shlomo oh Paul,
Paul Younan Wrote:My parents and two sisters learned to speak it while growing up in Beirut. It was very easy for them, since they spoke Assyrian (neo-Aramaic) at home.
Iraqi Arabic is also very influenced by Aramaic, from what I'm told...I can't speak or understand any dialect of Arabic, so I wouldn't know - although I was very happy while watching the LBN satellite channel and found a Maronite service chanting the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic. <!-- s:bigups: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/bigups.gif" alt=":bigups:" title="Big Ups" /><!-- s:bigups: -->
Most of the Arabic dialects in previously Aramaic speaking nations have Aramaic vocabulary all over the place. <!-- s
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I'm working on a project to have the entire current Maronite Qurbono recorded in Syriac-Aramaic only. <!-- s:onfire: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/onfire.gif" alt=":onfire:" title="On Fire" /><!-- s:onfire: -->
What is cool about modern Lebanese, is that we construct alot of our sentences in a Syriac style, rather than the Arabic way.
Also the terminations in many cases are exactly like the Syriac.
Here's an example (In Lebanese| in the masculine):
bade or badee or bodee -> I want (Singular Suffix)
badak or bodok -> Do you want (Singular Suffix)
badoh or bodoh -> Does he want (Singular Suffix)
badna or bodna -> We want (Plural Suffix)
badkoon or bodkoon -> Do you want (Plural Suffix)
badun or bodun -> Do They want (Plural Suffix)
baba or bobo -> Father
mama or momo -> Mother
ana -> I
enta -> you
huwa -> He
heeya -> She
nehna -> Us
entoo -> you
hene -> Them
etc....
poosh bashlomo,
keefa-moroon