English: Jewish Neo-Aramaic, part of the Northeastern Neo-Aramaic grouping of Neo-Aramaic dialects, is an extension of the ancient Aramaic language. Jewish Neo-Aramaic is comprised of various dialects originating from the Kurdish region, including Lishana Deni (לשנא דני), spoken by the Jews from Zakho, Iraq. Lishana Deni is endangered, as most speakers have migrated to Israel and are now elderly [1].

The speaker interviewed in this video is Rakhma Cohen, who was born in Zakho, Iraq, and now resides in Givaat Ze'ev, Israel. This interview was conducted, recorded, transcribed, and translated by Dr. Yaacov Maoz, Chairperson of LISHANA. The LISHANA association saves the remains of the spoken Aramaic ("Aramit") by Jews from the Land of Ashur and builds a cultural bridge between Aramit-speaking Jews and Christians around the world.

This video was created as part of a Wikimedia Community Fund grant with Wikitongues titled "Documenting and increasing Jewish language representation on Wikimedia" [2].

1. https://www.jewishlanguages.org/jewish-aramaic

2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund/Documenting_and_increasing_Jewish_language_representation_on_Wikimedia