Features of the verbal system in the Christian Neo-Aramaic dialect of Koy Sanjaq and their areal parallels.

• Author: Mutzafi, Hezy

1. INTRODUCTION

   Koy Sanjaq, an Iraqi Kurdish town located fifty-five kilometers southeast of Arbil, once had two small minority communities of Neo-Aramaic speakers, one Jewish and one Christian, each speaking its own variety of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA). In 1951 the Jews of Koy Sanjaq all left for Israel, and since then only the town's Christian Neo-Aramaic variety has lingered on in loco, now spoken by approximately 140 adherents of the Chaldean Catholic Church. (1)

   Whereas the grammatical and lexical profiles of the Jewish dialect of Koy Sanjaq are now largely known through the works of R. D. Hoberman and the present writer, (2) the Christian dialect of the same town (henceforth CKS) has remained to date completely outside the scope of Neo-Aramaic dialectology. In section 2 salient features of the verbal derivation and verbal inflection of CKS will be presented. The description of these features is based on data obtained from two Koy Sanjaq-born Christians living in Detroit during fieldwork there in 2001, as well as from short recordings of the dialect, including one made in Koy Sanjaq itself, which I had received from my informants a few years earlier. Both informants (a man and a woman unrelated to each other) have been exposed to other Neo-Aramaic dialects since they left their hometown, especially to the dialects of Alqosh and Telkepe, prevalent among Neo-Aramaic speakers in Detroit, and can no longer speak their native dialect in its pristine form. Nonetheless, the dialectal interference detectable in my informants' native speech is by no means heavy, and they could readily furnish genuine CKS grammatical and lexical traits that are absent in the Neo-Aramaic varieties to which they were exposed.

   In section 3 I shall focus on two selected innovative features of the verbal system of CKS--the loss of Neo-pa"el and the constructions of present progressive and present perfect with an uninflected preverbal particle--and their close areal parallels in a variety of Neo-Aramaic dialects indigenous to the eastern regions of the NENA-speaking area. (3)

   This paper includes comparative data related to the following NENA varieties spoken in the following localities (the data are according to my informants unless a bibliographical reference is given):

   Iraq, Province of Ninawa (Mosul): C.'Aqra Christian dialect of 'Aqra and adjacent villages. J.Dobe Jewish dialect of Dobe, ca. 20 km southeast of 'Aqra, and nearby villages. C.Qaraqosh Christian dialect of Qaraqosh near Mosul (Khan 2002a). Iraq, Province of Arbil: C.'Ankawa Christian dialect of 'Ankawa near Arbil. J.Arbel Jewish dialect of Arbil, called Arbel in Neo-Aramaic (Khan 1999a, 1999b, 2000 and my informants). J.Brz. Jewish dialect-cluster of Barzan and other villages in the vicinity. C.Bedyal Christian dialect of Bedyal, a Nestorian village near Barzan. CKS Christian dialect of Koy Sanjaq. JKS Jewish dialect of Koy Sanjaq. J.Rustaqa Jewish dialect of Rustaqa (Khan 2002b and my informants). J.Rwndz. Jewish dialect of Rwanduz. J.Sandu Jewish dialect of Sandu, a village ca. 20 km northwest of Barzan. C.Shql. Christian dialect of Shaqlawa. J.Shql. Jewish dialect of Shaqlawa. Iraq, Province of Sulemaniyya: C.Sulm. Christian dialect of Sulemaniyya. J.Sulm. Jewish dialect of Sulemaniyya. Turkey, Province of Hakkari: C.Jilu Christian dialect spoken by the tribe of Jilu (Fox 1997). C.Tiare Christian dialect-cluster spoken by the tribe of Tiare. Iran, Province of Kurdistan: C.Sndj. (=Senaya) Christian dialect of Sanandaj (Panoussi 1990, 1991; Heinrichs 2002). Iran, Province of Western Azerbaijan: C.Urmi Christian dialect of Urmi (Orumiye). J.Az. Jewish dialect-cluster of Iranian Azerbaijan and adjacent areas in Turkey (Garbell 1965 and my informants). II. THE VERBAL SYSTEM

   2.1 Bases and Stems

   CKS has four inflectional verbal bases and a fifth, uninflected, base: (1) Past (P) base (

   Two major verbal stems are discernible according to the patterns of the bases: (1) [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], morphologically representing older Aramaic [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]. (2) Neo-'ap'el, morphologically representing older Aramaic 'ap'el and a small number of quadriradical verbs historically unrelated to 'ap'el.

