On 22/12/2003 17:53, Christopher John Fynn wrote:
Which script does the small community of native Aramaic speakers that still
exists use to write their own language?
This is a very complex issue. There are quite a number of separate
communities, although I can't fiind evidence of any in Lebanon. The
following data is based on the Ethnologue, see
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=950:
LANGUAGE
|
SPEAKERS
|
COUNTRY
|
SCRIPT
|
Assyrian neo-Aramaic
|
210,000
|
Iraq, Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Syria
|
Syriac, Cyrillic?
|
Lishanid Noshan
|
2,000
|
Israel
|
Hebrew
|
Bohtan neo-Aramaic
|
1,000
|
Georgia
|
?
|
Bijil neo-Aramaic
|
extinct
|
Israel
|
?
|
Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic
|
extinct
|
studied by Jews worldwide
|
Hebrew
|
Chaldean neo-Aramaic
|
200,000
|
Iraq
|
Syriac
|
Hértevin
|
1,000
|
Turkey
|
Syriac
|
Hulaulá
|
10,000
|
Israel
|
Hebrew
|
Koy Sanjaq Surat
|
1,000
|
Iraq
|
Syriac
|
Lishana Deni
|
7,000
|
Israel
|
Hebrew
|
Senaya
|
500
|
Iran
|
Syriac
|
Lishán Didán
|
3,000
|
Israel
|
Hebrew
|
Mlahsö
|
extinct
|
Syria
|
?
|
Turoyo
|
10,000
|
Turkey, Syria
|
Syriac
|
Mandaic
|
1,000
|
Iran
|
Mandaic
|
Classical Mandaic
|
extinct
|
Iran - liturgical use
|
Mandaic
|
Syriac
|
extinct
|
Turkey, Iraq, Syria - liturgical use
|
Syriac
|
Western neo-Aramaic
|
15,000
|
Syria
|
?
|
Samaritan Aramaic
|
extinct
|
West Bank, Israel - liturgical use
|
Samaritan
|
Would they be happy if Aramaic was "unified" with Hebrew? I don't know but I
suspect those that live in Lebanon or Syria might not - and it could even cause
them political problems.
Well, we need to ask them. I was not making any proposals to disunify
scripts in modern use. But there is a basic misunderstanding here. The
roadmapped "Aramaic" script, despite being proposed for the BMP, is not
a script in modern use. It is a historic script from around 2500 years
ago which survives only in a few very diverse inscriptional and papyrus
fragments (including those already separately roadmapped as Palmyrene
etc), and in texts which have been transmitted in the slightly later
variant which is called Aramaic square script or (by Unicode) Hebrew
script.
--
Peter Kirk
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (personal)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (work)
http://www.qaya.org/
|
