Northeastern Neo-Aramaic

Northeastern Neo-Aramaic
NENA
Geographic distribution:	traditionally spoken from the plain of Urmia to the plain of Mosul, in Iran, Turkey and Iraq; now, most speakers are in North America and Israel
Linguistic classification:	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Northwest Semitic Aramaic Neo-Aramaic Northeastern Neo-Aramaic
Subdivisions:	Assyrian Neo-Aramaic Lishanid Noshan Bohtan Neo-Aramaic Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic Chaldean Neo-Aramaic Hértevin Hulaulá Koy Sanjaq Surat Lishana Deni Senaya Lishán Didán

Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (often abbreviated to NENA) is a term used by semiticists to refer to a large variety of Modern Aramaic languages that were once spoken of a large region stretching from the plain of Urmia, in northwestern Iran, to the plain of Mosul, in northern Iraq. As of the 1990s, the NENA group had an estimated number of speakers just below 500,000, spread throughout the Middle East and the Assyrian diaspora. More than 90% of these speak either the Assyrian Neo-Aramaic or the Chaldean Neo-Aramaic variety, two varieties of the Syriac language or Sureth which are divided along denominational lines as a result of the religious schism of 1552. There are a number of other NENA varieties, but all of them are endangered or near-extinct.

The NENA languages contain a large number of loanwords from their surrounding languages: Kurdish, Arabic, Persian, Azerbaijani and Turkish language. These languages are spoken by both Jews and Christians from the area. Each variety of NENA is clearly Jewish or Christian. However, not all varieties of one or other religious groups are intelligible with all others of the group. Likewise, in some places Jews and Christians from the same locale speak mutually unintelligible varieties of Aramaic, where in other places their language is quite similar. The differences can be explained by the fact that NENA communities were small groups spread over a wide area, and some had to be highly mobile.

The influence of classical Aramaic varieties — Syriac on Christian varieties and Targumic on Jewish communities — gives a dual heritage that further distinguishes language by faith. Many of the Jewish speakers of NENA varieties, the Kurdish Jews, now live in Israel, where Neo-Aramaic is endangered by the dominance of Modern Hebrew. Many Christian NENA speakers, who identify as Assyrian or Chaldean, are in diaspora in North America, Europe, Australia and elsewhere.

SIL Ethnologue lists twelve NENA dialects, two of them extinct:

• Neo-Syriac [syr] (Sooreth, Suret, Soorath, Soorith, Suras, Sureth), historically derived from the dialect of the Lake Urmia region, now mostly spoken in Iranian Azerbaijan and northern Iraq.
  • Assyrian Neo-Aramaic [aii], 219,000 speakers (1994)
  • Chaldean Neo-Aramaic [cld], 216,000 speakers (1994)
• Judeo-Aramaic varieties, spoken by Jewish communities in Israel
  • Hulaulá or Judeo-Aramaic [huy], 10,000 speakers (1990s)
  • Lishana Deni [lsd] 7,500 speakers (1990s)
  • Lishán Didán [trg], 4,500 speakers (2000)
  • Lishanid Noshan [aij], 2,200 speakers (1990s)
• Bohtan Neo-Aramaic [bhn] (Georgia), 1,000 speakers (1990s)
• Hértevin [hrt] (Turkey), 1,000 speakers (1990s)
• Koy Sanjaq Surat [kqd] (Iraq), 900 speakers (1990s)
• Senaya [syn] (Iran), 460 speakers (1990s)
• Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic [bjf] (Israel), extinct

References

• H. Mutzafi, SIL Ethnologue (1994–2001).