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Illustrations
Translations
M.L Chyet / Mem û Zîn: PN (1869)
Prym, Eugen & Albert Socin. Der Neu-Aramagische Dialekt des Tûr 'Abdîn; a. Die Texte; b. Obersetzung. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1881), v. 1, pp. 1-5; v. 2, pp. 1-8, [375] [Neo-Aramaic (Tūroyyo) text in phonetic transcription (v. 1) + German translation (v. 2)] (PN)
PN. Collected by gym and Socin in May 1869 in Damascus, Syria, from Jano (" Dschano-), a Jacobite Christian who had migrated to Damascus three months earlier with a group of his compatriots from the town of Midyat ("Midhjat") in the region of Tûr `Abdin, in what is today in the province of Mardin in Kurdistan of Turkey. A plague of locusts which befell Midyat for six consecutive years forced Jano's people to leave their homes. Although in Midyat he worked his own piece of land, in Damascus Jano was reduced to being a simple handyman. He could neither read nor write, but was endowed with the wonderful memory peculiar to the illiterate; he also had good common sense and was a quick learner. As a result of the ethnic mix of his homeland, Jano spoke Kurdish and (Northern Mesopotamian) Arabic in addition to his native Syriac (or Turoyo , a Neo-Aramaic dialect), and had also picked up some Turkish during a brief stay in Adana. Jano apparently was uniquely suited to the task of being a native informant, and Prym describes him as "der berufene Erzäler seines Heimatortes» (=the appointed taleteller of his native place). The following text, dictated in the variety of Aramaic called Turoyo, is the first one in Prym and Socin's collection. They call it a romantic legend, which Jano told as a true story.
(PM)
[1] There was once an agha1 Yusif Agha, who lived near the land of India. He had a cousin2 whose sister he was in love with. He went to her in secret, while she was still a girl, land) she became pregnant at home3.
“From whom are you pregnant?' asked her brother.
She said, "I'm pregnant from Yusif Agha."
1 - Village mayor.
2 - Paternal lateral male (first) cousin, i.e, the son of his father's brother.
3 - Without having been married off, which would automatically have meant leaving her parent's home.
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