The Iraqi Judeo Arabic dialect was the native tongue of one of the oldest communities of the Jewish diaspora. Jews arrived to Iraq about 2600 years ago, when the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar conquered the Jewish kingdom of Judea. He burned down the holy temple and took about 60,000 Jews back to Babylon, as slaves.
Throughout the ages, most of the Jews found their way back to Jerusalem or elsewhere in the world. The rest (about 140,000), remained in Iraq until the middle of last century, when almost all of them immigrated to Israel.
Until the Arabs conquered Iraq after the rise of the Islam, in the middle of the seventh century, Jews in that area spoke mostly Aramaic. Slowly, they incorporated Arabic in their dialect. The Judeo Arabic dialect was more or less established and became the language of the Iraqi Jews over 1,200 years ago!
Judeo Arabic is a beautiful dialect. It includes a very rich vocabulary, hundreds of expressions and wise proverbs, greetings and even a lot of colorful curses! Sorry to say, this dialect is slowly becoming extinct! Any language that is not spoken by children is doomed to vanish eventually. Its’ younger sister Jewish dialect, the Yiddish, has a much better chance to survive, since it is still spoken in certain Jewish communities, all over the world.
The plight to save, or at least prolong the existence of Judeo Arabic, has been the center of my activities for the last two decades. About ten years ago, I created a Hebrew based course, in order to teach that dialect to second and third generation Israelis of Iraqi origin. Lately, I put together a similar online course, aimed towards English speaking Jews of Iraqi origin, who do not speak Hebrew and live all over the world!
The main objective of this course is to introduce the participants, who some of them might know no/only some words of Judeo Arabic, to the sounds, the vocabulary and some grammar of that dialect. In order to take this course, you do not have to read or write Arabic as a prerequisite, since the teaching is done in English, while using a transliteration method (Writing Arabic with English letters).
After the ten hourly weekly sessions, the participants will learn enough, in order for them to be able to conduct and understand basic conversations. The course also deals with different aspects of Iraqi Jewry culture and history. It includes some songs, sketches and other original work and material, created by Oded Amit himself. Most of the courses' graduates, were very satisfied with the course and reported that they felt also nostalgic and moved. Listening to that dialect reminded them of long passed away loved ones.
Oded Amit
Copyright © 2022 Judeo Arabic - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.