Mlahsö is a Modern West Syriac language, a dialect of Aramaic. It was traditionally spoken in eastern Turkey and north-eastern Syria by members of the Syriac Orthodox Church. Syriac is an Eastern Aramaic language that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. ... Aramaic is a Semitic language with a 3,000-year history. ... The Syriac Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church based in the Middle East with members spread throughout the world. ...

Mlahsö is closely related to the Turoyo language. It was spoken in the villages of Mlahsó and `Ansha near Lice, Diyarbakir, Turkey. The name of the village and the language comes from the Syriac word 'melħo', 'salt'. The literary Syriac name for the language is Mlaħthoyo. The native speakers of Mlahsö referred to their language simply as Suryö, or Syriac. ISO 639 is one of several international standards that lists short codes for language names. ... SIL International is a non-profit, faith-based, scientific organization with the main purpose to study, develop and document lesser-known languages for the purpose of expanding linguistic knowledge, promoting world literacy and aiding minority language development. ... This list of languages is alphabetical by English name. ... Turoyo is a Modern West Syriac language, a dialect of Aramaic. ... Diyarbakir (Syriac: ܐܡܝܕ; Zazaki and Kurdish: Amed; Turkish spelling: Diyarbakır) is a city in Turkey, situated on the banks of the River Tigris. ...

The last speaker of Mlahsö, Ibrahim Hanna, died in 1998 in Qamishli. It was reported in 1999 that his daughter knew the language well, but was nearly deaf and had no one to converse with in the language. Qamishli ܩܡܫܠܝ (or Al Qamishli or Kamishli, sometimes transcribed with accents) is a city in northeast Syria on the border with Turkey and close to Iraq (Ancient Assyria). ...

Mlahsö is more conservative than Turoyo in grammar and vocabulary, using classical Syriac words and constructions. However, it is more phonologically radical than Turoyo. This is particularly noticeable in the use of s for classical θ and y (IPA j) for gh. Mlahsö renders the combination of vowel plus y as a single, fronted vowel rather than a diphthong or a glide. The International Phonetic Alphabet is a phonetic alphabet used by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) the human vocal apparatus can produce. ... In phonetics, a diphthong ( Greek δίφθογγος, diphthongos, literally with two sounds) is a vowel combination usually involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ...

External Links

• Ethnologue report for Mlahso (http://www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=QMQ).
• Semitisches Tonarchiv: Dokumentgruppe "Aramäisch/Mlahsô" (text in German) (http://semarch.uni-hd.de/dokumentgruppen.php4?ST_ID=5&DT_ID=32)