Otto Jastrow

Zeitschrift für arabische Linguistik, Jahrgang 77 (2023), Ausgabe 1, Seite 86 - 99

The article presents three stories in the dialect of Āzəx which belongs to the Anatolian branch of qəltu Arabic. The dialect was spoken by a Christian pop-ulation in the eastern part of the Turkish province of Mardin. It differs from the dialects to the West (Mardin town, Mḥallami etc.) by a number of linguis-tic features outlined in the introduction. Starting from the sixties of last cen-tury the Christian inhabitants of Āzəx gradually left for Europe or overseas. The three stories presented in this article were recorded in Germany in 1991. They depict episodes from the long history which Āzəx shared with the neigh-bouring, often hostile Kurdish tribes. The first story is devoted to Šəmmās Ṣṭayfo, a famous leader of Āzəx in the period starting from 1820. Over time some of the oral traditions have been embellished with legendary features, such as the intervention of the local saints in the last story.

Keywords: Arabic dialectology; qəltu Arabic; Anatolian Arabic; Syriac Chris-tians; Āzəx; oral history

Cahit Akin, Otto Jastrow, Shabo Talay

Zeitschrift für arabische Linguistik, Jahrgang 2020 (2020), Ausgabe 71, Seite 84 - 102