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Document Details : Title: New Lexical Findings in Modern Mandaic Author(s): MUTZAFI, Hezy Journal: Orientalia Volume: 92 Issue: 3 Date: 2023 Pages: 351-365 DOI: 10.2143/ORI.92.3.3293349 Abstract : The main purpose of this article is to enrich scholarly knowledge of the Aramaic legacy embedded in the vocabulary of Neo-Mandaic (NM), one of the most critically endangered modern Semitic languages. The semantics and origins of five fieldwork-based lexical discoveries in modern Mandaic are discussed. One of these lexemes is shown to occur also in the cryptic argot of the Arabic-speaking Mandaeans of southern Iraq. All five lexemes evidently stem from ancient Mandaic antecedents, although some of these antecedents lack attestation in literary Mandaic sources. Comparative examination of Aramaic cognates (primarily in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and Syriac) is adduced in order to establish or reconstruct the ancient Mandaic etyma of these NM lexemes. The lexical items in question are all exclusive to NM amongst the modern Aramaic languages, and are added to other inherited Aramaic words in NM which have already been explored in previous studies. |
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