Aramaic is a group of Semitic languages and has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship. It is the original language of large sections of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra, the first language of the middle-east, and is the main language of the Babylonian Talmud. Aramaic belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family. Within that diverse family, it belongs to the Semitic subfamily. Aramaic is a part of the Northwest Semitic group of languages.

Aramaic History

The first person mentioned in the bible in Aramaic is Laban (Genesis 31, 47) and indeed, the Aramaic language is called after his origin, Aram.

The custom is to divide the Aramaic language into layers to five main periods:

Ancient Aramaic or Antique Aramaic: 700 – 925 B.C.

Official Aramaic or Imperial Aramaic: 200 – 700 B.C.

Medium Aramaic: 200 B.C.– 200 A.D.

Late Aramaic 200 – 700 A.D.

New Aramaic A.D. till our days

Imperial Aramaic

Beginning from the year 700 B.C, approximately, Assyrian empire began to use Aramaic for official documents writing. The language spread over all the area under Assyrian empire control including the land of Israel. We can find in the bible Evidence to the use in Aramaic in this period for diplomatic needs and not for daily use when Rabshakeh, King Sennacherib messenger arrived to Jerusalem and called the residents to surrender. Rabshakeh ask by Hezekiah's ministers to speak Aramaic: "Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the Aramean language; for we understand it; and speak not with us in the Jews' language, in the ears of the people that are on the wall." From that period, there are many writings, among them written on stone, papyrus, clay and tree. The writings were discovered almost all over the Middle East and Asia including Afghanistan, Iran and Egypt. Recently there is an important significance because Egypt has a hot dry weather, and this is the reason why so many writings survived.

Ancient handwriting from the Babylon Talmud in Hebrew and in Aramaic

Late Aramaic

In this period, the Aramaic was divided to the two different dialects, eastern and western.Every dialect is divisible to three main dialects.

The eastern dialect that was spoken in the Babylon area, including the next dialects :

Babylonian Aramaic - Jewish Babylon language and the Talmud language.

Syrian - Christian dialect. In this is written the "Pshita" translation and more Christian scriptures. To this dialect there is also special correspondent, the Syrian correspondent.

Mandaeet - Christian Gnostic cult. The cult were writing their correspondents in that language with special correspondent they had.

Babylon Talmud in Hebrew with Rashi commentary

The western dialect which was spoken in the land of Israel, including the next dialects:

Galilean Aramaic - Jewish Galilean language. In that language they wrote the Jerusalemite Talmud and the Talmud Israeli land studies.

Samaritan Aramaic - Samaritan language. This dialect was conserved in the religious liturgic used since the middle ages till our days.

Christian Aramaic - this dialect was spoken in Judea area. In the past, there is assumption that Christian used to speak that language. However research discovered that there are also remnants to the Jewish speech in this dialect.

There are argumentative imagination lines between the connected dialects. Cultural contact or religious contact, in the east and in the west, meaning, between the Jewish dialect and themselves and between the Christian dialects and themselves. However, the communal geographic imagination lines are much more projecting than the culture communal groups.

New Modern Aramaic

Modern Eastern Aramaic exists in a wide variety of dialects and languages. There is significant difference between the Aramaic spoken by Jews, Christians, and Mandaeans.

The Christian languages are often called Modern Syria, being deeply influenced by the literary and liturgical language of Middle Syriac. However, they also have roots in numerous, previously unwritten, local Aramaic dialects, and are not purely the direct descendants of the language of Ephrem the Syrian.

Modern Western Syriac (also called Central Neo-Aramaic, being in between Western Neo-Aramaic and Eastern Neo-Syriac) is generally represented by Turoyo, the language of the Tur Abdin. A related language, Mlahsô, has recently become extinct.

The eastern Christian languages (Modern Eastern Syriac or Eastern Neo-Aramaic) are often called Sureth or Suret, from a native name. They are also sometimes called Assyrian or Chaldean, but these names are not accepted by all speakers. The dialects are not all mutually intelligible. East Syriac communities are usually members of either the Chaldean Catholic Church or Assyrian Church of the East.

The Jewish Modern Aramaic languages are now mostly spoken in Israel, and most are facing extinction (older speakers are not passing the language to younger generations). The Jewish dialects that have come from communities that once lived between Lake Urmia and Mosul are not all mutually intelligible. In some places, for example Urmia, Christians and Jews speak unintelligible dialects of Modern Eastern Aramaic in the same place. In others, the plain of Mosul for example, the dialects of the two faith communities are similar enough to allow conversation.

Genesis in ancient “Pshita” writing that discover in Syria