Soi language

Last updated
Soi
Native to Iran
Native speakers
7,030 (2000) [1]
Indo-European
Dialects
  • Soi proper
  • Abuzaydabadi
  • Arani-Bidgoli
  • Delijani
  • Jowshaqani
  • Judeo-Kashani
  • Kamu'i
  • Kesha'i
  • Meyma'i
  • Nashalji
  • Qohrudi
  • Tari (Median)
  • Tarqi
Language codes
ISO 639-3 soj
Glottolog soii1239
ELP

Soi (Sohi) is one of the Central Iranian language varieties of Iran, one of five listed in Ethnologue that together have 35,000 speakers. It is closely related to Natanzi.

Contents

Dialects

Judeo–Kashani

There are very few native speakers as of 2012, most of whom are elderly and are located not in Kashan. The remaining speakers of Judeo–Kashani live in Jewish Kashani communities in North America and Israel. The language is similar to Judeo–Hamedani and Judeo–Isfahani. It has not appeared much in Jewish literature from the area, with most notable Jewish Kashani publications being published in either Judeo-Persian or Persian. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judeo-Persian</span> Language

Judeo-Persian refers to both a group of Jewish dialects spoken by the Jews living in Iran and Judeo-Persian texts. As a collective term, Judeo-Persian refers to a number of Judeo-Iranian languages spoken by Jewish communities throughout the formerly extensive Persian Empire, including the Mountain and Bukharan Jewish communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish languages</span> Languages and dialects developed in the Jewish diaspora

Jewish languages are the various languages and dialects that developed in Jewish communities in the diaspora. The original Jewish language is Hebrew, supplanted as the primary vernacular by Aramaic following the Babylonian exile. Jewish languages feature a syncretism of Hebrew and Judeo-Aramaic with the languages of the local non-Jewish population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judeo-Arabic dialects</span> Jewish varieties of Arabic

Judeo-Arabic dialects are ethnolects formerly spoken by Jews throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Under the ISO 639 international standard for language codes, Judeo-Arabic is classified as a macrolanguage under the code jrb, encompassing four languages: Judeo-Moroccan Arabic (aju), Judeo-Yemeni Arabic (jye), Judeo-Iraqi Arabic (yhd), and Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic (yud).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judeo-Berber language</span> Group of Berber-language varieties

Judeo-Berber or Judeo-Amazigh is any of several hybrid Berber varieties traditionally spoken as a second language in Berber Jewish communities of central and southern Morocco, and perhaps earlier in Algeria. Judeo-Berber is a contact language; the first language of speakers was Judeo-Arabic. Speakers immigrated to Israel in the 1950s and 1960s. While mutually comprehensible with the Tamazight spoken by most inhabitants of the area, these varieties are distinguished by the use of Hebrew loanwords and the pronunciation of š as s.

Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic is a modern Jewish Aramaic language, often called Neo-Aramaic or Judeo-Aramaic. It was originally spoken in three villages near Aqrah in Iraqi Kurdistan. The native name of the language is Lishanid Janan, which means 'our language', and is similar to names used by other Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialects .

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tat language (Caucasus)</span> Southwestern Iranian language of Azerbaijan and Russia

Tat, also known as Caucasian Persian, Tat/Tati Persian, or Caucasian Tat, is a Southwestern Iranian language closely related to, but not fully mutually intelligible with Persian and spoken by the Tats in Azerbaijan and Russia. There is also an Iranian language called Judeo-Tat spoken by Mountain Jews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judeo-Tat</span> Persian-derived Jewish language of the eastern Caucasus

Judeo-Tat or Juhuri is a traditional language of the Mountain Jews, primarily spoken in Azerbaijan, Dagestan, and Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bukharian (Judeo-Tajik dialect)</span> Jewish dialect derived from the Tajik branch of the Persian language

Bukharian is a Judeo-Persian dialect historically spoken by the Bukharan Jews of Central Asia. It is a Jewish dialect derived from — and largely mutually intelligible with — the Tajik branch of the Persian language.

Judeo-Hamadani and Judeo-Borujerdi constitute a Northwestern Iranian language, originally spoken by the Iranian Jews of Hamadan and Borujerd in western Iran. Hamadanis refer to their language as ebri “Hebrew” or zabān-e qadim “old language.” Though not Hebrew, the term ebri is used to distinguish Judeo-Hamadani from Persian.

