Beyond the urgent humanitarian crisis lies a cultural and linguistic emergency of historic proportions. The extinction of a language in its homeland is rarely a natural process, but almost always reflects the pressures, persecutions, and discriminations endured by its speakers. Linguist Ken Hale famously compared the destruction of a language to "dropping a bomb on the Louvre" -- whole patterns of thought, ways of being, and entire systems of knowledge are among what is lost. If the last Aramaic speaker finally passes away two generations from now, the language will not have died of natural causes.Background on the situation in Iraq is here and here and links. Background on Maaloula (Ma'aloula, Malula) is here and links. Background on Ariel Sabar's My Father's Paradise is here and links. And more on Geoffrey Khan's Aramaic database is here. Cross-file under "Aramaic Watch."
Then there are the Yazidis. They are not Aramaic speakers, but their religion has interesting and yet-to-be-clarified parallels with ancient Gnosticism. From the Times of Israel: Eight Questions About the Yazidis. Members of the Kurdish religious sect are under siege in Iraq. Who are they? What do they believe? And what is to be done? (Liel Leibovitz). Background here and links.
