Jewish Neo-Aramaic is an extension of the ancient Aramaic language, and is currently spoken by Jewish individuals originating from the Kurdish region in the Middle East. The language is typically divided into dialects such as Lishana Noshan (from the town of Tekab, Iran), Lishana Deni (from Zakho, Iraq), and Lishan Didan (Urmia, Iran). Most Neo-Aramaic-speaking Jews emigrated to Israel in the 1950s-1970s, and their language was superseded by Hebrew. Now, the language is nearly extinct, with an estimated 500 elderly speakers, mostly in Israel.
Ariel Nosrat lives in Israel, and as a speaker of Jewish Neo-Aramaic, he helped establish the Lishana Institute — a non-profit organization with the distinct mission to preserve the Jewish Neo-Aramaic language and culture. For this project, Ariel will work with speakers of the different dialects to develop an online dictionary, with the goal of producing 2,000 entries across 3 dialects. This dictionary will be hosted on the Living Dictionaries platform, and it will feature audio recordings of each entry as read by native speakers as well as idioms and classical Aramaic translations.