The Neo-Mandaic Dialect of Khorramshahr.

• Author: Kim, Ronald I.
• Position: Book review

The Neo-Mandaic Dialect of Khorramshahr. By CHARLES G. HABERL. Semitica Viva, vol. 45. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2009. Pp. xxxiv + 378. 78.

Modern or Neo-Aramaic (NA) studies have seen a remarkable upsurge over the past two decades, with grammatical descriptions of previously undocumented varieties now appearing every year. Yet even specialists in this flourishing field have remained for the most part in the dark about the least known NA language, Modern or Neo-Mandaic (NM). Although Western study of the religion and language of the Mandaeans dates back to the seventeenth century, it was not until the mid-twentieth century that reliable texts in the modern language were made available to the wider scholarly public. The late Rudolf Macuch, who devoted much of his life to Mandaean studies, first published materials in the NM dialect of Ahw[a.bar]z in his Handbook of Classical and Modern Mandaic (1965); this was followed by two further volumes (Macuch 1989, 1993). based on fieldwork conducted in the 1950s and again in 1990.

In the present volume Charles G. Haherl offers a descriptive grammar of the NM dialect of Khorramshahr (formerly Muhammara) in Khuzestan, southern Iran, compiled on the basis of extensive fieldwork with NM-speaking immigrants to the United States, above all Mr. Nasser Sobbi of Flushing, New York. It constitutes the first book-length treatment of NM since Macuch 1993. and the first to adopt a normalized system of phonemic transcription.

The grammar follows the usual organization for NA dialect descriptions. After an introductory chapter giving the social and linguistic background of NM and its remaining speakers, and tracing the long and convoluted history of Mandacan studies in the West. successive chapters treat phonology, nouns. pronouns, and verbs. A brief conclusion is followed by ten text samples. including a speech delivered by Mr. Sobbi at the opening of the 1999 ARAM meeting at Harvard (with handwritten transcription in Mandaic script); Sobbi's account of meeting Lady Drower in the 19 30s: several traditional jokes, and Sobbi's rendering of Macuch's version of the famous story of the Bridge of Shuslttar in the dialed of Ahwz[a.bar]x. part of which was published in 1965. Tile volatile concludes with an extremely useful lexicon. which gives Cull concordances with the texts, a bibliography, and an index.

Haberl has succeeded admirably in presenting a generally clear picture of the phonology, morphology, and morphosyntax of the Khorramshahr NM dialect, with frequent examples drawn from the texts. Except for certain phonetic and grammatical details and lexical items, Khorramshahr NM agrees in all respects with the dialect of Ahw[a.bar]z. The Middle Aramaic (MidAr.) consonants *h and "t have merged with *h resp. *?, as in, e.g., MidAr. [square root of (term)] hzy 'see', [square root of (term)] ?bd 'do, make' > NM [square root of (term)] hzy, [square root of (term)] bd. The NM noun phrase has been heavily influenced by Persian, having adopted numerous loanwords, which take the Persian-origin plural suffixes -(h)[a.bar] or -[a.bar]n (pp. 130-131); the indefinite marker-i (phrase-final. e.g., qazg[a.bar]n honin-i 'a small pot'; pp. 146-47); and the Persian cardinal numerals, although the inherited Mandaic numerals survive beside them (pp. 149-50; cf. V.3 emma man vs. V.11 sad man ' 100 maunds' ). Gender and number agreement in adjectives has been almost entirely lost: other than the passive participles (pp. 252-54). the only exception seems to be horin[a.bar] 'other', fem. horett[a.bar].

The verb by contrast is more conservative, notwithstanding the existence of numerous phrasal verbs with [square root of (term)]?bd 'do', [square root of (term)] tmm 'become', [square root of (term)] ?hb 'give', etc., most of them calqued on Persian (pp. 226-29). NM has...