In 1920, Hamadan had around 13,000 Jewish residents. According to members of the community that Donald Stilo encountered in 2001-02, there were only eight people from the Jewish community left in Hamadān at the time, but others can still be found in Israel, New York City, and most predominantly in Los Angeles.

Judaeo-Romance languages are Jewish languages derived from Romance languages, spoken by various Jewish communities originating in regions where Romance languages predominate, and altered to such an extent to gain recognition as languages in their own right. The status of many Judaeo-Romance languages is controversial as, despite manuscripts preserving transcriptions of Romance languages using the Hebrew alphabet, there is often little-to-no evidence that these "dialects" were actually spoken by Jews living in the various European nations.

Judeo-Shirazi is a variety of Fars. Some Judeo-Shirazi speakers refer to the language as Jidi, though Jidi is normally a designation used by speakers of Judeo-Esfahani. It is spoken mostly by Persian Jews living in Shiraz and surrounding areas of the Fars Province in Iran.

The Neo-Aramaic or Modern Aramaic languages are varieties of Aramaic that evolved during the late medieval and early modern periods, and continue to the present day as vernacular (spoken) languages of modern Aramaic-speaking communities. Within the field of Aramaic studies, classification of Neo-Aramaic languages has been a subject of particular interest among scholars, who proposed several divisions, into two, three or four primary groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Iranian languages</span> Branch of the Iranian languages

The Western Iranian languages or Western Iranic languages are a branch of the Iranian languages, attested from the time of Old Persian and Median.

Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) is a grouping of related dialects of Neo-Aramaic spoken before World War I as a vernacular language by Jews and Assyrian Christians between the Tigris and Lake Urmia, stretching north to Lake Van and southwards to Mosul and Kirkuk. As a result of the Assyrian genocide, Christian speakers were forced out of the area that is now Turkey and in the early 1950s most Jewish speakers moved to Israel. The Kurdish-Turkish conflict resulted in further dislocations of speaker populations. As of the 1990s, the NENA group had an estimated number of fluent speakers among the Assyrians just below 500,000, spread throughout the Middle East and the Assyrian diaspora. In 2007, linguist Geoffrey Khan wrote that many dialects were nearing extinction with fluent speakers difficult to find.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judeo-Moroccan Arabic</span> Judeo-Arabic variety of Morocco

Judeo-Moroccan Arabic is the variety or the varieties of the Moroccan vernacular Arabic spoken by Jews living or formerly living in Morocco. Historically, the majority of Moroccan Jews spoke Moroccan vernacular Arabic, or Darija, as their first language, even in Amazigh areas, which was facilitated by their literacy in Hebrew script. The Darija spoken by Moroccan Jews, which they referred to as al-‘arabiya diyalna as opposed to ‘arabiya diyal l-məslimīn, typically had distinct features, such as š>s and ž>z "lisping," some lexical borrowings from Hebrew, and in some regions Hispanic features from the migration of Sephardi Jews following the Alhambra Decree. The Jewish dialects of Darija spoken in different parts of Morocco had more in common with the local Moroccan Arabic dialects than they did with each other.

Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic is a variety of Arabic spoken by Jews formerly living in Libya.

Judeo-Tunisian Arabic, also known as Judeo-Tunisian, is a variety of Tunisian Arabic mainly spoken by Jews living or formerly living in Tunisia. Speakers are older adults, and the younger generation has only a passive knowledge of the language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judeo-Iranian languages</span> Number of related Jewish variants of Iranian languages

The Judeo-Iranian languages are a number of related Jewish variants of Iranian languages spoken throughout the formerly extensive realm of the Persian Empire. Judeo-Iranian dialects are generally conservative in comparison with those of their Muslim neighbours. Judeo-Shirazi, for example, remains close to the language of Hafez.

Judeo-Kashani ("Kashi") is a subvariety of Judeo-Iranian spoken by the Jews of Kashan (Kāšān). Diachronically, Judeo-Kashani is a Median language, belonging to the Kashanic branch of the Central Plateau Language Group spoken across Central Iran.

References

  1. "Soi". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-07-26.
  2. Borjian, Habib (January–March 2012). "Judeo-Kashani: A Central Iranian Plateau Dialect". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 132 (1): 1–2. doi:10.7817/jameroriesoci.132.1.0001.