| Senaya | |
|---|---|
| ܣܢܝܐ Senāya,ܣܘܪܝ Soray | |
| Pronunciation | [sɛnɑjɑ],[soraj] |
| Native to | Iran |
| Region | Tehran andQazvin |
Native speakers | (60 cited 1997)[1] |
| Syriac (Māḏnhāyā alphabet) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | syn |
| Glottolog | sena1268 |
| ELP | Senaya |
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Senaya[2][3] orSanandaj Christian Neo-Aramaic[4][5][6] is a dialect ofNortheastern Neo-Aramaic originally spoken by Christians inSanandaj,Kurdistan Province in Iran. Most speakers now live inCalifornia,United States and few families still live inTehran,Iran. They are mostly members of theChaldean Catholic Church. Senaya is significantly different fromSanandaj Jewish Neo-Aramaic.[7]
The city ofSanandaj is at the southeastern periphery of the area of spoken modern Aramaic languages. Its geography makes the Neo-Aramaic of Sanandaj quite distinct from other dialects. Two different colloquial Aramaic dialects developed in Sanandaj: JewishHulaula and Christian Senaya. The two languages developed along different lines, so that the two are not mutually comprehensible. One distinctive difference between the two is the sound change associated with the Middle Aramaic fricativeθ (th), often rendered asl in Hulaula, ands in Senaya. For example,mîθa, 'dead', ismîsa in Senaya, andmîla in Hulaula.
Most Senaya speakers are members of theChaldean Catholic Church, which broke away from theChurch of the East in the 16th century and entered into communion with theRoman Catholic Church. However, Senaya is to a small degree incomprehensible to speakers ofChaldean Neo-Aramaic, also Chaldean Catholics, originally fromIraq because of the heavy Kurdish influences on the language. In the middle of the 20th century, the Chaldean Bishop of Senna (as Sanandaj is called in Senaya) was moved toTehran. The Christian community soon followed, so that there are no native speakers of Senaya left in Sanandaj. In Tehran, Senaya has been heavily influenced by the Urmežnāya dialect ofAssyrian Neo-Aramaic spoken by the larger Church of the East community there. Both church communities use classicalSyriac in worship. Senaya is written in theMadnhāyâ version of theSyriac alphabet, which is also used for classical Syriac.
1995 a research project under the leadership ofEstiphan Panoussi in cooperation withWolfhart Heinrichs granted by the Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences analyzed the Senaya Dialect (Title: The Christian Senaya Dialect on Neo-Aramaic Texts, Grammar and Dictionary). The project produced three volumes: Senaya, A Christian Neo-Aramaic Dialect (Originally in Persian Kurdistan) (400 pages). Senaya Grammar (300 pages). A Dictionary of the Neo-Aramaic Senaya Dialect (800 pages).
The first recorded music with Senaya lyrics was released by Paul Caldani in 2002, titledMelodies of a Distant Land.
| West Syriac, legacy of theChurch of Antioch |
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| East Syriac, legacy of theChurch of the East (the"Nestorian Church") (410–1552) |
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| Saint Thomas Christians, legacy of theMalankara Church (active 1st century–1601) inKerala,India |
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