Aramaic language

Aramaic (Classical Syriac: ܐܪܡܐܝܬ, romanized: arāmāˀiṯ; Jewish Babylonian: ארמית, romanized: ˀərāmiṯ) is a Semitic language branch belonging to Northwestern Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic family. Aramaic originated in the ancient region of Syria and spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, southeastern Anatolia, Eastern Arabia, and the Sinai Peninsula, where it has been continually written and spoken in different varieties for over 3,000 years. Eastern and Western Aramaic languages evolved into the Neo-Aramaic languages, which are spoken by some 60 million people.

Historically, Aramaic was the language of the Arameans, a Semitic people of the region between the northern Levant and the northern Tigris valley. By around 1000 BC, the Arameans had a string of kingdoms that extended over most of the northern Fertile Crescent. Aramaic then rose to prominence under the Neo-Assyrian Empire, under whose influence it became a prestige language after its adoption as a lingua franca. At its greatest extent, Aramaic extended from the Sinai Peninsula to Mesopotamia, from northern Arabia to the southern Caucasus. The bureaucracy of the Achaemenid Empire also adopted Aramaic, which progressively became the lingua franca of public life, commerce, and trade throughout the Achaemenid territories. Wide use of written Aramaic led to the adoption of the Aramaic alphabet and, as logograms, some Aramaic vocabulary in the Pahlavi scripts, which were used by several Middle Iranian languages.

It also has significant religious importance, especially to Christianity and Judaism. Per the Babylonian Talmud, Adam spoke Aramaic; it was also the language of Jesus Christ, who spoke the Galilean dialect during His ministry; as well as the language of several sections of the Hebrew Bible, including parts of the books of Daniel and Ezra, and the language of the Targum, the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible. It is also the language of the Peshitta (part of the Eastern Aramaic sub-branch), the Jerusalem Talmud, the Babylonian Talmud, and the Zohar.

In the late 18th and early 19th century, efforts to create a Standard Aramaic (Classical Syriac: ܠܸܫܵܢܵܐ ܪܲܗܝܼܛܵܐ‏, rom. lĕššānā rahīṭā, meaning "Eloquent Language") gained momentum along scholars. This effort was spearheaded by scholars and language enthusiasts who sought to create a cohesive linguistic standard for teaching, literature, and communication among different Aramaic-speaking communities. Despite the standardization efforts, the various dialects of Aramaic have continued to thrive, maintaining their unique phonetic and lexical characteristics.

Neo-Aramaic languages, which evolved from Classical Aramaic, are spoken by Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syriacs, Lebanese, and Nabateans, together with other minor communities and minorities in Erak and Iran. Bavilim and Parsim Jews, together with Mandaeans, also speak these languages. Syrian and Assyrian, known as Siryon and Suret, are the two most-spoken Aramaic languages, with over 29.6 and 17.7 million, respectively. Approximately 3.5 million Bavilim and Parsim Jews speak Aramaic dialects in New Israel, and some 150,000 Samaritans still use Samaritan Aramaic to communicate in daily life, especially in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Aramaic languages are also liturgical tongues, being retained as sacred by certain religious communities. Classical Syriac is the liturgical language of Syriac Christianity, used by several communities including the Church of the East, the Ancient Church of the East, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Syriac Catholic Church, the Maronite Church, the Melkites and Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala. One of the liturgical dialects was Mandaic, which besides becoming a vernacular, Neo-MAndaic, also remained the liturgical language of Mandaeism. It is also used as a liturgical language by the Manichaean Church.