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Aramaic is a group of Semitic languages with a 3,000-year history. It 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, and is the main language of the Talmud. Aramaic is believed to have been the native language of Jesus. Modern Aramaic is spoken today as a first language by numerous, scattered communities, most significantly by Assyrians. The language is considered to be endangered. 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, which also includes the Canaanite languages (such as Hebrew).
Geographic distribution During the twelfth century BC, Aramaeans, the native speakers of Aramaic, began to settle in great numbers in modern-day Syria, Iraq and eastern Turkey. As the language grew in importance, it came to be spoken throughout the Mediterranean coastal area of the Levant, and spread east of the Tigris. Jewish settlers took the language with them into North Africa and Europe, and Christian missionaries brought Aramaic into Persia, India and even China. From the seventh century AD onwards, Aramaic was replaced as the lingua franca of the Middle East by Arabic. However, Aramaic remains a literary and liturgical language among Jews, Mandaeans and some Christians, and is still spoken by small isolated communities throughout its original area of influence. The turbulence of the last two centuries has seen speakers of first-language and literary Aramaic dispersed throughout the world. Aramaic languages and dialects Aramaic is really a group of related languages, rather than a single monolithic language. The long history of Aramaic, its extensive literature and its use by different religious communities are all factors in the diversification of the language. Some Aramaic dialects are mutually intelligible, whereas others are not. Some Aramaic languages are known under different names; for example, Syriac is particularly used to describe the Eastern Aramaic of Christian communities. Most dialects can be described as either "Eastern"' or "Western," the dividing line being roughly the Euphrates, or slightly west of it. It is also helpful to draw a distinction between those Aramaic languages that are modern living languages (often called Neo-Aramaic), those that are still in use as literary languages, and those that are extinct and are only of interest to scholars. Although there are some exceptions to this rule, this classification gives "Modern," "Middle" and "Old" periods, alongside "Eastern" and "Western" areas, to distinguish between the various languages and dialects that are Aramaic. Writing system The earliest Aramaic alphabet was based on the Phoenician script. In time, Aramaic developed its distinctive 'square' style. The ancient Israelites and other peoples of Canaan adopted this alphabet for writing their own languages. Thus, it is better known as the Hebrew alphabet today. This is the writing system used in Biblical Aramaic and other Jewish writing in Aramaic. The other main writing system used for Aramaic was developed by Christian communities: a cursive form known as the Syriac alphabet (one of the varieties of the Syriac alphabet, Serto, is shown to the left). A highly modified form of the Aramaic alphabet, the Mandaic alphabet, is used by the Mandaeans. In addition to these writing systems, certain derivatives of the Aramaic alphabet were used in ancient times by particular groups: Nabataean in Petra, for instance, or Palmyrenean in Palmyra. In modern times, Turoyo (see below) has sometimes been written in an adapted Latin alphabet. History Here follows a comprehensive history of Aramaic. The history is broken down into three broad periods: This classification is based on that used by Klaus Beyer*. Old Aramaic Old Aramaic covers over thirteen centuries of the language. This vast time span is chosen as it includes all Aramaic that is now effectively extinct. The main turning point for Old Aramaic is around 500 BCE, when the Ancient Aramaic (the language of Aramaeans) moves into Imperial Aramaic (the language of powerful empires). The various spoken dialects of Old Aramaic come to prominence when Greek replaces Aramaic as the language of power in the region. Ancient Aramaic Ancient Aramaic refers to the Aramaic of the Aramaeans from its origin until it becomes the official 'lingua franca' of the Fertile Crescent. It was the language of the city-states of Damascus, Hamath and Arpad. Early Ancient Aramaic
