Bohtan Neo-Aramaic is a dialect of
Northeastern Neo-Aramaic
Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) is a grouping of related dialects of Neo-Aramaic spoken before World War I as a vernacular language by Jews and Christians between the Tigris and Lake Urmia, stretching north to Lake Van and southwards to Mosul and ...
originally spoken by ethnic Assyrians on the plain of
Bohtan in the
Ottoman Empire. Its speakers were displaced during the
Assyrian genocide in 1915 and settled in
Gardabani
Gardabani ( ka, გარდაბანი) is a city of 11,650 residents (2021) in the southern Georgian region of Kvemo Kartli and is the administrative centre of the Gardabani Municipality. It is located southeast of capital Tbilisi and fro ...
, near
Rustavi in
Georgia,
Göygöl and
Ağstafa
Agstafa ( az, Ağstafa) is a town, municipality (assigned in 1941) and the capital of the Aghstafa District of Azerbaijan. Agstafa district was established in 1939, abolished in 1959 and merged with Gazakh district, became an independent distric ...
in
Azerbaijan. However it is now spoken in
Moscow,
Krymsk and
Novopavlosk,
Russia. It is considered to be a dialect of
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic since it is a northeastern Aramaic language and its speakers are ethnically Assyrians.
The closest related dialect is
Hertevin
Hertevin, officially Ekindüzü, (, ) is a village in the Pervari District of Siirt Province in Turkey.
It was one of the last Assyrian villages in the country prior to Sayfo. The village is now populated by Kurds and had a population of 315 in ...
, and Bohtan also shares many similarities with the peripheral
Qaraqosh dialect.
Genealogy
This dialect is derived from the Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) languages, which is made up by Bohtan Neo-Aramaic,
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic,
Chaldean Neo-Aramaic
Suret ( syr, ܣܘܪܝܬ) ( su:rɪtʰor su:rɪθ, also known as Assyrian or Chaldean, refers to the varieties of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) spoken by ethnic Assyrians, including those identifying as religious groups rather than eth ...
, Hertevin, Senaya and Koy Sanjat Surat. Bohtan refers to the area between the Tigris and Bohtan river . The dialect mostly spoken by Christian communities.
The Neo-Aramaic language is classified under Afroasiatic and the Bohtan dialect is more specifically one of the NENA dialects which are found south-eastern Turkey, northern Iraq and western Iran Due to the dislocation of NENA speakers, neighboring languages have influenced the dialects, such as
Kurdish.
[Khan, G. 2010. "The Debate on Ergativity in Neo-Aramaic" ''Proceedings of IATL'']
Phonology
Bohtan's consonant inventory is typical of other NENA dialects. Unlike Hertevin, it merges /
ħ/ and /
x/ into /x/.
Status
Bohtan Neo-Aramaic is considered as a severely endangered language as it is estimated to have less than 500 speakers, mostly found in the former Soviet Union. Due to migration and intermarriage, younger generations speak the language less fluently and are expected to know Russian or Turkish as their first language.
[
]
See also
* Assyria
* Assyrian people
* Aramaic language
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...
* Assyrian Church of the East
The Assyrian Church of the East,, ar, كنيسة المشرق الآشورية sometimes called Church of the East, officially the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East,; ar, كنيسة المشرق الآشورية الرسول ...
* Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
* Chaldean Neo-Aramaic
Suret ( syr, ܣܘܪܝܬ) ( su:rɪtʰor su:rɪθ, also known as Assyrian or Chaldean, refers to the varieties of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) spoken by ethnic Assyrians, including those identifying as religious groups rather than eth ...
* Turoyo
* Syriac language
The Syriac language (; syc, / '), also known as Syriac Aramaic (''Syrian Aramaic'', ''Syro-Aramaic'') and Classical Syriac ܠܫܢܐ ܥܬܝܩܐ (in its literary and liturgical form), is an Aramaic language, Aramaic dialect that emerged during ...
* Syriac alphabet
The Syriac alphabet ( ) is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language since the 1st century AD. It is one of the Semitic abjads descending from the Aramaic alphabet through the Palmyrene alphabet, and shares similarities with ...
References
Further reading
* Heinrichs, Wolfhart. 1990. "Studies in Neo-Aramaic''. ''Scholars Press: Atlanta, Georgia''..
* Maclean, Arthur John. 1895: "Grammar of the dialects of vernacular Syriac: as spoken by the Eastern Syrians of Kurdistan, north-west Persia, and the Plain of Mosul: with notices of the vernacular of the Jews of Azerbaijan and of Zakhu near Mosul''. ''Cambridge University Press: London.''
* Greenfield, Jonas. 1978. “The Dialects of Early Aramaic". ''Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Colloquium on Aramaic Studies 37: 93-99''
*Fox, Samuel. 2002. "A Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Bohtan", in W. Arnold and H. Bobzin, ''„Sprich doch mit deinen Knechten aramäisch, wir verstehen es!“ 60 Beiträge zur Semitistik Festschrift für Otto Jastrow zum 60''. ''Geburtstag, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 165–180.''
*Takashina, Yoshiyuki.1990. "Some Remarks on Modern Aramaic of Hertevin." ''Journal of Asian and African Studies 40: 85-132''
*Jastrow, Otto. 1988. "Der neuaramäische Dialekt von Hertevin" (Provinz Siirt). ''Wiesbaden:L Harrassowitz''.
*
External links
Bohtan Neo-Aramaic
at the Endangered Languages Project
{{authority control
Central Semitic languages
Eastern Aramaic languages
Christian Northeastern Neo-Aramaic dialects
Languages of Russia
Languages of Georgia (country)
Endangered Afroasiatic languages
Languages of Kurdistan