The Development of Interdental Consonants in the Neo-Aramaic Dialects of the Aqra Region

On April 25, 2022, the Quality Assurance at the Catholic University in Erbil (CUE) organized a seminar entitled “The Development of Interdental Consonants in the Neo-Aramaic Dialects of the Aqra Region” presented by Dr. Aziz Emmanuel Eliya Al- Zebari, Dept. of English.

The seminar was attended by CUE’s President, Asst. Prof. Dr. Riadh Francis; Professor Anis Behnam Haddad, head of the English Dept.; Assist. Prof. Dr. Maher Yousif Al Samaani, HoD Architecture, and CUE’s academic staff.

During the seminar, Dr. Aziz presented a study of the reflexes of historically interdental consonants in the Neo-Aramaic dialects spoken in the region of Aqra in northern Iraq in the villages lying to the north of the Aqra mountain and those of the inhabitants of the region to the south of the mountain.

further, Dr. Al- Zebari highlighted a wide range of reflexes in the various dialects of this region in addition to some degree of variation in the reflexes with individual dialects as a result of articulatory phonetic processes.

The study showed that, unlike other NENA dialects spoken in northern Iraq (KR), the dialects of the Arqa region showed a rich diversity in the number of the reflexes of the historically interdental consonants used in the dialects of the Aqra region.

In the end, Quality Assurance Awarded Dr. Aziz Al- Zebari certificates of appreciation for his diligent work and the remarkable information he provided to the CUE faculty.