A 2022 academic study titled “The Maaloula Aramaic Corpus” found that the language spoken in Maaloula belongs to the Modern Western Aramaic dialect group, which is also used in Jubb’adin and Bakh’a in Damascus countryside, as well as among some members of these communities living elsewhere.This 2022 study is new to me. For lots of PaleoJudaica posts on Maaloula (Ma'aloula, Malula, Maalula - etc!), start here and follow the links. Thecla (Thekla) shows up quite a bit. And for more on Thecla and Maaloula, see here and links.The study, prepared by researchers Ghattas Eid, Esther Seyffarth and Ingo Plag, was published as part of the proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation. ...
Researchers compiled a database of 64,845 words from field recordings provided by 45 native speakers from Maaloula, including stories, legends, religious traditions, local customs, personal experiences, agricultural practices, songs and poems. ...
The Monastery of Saint Thecla and the Monastery of Saints Sergius and Bacchus are among Maaloula’s most significant religious and historical landmarks.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
