Betanure Jewish Neo-Aramaic
Betanure Jewish Neo-Aramaic, the local dialect of Betanure, is among the rarest and most seriously endangered varieties of Aramaic spoken at the present time.[1] It is also one of the most conservative of the Jewish Neo-Aramaic languages, and among the Northeastern Aramaic languages.[1]
History
In the 1940s, Betanure Jewish Neo-Aramaic was spoken by seventeen large families in the Jewish village of Betanure.[1] The community migrated in its entirety to Israel in 1951.[1] Ever since the dialect has been facing erosion from Israeli Hebrew and from other Neo-Aramaic varieties spoken in Israel.[1]
Phonology
Consonants
| | Labial | Dental/Alveolar | Postalveolar/Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal |
|---|
| Plosive/Affricate |
p (ṗ) b (ḅ) | t ṭ d (ḍ) | č č̣ j | k g | q | | ʼ |
| Fricative |
f (v) | θ ð (ð̣) s ṣ z (ẓ) | š ṣ̌ ž (ẓ̌) | | x ɣ | ḥ ʻ | h |
| Nasal |
m ṃ | n | | | | | |
| Liquid |
w | n l ḷ r ṛ | y | | | | |
Registers
The literary register of the dialect has some differences in vocabulary, e.g. ʼāhu for ʼāwa 'he', ʼāhi for ʼāya 'she', məskenūθa for faqirūθa 'poverty'.
A secret register called lišanəd ṭəšwa was used to make speech unintelligible to adjacent Muslims and Christians. This involved using a special set of 'cryptic' words to replace their regular counterparts.
| Regular | Cryptic | Gloss |
|---|
| surāya | dlá-gzāra,čila | Christian |
| gfāhəm | gdāqe | he understands |
| lá-mḥākət | lá-mharbət | don't speak |
| dugle | šinqoreš | lie |
| pāre | č̣oʼe | money |
| yabiše | məšxuryāθa | raisins |
| beʼe | baʻšāne | eggs |
See also
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Mutzafi (2008:xii-xiii)
- ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Bétanure". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
Bibliography
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| | Mandaean | |
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