Betanure Jewish Neo-Aramaic

Betanure Jewish Neo-Aramaic

Betanure Jewish Neo-Aramaic
lin deni / lin huye / hu~huk / amrni~amrn Region Native speakers Israel, previously Betanure at most 3 dozen (2008)

Language family Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Aramaic Eastern Aramaic Central Northeastern Betanure Jewish Neo-Aramaic

Language codes ISO 639-3 Linguist list lsd-bet [1]

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. It is also one of the most conservative of the Jewish Neo-Aramaic languages, and among the Northeastern Aramaic languages.

History
In the 1940s, Betanure Jewish Neo-Aramaic was spoken by seventeen large families in the Jewish village of Betanure. The community migrated in its entirety to Israel in 1951. Ever since the dialect has been facing erosion from Israeli Hebrew and from other Neo-Aramaic varieties spoken in Israel.

Phonology
Consonants
Labial Dental/Alveolar Postalveolar/Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal j () kg q x h

Plosive/Affricate p () b () t d () Fricative Nasal Liquid f (v) m w () s z () n nlr

Betanure Jewish Neo-Aramaic

Registers
The literary register of the dialect has some differences in vocabulary, e.g. hu for wa 'he', hi for ya 'she', mskena for faqira 'poverty'. A secret register called liand wa 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 surya gfhm Cryptic Gloss

dl-gzra,ila Christian gdqe he understands don't speak lie money raisins eggs

l-mkt l-mharbt dugle pre yabie bee inqore oe mxurya bane

References
[1] http:/ / multitree. linguistlist. org/ codes/ lsd-bet

Bibliography
Mutzafi, Hezy (2008). The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Betanure (http://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/dzo/ artikel/201/537_201.pdf?t=1203694721). ISBN978-3-447-05710-3.

Article Sources and Contributors

Article Sources and Contributors

Betanure Jewish Neo-Aramaic Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=572512786 Contributors: Kwamikagami, Mo-Al, TreasuryTag, Wavelength

License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/