Global InformationAramaic information
| Aramaic | |
|---|---|
| ארמית, ܐܪܡܐܝܬ Arāmāiṯ | |
| Region | Fertile Crescent (Levant, Mesopotamia, and Southeastern Anatolia), eastern Arabia,[1] Sinai |
Language family | Afro-Asiatic
|
Early forms | Proto-Afroasiatic
|
| Dialects |
|
Writing system | Syriac alphabet (Christian) Mandaic (Mandaeans) Hebrew alphabet (Jewish) Historically Phoenician alphabet, Aramaic alphabet |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:arc – Imperial Aramaicsyc – Classical Syriacmyz – Classical Mandaicxrm – Armazic languagebjf – Barzani Neo-Aramaicbhn – Bohtan Neo-Aramaichrt – Hertevin Neo-Aramaicaij – Inter-Zab Neo-Aramaictmr – Jewish Babylonian Aramaicjpa – Jewish Palestinian Aramaickqd – Koy Sanjaq Neo-Aramaiclhs – Mlaḥsô languagemid – Modern Mandaicoar – Old Aramaicsam – Samaritan Aramaic languagesyn – Senaya Neo-Aramaicsyr – Suret languagehuy – Trans-Zab Neo-Aramaictru – Turoyo languagetrg – Urmia Neo-Aramaicamw – Western Neo-Aramaic |
| Glottolog | aram1259 |
| Linguasphere | 12-AAA |
Aramaic (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: ארמית, romanized: ˀərāmiṯ; 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[2][3] and the Sinai Peninsula, where it has been continually written and spoken in different varieties[4] for over three thousand years.
Aramaic served as a language of public life and administration of ancient kingdoms and empires, and also as a language of divine worship and religious study. Several modern varieties, the Neo-Aramaic languages, are still spoken by the Assyrians, Mandeans, Mizrahi Jews[5][6][7][8] and by the Arameans (Syriacs) in the towns of Maaloula and nearby Jubb'adin in Syria.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Aramaic is used as the liturgical language of several West Asian churches.[16][17][18][19][20]
Aramaic belongs to the Northwest group of the Semitic language family, which also includes the mutually intelligible Canaanite languages such as Hebrew, Edomite, Moabite, Ekronite, Sutean, and Phoenician, as well as Amorite and Ugaritic.[21][22] Aramaic languages are written in the Aramaic alphabet, a descendant of the Phoenician alphabet, and the most prominent alphabet variant is the Syriac alphabet.[23] The Aramaic alphabet also became a base for the creation and adaptation of specific writing systems in some other Semitic languages of West Asia, such as the Hebrew alphabet and the Arabic alphabet.[24]
The Aramaic languages are now considered endangered, with several varieties used mainly by the older generations.[25] Researchers are working to record and analyze all of the remaining varieties of Neo-Aramaic languages before they or in case they become extinct.[26][27] Aramaic dialects today form the mother tongues of the Arameans (Syriacs) in the Qalamoun mountains, Assyrians and Mandaeans, as well as some Mizrahi Jews.
Early Aramaic inscriptions date from 11th century BC, placing it among the earliest languages to be written down.[4] Aramaicist Holger Gzella notes, "The linguistic history of Aramaic prior to the appearance of the first textual sources in the ninth century BC remains unknown."[28] Aramaic is also believed by most historians and scholars to have been the primary language spoken by Jesus of Nazareth both for preaching and in everyday life.
- ^ Mario Kozah; Abdulrahim Abu-Husayn; Saif Shaheen Al-Murikhi; Haya Al Thani (9 December 2014). The Syriac Writers of Qatar in the Seventh Century. Gorgias Press. p. 298. ISBN 9781463236649.
The Syriac writers of Qatar themselves produced some of the best and most sophisticated writing to be found in all Syriac literature of the seventh century, but they have not received the scholarly attention that they deserve in the last half century. This volume seeks to redress this underdevelopment by setting the standard for further research in the sub-field of Beth Qatraye studies.
- ^ Thompson, Andrew David (31 October 2019). Christianity in Oman. Springer. p. 49. ISBN 9783030303983.
The Persian location and character of the Metropolitan proved to be a source of friction between the Syriac-speaking Christians of Beth Qatraye who naturally looked to their co-linguists back in Mesopotamia.
- ^ Raheb, Mitri; Lamport, Mark A. (15 December 2020). The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Christianity in the Middle East. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 134. ISBN 9781538124185.
He was born in the region of Beth Qatraye in Eastern Arabia, a mixed Syriac- and Arabic Speaking region…
- ^ a b Brock 1989, pp. 11–23.
