Official Aramaic
| Old Aramaic | |
|---|---|
| Region | Levant/Fertile Crescent |
| Era |
Iron Age and Classical Antiquity, evolved into Middle Aramaic by the 3rd century CE |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
|
Linguist list
|
oar |
| Glottolog | olda1245 |
| Imperial Aramaic | |
|---|---|
| Official Aramaic | |
| Region | Ancient Near East |
| Era | 700–300 BCE |
|
Early form
|
Old Aramaic
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | None |
Old Aramaic (code: oar) refers to the earliest stage of the Aramaic language, considered to give way to Middle Aramaic by the 3rd century (a conventional date is the rise of the Sassanid Empire in 224 CE).
Emerging as the language of the Aramaean city-states of the Levant in the Early Iron Age, Old Aramaic was adopted as a lingua franca (besides Assyrian) in the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and in this role was inherited for official use by the Achaemenid Empire during Classical Antiquity. After the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, local vernaculars became increasingly prominent, fanning the divergence of an Aramaic dialect continuum and the development of differing written standards.
"Ancient Aramaic" refers to the earliest known period of the language, from its origin until it becomes the lingua franca of the Fertile Crescent and Bahrain. It was the language of the Aramaean city-states of Damascus, Hamath and Arpad.
There are inscriptions that evidence the earliest use of the language, dating from the 10th century BCE. The inscriptions are mostly diplomatic documents between Aramaean city-states. The alphabet of Aramaic then seems to be based on Phoenician, and there is a unity in the written language. It seems that in time, a more refined alphabet, suited to the needs of the language, began to develop from this in the eastern regions of Aram. Oddly, the dominance of the Neo-Assyrian Empire under Tiglath-Pileser III over Aram in the middle of the 8th century led to the establishment of Aramaic as a lingua franca of the empire, rather than it being eclipsed by Akkadian. Distinctive royal inscriptions at Sam'al have led to some scholars suggesting a distinctive "Sam'alian" or "Ya'udic" variant of Old Aramaic.
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Wikipedia