   The following tables present the stem system and the five verbal bases according to verbs of various classes: (4)

   [TABLE OMITTED]

   2.2 The Loss of Neo-pa"el

   A conspicuous feature of the CKS verbal system, albeit not confined to this dialect (see [section]3.2), is the loss of Neo-pa"el (the verbal stem derived from older Aramaic pa"el). A comparative dialectological study within NENA coupled with a comparison to older Aramaic allows us to reconstruct three Proto-NENA verbal stems: (1) [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], (2) Neo-pa"el, (3) Neo-'ap'el. (6)

   For instance, in the archaizing dialect-cluster of Tiare we find the [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] verb trasa 'to become fat,' Neo-pa"el mtarose 'to repair, fix,' and Neo-'ap'el matrose 'to make fat.' (7) The past bases of these verbs are tris, [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], and [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], respectively. (8) In CKS the Neo-pa"el stem has been reconstructed mostly by analogy with [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], and in two known cases by analogy with Neo-'ap'el. The dissolution of Neo-Pa"el in CKS and the redistribution of its inflectional bases are exemplified in the table below by the loss of the original Neo-pa"el past base. That the forms in the table originate from pa"el can be inferred from a comparison with the NENA varieties that retain Neo-pa"el. These NENA varieties are represented in the table by C.Shaqlawa.

   [TABLE OMITTED]

   The restructuring and loss of Neo-pa"el according to [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] was triggered by the merger of base S of the former with that of the latter due to degemination, compensatory vowel lengthening, and the elision of the preformative m-, as in *mpallet > *[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (as in conservative NENA dialects) > [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] 'that he take out,' a form homophonous with [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] 'that he go out.' Following this merger, Neo-pa"el was restructured by analogy with [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in the rest of the bases.

   Two attested original Neo-pa"el causative verbs were restructured according to the base-patterns of Neo-'ap'el, which is much more commonly used as a causative stem than Neo-pa"el:

   Neo-pa"el mqalowe 'to clean' (retained, e.g., in C.Shql.) has changed to Neo-'ap'el maqlowe as a causative of [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] qlawa 'to become clean.' Neo-pa"el mpasore 'to melt, thaw, trans.' (as, e.g., in C.Shql.) has changed to Neo-'ap'el mapsore as a causative of [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] psara 'to melt, thaw, intrans.' 2.3 Subject Inflectional Suffixes

   The subject inflectional suffixes are L-set suffixes (

   2.3.1 L-set Suffixes

   The following are a paradigm of L-set and selected preterite (base P + L-set) paradigms. Note that L-set subject suffixes are elided after a final radical r, r, n, or l (historically due to degemination, as in *[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] > *twure > ture [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] 'he/it broke'):

   [TABLE OMITTED]

   2.3.2 E-set Suffixes

   The following are a paradigm of E-set and subjunctive (S + E-set) paradigms of selected verb classes (e.g., [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] 'that [I.sup.m.] reap,' etc.):

   [TABLE OMITTED]

   2.3.3 Imperative (Imp-set) Suffixes

   [TABLE OMITTED]

   2.3.4 Present Copula

   As in other NENA dialects, there are distinct positive and negated forms of the present copula. In the 3rd person forms the bases of the inflected negated copula are suppletive to their positive counterparts.

   [TABLE OMITTED]

   In the 3rd person forms i is elided after a vowel other than a (e.g., *brixa-u-ile > brixule 'he has blessed them'), coalesces with a preceding a into e (e.g., *lbila-ile > lbilele 'he has led off'), and is preserved after a consonant (e.g., *dwiqa-aw-ile > dwiqawile 'he has caught her'). Inflected negated copular forms are obligatory with nominals, whereas in the verbal system the usual negated copula is the invariable form le: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] '[I.sup.f.] have vomited' [right arrow] neg. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (~ layan [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).

   2.4 The Tense-Mood-Aspect (TMA) System

   2.4.1 Synopsis

   The following TMA categories, arranged according to verbal bases, are found in my CKS data ('perfect' is a short term for 'present perfect'):

   [TABLE OMITTED]

   The following synopsis presents the dialect's TMA categories from the vantage points of indicative and modal categories divided into primary conjugations and anterior ones, the latter being derived from the former...