Mandean language
| Mandaean | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Iraq , Iran | |
| speaker | 500 active, 40,000 as sacred language | |
| Linguistic classification |
||
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-3 | ||
The Mandaean language belongs to the group of Aramaic languages within the Semitic languages in the Afro-Asian language family and has many similarities with Syriac and Jewish-Babylonian-Aramaic . It is still used today by the majority of the Mandaeans , a religious group in the Orient.
It is divided into classical Mandaean as the liturgical language in the temple, which is also used in religious instruction, and modern Mandaean , which has been the colloquial language almost entirely from Arabic, or the language of the country in which the Mandaeans , since the middle of the 20th century living in exile, was displaced. The New Zealand language is less ancient and has borrowed some words from Arabic.
Mandaean is written in the Mandaean script .
The ISO-639-3 code for classic Mandaean is myzfor modern Mandaean mid.
Of the 40,000 or so Mandaeans , only a fraction still speak the language outside of religious practice. 2001 estimates put 500 speakers in Iran ; the Mandaeans in the Iranian city of Ahwas are believed to be the only remaining New Mandean-speaking population in the region.
literature
- Theodor Nöldeke : Mandaean grammar. Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, Halle 1875, OCLC 238782463 ; Reprint: (= Edition Classic ). VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken 2007, ISBN 978-3-8364-1962-8 .
- Ethel S. Drower, Rudolf Macuch: A Mandaic Dictionary. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1963 (Classical Mandaean).
- Rudolf Macuch: Handbook of Classical and Modern Mandaic. de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1965.
- Rudolf Macuch: On the language and literature of the Mandaeans (= Studia Mandaica , Volume 1) de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1976, ISBN 3-11-004838-8 .
- Rudolf Macuch: New Mandean Chrestomathy. With grammatical sketch, commented translation and glossary . (= Porta Linguarum Orientalium. NS, Volume 18) Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1989, ISBN 3-447-02859-9 .
- Manfried Dietrich : Studies on the Mandaean vocabulary (= Semitica et Semitohamitica Berolinensia , Volume 13). Shaker, Aachen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8322-8094-9 (dissertation University of Tübingen 1958, 221 pages).