The Neo-Aramaic Dialect Spoken by the Christians of Marga (Şirnak, Southeastern Turkey)

Abstract

Abstract Aramaic-speaking Christian communities used to be found in large numbers in various towns and villages throughout southeastern Turkey before the large-scale migration under duress as a consequence of the hostilities in the First World War and its aftermath. Marga was once the home of one such large community of Aramaic-speaking Christians who fled to northwestern Iraq or dispersed over the globe. This paper documents new data and provides a preliminary grammatical description of the Neo-Aramaic dialect spoken by the Christians of Marga (Margaye) from a comparative dialectological perspective. It presents an overview of the characteristic features, some of which are archaic and are no longer (as) productive in other dialects. This outline is accompanied by a short sample text narrating the tale of Xazalok and Dalalok, a bedtime story well-known to people in this region.