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The Aramaic Language....
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Aramaic is a Semitic language 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 language spoken by Jesus,
and it is still
spoken today as a first language by numerous small communities.
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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 (including
Hebrew). 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. |
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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 up). A highly modified form of the
Aramaic alphabet, the Mandaic
alphabet, is used by the Mandaeans.
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Silver ingot of Bar-Rakib
son of Panammu, king of Sam'al
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There are quite extensive inscriptions that evidence
the earliest use of the language, dating from the tenth century BCE. These
inscriptions are mostly diplomatic documents between Aramaean city-states.
The orthography of Aramaic at this early period seems to be based on
Phoenician, and there is a unity in the written language. It seems that,
in time, a more refined orthography, suited to the needs of the language,
began to develop from this in the eastern regions of Aram. Oddly, the
dominance of Assyrian Empire of Tiglath-Pileser III over Aram in the
middle of the eighth century led to the establishment of Aramaic as a
lingua franca. |
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