Lishán Didán

A language of Israel

ISO 639-3: trg

Population	4,230 in Israel (2001). Population total all countries: 4,450.
Region	Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv area. Originally Iranian Azerbaijan and southeast Turkey. Also in Azerbaijan, Georgia.
Alternate names	Galihalu, Lakhlokhi, Lishanán, Lishanid Nash Didán, Persian Azerbaijan Jewish Aramaic
Dialects	Northern Cluster Lishán Didán (Urmi, Salmas, Anatolia), Southern Cluster Lishán Didán (Naghada, Ushno, Mahabad). Northern Cluster Lishán Didán, Southern Cluster Lishán Didán. 60%-70% intelligibility of Hulaulá [huy] and Lishanid Noshan [aij], but not with other Aramaic languages. Northern cluster subvarieties are Urmi, Salmas, Anatolia; southern cluster varieties are Naghada, Ushno, Mahabad. The Urmi variety of Lishán Didán is different from the Urmi variety of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic.
Classification	Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, Aramaic, Eastern, Central, Northeastern
Language use	Older adults. Hebrew is L2. Some multilingual; many are married to nonspeakers.
Language development	OT: 1950s.
Writing system	Hebrew script.
Comments	Many loanwords from Kurdish, Turkish [tur], Arabic, Eastern Farsi [prs] or Western Farsi [pes], Hebrew [heb], and several European languages. Sometimes erroneously called ‘Judeo-Kurdish’ or ‘Azerbaijani Kurdish’. Jewish.