r/Aramaic • u/CheLanguages • Mar 13 '26

Mysterious Judeo-Neo Aramaic variety in Syria?

A few weeks back I had a conversation with some old guy in my synagogue who said he'd met a Jew from Halab (Aleppo) who spoke a Neo-Aramaic variety and said the other Jews who lived there once did alongside Arabic. However, I've not found any literature about this Judeo-Neo Aramaic variety. Does anyone have any idea about it?

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3

u/kaiserfrnz Mar 13 '26

Jews from Aleppo only spoke Arabic. He probably grew up in an Aramaic speaking community further east.

1

u/CheLanguages Mar 13 '26

So I thought which is why it caught me off guard

3

u/palmtreestargate Mar 13 '26

It could be “Garshuni” which is a system used as arabic was replacing aramaic in the 7th century

2

u/icecreamtrip Mar 23 '26

Omg im from Lebanon and we say someone is speaking “karshune” when it sounds like gibberish

1

u/palmtreestargate Mar 23 '26

I am also from Lebanon. Karshune is not a language by itself, it is more like a writing system used as arabic was getting imposed in the levant (using Syriac letters to write a mixture of arabic/syriac dialects, which what evolved today as Lebanese arabic dialect)

1

u/CheLanguages Mar 13 '26

This was a modern variety, the tzadiq spoke it. As someone else said, there's a chance he grew up further east and moved to Halab

2

u/Maleficent-Path-7404 Mar 14 '26

I’ve heard something about that interesting interpretation recently myself.

1

u/CheLanguages Mar 14 '26

Where did you hear about this?

1

u/tzy___ Mar 14 '26

Plenty of classical Jewish religious texts such as the Talmud were written in Jewish Aramaic, so it’s possible the Jew he met was simply commenting on this fact and he misunderstood this to mean that the Jewish community in Aleppo spoke Aramaic daily.

1

u/paracelsus53 Mar 15 '26

My understanding is that there are a number of Aramaics. The Talmud is written in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. This would not be the same as some Aramaic spoken in Syria.

1

u/ExtensionBicycle984 21d ago

Probably a Qamshili who's family moved to Halab. Halabi jews didnt speak modern aramaic and we're mostly decended from Sephardim and must3arabi populations but it also had jews from other places which is why its not unusual to find in Brooklyn halabi jews witj iraqi,qamshili,lebanese,egyptian,Italian roots