Aramaic language

Aramaic is a Semitic language. It has been written for 3,100 yearsBeyer (1986: 11) suggests that written Aramaic probably dates from the 11th century BC, as it is established by the 10th century, to which he dates the oldest inscriptions of northern Syria (Beyer, Klaus 1986. The Aramaic language: its distribution and subdivisions. Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. ISBN 3-525-53573-2). Heinrichs (1990: x) uses the less controversial date of the 9th century, for which there is clear and widespread attestation. (Heinrichs, Wolfhart, ed. 1990. Studies in Neo-Aramaic. Atlanta, Georgia: Scholars Press. ISBN 1-55540-430-8) and has been spoken for longer than that.Royal Aramaic inscriptions from the Aramean city-states date from 10th century BC, making Aramaic one of the world's oldest recorded living languages. Richard, Suzanne 2003. Near Eastern Archaeology: a reader. Eisenbrauns, p. 69. ISBN 978-1-57506-083-5 It is one of the Northwest Semitic languages. Other Semitic languages include Amharic, Hebrew, Arabic and many other languages. Aramaic words are written with the 22 characters of the Aramaic alphabet,Languages from the World of the Bible, ed. Holger Gzella (Berlin; Boston: Walter de De Gruyter, Inc., 2011), p. 131 which was widely adopted for other languages and is an ancestor to the Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic alphabets.

History

Aramaic is the language of the two biblical books of Daniel and Ezra, it is the language of the Jewish Talmud. In the 12th century BC, the first speakers of Aramaic started to live in what is now Syria, Iraq and eastern Turkey. As the bureaucratic language of the Achaemenid Empire, it became the most important language in the Middle East. Jewish speakers took the language with them to North Africa and Europe. Christian speakers took the language with them to Persia, India and even China. 

In the 7th century AD, Aramaic stopped being the most important language in the Middle East. The Arabic language became the new important language. Aramaic is still spoken by scattered communities of Jews, Mandaeans and Christian communities, such as Assyrians. Small groups of people still speak Aramaic in different parts of the Middle East. The wars of the last two centuries have made many speakers leave their homes to live in different places around the world. Today, between 500,000 and 850,000 people speak Aramaic languages.

Dialects

Aramaic is not an unchanged language. Because different groups used it throughout history, there are many different types of Aramaic languages, called dialects, but some of them are so different that they are like different languages. The different dialects make two groups: an Eastern group and a Western group. The division between them is around the River Euphrates.

The dialects are divided also by time. Old Aramaic is the name of the oldest dialects, which only scholars learn. Middle Aramaic is the group of dialects, which are used not every day but for special things like writing and religion. Modern Aramaic is the group of dialects that is used every day by some groups.

