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Copyright

Charles G. Häberl;

Published On

2025-03-07

Page Range

pp. 711–726

Language

  • English

Print Length

16 pages

War and Fieldwork

  • Charles G. Häberl (author)
Chapter of: Interconnected Traditions: Semitic Languages, Literatures, Cultures—A Festschrift for Geoffrey Khan: Volume 2: The Medieval World, Judaeo-Arabic, and Neo-Aramaic(pp. 711–726)
The article examines how war and its consequences influence linguistic fieldwork and the documentation of endangered languages, focusing on Mandaic, a Neo-Aramaic language spoken by Mandaeans. Drawing on personal fieldwork experiences in the Middle East and among the Mandaean diaspora, the study highlights the challenges posed by conflict, forced migration, and sociopolitical instability. A short Mandaic text, recorded during the Iraq War, serves as a case study of linguistic and cultural preservation in the face of displacement. The article provides a detailed linguistic analysis of the text, including its phonological and grammatical features, while also reflecting on the ethical responsibilities of fieldworkers in documenting languages under the shadow of war.

Contributors

Charles G. Häberl

(author)
Professor of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures at Rutgers University

Charles G. Häberl (PhD, Harvard University) is Professor of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures (AMESALL) and Religion at Rutgers University. His primary academic focus is upon the languages of the Middle East, both ancient and modern, and ethnic, linguistic, and religious minorities from the region. He has conducted field work with speakers of several different Semitic and Iranian languages. Selected recent publications include The Book of Kings and the Explanations of This World: A Universal History from the Late Sasanian Empire (Liverpool University Press, 2022) and Language Diversity in Iran: New Texts and Perspectives from Non-Iranian Languages (De Gruyter Mouton, 2024).