Indeed - although he does not recommend a separate wikipedia for Maaluli, he writes about it:

"Maaluli – Modern Western Aramaic. We have found it expedient to publish in both the Western Syriac script and in Arabic script, given the level of Arabic penetration. One scholar claimed Maaluli should be seen as an Arabic dialect – the structure however is clearly Aramaic."
He also mentions Maaluli when commenting on the expediency of separate wikipedias - and may not have recommended one for Maaluli due to its small size in number of speakers. Here's the relevant excerpt from his message:

" I think that for Suryoyo/Turoyo, Chaldean, and Assyrian there can be a case for independent wikipedias. The degree of linguistic difference is great enough. Even between Chaldean and Assyrian. The Maaluli shares less with Suryoyo than Suryoyo does with Assyrian – but the Maaluli community is smaller. What is the smallest community that can support a wikipedia? This may not be a useful question, since there are versions in Manx, Cornish, and Volapük! I do not think Chaldean and Assyrian can productively be combined – there are too many lexical and morphological differences. The question is, should a hypothetical Chaldean version use Syriac or Arabic script? Could there be demand for both? Experience suggests that Arabic script might be a better choice."
He then still suggests that Maaluli use Western Syriac script like arc:wp.

Fwiw,
Oliver


On 26-Jan-17 21:36, Amir E. Aharoni wrote:
Thanks a lot, this sounds good. I doubt that I can do any better.

Just out of curiosity, did he also say anything about Maaluli? That's actually the one that I hear most often as an example of a modern living Aramaic (although it’s not necessarily the one with the most speakers).

בתאריך 26 בינו׳ 2017 11:32,‏ "Oliver Stegen" <oliver_stegen@sil.org> כתב:

Hoi,
I've received a lengthy answer from Patrick R Bennett (Principal of the The Jerome Institute, and Prof. Emeritus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison) who is the main linguistic consultant of the Aramaic Bible translation project in the U.S., with translations into five language varieties.

He starts with a disclaimer: "I will talk here only about the Christian Modern Aramaic – the Jewish Modern Aramaic is another thing altogether, and I am not at all sure of the present status of Modern Mandaic."
So, Amir, you may want to continue your search for an Aramaic language expert in Israel.

Prof Bennett then continues to distinguish four languages varieties:

  • Maaluli (Modern Western Aramaic)
  • Suryoyo / Turoyo
  • Chaldean
  • Assyrian

(He has longer explanation on each variety but I'll spare you the details unless you insist me posting them here.)
To cut a long story short, he thinks that, in addition to Syriac which represents a classical proto-language (like Latin for Spanish, Italian etc), "for Suryoyo/Turoyo, Chaldean, and Assyrian there can be a case for independent wikipedias. [...] I do not think Chaldean and Assyrian can productively be combined – there are too many lexical and morphological differences."

On scripts, Prof Bennett suggests the following (NB: the Syriac wikipedia is written in Western Syriac script):

  • Suryoyo – Western Syriac script
  • Chaldean – Arabic script
  • Assyrian – Eastern Syriac script
Again, I can forward more details from his original post, if necessary. He closes with "I hope this helps. More detail and further discussion of course can be provided if desired."

Fwiw,
Oliver

On 24-Jan-17 12:50, Oliver Stegen wrote:

I've contacted the Aramaic BT team (http://www.aramaicbible.org/our-team.html) two of whom I know personally. I'll let you know when they respond on the question of dialect (i.e. possibly combinable into arc:wp) vs language (i.e. probably needing a distinct wp).

Fwiw,
Oliver


On 19-Jan-17 16:13, Amir E. Aharoni wrote:
Maybe, I can think of a couple of names.


--
Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
‪“We're living in pieces,
I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore‬

2017-01-19 7:06 GMT-08:00 Milos Rancic <millosh@gmail.com>:
On Thu, Jan 19, 2017 at 3:59 PM, Amir E. Aharoni
<amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
> So we need an expert.

Anyone in Israel? I mean, Israel seems to me like a good place to
search for an expert in Aramaic languages.


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