 neo-mandaic, sometimes called the "ratna" ( raá¹­na "jargon"), is the modern reflex of classical mandaic, the liturgical language of the mandaean religious community of iraq and iran. although severely endangered, it survives today as the first language of a small number of mandaeans (possibly as few as 300-500 speakers) in iran and in the mandaean diaspora. all neo-mandaic speakers are bi- or even tri-lingual in the languages of their neighbors, arabic and persian, and the influence of these languages upon the grammar of neo-mandaic is considerable, particularly in the lexicon and the morphology of the noun. nevertheless, neo-mandaic is more conservative even in these regards than most other neo-aramaic dialects. as the only known aramaic literary language with a surviving modern reflex, mandaic has one of the longest continuous histories of attestation of any aramaic dialect and is therefore potentially of great interest to scholars of aramaic. ==general information== neo-mandaic (iso 639-3: mid) represents the latest stage of the development of classical mandaic, a language of the middle east which was first attested during the period of late antiquity and which continues to be used to the present date by the mandaean religious community of iraq and iran. while the members of this community, numbered at roughly 70,000 or fewer adherents throughout the world, are familiar with the classical dialect through their sacred literature and liturgy, only a few hundred mandaeans, located primarily in iran, speak neo-mandaic (known to them as the raá¹­nÉ) as a first language. two surviving dialects of neo-mandaic have thus far been documented, those of ahwÄz (in macuch 1965a,macuch, r. 1965a: handbook of classical and modern mandaic. berlin: de gruyter. macuch 1965b,macuch, r. 1965b: the bridge of shushtar. a legend in vernacular mandaic with introduction, translation and notes. in s. segert (ed.). studia semitica philologica necnon philosophica ioanni bakoÅ¡ dedicata. (bratislava: slovenskej akademie ved) 153-72. macuch 1989,macuch, r. 1989: neumandÃ¤ische chrestomathie mit grammatischer skizze, kommentierte Ãbersetzung und glossar. wiesbaden: harrassowitz. and macuch 1993macuch, r. 1993: neumandÃ¤ische texte im dialekt von ahwÉz. wiesbaden: harrassowitz.) and khorramshahr (in hÃ¤berl 2009hÃ¤berl, 
Endangered_Afro-Asiatic_languages Endangered_languages_of_Iran Endangered_languages_of_Iraq Languages_of_Iran Languages_of_Iraq Mandaeism Neo-Aramaic_languages Subjectaverbaobject_languages