Ethnologue

Western Neo-Aramaic

ISO 639-3

Alternate Names

Loghtha Siryanooytha, Maaloula, Maalula, Neo-Western Aramaic, Siryoon

Population

24,000 (2014 J. Leclerc).

Location

Rif Dimashq governorate: Al-Qutayfah district, Bakh’a, Jubb ’Adin, and Ma’lula villages; Qalamoun mountains, 50 km north of Damascus.

Language Maps

Language Status

7 (Shifting).

Classification

Dialects

Maaloula (Ma’lu:la, Ma’lula, Maalula), Bakh’a (Bax’a), Jub-’adin (Jubb ’Adi:n). Little dialect variation.

Language Use

Home, and as literary and religious language. All also use North Levantine Spoken Arabic [apc], as a second mother tongue (Arnold 2007).

Language Resources

Writing

Unwritten [Qaax], efforts to introduce a writing system with old Aramaic characters and with Hebrew were not successful.

Other Comments

Christian.