Alphabet

 Letter name Aramaic written using IPA Phoneme Equivalent letter in Imperial Aramaic Syriac script Hebrew Maalouli Nabataean Parthian Arabic South Arabian Geʽez Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician Greek Latin Cyrillic Brahmi Kharosthi Turkic Image  Text  Image  Text Ālaph 18px  26x26px  ; ,  ʾ  20px| 70px 𐭀  𐩱 አ 20px  Αα Aa Аа 18px𑀅, 18px𑀆 16px𐨀 𐰁 Bēth 18px  26x26px  ,  b  25px| 42px 𐭁  𐩨 በ 20px  Ββ Bb Бб, Вв 18px𑀩, 18px𑀪 20px𐨦 𐰉 𐰋 Gāmal 18px  26x26px  ,  g  13px| 21px 𐭂  𐩴 ገ 20px  Γγ Cc, Gg Гг, Ґґ 18px𑀕 19px𐨒 𐰲 𐰱 Dālath 18px  30x30px  ,  d  20px| 19px 𐭃  𐩵 ደ 20px 20px  Δδ Dd Дд 18px𑀤, 18px𑀥, 18px𑀟, 18px𑀠  21px𐨢 𐰓 Hē 18px  26x26px   h  20px| 53px 𐭄  𐩠 ሀ 20px  Εε Ee Ее, Ёё, Єє, Ээ 18px𑀳 18px𐨱 Waw 18px  26x26px  ; ,  w  10px| 40px 𐭅  𐩥 ወ 20px  (), Υυ Ff, Uu, Vv, Ww, Yy Ѵѵ, Уу, Ўў 18px𑀯, 18px𑀉, 18px𑀊, 18px𑀒, 18px𑀑 18px𐨬 𐰈 𐰆 Zayn 18px  26x26px   z  10px| 13px 𐭆  𐩸 20px  Ζζ Zz Зз 18px𑀚 18px𐨗 𐰕 Ḥēth 18px  26x26px   ḥ  20px| 53px 𐭇  𐩢 ሐ 20px  Ηη Hh Ии, Йй 18px𑀖 18px𐨓 Ṭēth 18px  26x26px   ṭ  20px| 19px 𐭈  𐩷 ጠ20x20px|Proto-semiticTet-01  Θθ Ѳѳ 18px𑀣, 18px𑀝, 18px𑀞 17px𐨠 𐱃 Yodh 18px  26x26px  ; ,  y  10px| 53px 𐭉  𐩺 የ 20x20px|Proto-semiticI-0120px  Ιι Ιi, Jj Іі, Її, Јј 18px𑀬 15px𐨩 𐰘 𐰃 𐰖 Kāph 18px  26x26px  ,  k  20px| 20px| 49px 𐭊  𐩫 ከ 20px  Κκ Kk Кк 18px𑀓 17px𐨐 𐰚 𐰜 Lāmadh 18px  26x26px   l  20px| 34px 𐭋  𐩡 ለ 20px  Λλ Ll Лл 18px𑀮 21px𐨫 𐰞 𐰠 Mim 18px  26x26px   m  18px| 18px| 38px 𐭌  𐩣 መ 20px  Μμ Mm Мм 18px𑀫 20px𐨨 𐰢 Nun 18px  26x26px   n  8px| 15px| 34px 𐭍  𐩬 ነ 20px  Νν Nn Нн 18px𑀦 21px𐨣 𐰤 𐰣 Semkath 18px  26x26px   s  20px| 21px 𐭎  𐩯20x20px|Proto-semiticX-01  Ξξ  Ѯѯ 18px𑀱 17px𐨭 𐰾 ʿAyn 18px  26x26px   ʿ  17px| 15px 𐭏  𐩲 ዐ20x20px|Proto-semiticO-01  Οο, Ωω Oo Оо, Ѡѡ 18px𑀏, 18px𑀐, 18px𑀇, 18px𑀈 18px𐨀𐨅 𐰏 𐰍 Pē 18px  26x26px  ,  p  20px| 20px| 43px 𐭐  𐩰 ፈ 20px  Ππ Pp Пп 18px𑀧, 18px𑀨 18px𐨤 𐰯 Ṣādhē 18px, 18px  26x26px   ṣ  15px| 16px| 47px 𐭑  𐩮 ጸ 20x20px|Proto-semiticTsade-02  () Цц, Чч, Џџ 18px𑀲 18px𐨯 𐰽 Qoph 18px  26x26px   q  18px| 17px 𐭒  𐩤 ቀ 20px  (  Qq Ҁҁ, Фф 18px𑀔 18px𐨑 𐰴 𐰸 Rēš 18px  26x26px   r  20px| 13px 𐭓  𐩧 ረ 20px  Ρρ Rr Рр 18px𑀭 17px𐨪 𐰺 𐰼 Šin 18px  26x26px    š  21px| 17px 𐭔  𐩦 ሠ 20px  Σσς SsСс, Шш, Щщ 18px𑀰 15px𐨮 𐱂 𐱁 Taw 18px  26x26px  ,  t  20px| 47px 𐭕  𐩩 ተ 20px  Ττ Tt Тт 18px𑀢 17px𐨟 𐱅

References

Category:History of West Asia
Category:Semitic languages