Late Ancient Aramaic From 700 BCE, the language began to spread in all directions, but lost much of its homogeneity. Different dialects began to emerge in Mesopotamia, Babylonia, the Levant and Egypt. However, the Akkadian-influenced Aramaic of Assyria, and then Babylon, started to come to the fore. As described in 2 Kings 18:26, Hezekiah, king of Judah, negotiates with Assyrian ambassadors in Aramaic so that the common people would not understand. Around 600 BCE, Adon, a Canaanite king, uses Aramaic to write to the Egyptian Pharaoh. 'Chaldee' or 'Chaldean Aramaic' used to be common terms for the Aramaic of the Chaldean dynasty of Babylonia. It was used to describe Biblical Aramaic, which was, however, written in a later style. It is not to be confused with the modern language Chaldean Neo-Aramaic. Imperial Aramaic Around 500 BCE, Darius I made Aramaic the official language of the western half of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. The bureaucrats in Babylon were already using the local dialect of Eastern Aramaic for most of their work, but Darius's edict put Aramaic on firm, united foundations. The new, Imperial Aramaic was highly standardised; its orthography was based more on historical roots than any spoken dialect, and the inevitable influence of Persian gave the language a new clarity and robust flexibility. Imperial Aramaic is sometimes called Official Aramaic or Biblical Aramaic. For centuries after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire (in 331 BCE), Imperial Aramaic as prescribed by Darius, or near enough for it to be recognisable, remained the dominant language of the region. 'Achaemenid Aramaic' is used to describe the Imperial Aramaic of the Achaemenid Empire. This period of Aramaic is usually dated from the proclamation of Darius (c. 500 BCE) to about a century after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire in 331 BCE. Many of the extant documents witnessing to this form of Aramaic come from Egypt, and Elephantine in particular. Of them, the most well known is the 'Wisdom of Ahiqar', a book of instructive aphorisms quite similar in style to the biblical book of Proverbs. Achaemenid Aramaic is sufficiently uniform that it is often difficult to know where any particular example of the language was written. Only careful examination reveals the occasional loan word from a local language. Post-Achaemenid Aramaic
Late Old Eastern Aramaic
Late Old Western Aramaic The western regional dialects of Aramaic followed a similar course to those of the east. They are quite distinct from the eastern dialects and Imperial Aramaic. Aramaic came to coexist with Canaanite dialects, eventually displacing Phoenician in the 1st century BCE and Hebrew around the turn of the 4th century CE. The form of Late Old Western Aramaic used by the Jewish community is best attested, and is usually referred to as Jewish Old Palestinian. Its oldest form is Old East Jordanian, which probably comes from the region of Caesarea Philippi. This is the dialect of the oldest manuscript of Enoch (c. 170 BCE). The next distinct phase of the language is called Old Judean into the second century CE. Old Judean literature can be found in various inscriptions and personal letters, preserved quotations in the Talmud and receipts from Qumran. Josephus' first, non-extant edition of his Jewish War was written in Old Judean. The Old East Jordanian dialect continued to be used into the first century CE by pagan communities living to the east of the Jordan. Their dialect is often then called Pagan Old Palestinian, and it was written in a cursive script somewhat similar to that used for Old Syriac. A Christian Old Palestinian dialect may have arisen from the pagan one, and this dialect may be behind some of the Western Aramaic tendencies found in the otherwise eastern Old Syriac gospels (see Peshitta). Languages during Jesus lifetime During Jesus' lifetime, in the first century CE of Israel's Roman Period, Jews are believed to have spoken Hebrew and Aramaic. Additionally, Koine Greek was an international language of the Roman administration and trade, and was widely understood by those in the urban spheres of influence. Latin was spoken in the Roman army, but had almost no impact on the linguistic landscape. In addition to the formal, literary dialects of Aramaic based on Hasmonaean and Babylonian there a number of colloquial Aramaic dialects. Seven dialects of Western Aramaic were spoken in the vicinity of the land of Israel in Jesus' time. They were probably distinctive yet mutually intelligible. Old Judaean was the prominent dialect of Jerusalem and