Mandaic is a southeastern Aramaic dialect type in use by the Mandaean community for their religious books. Classical Mandaic is still employed by Mandaean priests in liturgical rites. The modern descendant of Classical Mandaic, known as Neo-Mandaic or Modern Mandaic, is spoken by a small section of Mandaeans around Ahvaz and Khorramshar in the south Iranian province Khuzistan. Liturgical use of Classical Mandaic is found in Iran (particularly the southern portions of the country), in Baghdad, Iraq and in the diaspora (particularly in the United States, Sweden, and Germany). It is an Aramaic dialect notable for its abundant use of vowel letters (mater lectionis with aleph, he only in final position, ‘ayin, waw, yud)) in writing, so-called plene spelling (Mandaic script) and the amount of Ir