Mandaic language

Mandaic, or more specifically Classical Mandaic, is the liturgical language of Mandaeism and a South Eastern Aramaic variety in use by the Mandaean community, traditionally based in southern parts of Iraq and southwest Iran, for their religious books. Mandaic, or Classical Mandaic, is still used by Mandaean priests in liturgical rites.Ethel Stefana Drower, The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran (Leiden: Brill, 1937; reprint 1962); Kurt Rudolph, Die Mandäer II. Der Kult (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; Göttingen, 1961; Kurt Rudolph, Mandaeans (Leiden: Brill, 1967); Christa Müller-Kessler, Sacred Meals and Rituals of the Mandaeans”, in David Hellholm, Dieter Sänger (eds.), Sacred Meal, Communal Meal, Table Fellowship, and the Eucharist: Late Antiquity, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity, Vol. 3 (Tübingen: Mohr, 2017), pp. 1715–1726, pls. The modern descendant of Mandaic or Classical Mandaic, known as Neo-Mandaic or Modern Mandaic, is spoken by a small group of Mandaeans around Ahvaz and Khorramshahr in the southern Iranian Khuzestan province.

Liturgical use of Mandaic or Classical Mandaic is found in Iran (particularly the southern portions of the country), in Baghdad, Iraq and in the diaspora (particularly in the United States, Sweden, Australia and Germany). It is an Eastern Aramaic language notable for its abundant use of vowel letters (mater lectionis with aleph, he only in final position, ‘ayin, waw, yud) in writing, so-called plene spelling (Mandaic alphabet)Theodor Nöldeke, Mandäische Grammatik (Halle: Waisenhaus, 1875), pp. 3–8. and the amount of IranianNo comprehensive and individual study exists yet except for some word discussions in Geo Widengren, Iranisch-semitische Kulturbegegnung in parthischer Zeit (Köln: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1960) and the etymological sections in Ethel Stefana Drower and Rudolf Macuch, A Mandaic Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963). and AkkadianStephen A. Kaufman, The Akkadian Influences on Aramaic (Assyriological Studies 19; Chicago: The University of Chicago: 1974). language influence on its lexicon, especially in the area of religious and mystical terminology.

Classification Classical Mandaic is a South Eastern Babylonian Aramaic language, belonging to the same Mesopotamian dialect continuum as Babylonian Talmudic Aramaic and Koiné Babylonian Aramaic, and is not to be conflated with Syriac or other North Eastern Aramaic varieties. Its linguistic formation is rooted in the Aramaic of Babylonia from the early Parthian period onward, and its speakers derive from a local Babylonian Aramaean population. The language preserves clear and systematic Mesopotamian features across phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon, including extensive inheritance from Akkadian (especially Late Babylonian), which points decisively to an indigenous development within southern Mesopotamia. In contrast, Neo-Mandaic displays minimal Persian influence but is largely limited to later lexical borrowings. There are no demonstrable Western Aramaic influences in the language.

