BenG1

Shlama

Shlama Ben Gershon, glad to see some "former" native speakers of Jewish Neo-Aramaic here. As you see the current Aramaic Wikipedia has turned to a "Syriac Wikipedia" since the fairly standarised Edessan Aramaic is the only form used here. However, there have been some suggestions regarding the use of the Hebrew script as well. There should be no technical obstacles in introducing parallel versions of articles in a Jewish Aramaic literary language. Regards.--Rafy (ܡܡܠܠܐ) 01:27, 25 ܒܫܒܛ 2012 (UTC)

Shlama Akhoni! It would be great if we manage to make this Wikipedia compatible with our dialects of Aramaic and the way we write them. It would be like a dream come true to see a Wikipedia written this way. I have no idea how to do it, but if there's anything I can do to make it happen, let me know :) The dialect I have more knowledge of is the Neo-Aramaic Jewish dialect of Zakho area, I am less familiar with the Jewish Literary Aramaic (Talmudic etc.). These dialects are just known to me from school and religion, while the spoken dialect of Zakho area is a dialect I heard in my grandparents house. It's so hard to find people who speak it today, unfortunately. בן גרשון (ܡܡܠܠܐ) 02:42, 25 ܒܫܒܛ 2012 (UTC)

The thing with Modern Neo-Aramaic is that it has never developed into a literary language except perhaps for the Urmia dialect, this makes it extremely difficult if not impossible to use it in Wikipedia. This is the main reason why we use Classical Syriac, and I expect likewise that any content which utilises modern Hebrew script to be in Babylonian Jewish since it is the main if not the only literary Jewish Aramaic that produced literary works. This is not necessarily bad news for those who seek to reserve modern New-Aramaic, from my experience Syriac is a bit different from the Aramaic I speak but it still quite intelligible given that you possess the necessary vocabulary, which is more or less similar in all Aramaic dialects.

There is a number of Wikipedias that uses multiple scripts, The Kazakhi for example uses Latin, Cyrilic and Arabic.--Rafy (ܡܡܠܠܐ) 17:41, 25 ܒܫܒܛ 2012 (UTC)

I see. Well, it's true, I don't think our dialect has been "standardized" in any way, though we do have a tradition of writing it. By the way, may I ask what dialect of Aramaic you speak? I wonder how close it is to the one spoken in my family and community. בן גרשון (ܡܡܠܠܐ) 18:25, 25 ܒܫܒܛ 2012 (UTC)

I speak the Bakhdeda (Qaraqosh) dialect at the extreme south. Though the dialect have become heavily Arabised the last 50 years, I have no problem communicating with speakers of other historical dialects in modern Iraq without any previous knowledge. Those of the extreme north (Baz, Jilu, Van...) and east (Urmia) are a challenge but once you understand the basic voice shifts you should be able to communicate rather painlessly. BTW I have a couple of books on historical and modern Aramaic which might interest you, just hit me with a PM by clicking on "ܫܕܪ ܐܓܪܬܐ ܠܗܢܐ ܡܦܠܚܢܐ".--Rafy (ܡܡܠܠܐ) 19:02, 25 ܒܫܒܛ 2012 (UTC)

Thanks! I sent you an email בן גרשון (ܡܡܠܠܐ) 19:32, 25 ܒܫܒܛ 2012 (UTC)