Book Series
- Semitic Languages and Cultures vol. 5
- ISSN Print: 2632-6906
- ISSN Digital: 2632-6914
Copyright
Geoffrey Khan; Paul M. Noorlander;Published On
2021-01-15ISBN
Language
- English
Print Length
540 pages (xxvi+514)Dimensions
Weight
Media
OCLC Number
1233023312LCCN
2020447270BIC
- CFF
- CFP
BISAC
- REL006020
- LAN009010
LCC
- PJ5282
Keywords
- Neo-Aramaic dialects
- Aramaic
- Middle East
- migration
- language typology
- historical linguistics
Studies in the Grammar and Lexicon of Neo-Aramaic
The Neo-Aramaic dialects are modern vernacular forms of Aramaic, which has a documented history in the Middle East of over 3,000 years. Due to upheavals in the Middle East over the last one hundred years, thousands of speakers of Neo-Aramaic dialects have been forced to migrate from their homes or have perished in massacres. As a result, the dialects are now highly endangered. The dialects exhibit a remarkable diversity of structures. Moreover, the considerable depth of attestation of Aramaic from earlier periods provides evidence for pathways of change. For these reasons the research of Neo-Aramaic is of importance for more general fields of linguistics, in particular language typology and historical linguistics.
The papers in this volume represent the full range of research that is currently being carried out on Neo-Aramaic dialects. They advance the field in numerous ways. In order to allow linguists who are not specialists in Neo-Aramaic to benefit from the papers, the examples are fully glossed.
Endorsements
The volume makes a major contribution to the field of Neo-Aramaic and significantly advances research. The articles present new analyses and new primary data from several endangered dialects, many of which have so far not been systematically documented, and in some cases have not been documented at all. It is good to see that the examples have been given glossing, so that this important material will be accessible more widely by general linguists. Many of the articles are written by leading scholars of the field. Particularly commendable is the fact that the authors include also early career scholars and native speakers of Neo-Aramaic dialects who are based in universities in Iraq and Europe. The volume, therefore, represents also a major stimulus to research in the future.
Prof Hezy Mutzafi
Tel Aviv University
Reviews
This volume is a fine contribution to Semitic linguistics, in its presentation of new data, new analyses and engagement with the general linguistic literature. Including significant contributions from both established Neo-aramaicists and relative newcomers, it demonstrates that the field of Neo-Aramaic continues to flourish, against the odds.
Eleanor Coghill
Brill’s Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics, vol. 14, 2022.
Contents
Preface
(pp. xvii–xx)- Geoffrey Khan
A History of the Intransitive Preterite of TÌ£uroyo: From a Property Adjective to a Finite Tense
(pp. 1–28)- Eugene Barsky
- Sergey Loesov
Towards a Typology of Possessors and Experiencers in Neo-Aramaic: Non-Canonical Subjects as Relics of a Former Dative Case
(pp. 29–94)- Paul M. Noorlander
The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Dohok: Two Folktales and Selected Features of Verbal Semantics
(pp. 95–142)- Dorota Molin
- Geoffrey Khan
Conditional Patterns in the Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Zakho
(pp. 195–220)- Eran Cohen
- Michael Waltisberg
The Morphosyntactic Conservatism of Western Neo-Aramaic despite Contact with Syrian Arabic
(pp. 235–286)- Ivri Bunis
On the Afel Stem in Western Neo-Aramaic
(pp. 287–300)- Steven E. Fassberg
The Re-Emergence of the Genitive in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic
(pp. 301–318)- Ariel Gutman
- Lidia Napiorkowska
- Aziz Tezel
- Eugene Barsky
- Yulia Furman
Neo-Aramaic Animal Names
(pp. 389–314)- Hezy Mutzafi
- Alexey Lyavdansky
- Aziz Emmanuel Eliya Al-Zebari
Arabic Loanwords in the Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Ankawa
(pp. 469–486)- Salam Neamah Hirmiz Hakeem
Language Loss in the Ṣūrayt/Ṭūrōyo-speaking Communities of the Diaspora in Sweden
(pp. 487–504)- Sina Tezel
Contributors
Geoffrey Khan
(editor)Geoffrey Khan (PhD, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1984) is Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge. His research publications focus on three main fields: Biblical Hebrew language (especially medieval traditions), Neo-Aramaic dialectology and medieval Arabic documents. He is the general editor of The Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics and is the senior editor of Journal of Semitic Studies. His most recent book is The Tiberian Pronunciation Tradition of Biblical Hebrew, 2 vols, Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures 1 (University of Cambridge & Open Book Publishers, 2020).
Paul M. Noorlander
(editor)Paul M. Noorlander (PhD, Leiden University, 2018) is a Rubicon Fellow at Leiden University seconded to the University of Cambridge. His current work focuses on the documentation of endangered Neo-Aramaic dialects originally spoken in Turkey and coordinating the development of the online NENA database and NENA digital corpus. His PhD thesis was on the typology of alignment in Neo-Aramaic. He has worked on Semitic languages from a comparative-historical perspective and on diachronic developments in Aramaic in particular, including detailed syntactic studies of Late Antique Aramaic varieties. His research interests and published work also involve tense-aspect-mood, word order and contact between Neo-Aramaic and neighbouring languages such as Iranian and Armenian.