Mlahsô language

Mlaḥsô (Syriac: ܡܠܚܬܝܐ), sometimes referred to as Suryoyo, is a Modern West Syriac language, a dialect of Aramaic. It was traditionally spoken in eastern Turkey and northeastern Syria by members of the Assyrian people. Additionally, many Mlaḥsô speakers residing in Mlaḥsô village were Christians of Jacobite faith.^[2] Aside from their native language, Mlaḥsô, speakers were fluent in Armenian, Kurdish, and Zaza.

The last speaker of Mlaḥsô, Ibrahim Ḥanna, died in 1998 in Qamishli. His daughters, Munira in Qamishlo, Shamiram in Lebanon, and son Dr. Isḥaq in Germany are the only left who can speak the language, but they have no one to converse with.

General Information

The village in which Mlaḥsô was spoken, the village of Mlaḥsô, was established by two monks from the Tur Abdin.

The Ṣurayt of Mlaḥsô is closely related to the Ṣurayt of Turabdin. It was spoken in the villages of Mlaḥsô and ˁAnsha near Lice, Diyarbakır, Turkey.

Mlaḥsô is more conservative than Turoyo in grammar and vocabulary, using classical Syriac words and constructions while also preserving the original Aramaic form.^[3] However, it is phonologically less conservative than Turoyo. This is particularly noticeable in the use of s for classical θ and y (IPA /j/) for ġ. Mlaḥsô renders the combination of vowel plus y as a single, fronted vowel rather than a diphthong or a glide.

Etymology

The name of the village and the language is derived from the earlier Aramaic word mālaḥtā, 'salt marsh'. The literary Syriac name for the language is Mlaḥthoyo. The native speakers of Mlaḥsô referred to their language simply as Suryô, or Syriac.^[4]

Current status

On 3 May 2009, a historical event in the history of the Mlaḥsô Ṣurayt language took place. This day, the Suroyo TV program series Dore w yawmotho was about the village Mlaḥsô (and Tamarze). Dr. Isḥaq Ibrahim was a guest and spoke in the Ṣurayt of Mlaḥso with his siblings (sister Shamiram in Lebanon, and a sister Munira in Qamishlo) on the phone live. Turabdin Assyrians/Syriacs viewers and those present at the show could for the first time ever in modern time hear the language live.

Reasons for Extinction

The Mlaḥsô language has gone into extinction due to:

• The Syrian population shifting to Arabic
• The location of the Assyrian Genocide was in the area where Mlaḥsô was strongest, resulting in a disproportionate loss of speakers compared to Turoyo and Aramaic.

Vocabulary

Example Phrases

Example Sentences

See also

• Ṣurayt of Turabdin
• Syriac language
• Assyrian people

References

• Jastrow, Otto (1994). Der neuaramäische Dialekt von Mlaḥsô. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-03498-X.

Further reading

• Goldenberg, Gideon. 2000. "Early Neo-Aramaic and Present-day Dialectical Diversity." In Journal Of Semitic Studies XLV/1, 69-86. Jerusalem.

• Hoberman, Robert D. 1988. "The History of the Modern Aramaic Pronouns and Pronominal Suffixes." In Journal of the American Oriental Society 108, no. 4, 557-575. American Oriental Society.

• Jastrow, Otto. 1997. "16. The Neo-Aramaic Languages." In The Semitic Languages, edited by Robert Hetzron, 334–377. New York: Routledge.

• Jastrow, Otto. 1996. "Passive Formation in Turoyo and Mlahso." In Israel Oriental Studies XVI: Studies in Modern Semitic Languages, edited by Shlomo Izre’el, 49–57. Leiden: Brill.

• Jastrow, Otto. 1994. Der neuaramäische Dialekt von Mlaḥsô. Semitica Viva 14. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz

• Khan, Geoffrey. 1999. "The Neo-Aramaic Dialect Spoken by Jews from the Region of Arbel (Iraqi Kurdistan)." In Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 62, no. 2, 213-225.

• Khan, Geoffrey. 2003. "Some Remarks on Linguistic and Lexical Change in the North Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects." In Aramaic Studies 1, no. 2, 179-190.

• Mutzafi, Hezy. 2006. "On the Etymology of Some Enigmatic Words in northeastern Neo-Aramaic." In Aramaic Studies 4, no. 1, 83-99.

External links

• Suroyo TV 2009-05-03 Dore w yawmotho - Mlaḥso & Tamarze
• Semitisches Tonarchiv: Dokumentgruppe "Aramäisch/Mlahsô" (text in German)
• Endangered Languages Project - Mlahso