Quantifying lexical distances among Nudiz, Mahmudi, and Verin Dvin Urmi (North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic)

Elena Shvedova (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow; shvedovalena98@gmail.com); Yuri Koryakov (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow / Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow; ybkoryakov@gmail.com); Elizaveta Zabelina (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow; Institute of Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St.-Petersburg; windmill161@gmail.com)

Journal of Language Relationship, № 23/3-4, 2025 - p.207-275

Abstract: This study documents and analyzes lexical data from four Christian North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic varieties: Mahmudi, Nudiz, Verin Dvin Urmi, and Urmia Urmi, focusing on the previously undescribed Mahmudi and Nudiz. We provide correspondences from these lects for an extended 226-item basic vocabulary list collected for this study with etymologies, cognates from earlier Aramaic, and loanword sources. Cognate share calculations reveal that all four varieties belong to a single language. Notably, Mahmudi and Verin Dvin Urmi — spoken in the same village for 67 years — exhibit stronger convergence than with their genealogical relatives (Nudiz and Urmia Urmi respectively), highlighting contact-driven divergence from inherited patterns.

Keywords: Semitic languages, Aramaic language, North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic, dialectology, lexicostatistics, language contact, lexical semantics

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