MANDAEAN LANGUAGE
Mandaic is divided into three periods: Classical, Post classical, and Modern
Classical Mandaic
Classical Mandaic already appears in the oldest liturgical songs and prayers when Zazai d-Gawazta,in the year 272 AD, redacted the Ginza Rba and other literature.
“As a language of this old Mandaean poetry represents a fully developed Babylonian-Aramaic idiom and poetic skill which has been neither surpassed not equaled in Mandaean literature…”
(Reference: Handbook of Classical and Modern Mandaic by Rudolph Macuch –Walter De Gruye & Co. 1965 page LXV)
The classical period ends in the first half of the 600’s.
Post Classical Mandaic
Classical Mandaic still continues to influence the Post-Classical period. This period is characterized by the introduction of Arab words and Islamic references into the language. It is believe that at this time the classical Mandaic is still spoken.
Modern Mandaic
To date the appearance of modern Mandaic is a difficult task. However we know that there is a wedding formal written in a language close to modern idiom. This wedding formula is certainly centuries older. The date for this manuscript is 1529 /30 AD 936 AH.
Modern Mandaic was a dead language as far as what was known by the many Mandaeologists who studied Mandaic. These scholars had to imagine how the pronunciation of the vernacular would have been. The when Dr. Macuch visited the Mandaean community in Ahwaz he made a surprising discovery.
“The existence of a vernacular dialect spoken by the Mandaean laymen in Khuzestan which as a living language deserves, at least, as much attention as the traditional pronunciation of the literary tongue, remained completely unknown until my personal discovery at the occasion of my visit to the Mandaean community of Ahwaz in 1953.”
(Reference: Handbook of Classical and Modern Mandaic by Rudolph Macuch –Walter De Gruye & Co. 1965 pages XLVI)
“But Noldeke as well as a whole generation of Mandaeologists after him knew nothing of the existence of a living colloquial Mandaic in Khuzestan, the language of Mandaean quarters of Ahwaz and Khorramshahr, in which a part of classical forms and vocabulary continues its life until our day. Although this modern idiom with simplified morphology, overlaid with Arabic and Persian expressions and subdued to manifold foreign influences can furnish us only a very imperfect picture of the original Mandaic as it was spoken sixteen or seventeen centuries ago, it is not void of interest. It may prove to be of similar importance as the study of modern Persian for Pahlavi … Under these circumstances it is obvious that the study of modern Mandaic deserves our attention and ought not to be neglected.”
(Reference: Handbook of Classical and Modern Mandaic by Rudolph Macuch –Walter De Gruye & Co. 1965 pages LIX and LV)
“Moreover, modern Mandaic, being a language without literature and spoken only by a limited group of inhabitants of the Mandaean quarters of the Persian cities of Ahwaz and Khorramshahr …The religion does not save the vernacular. This has already been proven by the fact that in Iraq the vernacular has been completely swallowed up by Arabic although the Mandaeans are much more numerous than in Iran… Mandaic as an exclusive language of the Mandaean quarters and silversmith-workshops is of no great use to them (referring to those Mandaeans already absorbed into the larger Persian or Arab cultures). “
Reference: Handbook of Classical and Modern Mandaic by Rudolph Macuch –Walter De Gruye & Co. 1965 pages LXIV and LXV)
MORE TO COME SOON