Usage This southeastern Aramaic dialect is transmitted through religious, liturgical, and esoteric texts,Ethel Stefana Drower, The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran (Leiden: Brill, 1937; reprint 1962).Ethel Stefana Drower, The Book of the Zodiac (sfar Malwašia) D.C. 31 (Oriental Translation Fund XXXVI; London: The Royal Asiatic Society, 1949). most of them stored today in the Drower Collection, Bodleian Library (Oxford),Ethel Stefana Drower, "A Mandaean Bibliography", in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1953, pp. 34–39. the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris), the British Library (London), and in the households of various Mandaeans as religious texts. More specific written objects and of linguistic importance on account of their early transmission (5th–7th centuries CE) are the earthenware incantation bowls and Mandaic lead rolls (amulets) (3rd–7th centuries CE), including silver and gold specimensChrista Müller-Kessler, "A Mandaic Gold Amulet in the British Museum," in Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 311, 1998, pp. 83–88. that were often unearthed in archaeological excavations in the regions of their historical living sites between Wasiṭ and Baṣra,M. Thevenot, Relations de divers voyages curieux, première partie (Paris, 1663–1672), map with Mandaean villages.J. Heinrich Petermann, Reisen im Orient, Vol. II (Leipzig: Veit, 1861), pp. 66, 83–123, 447–465. and frequently in central Iraq, for example (Bismaya,Henri Pognon, "Une incantation contre les génies malfaisantes, en Mandaite," in Mémoires de la Soceté de Linguitiques de Paris 8, 1892, p. 193 Kish,Peter R. S. Moorey, Kish Excavation 1923 – 1933 (Oxford: Oxford Press, 1978), pp. 123–124. Khouabir,Henri Pognon, Inscriptions mandaïtes des coupes de Khouabir (Paris: H. Wetter, 1898; reprint Amsterdam: Philo Press, 1979), pp. 1–5. Kutha,Christopher Walker apud Jehudah B. Segal, Catalogue of the Aramaic and Mandaic Incantation Bowls in the British Museum (London: British Museum Press, 2000), pp. 35–39. Uruk,Rudolf Macuch, "Gefäßinschriften," in Eva Strommenger (ed.), Gefässe aus Uruk von der Neubabylonischen Zeit bis zu den Sasaniden (Ausgrabungen der deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft in Uruk-Warka 7; Berlin 1967), pp. 55–57, pl. 57.1–3. NippurJ. P. Peters, Nippur or Explorations and Adventures on the Euphrates, Vol. II (New York, 1897); Hermann V. Hilprecht, Explorations in Bible Lands During the Nineteenth Century (Philadelphia: A. J. Molman and Company, 1903), p. 326; James A. Montgomery, Aramaic Incantation Texts from Nippur (Publications of the Babylonian Section 3; Philadelphia, 1913), pp. 37–39, 242–257; Christa Müller-Kessler (ed.), Die Zauberschalentexte der Hilprecht-Sammlung, Jena und weitere Nippur-Texte anderer Sammlungen (Texte und Materialen der Frau Professor Hilprecht-Collection 7; Wiesbaden 2005), pp. 110–135, 143–147.), north and south of the confluences of the Euphrates and Tigris (Abu Shudhr,François Lenormant, Essai sur la propagation de l’alphabet phénicien dans l’ancien monde, vol. II (Paris, 1872), pp. 76–82, pls. X–XI; Edmund Sollberger, "Mr. Taylor in Chaldaea," in Anatolian Studies 22, 1972, pp. 130–133. al-QurnahChrista Müller-Kessler, "Interrelations between Mandaic Lead Rolls and Incantation Bowls," in Tzvi Abusch, Karel van der Toorn (eds.), Mesopotamian Magic. Textual, Historical, and Interpretative Perspectives (Ancient Magic and Divination 1; Groningen: STYX, 1999), pp. 197–198, pl. 209.), and the adjacent province of Khuzistan (Hamadan).Cyrus H. Gordon, "Two Magic Bowls in Teheran," in Orientalia 20, 1951, pp. 306–311.Christa Müller-Kessler, "Zauberschalen und ihre Umwelt. Ein Überblick über das Schreibmedium Zauberschale," n Jens Kamran, Rolf Schäfer, Markus Witte (eds.), Zauber und Magie im antiken Palästina und in seiner Umwelt (Abhandlungen des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 46; Wiesbaden, 2017), pp. 59–94, pls. 1–8, map, .

Historical names In nineteenth-century biblical scholarship, Mandaic was commonly called "Zabian" (abbreviated Zab.), not to be confused with Sabaean (Sabaic), an unrelated South Arabian language. The name derives from one of several Western designations for the community which include Mendæans, Nazareans, Galileans, and Christians of St. John.Conder, Josiah. An Analytical and Comparative View of All Religions Now Extant among Mankind. London: Jackson and Walford, 1838, pp. 643–644. Keil and Delitzsch, for instance, use the abbreviation "Zab." in their Commentary on the Old Testament (1866) to cite a Zabian (Mandaic) cognate of a Hebrew term alongside its Syriac equivalent.Keil, Carl Friedrich, and Franz Delitzsch. Commentary on the Old Testament. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996, p. 347. Lexicographer Wilhelm Gesenius mentioned "Zabian or Nazoraean" (i.e. Mandaean) in a lexicographical essay published in 1823, republished in the tenth edition of his lexicon (1886). Koehler, Ludwig, et al. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994–2000, pp. lxxiii–lxxiv.

