Bijil Neo-Aramaic

Bijil Neo-Aramaic is a modern Jewish Aramaic language, often called Neo-Aramaic or Judeo-Aramaic. It was originally spoken in the village of Bijil in Iraqi Kurdistan. The native name of the language is Lishanid Janan, which means 'our language', and is similar to names used by other Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialects (Lishan Didan, Lishanid Noshan).

Origin and use today

The Jewish inhabitants of a wide area from northern Iraq, eastern Turkey and north western Iran mostly spoke various dialects of modern Aramaic. The turmoil near the end of the First World War and resettlement in Israel in 1951 (when eight families from Bijil moved to the new Jewish state) led to the decline of these traditional languages.

The last native speaker of Bijil Neo-Aramaic died in 1998. The remaining second-language speakers are all related and over sixty years of age. The first language of these speakers is either Hebrew or Kurdish, and some also speak Arabic or another Neo-Aramaic dialect. Thus, the language is effectively extinct.

Not enough evidence about Bijil Neo-Aramaic has been gathered to establish a connection with other Neo-Aramaic dialects. It may be related to Lishanid Noshan, which has clusters around Arbil to the south east of Bijil. There maybe some similarities between Bijil Neo-Aramaic and the subdialect of Lishanid Noshan formerly spoken in the village of Dobe, 50 km north of Arbil.

There are no known texts written in Bijil Neo-Aramaic.

See also

• Aramaic language
• Jewish languages
• Aramaic alphabet

External links

• Ethnologue report for Bijil Neo-Aramaic.