Judaea. The region of Engedi had the South-east Judaean dialect. Samaria had its distinctive Samaritan Aramaic, where the consonants 'he', '' and '‘ayin' all became pronounced as 'aleph'. Galilean Aramaic, the dialect of Jesus' home region, is only known from a few place names, the influences on Galilean Targumic, some rabbinic literature and a few private letters. It seems to have a number of distinctive features: diphthongs are never simplified into monophthongs. East of the Jordan, the various dialects of East Jordanian were spoken. In the region of Damascus and the mountain range of Anti-Lebanon, Damascene Aramaic was spoken (deduced mostly from Modern Western Aramaic). Finally, as far north as Aleppo, the western dialect of Orontes Aramaic was spoken. The three languages mutually influenced each other, especially Hebrew and Aramaic. Hebrew words entered Jewish Aramaic (mostly technical religious words but also everyday words like 'wood'). Vice versa, Aramaic words entered Hebrew (not only Aramaic words like māmmôn 'wealth' but Aramaic ways of using words like making Hebrew rā’ûi, 'seen' mean 'worthy' in the sense of 'seemly', which is a loan translation of Aramaic meaning 'seen' and 'worthy'). The Greek of the New Testament often preserves non-Greek semiticisms, including transliterations of Semitic words: The 2004 film The Passion of the Christ is notable for its use of much dialogue in Aramaic only, specially reconstructed by a lone scholar, William Fulco. However, modern Aramaic speakers found the language stilted and unfamiliar. Middle Aramaic The third century CE is taken as the threshold between Old and Middle Aramaic. During that century, the nature of the various Aramaic languages and dialects begins to change. The descendants of Imperial Aramaic ceased to be living languages, and the eastern and western regional languages began to form vital, new literatures. Unlike many of the dialects of Old Aramaic, much is known about the vocabulary and grammar of Middle Aramaic. Eastern Middle Aramaic Only two of the Old Eastern Aramaic languages continued into this period. In the north of the region, Old Syriac moved into Middle Syriac. In the south, Jewish Old Babylonian became Jewish Middle Babylonian. The post-Achaemenid, Arsacid dialect became the background of the new Mandaic language. Middle Syriac
Jewish Middle Babylonian Aramaic Jewish Middle Babylonian is the language employed by Jewish writers in Babylonia between the 4th century and the 11th century CE. It is most commonly identified with the language of the Babylonian Talmud (which was completed in the seventh century) and of post-Talmudic (Geonic) literarure, which are the most important cultural products Babylonian Jewry. The most important epigraphic sources for the dialect are the hundreds of Aramaic magic bowls written in the Jewish script. Mandaic See Mandaic language for more information. Mandaic is a sister dialect to Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, though it is both linguistically and culturally distinct. Classical Mandaic is the language in which the Mandaean's religious literature was composed. It is characterized by a highly phonetic orthography. Western Middle Aramaic The dialects of Old Western Aramaic continued with Jewish Middle Palestinian (in Hebrew 'square script'), Samaritan Aramaic (in the old Hebrew script) and Christian Palestinian (in cursive Syriac script). Of these three, only Jewish Middle Palestinian continued as a written language. Jewish Middle Palestinian Aramaic In 135, after Bar Kokhba's revolt, many Jewish leaders, expelled from Jerusalem, moved to Galilee. The Galilean dialect thus rose from obscurity to become the standard among Jews in the west. This dialect was spoken not only in Galilee, but also in the surrounding parts. It is the linguistic setting for the Palestinian Talmud (completed in the fifth century), Palestinian targumim (Jewish Aramaic versions of scripture), and midrashim (biblical commentaries and teaching). The standard vowel pointing for the Hebrew Bible, the Tiberian system (tenth century), was developed by speakers of the Galilean dialect of Jewish Middle Palestinian. Classical Hebrew vocalization, therefore, in representing the Hebrew of this period, probably reflects the contemporary pronunciation of this Aramaic dialect. Middle Judaean, the descendant of Old Judaean, is no longer the dominant dialect, and was used only in southern Judaea (the variant Engedi dialect continued throughout this period). Likewise, Middle East