Aramaic
| Aramaic | |
|---|---|
|
ܐܪܡܝܐ, ארמיא Arāmāyā |
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| Geographic distribution: |
Fertile Crescent, Eastern Arabia |
| Linguistic classification: |
Afro-Asiatic
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| Proto-language: | Old Aramaic (900–700 BC) |
| Subdivisions: | |
| ISO 639-2 / 5: | |
| Linguasphere: | 12-AAA |
| Glottolog: | aram1259 |
Arāmāyā in Syriac Esṭrangelā script
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Aramaic (אַרָמָיָא Arāmāyā, Syriac: ܐܪܡܝܐ) is a language or group of languages belonging to the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic language family. More specifically, it is part of the Northwest Semitic group, which also includes the Canaanite languages such as Hebrew and Phoenician. The Aramaic alphabet was widely adopted for other languages and is ancestral to the Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic alphabets.
During its approximately 3000 years of history, Aramaic has served variously as a language of administration of empires and as a language of divine worship. It became the lingua franca of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC), Neo-Babylonian Empire (605–539 BC), the Achaemenid Empire (539–323 BC), the Parthian Empire (247 BC–224 AD), and the Sasanian Empire (224–651), of the states of Assur, Adiabene, Osroene, Beth Nuhadra, Beth Garmai and Hatra; the state of Palmyra, and the day-to-day language of Yehud Medinata and of Roman Judaea (539 BC – 70 AD). It was the language of Jesus, who spoke a Western Aramaic language during his public ministry, as well as the language of large sections of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra, and also the main language of the Talmud.
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