Re: Aramaic unification and information retrieval

From: Peter Kirk (peterkirk@qaya.org)
Date: Tue Dec 23 2003 - 06:59:00 EST

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    On 22/12/2003 17:53, Christopher John Fynn wrote:

    >Which script does the small community of native Aramaic speakers that still
    >exists use to write their own language?
    >
    >

    This is a very complex issue. There are quite a number of separate
    communities, although I can't fiind evidence of any in Lebanon. The
    following data is based on the Ethnologue, see
    http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=950:

    LANGUAGE
            SPEAKERS
            COUNTRY
            SCRIPT
    Assyrian neo-Aramaic
            210,000
            Iraq, Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Syria
            Syriac, Cyrillic?
    Lishanid Noshan
            2,000
            Israel
            Hebrew
    Bohtan neo-Aramaic
            1,000
            Georgia
            ?
    Bijil neo-Aramaic
            extinct
            Israel
            ?
    Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic
            extinct
            studied by Jews worldwide
            Hebrew
    Chaldean neo-Aramaic
            200,000
            Iraq
            Syriac
    Hértevin
            1,000
            Turkey
            Syriac
    Hulaulá
            10,000
            Israel
            Hebrew
    Koy Sanjaq Surat
            1,000
            Iraq
            Syriac
    Lishana Deni
            7,000
            Israel
            Hebrew
    Senaya
            500
            Iran
            Syriac
    Lishán Didán
            3,000
            Israel
            Hebrew
    Mlahsö
            extinct
            Syria
            ?
    Turoyo
            10,000
            Turkey, Syria
            Syriac
    Mandaic
            1,000
            Iran
            Mandaic
    Classical Mandaic
            extinct
            Iran - liturgical use
            Mandaic
    Syriac
            extinct
            Turkey, Iraq, Syria - liturgical use
            Syriac
    Western neo-Aramaic
            15,000
            Syria
            ?
    Samaritan Aramaic
            extinct
            West Bank, Israel - liturgical use
            Samaritan

    >Would they be happy if Aramaic was "unified" with Hebrew? I don't know but I
    >suspect those that live in Lebanon or Syria might not - and it could even cause
    >them political problems.
    >
    >
    >
    Well, we need to ask them. I was not making any proposals to disunify
    scripts in modern use. But there is a basic misunderstanding here. The
    roadmapped "Aramaic" script, despite being proposed for the BMP, is not
    a script in modern use. It is a historic script from around 2500 years
    ago which survives only in a few very diverse inscriptional and papyrus
    fragments (including those already separately roadmapped as Palmyrene
    etc), and in texts which have been transmitted in the slightly later
    variant which is called Aramaic square script or (by Unicode) Hebrew script. 

    -- 
Peter Kirk
peter@qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk@qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/

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