- ^ Huehnergard, John; Rubin, Aaron D. (2011). "Phyla and Waves: Models of Classification of the Semitic Languages". In Weninger, Stefan (ed.). The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 259–278. ISBN 978-3-11-018613-0.
- ^ Gzella, Holger (2021). Aramaic. A History of the First World Language. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. pp. 4–5. ISBN 9780802877482.
The overarching concept of Aramaic, strictly a historical-linguistic abstraction, is made more concrete by various terms for the various Aramaic languages (or dialects, where we are mainly dealing with regional vernaculars without a written tradition; the neutral term variety includes both categories).[…] Or scholars use the same terms to refer to different historical periods, as with "Old Aramaic" or "Imperial Aramaic." Others still are just misleading, such as "Modern Syriac" for the modern spoken languages, which do not directly descend from Syriac. When discussing what a certain word or phrase is "in Aramaic" then, we always have to specify which period, region, or culture is meant unlike Classical Latin, for instance. […] For the most part, Aramaic is thus studied as a crucial but subservient element in several well-established, mainly philological and historical disciplines and social sciences. Even in the academic world, only few people see any inherent value that transcends the disciplinary boundaries in this language family.
- ^ Van Rompay, Lucas (2011). "Aramaic". In Brock, Sebastian P.; Butts, Aaron M.; Kiraz, George A.; Van Rompay, Lucas (eds.). Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage (Electronic Edition, Beth Mardutho, 2018 ed.). Gorgias Press. ISBN 978-1-59333-714-8.
Aramaic itself consists of a great number of language forms (and indeed languages), spoken and written in many different scripts over a period of 3000 years.
- ^ Aufrecht 2001, p. 145: "The Aramaic Language originated in ancient Syria at the end of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1500–1200 B.C.), is one of the oldest continually spoken languages in the world."
- ^ Rafik Schami (25 July 2011). Märchen aus Malula (in German). Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH & Company KG. p. 151. ISBN 9783446239005.
Ich kenne das Dorf nicht, doch gehört habe ich davon. Was ist mit Malula?‹ fragte der festgehaltene Derwisch. >Das letzte Dorf der Aramäer< lachte einer der…
- ^ Yaron Matras; Jeanette Sakel (2007). Grammatical Borrowing in Cross-Linguistic Perspective. De Gruyter. p. 185. doi:10.1515/9783110199192. ISBN 9783110199192.
The fact that nearly all Arabic loans in Ma'lula originate from the period before the change from the rural dialect to the city dialect of Damascus shows that the contact between the Aramaeans and the Arabs was intimate…
- ^ Dr. Emna Labidi (2022). Untersuchungen zum Spracherwerb zweisprachiger Kinder im Aramäerdorf Dschubbadin (Syrien) (in German). LIT. p. 133. ISBN 9783643152619.
Aramäer von Ǧubbˁadīn
- ^ Prof. Dr. Werner Arnold; P. Behnstedt (1993). Arabisch-aramäische Sprachbeziehungen im Qalamūn (Syrien) (in German). Harassowitz. p. 42. ISBN 9783447033268.
Die arabischen Dialekte der Aramäer
- ^ Prof. Dr. Werner Arnold; P. Behnstedt (1993). Arabisch-aramäische Sprachbeziehungen im Qalamūn (Syrien) (in German). Harassowitz. p. 5. ISBN 9783447033268.
Die Kontakte zwischen den drei Aramäer-dörfern sind nicht besonders stark.
- ^ Prof. Dr. Werner Arnold (2006). Lehrbuch des Neuwestaramäischen (in German). Harrassowitz. p. 133. ISBN 9783447053136.
Aramäern in Ma'lūla
- ^ Prof. Dr. Werner Arnold (2006). Lehrbuch des Neuwestaramäischen (in German). Harrassowitz. p. 15. ISBN 9783447053136.
Viele Aramäer arbeiten heute in Damaskus, Beirut oder in den Golfstaaten und verbringen nur die Sommermonate im Dorf.
- ^ Sokoloff 1983.
- ^ Beyer 1986.
- ^ Lipiński 2000.
- ^ Creason 2008, pp. 108–44.
- ^ Gzella 2015.
- ^ Lipiński 2001, p. 64.
- ^ Gzella 2015, pp. 17–22.
- ^ Daniels 1996, pp. 499–514.
- ^ Beyer 1986, p. 56.
- ^ Naby 2004, pp. 197–203.
- ^ Macuch 1990, pp. 214–23.
- ^ Coghill 2007, pp. 115–22.
- ^ Holger Gzella (8 January 2015). A Cultural History of Aramaic: From the Beginnings to the Advent of Islam. BRILL. pp. 56–. ISBN 978-90-04-28510-1. OCLC 1018201352.
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