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Mlahso language - Definition and Overview |
| Related Words: Afghan, Afghani, Afrikaans, Ainu, Akan, Akkadian, Albanian, Aleut, Algonquian, Algonquin, Amharic, Anatolian, Andaman, Apache, Arabic, Aramaic, Araucanian, Arawak, Arawakan, Armenian, Aryan, Assamese |
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Mlahsö is a Modern West Syriac language, a dialect of Aramaic. It was traditionally spoken in eastern Turkey and north-eastern Syria by members of the Syriac Orthodox Church.
Mlahsö is closely related to the Turoyo language. It was spoken in the villages of Mlahsó and `Ansha near Lice, Diyarbakir, Turkey. The name of the village and the language comes from the Syriac word 'melħo', 'salt'. The literary Syriac name for the language is Mlaħthoyo. The native speakers of Mlahsö referred to their language simply as Suryö, or Syriac.
The last speaker of Mlahsö, Ibrahim Hanna, died in 1998 in Qamishli. It was reported in 1999 that his daughter knew the language well, but was nearly deaf and had no one to converse with in the language.
Mlahsö is more conservative than Turoyo in grammar and vocabulary, using classical Syriac words and constructions. However, it is more phonologically radical than Turoyo. This is particularly noticeable in the use of s for classical θ and y (IPA j) for gh. Mlahsö renders the combination of vowel plus y as a single, fronted vowel rather than a diphthong or a glide.
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