Senaya language

Infobox Language
name=Senaya
nativename=ܣܢܝܐ "Senāya", ܣܘܪܝ "Soray"
pronunciation=/sɛnɑjɑ/, /soraj/
states=Iran, western Europe, Australia, USA
region=Tehran and Qazvin
speakers=500
familycolor=Afro-Asiatic
fam2=Semitic
fam3=Central Semitic
fam4=Aramaic
fam5=Eastern Aramaic
fam6=Central Eastern Aramaic
fam7=Northeastern Central Eastern Aramaic
script=Syriac abjad (Māḏnhāyā variant)
iso2=syr|iso3=syn

The Senaya language is a modern Eastern Aramaic or Syriac language. It is the language of Assyrians originally from Sanandaj in Iranian Kurdistan. Most Senaya speakers now live in California, United States and few families still live in Tehran, Iran. They are mostly members of the Chaldean Catholic Church.

Origin, history and use today

The city of Sanandaj is at the southeastern periphery of the area of spoken modern Aramaic languages. Its geography makes the Neo-Aramaic of Sanandaj quite distinct from other dialects. Two different colloquial Aramaic dialects developed in Sanandaj: Jewish Hulaula and Christian Senaya. The two languages developed along different lines, so that the two are not mutually comprehensible. One distinctive difference between the two is the sound change associated with the Middle Aramaic fricative "θ" ("th"), often rendered as "l" in Hulaula, and "s" in Senaya. For example, "mîθa", 'dead', is "mîsa" in Senaya, and "mîla" in Hulaula.

Most Senaya speakers are members of the Chaldean Catholic Church, which broke away from the Assyrian Church of the East in the 16th century and entered into communion with the Roman Catholic Church. However, Senaya is incomprehensible to speakers of Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, also Chaldean Catholics, originally from Iraq. In the middle of the 20th century, the Chaldean Bishop of Senna (as Sanandaj is called in Senaya) was moved to Tehran. The Christian community soon followed, so that there are no native speakers of Senaya left in Sanandaj. In Tehran, Senaya has been heavily influenced by the Urmežnāya dialect of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic spoken by Church of the East community. Both church communities use classical Syriac in worship. Senaya is written in the "Madnhāyâ" version of the Syriac alphabet, which is also used for classical Syriac.

Appendices

References

* Heinrichs, Wolfhart (ed.) (1990). "Studies in Neo-Aramaic". Scholars Press: Atlanta, Georgia. ISBN 1-55540-430-8.

ee also

* Aramaic language.
* Assyrian Neo-Aramaic.
* Chaldean Catholic Church.
* Chaldean Neo-Aramaic.
* Syriac alphabet.
* Syriac language.

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=syn Ethnologue report for Senaya] .