Trans-Zab Jewish Neo-Aramaic, also known as Hulaulá (),(Endangered Languages of) The Middle East and North Africa

Charles G. Häberl Charles G. Häberl (born 1976 in New Jersey, United States) is an American religious studies scholar, linguist, and professor. He is currently Professor of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures ( AMESALL) and Religion ...

is a grouping of related dialects 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 Jews in

Iranian Kurdistan Iranian Kurdistan or Eastern Kurdistan ( ku, ڕۆژھەڵاتی کوردستان, translit=Rojhilatê Kurdistanê) is an unofficial name for the parts of northwestern Iran with either a majority or sizable population of Kurds. Geographically, it ...

and easternmost

Iraqi Kurdistan Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan ( ku, باشووری کوردستان, Başûrê Kurdistanê) refers to the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of "Kurdistan" in Western Asia, which also incl ...

. Most speakers now live in Israel. Speakers sometimes call their language ''Lishana Noshan'' or ''Lishana Akhni'', both of which mean 'our language'. To distinguish it from other dialects of Jewish Neo-Aramaic, Hulaulá is sometimes called ''Galiglu'' ('mine-yours'), demonstrating different use of prepositions and pronominal suffixes. Scholarly sources tend simply to call it ''Persian Kurdistani Jewish Neo-Aramaic''. Hulaulá is written in the

Hebrew alphabet The Hebrew alphabet ( he, wikt:אלפבית, אָלֶף־בֵּית עִבְרִי, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is an abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew languag ...

. Spelling tends to be highly phonetic, and elided letters are not written.

Origin

Hulaulá sits at the southeastern extreme of the wide area over which various Neo-Aramaic dialects used to be spoken. From

Sanandaj Sanandaj (Persian: سنندج, ; ku, سنە, Sine, often romanized as Senneh, is the capital of Kurdistan Province in Iran. With a population of 414,069, Sanandaj is the twenty third largest city in Iran and the second largest Kurdish city. San ...

, the capital of Kurdistan Province, Iran, the area extended north, to the banks of

Lake Urmia Lake Urmia; az, اۇرمۇ گؤلۆ, script=Arab, italic=no, Urmu gölü; ku, گۆلائوو رمیەیێ, Gola Ûrmiyeyê; hy, Ուրմիա լիճ, Urmia lich; arc, ܝܡܬܐ ܕܐܘܪܡܝܐ is an endorheic salt lake in Iran. The lake is ...

. From there, it extended west to

Lake Van Lake Van ( tr, Van Gölü; hy, Վանա լիճ, translit=Vana lič̣; ku, Gola Wanê) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the far east of Turkey, in the provinces of Van and Bitlis in the Armenian highlands. It is a saline soda lake ...

(in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

), and south onto the Plain of

Mosul Mosul ( ar, الموصل, al-Mawṣil, ku, مووسڵ, translit=Mûsil, Turkish: ''Musul'', syr, ܡܘܨܠ, Māwṣil) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate. The city is considered the second large ...

(in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

). Then it headed east again, through Arbil, back to

. The upheavals in their traditional region after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the founding of the State of Israel led most of the

Persian Jews Persian Jews or Iranian Jews ( fa, یهودیان ایرانی, ''yahudiān-e-Irāni''; he, יהודים פרסים ''Yəhūdīm Parsīm'') are the descendants of Jews who were historically associated with the Persian Empire, whose successor ...

to settle in the new homeland in the early 1950s. Most older speakers still have

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

as a second language, while younger generations have

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. Hulaulá is the strongest of all the Jewish Neo-Aramaic languages, with around 10,000 speakers. Almost all of these live in Israel, with a few remaining in Iran, and some in the United States.

Intelligibility

Hulaulá is somewhat intelligible with the Jewish Neo-Aramaic of Lake Urmia and

Iranian Azerbaijan Azerbaijan or Azarbaijan ( fa, آذربایجان, ''Āzarbāijān'' ; az-Arab, آذربایجان, ''Āzerbāyjān'' ), also known as Iranian Azerbaijan, is a historical region in northwestern Iran that borders Iraq, Turkey, the Nakhchivan ...

Lishan Didan The Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialect of Urmia is a dialect of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic was originally spoken by Jews in Urmia and surrounding areas of Iranian Azerbaijan from Salmas to Solduz and into what is now eastern Turkey, Yüksekova and Başka ...

. It is also somewhat intelligible with its western neighbour, the Jewish Neo-Aramaic of Arbil: Lishanid Noshan. However, it is unintelligible with the Christian Neo-Aramaic of Sanandaj: Senaya. Christians and Jews spoke completely different Neo-Aramaic languages in the same region. Like other Judaeo-Aramaic languages, Hulaulá is sometimes called '' Targumic'', due to the long tradition of translating the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

into Aramaic, and the production of

targum A targum ( arc, תרגום 'interpretation, translation, version') was an originally spoken translation of the Hebrew Bible (also called the ''Tanakh'') that a professional translator ( ''mǝturgǝmān'') would give in the common language of the ...

Influences

The various dialects of Hulaulá were clustered around the major settlement areas of Jews in the region: the cities of

and

Saqqez Saqqez ( ; fa, سقز ; ), also known as Saghez, Saqez, Saqqiz, Saqiz, and Sakīz, is the capital city of Saqqez County in Kurdistan Province, in northwestern Iran. According to the 2016 census, its population was 165,258. Etymology The nam ...

in Kurdistan Province, Iran, with a southern outpost at Kerend, and a cluster in the

i city of

Sulaymaniyah Sulaymaniyah, also spelled as Slemani ( ku, سلێمانی, Silêmanî, ar, السليمانية, as-Sulaymāniyyah), is a city in the east of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, not far from the Iran–Iraq border. It is surrounded by the Azmar, Go ...

. Hulaulá is full of loanwords from

Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to: * Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire * Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language * Akkadian literature, literature in this language * Akkadian cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo- syllabi ...

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and

References

* Heinrichs, Wolfhart (ed.) (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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hulaula Language Eastern Aramaic languages Jewish Northeastern Neo-Aramaic dialects Languages of Israel Languages of Iran Languages of Kurdistan