In the past few decades, the study of the Neo-Aramaic dialects underwent an explosion in descriptive research. The increasing documentation of Neo-Aramaic is arguably a milestone in Semitic philology. Given the decreasing number of speakers of individual dialects, the synchronic description of Neo-Aramaic has been repeatedly considered to be one of “the most urgent tasks of Semitic philology as a whole” (Hopkins 1989a, 414; similarly, Khan 2007c, 19). Strong appeals of this kind geared up a new field of not only Neo-Aramaic language and culture but also Neo-Aramaic linguistics. Under Geoffrey Khan’s direction, various research teams associated with the University of Cambridge carried out fieldwork to describe individual dialects. Khan himself has written seminal, voluminous grammars (1999, 2002a, 2004a, 2008a, 2008b, 2009, 2016) with more still forthcoming. Apart from individual projects and other synoptic descriptions in pertinent articles, the Semitica Viva monograph series edited by Otto Jastrow has made important contributions to the Neo-Aramaic corpus. These aforementioned projects have facilitated access to invaluable linguistic data without which this book could never have been written. Considering the dire state of many Neo-Aramaic dialects bordering extinction, the documentation of Neo-Aramaic remains imperative.
Collecting these data and documenting Neo-Aramaic languages would not have been possible without the patient informants willing to work with curious linguists out in the field. I am deeply indebted to all of them, especially those who gave me and/or the team from Cambridge such a warm welcome in their homes and villages. I wish to express my profound gratitude to all the participants of the workshops both in Europe (Enschede, Cambridge) and in Iraq (Erbil, Duhok). May all of you, as last representatives, consider this book a token of recognition of the value and importance of your Aramaic oral heritage and culture.
The lion’s share of this book is based on a revision of my doctoral dissertation defended at Leiden University on 31 October, 2018, the greater part of which was written before 2016. The additional fieldwork and preparation of this book over the past few years at Leiden University and the University of Cambridge was made possible by grants from NWO (the Dutch Research Council) and UK’s Global Challenges Research Fund. It is a pleasure to thank them for their generous support.
Colleagues and friends from Leiden, Cambridge, Frankfurt, Bamberg and elsewhere I would like to thank specifically are (in alphabetical order): Hiwa Asadpour, Naures Atto, Jenny Audring, Ivri Bunis, Ahmad Al-Jallad, Kate Bellamy, Lisa Cheng, Simeon Dekker, Margaretha Folmer, Kathrin Göransson-Egger, Thomas Jügel, Jaap Kamphuis, Alwin Kloekhorst, Fokelien Kootstra, Agnes Korn, Maarten Kossmann, Sasha Lubotsky, Johan Lundberg, Marieke Meelen, Heleen Murre-van den Berg, Ergin Öpengin, Rashel Pakbaz, Marijn van Putten, Christian Stadel and Xander Vertegaal. I thank all of them for their encouragement and insightful discussions. I also thank the students who eagerly participated in my classes on Neo-Aramaic languages and Comparative Semitics at Leiden, Frankfurt and Cambridge. Special thanks are due to Holger Gzella (my thesis supervisor), Geoffrey Khan and Geoffrey Haig (thesis examiners). I benefited greatly from their encyclopedic knowledge and invaluable comments and owe them an enormous debt of gratitude. I also hereby thank the anonymous reviewers for their painstaking reading of the manuscript of this book and their helpful comments and corrections. I alone, of course, bear responsibility for the final text.
I express my utmost gratitude to my family, my beloved Dorota, my close friend Johan Rodenburg, my former office mate Benjamin Suchard and my mentors Don Stilo and Martin Baasten. I cannot thank you enough for your rich sense of humor, persistent encouragement, loyal friendship and continual support, without which this book would never have reached completion. Since no words in print could express my gratitude to my parents, for everything you have done to make this possible, I can only dedicate this work to you, with all my love.
Paul Noorlander
Cambridge January, 2020