Writings from the Seleucid and Hasmonaean periods show the complete supersession of Aramaic as the language of the Jewish people. In contrast, Hebrew was the holy tongue. The early witness to the period of change is the Biblical Aramaic of the books of Daniel and Ezra.

Aramaic (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: ארמית, romanized: ˀərāmiṯ Imperial Aramaic pronunciation: [ʔɛrɑmitˤ]; Classical Syriac: ܐܪܡܐܝܬ, romanized: arāmāˀiṯ[a]) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, southeastern Anatolia, Eastern Arabia [3][4] and the Sin...

Feb 7, 2025 · Aramaic is still spoken by Jewish Kurds and other small groups living in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. Both Aramaic and Hebrew (mostly Hebrew) were used in the Old and New Testaments, and they are the only two Northwest Semitic languages still spoken today.

Jewish Palestinian Aramaic also known as Jewish Western Aramaic or Palestinian Jewish Aramaic was a Western Aramaic language spoken by the Jews during the Classic Era in Judea and the Levant, specifically in Hasmonean, Herodian and Roman Judaea and adjacent lands in the late first millennium BCE, and later in Syria Palaestina and Palaestina ...

In Hebrew philology, Aramaic was especially useful in the explanation of Hebrew words in the Bible; and it served as the foundation for a comparative philology of the Semitic languages inaugurated by Judah ibn Koreish and Saadia.

Aramaic is a close sister of Hebrew and is identified as a “Jewish” language, since it is the language of major Jewish texts (the Talmuds, Zohar, and many ritual recitations, such as the Kaddish).

5 days ago · Perhaps the first Diaspora Jewish language was the pre-Islamic Middle Eastern lingua franca, Aramaic. The Aramaic language has been around for over three thousand years, beginning in the 11th century B.C.E as the official language of the first Aramean states in Syria.

Aramaic is divided into several dialects which historically fall into five main groups: Ancient Aramaic is the language of the ancient Aramaic inscriptions up to 700 B.C.E. (from Upper Mesopotamia, northern Syria, and northern Israel). Official Aramaic was in use from 700 to …

Aramaic is an ancient language with strong roots in Jewish life and history. Quite a few Jewish prayers and texts, including parts of the Bible itself, were penned in this language, and it served as the primary Jewish vernacular for hundreds of years.

5 days ago · Over thousands of years, Old Aramaic varieties, like Biblical Aramaic, Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, and Rabbinic Aramaic, evolved into several dialects of Jewish Neo-Aramaic spoken by Jews from …