Jordanian continues as a minor dialect from Old East Jordanian. The inscriptions in the synagogue at Dura-Europos are either in Middle East Jordanian or Middle Judaean. Samaritan Aramaic The Aramaic dialect of the Samaritan community is earliest attested by a documentary tradition that can be dated back to the fourth century. Its modern pronunciation is based on the form used in the tenth century. Christian Palestinian Aramaic The language of Western-Aramaic-speaking Christians is evidenced from the sixth century, but probably existed two centuries earlier. The language itself comes from Christian Old Palestinian, but its writing conventions were based on early Middle Syriac, and it was heavily influenced by Greek. The name Jesus, although Yešû` in Aramaic, is written Yesûs in Christian Palestinian. Modern Aramaic Over four hundred thousand people speak Aramaic to this day. They are Jews, Christians, Muslims and Mandaeans, living in remote areas and preserving their traditions with printing presses, and now electronic media. The Modern Aramaic (or Neo-Aramaic) languages are now farther apart in their comprehension of one another than perhaps they have ever been. The last two-hundred years have not been good to Aramaic speakers. Instability throughout the Middle East has led to a worldwide diaspora of Aramaic speakers. The year 1915 is especially prominent for Aramaic-speaking Christians: called Sayfo/Saypā (sword in Syriac), all Christian groups (Assyrians, Armenians and others) living in eastern Turkey were the subject of the persecutions that marked the end of the Ottoman Empire. For Aramaic-speaking Jews 1950 is a watershed year: the newly founded state of Israel led most Aramaic-speaking Jews to emigrate there. However, removal to Israel has led to Jewish Neo-Aramaic being replaced by Modern Hebrew among children of the migrants. The practical extinction of many Jewish dialects seems imminent. Modern Eastern 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 Syriac (or Neo-Syriac, particularly when referring to their literature), 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, Mlahsö, 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 either Chaldean Catholics or Assyrians. 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. A few Mandaeans living in the province of Khuzestan in Iran speak Modern Mandaic. It is quite distinct from any other Aramaic dialect. Modern Western Aramaic Very little remains of Western Aramaic. It is still spoken in the Christian village of Ma`loula in Syria and the Muslim villages of Bakh`a and Jubb`adin in Syria's side of Anti-Lebanon, as well as by some people who migrated from these villages to Damascus and other larger towns of Syria. All these speakers of Modern Western Aramaic are fluent in Arabic, which has now become the main language in these villages. Sounds Each dialect of Aramaic has its own distinctive pronunciation, and it would not be possible here to go into all these properties. Aramaic has a phonological palette of 25 to 40 distinct phonemes. In general, older dialects tended to have a richer phonology than more modern ones. In particular, some modern Jewish Aramaic pronunciations lack the series of 'emphatic' consonants. Other dialects have borrowed from the inventories of surrounding languages, particularly Arabic, Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Persian and Turkish. Vowels As with most Semitic languages, Aramaic can be thought of as having three basic sets of vowels: The cardinal open vowel is an open near-front unrounded vowel ('short' a, like the first vowel in the English 'batter', IPA: ). It usually has a back counterpart ('long' a, like the a in 'father', IPA: , or even tending to the vowel in 'caught', IPA: ), and a front counterpart ('short' e, like the vowel in 'head', IPA: ). There is much correspondence between these vowels between dialects. There is some evidence that Middle Babylonian dialects did not distinguish between the short a and short e. In West Syriac dialects, and possibly Middle Galilean, the long a became the o sound. The open e and back a are often indicated in writing by the use of the letters 'alaph' (a glottal stop) or 'he' (like the English h). The cardinal close front vowel is the 'long' i (like the vowel in 'need', IPA: ). It has a slightly more open counterpart, the 'long' e, as in the final vowel of 'café' (IPA: ). Both of these have shorter counterparts, which tend to be pronounced slightly more open. Thus, the short close e corresponds with the open e