This volume presents a description of the Neo-Aramaic dialect that was spoken by the Jews of Urmi in north-western Iran. The Jews left Urmi in the 1950s and now the dialect is virtually extinct. The few surviving speakers live, for the most part, in Israel. The material for this volume was gathered firsthand in fieldwork conducted with the last remaining speakers. The Jewish community had deep historical roots in Urmi and their Neo-Aramaic dialect differs considerably from that of the Assyrian Christians of the town, most of whom settled in the town from the surrounding countryside in the recent past. The volume consists of a detailed grammatical description, a corpus of transcribed texts, including folktales, historical accounts and portrayals of customs, and an extensive glossary. The Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialect of Urmi exhibits linguistic developments that are not found in other Neo-Aramaic dialects. Some of these have come about due to its close contact over many centuries with the non-Semitic languages of the region.

Geoffrey Khan holds a Ph.D. in Semitic Languages, from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London (1984). He is currently Professor of Semitic Philology, at the University of Cambridge. In 1998, he was elected Fellow of the British Academy and in 2004 was awarded the Lidzbarski Gold Medal for Semitic Philology.