Der neuostaramaische Dialekt von Sarda:rid.

• Author: Sabar, Yona
• Position: Book Review

By HELEN YOUNANSARDAROUD. Semitica Viva, vol. 26. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2001. Pp. xxiv + 261. DM 144 (paper).

This is another fine volume in the Semitica Viva series dedicated to the study of living Semitic languages, particularly Arabic and Neo-Aramaic dialects. The series reflects well the pioneering works and continuous interests of its editor, Professor Otto Jastrow, in both Arabic and Neo-Aramaic studies. (1) Helen Younansardaroud, the author of this volume, like some other authors in the series, are native speakers of dialects that are on the verge of extinction. Therefore, every volume in this series, especially one dedicated to Neo-Aramaic, is a major rescue work, in addition to its general scholarship value.

The village Sarda:rid (= S. Persian Sard-Rud "cold river") less about 20 km south of Urmia, northwest Iran, or Iranian Azerbaijan (see map, p. xvii). After the Islamic revolution in Iran, the Christian Neo-Aramaic speakers of S. and the neighboring villages escaped en masse from the villages to larger cities and eventually abroad (p. xvi, probably Europe, Germany?).

In addition to Neo-Aramaic, other languages were spoken or known in S.: Armenian and [Azeri] Turkish. Until 1970, the older generation spoke no Persian, but the younger generation had to study it in school. After a brief survey of earlier studies on the typology of Neo-Aramaic dialects, the author discusses in particular earlier works on "Synharmonismus," which is a major characteristic feature of the local dialects. Indeed, several plain phonemes (/b/, /p/, /m/, /n/, /l/, /r/) have parallel "velarized" ("emphatic," "flat") phonemes as well (/b/, /p/,/m/, /n/, /l/, /r/, in addition to the old s, .t). (2) Another typical feature is palatalization of the historical consonants g and k > g and c, respectively: e.g., ga:niv "he steals"

Following the phonology of consonants and vowels, the author dedicates a full chapter to synharmonism (pp. 19-63). It deals with its effect on consonants and vowels, diphthongs, morphology (of nouns, prefixes, suffixes, loanwords, etc.) in the particular dialect of S., as well as a thorough historical survey and discussion of synharmonism in Net-Aramaic in general. The author also marks the transcription of every Net-Aramaic word with a raised letter to indicate one of three degrees of timbre (usually ignored in our notation), hard (h), medium (m), and weak (v), e.g., (emphatic r and hard timbre) [sup.h]ri:sa "awake" ( Z. r...