Christian Neo-Aramaic dialect of Senaya

Senaya
Senaya
ܣܢܝܐ Senāya, ܣܘܪܝ Soray
Pronunciation	[sɛnɑjɑ], [soraj]
Native to	Iran
Region	Tehran and Qazvin
Native speakers	(60 cited 1997)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Aramaic Eastern Aramaic Northeastern Assyrian Neo-Aramaic Senaya; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Syriac (Māḏnhāyā alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	syn
Glottolog	sena1268
ELP	Senaya

Senaya^[2]^[3] or Sanandaj Christian Neo-Aramaic^[4]^[5]^[6] is a dialect of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic originally spoken by Christians in Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province in Iran. Most speakers now live in California, United States and few families still live in Tehran, Iran. They are mostly members of the Chaldean Catholic Church. Senaya is significantly different from Sanandaj Jewish Neo-Aramaic.^[7]

Origin, history and use today

The city of Sanandaj is at the southeastern periphery of the area of spoken modern Aramaic languages. Its geography makes the Neo-Aramaic of Sanandaj quite distinct from other dialects. Two different colloquial Aramaic dialects developed in Sanandaj: Jewish Hulaula and Christian Senaya. The two languages developed along different lines, so that the two are not mutually comprehensible. One distinctive difference between the two is the sound change associated with the Middle Aramaic fricative θ (th), often rendered as l in Hulaula, and s in Senaya. For example, mîθa, 'dead', is mîsa in Senaya, and mîla in Hulaula.

Most Senaya speakers are members of the Chaldean Catholic Church, which broke away from the Church of the East in the 16th century and entered into communion with the Roman Catholic Church. However, Senaya is to a small degree incomprehensible to speakers of Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, also Chaldean Catholics, originally from Iraq because of the heavy Kurdish influences on the language. In the middle of the 20th century, the Chaldean Bishop of Senna (as Sanandaj is called in Senaya) was moved to Tehran. The Christian community soon followed, so that there are no native speakers of Senaya left in Sanandaj. In Tehran, Senaya has been heavily influenced by the Urmežnāya dialect of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic spoken by the larger Church of the East community there. Both church communities use classical Syriac in worship. Senaya is written in the Madnhāyâ version of the Syriac alphabet, which is also used for classical Syriac.

Research

1995 a research project under the leadership of Estiphan Panoussi in cooperation with Wolfhart Heinrichs granted by the Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences analyzed the Senaya Dialect (Title: The Christian Senaya Dialect on Neo-Aramaic Texts, Grammar and Dictionary). The project produced three volumes: Senaya, A Christian Neo-Aramaic Dialect (Originally in Persian Kurdistan) (400 pages). Senaya Grammar (300 pages). A Dictionary of the Neo-Aramaic Senaya Dialect (800 pages).

Senaya culture

The first recorded music with Senaya lyrics was released by Paul Caldani in 2002, titled Melodies of a Distant Land.

References

^ Senaya at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
^ Panoussi, Estiphan (1990). "On the Senaya Dialect". Studies in Neo-Aramaic: 105–129. doi:10.1163/9789004369535_010. ISBN 9781555404307.
^ Kalin, Laura (2018). "Licensing and Differential Object Marking: The View from Neo-Aramaic". Syntax. 21 (2): 112–159. doi:10.1111/synt.12153.
^ Mutzafi, Hezy (2008). "Trans-Zab Jewish Neo-Aramaic". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 71 (3): 409–431. doi:10.1017/S0041977X08000815. ISSN 0041-977X. JSTOR 40378798. S2CID 162155580.
^ Fox, Samuel Ethan (1994). "The Relationships of the Eastern Neo-Aramaic Dialects". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 114 (2): 154–162. doi:10.2307/605827. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 605827.
^ Khan, Geoffrey (2020). "The Neo-Aramaic Dialects of Iran". Iranian Studies. 53 (3–4): 445–463. doi:10.1080/00210862.2020.1714430. S2CID 216353456.
^ Khan, Geoffrey (2009). The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Sanandaj. Gorgias Press. pp. 3–4. ISBN 978-1-60724-134-8.

Publications

Estiphan Panoussi : On the Senaya Dialect, in Wolfhart Heinrichs (ed) Studies in Neo-Aramaic (Harvard Semitic Studies) 1990, pp. 107-129,ISBN 9789004369535.
E. Panoussi: „Ein vorläufiges Vergglossar zum aussterbenden neuaramäischen Senaya-Dialekt“, Rivista Degli Studi Orientali, vol. LXV,(1991) fasc. 3-4:165-183.
Heinrichs, Wolfhart (ed.) (1990). Studies in Neo-Aramaic. Scholars Press: Atlanta, Georgia. ISBN 1-55540-430-8.