Aramaic translations for your company

The Aramaic language is a northwest Semitic language that belongs to the Afroasiatic language family. It is closely related to Hebrew and Arabic, has borrowed countless words from Persian and Greek and is considered to be the Semitic language with the least number of vowels. Aramaic is a historical language first and foremost, its significance stemming principally from its history. Today, so-called Neo-Aramaic or Modern Aramaic is only a spoken vernacular – predominantly by Christians – in Syria as well as scattered throughout parts of Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey. The number of speakers is estimated to be around 300,000.

Written Aramaic dates back to the second millennium BC and is the third oldest surviving spoken language in the world behind Chinese and Greek. Beginning in 1000 BC, it displaced the languages of Babylon, Assyria, Syria and Palestine, spreading across the entire Orient and emerging as the lingua franca of the Middle East. It was the administrative and official language in the Persian Empire, while in Palestine it superseded Hebrew as the spoken language of the Jews. The Aramaic script, which was derived from the Phoenician consonantal writing system, was used from Asia Minor to India – parts of the Christian Bible and of rabbinic literature were written in Aramaic. The Aramaic colloquial language was displaced in the 7th century AD as the use of Arabic became more widespread. As the language of Christian communities in remote regions, it has been preserved in various dialects.

Aramaic language, writing and culture are subjects of research both in the study of Middle Eastern linguistics as well as in various disciplines of historical and cultural studies.

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