| Also Known As: Maalula,Neo-western Aramaic,Siryon,Loghtha Siryanoytha,Western Neo-Aramaic
Description:
Western Neo-Aramaic is a modern Aramaic language. Today, it is spoken in three villages in the Anti-Lebanon mountains of western Syria. Western Neo-Aramaic is the only modern living Aramaic language (neo-Aramaic) drawn from the branch of Western Aramaic languages. All other modern living Aramaic languages are of the Eastern Aramaic languages.
Western Neo-Aramaic probably is the surviving remnant of a Western Middle Aramaic dialect which was spoken throughout the Orontes Valley area and into the Anti-Lebanon in the 6th century. It now is spoken solely by the villagers of Ma`loula (Arabic: معلولة), Bakh'a (Arabic: بخعة) and Jubb'adin (Arabic: جبّعدين), in the Anti-Lebanon (modern day Syria), about 60 km north east of Damascus. The continuation of this little cluster of Aramaic in a sea of Arabic is partly due to the relative isolation of the villages and their close-knit communities.
Following the rise of Islam and ensuing mass conversions of the local indigenous populations, cultural and linguistic Arabization of the new Muslims, but also the remaining Christians, soon followed, and the Arabic language displaced various Aramaic languages (including the Western Aramaic varieties)..... full article at Wikipedia |
