Aramaic language

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Modern Aramaic

Over four hundred thousand people speak Aramaic to this day. They are Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Mandaeans, living in remote areas and preserving their traditions with printing presses, and now electronic media. The Modern Aramaic (or Neo-Aramaic) languages are now farther apart in their comprehension of one another than perhaps they have ever been. The last two-hundred years have not been good to Aramaic speakers. Instability throughout the Middle East has lead to a worldwide diaspora of Aramaic speakers. The year 1915 is especially prominent for Aramaic-speaking Christians: called Shaypā, or the Sword, many Christian groups living in eastern Turkey were the subject of the persecutions that marked the end of the Ottoman Empire. For Aramaic-speaking Jews 1950 is a watershed year: the newly founded state of Israel led most Aramaic-speaking Jews to emigrate there. However, removal to Israel has led to Jewish Neo-Aramaic being swamped in a sea of Modern Hebrew, and the practical extinction of many Jewish dialects is imminent.

Related Topics:
1915 - Turkey - Ottoman Empire - 1950 - Israel

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Modern Eastern Aramaic

Modern Eastern Aramaic exists in a wide variety of dialects and languages. There is significant difference between the Aramaic spoken by Jews, Christians and Mandaeans.

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The Christian languages are often called Modern Syriac (or Neo-Syriac, particularly when referring to their literature), being deeply influenced by the literary and liturgical language of Middle Syriac. However, they also have roots in numerous, previously unwritten, local Aramaic dialects, and are not purely the direct descendants of the language of Ephrem the Syrian.

Related Topics:
Syriac - Ephrem the Syrian

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Modern Western Syriac (also called Central Neo-Aramaic, being in between Western Neo-Aramaic and Eastern Neo-Syriac) is generally represented by Turoyo, the language of the Tur Abdin. A related language, Mlahsö, has recently become extinct.

Related Topics:
Turoyo - Tur Abdin - Mlahsö

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The eastern Christian languages (Modern Eastern Syriac or Eastern Neo-Aramaic) are often called Sureth or Suret, from a native name. They are also sometimes called Assyrian or Chaldean, but these names are not accepted by all speakers. The dialects are not all mutually intelligible. East Syriac communities are usually either Chaldean Catholics or Assyrians.

Related Topics:
Assyrian - Chaldean - Chaldean Catholics - Assyrians

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The Jewish Modern Aramaic languages are now mostly spoken in Israel, and most are facing extinction (older speakers are not passing the language to younger generations). The Jewish dialects that have come from communities that once lived between Lake Urmia and Mosul are not all mutually intelligible. In some places, for example Urmia, Christians and Jews speak unintelligible dialects of Modern Eastern Aramaic in the same place. In others, the plain of Mosul for example, the dialects of the two faith communities are similar enough to allow conversation.

Related Topics:
Jewish Modern Aramaic languages - Israel - Lake Urmia - Mosul - Urmia

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A few Mandaeans living in the province of Khuzestan in Iran speak Modern Mandaic. It is quite distinct from any other Aramaic dialect.

Related Topics:
Khuzestan - Iran - Mandaic

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Modern Western Aramaic

:For more information see Western Neo-Aramaic.

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Very little remains of Western Aramaic. It is still spoken in the Christian village of Ma`loula in Syria and the Muslim villages of Bakh`a and Jubb`adin in Syria's Anti-Lebanon, as well as by some people who migrated from these villages to Damascus and other larger towns of Syria. All these speakers of Modern Western Aramaic are fluent in Arabic, which has now become the main language in these villages.

Related Topics:
Ma`loula - Syria - Anti-Lebanon - Damascus

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