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Shabo Speaks Aramaic in the Challa Dialect

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These are recorded conversations with Shabo Amrani. The transcripts appear in Steven E. Fassberg, The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Challa (Brill, Leiden, 2010), and one of them is reproduced in the image below.

Shabo was probably the last native speaker of the Jewish dialect of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) of Challa. He was born in Challa in 1921, immigrated to Israel in 1951, and died in the summer of 2007. The village of Challa is in Hakkari Province in eastern Turkey, near the Iraqi border and about 100 km from the Iranian border. Its Jewish community was ancient, dating back at least to the 16th century. Until World War I there was also a Christian community there; most of the surrounding population was Kurdish. The story of the immigration of the Jews of Challa can be found here.

The History of the Jews in Challa
The Beating and Killing of Jews
The Murder of a Peddler
The Death of Mighty Qoto
Sufi Abraham, the Prayer Rug and the Hajj
The Agha Takes What He Wants
The Death Threats Over Leaving for Israel
Shabbo Decides to End Business Dealings with His Kurdish Neighbors
The Art of Stealing While on a Moving Train
The Wife of the Mudir Repays Kindness
The Attempted Seduction
Abraham Gets Drunk
Transcript of the conversation
Transcript of the conversation

Additional recordings can be found below.

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