For residents of Jabadeen, one of the last places in the world where Western Neo-Aramaic is still spoken, the decision carries symbolic weight far beyond administrative paperwork. It marks a renewed effort to preserve a language whose roots stretch deep into the civilizations of Beth Nahrin (Mesopotamia) and which once served as a lingua franca of empires.Local organizers described the move as the culmination of sustained efforts to formalize and broaden a project that had previously existed on a smaller scale. “There was a museum before, but now we have received the official order from the ministry to reopen it and expand it as well,” sources from Jabadeen told SyriacPress.
The museum, formally known as the Aramaic Language Heritage Museum, aims to safeguard the tangible and intangible heritage of the region, manuscripts, traditional clothing, liturgical artifacts, tools of village life, and audio documentation of spoken Aramaic. Sources say the expanded institution will function not only as a repository of objects, but as a living center for linguistic and cultural transmission.
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