The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Urmi

The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Urmi

• Author: Geoffrey Khan
• Series: Gorgias Neo-Aramaic Studies
• Publisher: Gorgias Press
• Publication Date: 2008
• Pages: 644

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

In this volume, Geoffrey Khan describes the Neo-Aramaic dialect that was spoken by the Jews of Urmi in north-western Iran. The Jews left Urmi in the 1950s and now the dialect is virtually extinct. The few surviving speakers live, for the most part, in Israel. Khan gathered the material for this volume firsthand in fieldwork conducted with the last remaining speakers. He provides a detailed grammatical description, a corpus of transcribed texts (including folktales, historical accounts and portrayals of customs), and an extensive glossary. The Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialect of Urmi exhibits linguistic developments that are not found in other Neo-Aramaic dialects, and offers unique insight into the non-Semitic languages of the region.

Geoffrey Khan earned his PhD in Semitic languages from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. He is currently professor of Semitic philology, at the University of Cambridge. In 1998, he was elected fellow of the British Academy, and in 2004 was awarded the Lidzbarski Gold Medal for Semitic Philology.