bid to resurrect Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ". Christian Science Monitor. 2010-04-02. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved 2022-11-07.


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