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Multilingual Proverbs in the Neo-Aramaic Speech of the Jews of Zakho, Iraqi Kurdistan1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Yona Sabar
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Extract

§I. All the Jews of Zakho, together with all the Jews of Iraq, emigrated to Israel in the years 1951 and 1952. Some waves of Kurdish Jews had already arrived in Palestine in the 1920s. In Israel, their Neo-Aramaic speech became strongly influenced and gradually superseded by Israeli Hebrew. The Neo-Aramaic speech of the elders, however, was much less influenced by Modern Hebrew and still retains characteristic Kurdistani features, including a large number of loanwords from Kurdish–Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and old, traditional Hebrew. Another typical feature is the coloring of their Neo-Aramaic speech with numerous proverbs in the languages of their neighboring ethnic groups. The multilingual proverbs are an excellent example of the mutual influence of the various ethnic groups and cultures of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , May 1978 , pp. 215 - 235
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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