in some dialects. The close front vowels usually use the consonant y as a mater lectionis. The cardinal close back vowel is the 'long' u (like the vowel in 'school', IPA: ). It has a more open counterpart, the 'long' o, like the vowel in 'low' (IPA: ). There are shorter, and thus more open, counterparts to each of these, with the short close o sometimes corresponding with the long open a. The close back vowels often use the consonant w to indicate their quality. Two basic diphthongs exist: an open vowel followed by y (ay), and an open vowel followed by w (aw). These were originally full diphthongs, but many dialects have converted them to e and o respectively. The so-called 'emphatic' consonants (see the next section) cause all vowels to become mid-centralised. Consonants The various alphabets used for writing Aramaic languages have twenty-two letters (all of which are consonants). Some of these letters, though, can stand for two or three different sounds (usually a plosive and a fricative at the same point of articulation). Aramaic classically uses a series of lightly contrasted plosives and fricatives: A distinguishing feature of Aramaic phonology (and that of Semitic languages in general) is the presence of 'emphatic' consonants. These are consonants that are pronounced with the root of the tongue retracted, with varying degrees of pharyngealization and velarisation. Using their alphabetic names, these emphatics are: Ancient Aramaic may have had a larger series of emphatics. Not all dialects of Aramaic give these consonants their historic values. Overlapping with the set of emphatics are the 'guttural' consonants. They include and from the emphatic set, and add (a glottal stop) and (as the English 'h'). Aramaic classically has a set of four sibilants (Ancient Aramaic may have had six): In addition to these sets, Aramaic has the nasal consonants m and n, and the approximants r (usually an alveolar trill), l, y and w. Historical sound changes Six broad features of sound change can be seen as dialect differentials: Grammar As with other Semitic languages, Aramaic morphology (the way words are put together) is based on the triliteral root. The root consists of three consonants and has a basic meaning, for example, k-t-b has the meaning of 'writing'. This is then modified by the addition of vowels and other consonants to create different nuances of the basic meaning: Aramaic has two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine. Nouns can be either singular or plural, but an additional 'dual' number exists for nouns that usually come in pairs. The dual number gradually disappeared from Aramaic over time and has little influence in Middle and Modern Aramaic. Aramaic nouns and adjectives can exist in one of three states; these states correspond in part to the role of cases in other languages. The 'absolute' state is the basic form of a noun (for example, , 'handwriting'). The 'construct' state is a truncated form of the noun used to make possessive phrases (for example, , 'the handwriting of the queen). The 'emphatic' or 'determined' state is an extended form of the noun that functions a bit like a definite article (which Aramaic lacks; for example, , 'the handwriting'). In time, the construct state began to be replaced by other possessive phrases, and the emphatic state became the norm in most dialects. Most dialects of Modern Aramaic use only the emphatic state. The various forms of possessive phrases (for 'the handwriting of the queen') are: The Aramaic verb has six 'conjugations' or stems: alterations to the verbal root that can mark the passive voice (, 'it was written'), intensive (, 'he decreed (in writing)'), the extensive (, 'he composed') or a combination of these. Aramaic also has two proper tenses: the perfect and the imperfect. In Imperial Aramaic, the participle began to be used for a historic present. Perhaps under influence from other languages, Middle Aramaic developed a system of composite tenses (combinations of forms of the verb with pronouns or an auxiliary verb), allowing for narrative that is more vivid. The syntax of Aramaic (the way sentences are put together) usually follows the order verb-subject-object (VSO). Imperial (Persian) Aramaic, however, tended to follow a S-O-V pattern (similar to Akkadian), which was the result of Persian syntactic influence. Background Writing systems Historical forms Literature Modern Aramaic languages | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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