Phonology Consonants LabialDentalAlveolarPalato-alveolarPalatalVelarUvularPharyngealGlottalplainemphaticNasal Stop/Affricatevoiceless()()voiced()()Fricativevoiceless()voiced()()()ApproximantTrill

The glottal stop is said to have disappeared from Mandaic. and are said to be palatal stops, and are generally pronounced as and , but are transcribed as /, /, however; they may also be pronounced as velar stops [, ]. and are noted as velar, but are generally pronounced as uvular and , however; they may also be pronounced as velar fricatives [, ]. Sounds [, , ] only occur in Arabic and Persian loanwords. Both emphatic voiced sounds [, ] and pharyngeal sounds [, ] only occur in Arabic loanwords.

Vowels FrontCentralBackClose Mid () Open

A short is often replaced by the short sound.

Alphabet

Mandaic is written in the Mandaic alphabet. It consists of 23 graphemes, with the last being a ligature.Rudolf Macuch, Handbook of Classical and Modern Mandaic (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1965), p. 9. Its origin and development is still under debate.Peter W. Coxon, “Script Analysis and Mandaean Origins,” in Journal of Semitic Studies 15, 1970, pp. 16–30; Alexander C. Klugkist, “The Origin of the Mandaic Script,” in Han L. J. Vanstiphout et al. (eds.), Scripta Signa Vocis. Studies about scripts, scriptures, scribes and languages in the Near East presented to J. H. Hospers (Groningen: E. Forsten, 1986), pp. 111–120; Charles G. Häberl, “Iranian Scripts for Aramaic Languages: The Origin of the Mandaic Script,” in Bulletin for the Schools of American Oriental Research 341, 2006, pp. 53–62. Graphemes appearing on incantation bowls and metal amulet rolls differ slightly from the late manuscript signs.Tables and script samples in Christa Müller-Kessler, “Mandäisch: Eine Zauberschale,” in Hans Ulrich Steymans, Thomas Staubli (eds.), Von den Schriften zur (Heiligen) Schrift (Freiburg, CH: Bibel+Orient Museum, Stuttgart Katholisches Bibelwerk e.V., 2012), pp. 132–135, .

Lexicography Lexicographers of the Mandaic language include Theodor Nöldeke,Theodor Nöldeke. 1964. Mandäische Grammatik, Halle: Waisenhaus; reprint Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft with Appendix of annotated handnotes from the hand edition of Theodor Nöldeke by Anton Schall. Mark Lidzbarski,In his masterful translations of several Mandaic Classical works: 1915. Das Johannesbuch. Giessen: Töpelmann; 1920. Mandäische Liturgien (Abhandlungen der königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Phil.-hist. Kl. NF XVII,1) Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung; 1925: Ginza: Der Schatz oder das grosse Buch der Mandäer. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Ethel S. Drower, Rudolf Macúch,Ethel S. Drower and Rudolf Macuch. 1963. A Mandaic Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press. This work is based on Lidzbarski’s lexicrographical files, today in the University of Halle an der Saale, and Drower’s lexical collection. and Matthew Morgenstern.

Neo-Mandaic

Neo-Mandaic represents the latest stage of the phonological and morphological development of Mandaic. Having developed in isolation from one another, most Neo-Aramaic dialects are mutually unintelligible and should therefore be considered separate languages. Determining the relationship between Neo-Aramaic dialects is difficult because of poor knowledge of the dialects themselves and their history.Charles Häberl, The Neo-Mandaic Dialect of Khorramshahr, (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2009).