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What is it about?

The Aramaic language continues to be spoken today in several subgroups of dialects. The largest subgroup is known as North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA). NENA dialects have a copula expressing the verb 'to be' in predications. In origin this copula is a pronoun. In the NENA dialects the pronoun has developed into a verb, with verbal inflection, through the influence of contact with Iranian languages . The article shows that the degree of historical change from a pronoun to a verb differs across the various NENA dialects and this reflects different degrees of convergence with Iranian.

Why is it important?

The study of fine-grained differences in degrees of changes across different dialects of a language is important for casting light on the processes of change.

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The following have contributed to this page:
Geoffrey Khan
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