(Ashshuwr) Asshur", "Aramaic Israelis seek to revive endangered language of Jesus", "Panammuwa and Bar-Rakib: Two Structural Analyses", "What are the Persepolis Fortification Tablets? [68] The Achaemenid Empire (539323 BC) continued this tradition, and the extensive influence of these empires led to Aramaic gradually becoming the lingua franca of most of western Asia, Anatolia, the Caucasus, and Egypt.[8][10]. Aramaic = ar. more than. The final - - in a number of these suffixes is written with the letter aleph. [57][58] Ancient Aram, bordering northern Israel and what is now called Syria, is considered the linguistic center of Aramaic, the language of the Arameans who settled the area during the Bronze Age c. 3500 BC. There are still people who use Google Translate to communicate with people in Aramaic, and it is likely that the technology will be updated in the near future to support this language. The alternative is sometimes called the "gentilic plural" for its prominent use in ethnonyms ( yhy, 'the Jews', for example). At its height, Aramaic, having gradually replaced many earlier fellow Semitic languages, was spoken in several variants all over historical territories of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, parts of southeast and south central Turkey, parts of northwest Iran and the southern Caucasus. Jeremiah 10:11. , fem. These were originally aspectual, but developed into something more like a preterite and future. The so-called "emphatic" consonants (see the next section) cause all vowels to become mid-centralised. The subject which studies Mesopotamian languages . Classical Mandaic is the language in which the Mandaeans' gnostic religious literature was composed. Conversely, Aramaic words, such as mmmn "wealth", were borrowed into Hebrew, and Hebrew words acquired additional senses from Aramaic. Where the appropriate words (in first-century Aramaic) were no longer known, he used the Aramaic of Daniel and fourth-century Syriac and Hebrew as the basis for his work.[111]. Aramaic , . "The ancient people of Assyria spoke an Assyrian dialect of the Akkadian language, a branch of the Semitic languages. Reflective, meditative take on the Lord's Prayer, translated by Neil Douglas Klotz.Transcription:O Thou! Some Nabataean Aramaic inscriptions date from the early days of the kingdom, but most datable inscriptions are from the first four centuries AD. Likewise, some Jewish Aramaic texts employ the Hebrew masculine absolute singular suffix - -m instead of - -n. Fancy Text Generator. Aramaic was the language of Jesus,[21][22][23] who spoke the Galilean dialect during his public ministry, as well as the language of several sections of the Hebrew Bible, including parts of the books of Daniel and Ezra, and also the language of the Targum, the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible. A highly modified form of the Aramaic alphabet, the Mandaic alphabet, is used by the Mandaeans.[34]. Most were mostly technical religious words, but a few were everyday words like "wood". In Modern Israel, the only native Aramaic speaking population are the Jews of Kurdistan, although the language is dying out. Google 100 - The Galilean dialect thus rose from obscurity to become the standard among Jews in the west. The loss of the initial h sound occurs similarly to that in the form above. Eastern Aramaic comprises Mandean, Assyrian, Babylonian Jewish Aramaic dialects, and Syriac (what emerged as the classical literary dialect of Syriac differs in some small details from the Syriac of the earlier pagan inscriptions from the Edessa area). It is characterized by a highly phonetic orthography. Since the following Neo-Babylonians and the Persian King of Kings continued to use it, it became the lingua franca for commerce and trade. The "Chaldean misnomer" was eventually abandoned, when modern scholarly analyses showed that Aramaic dialect used in Hebrew Bible was not related to ancient Chaldeans and their language. During the 3rd century BCE, Greek overtook Aramaic in many spheres of public communication, particularly in highly Hellenized cities throughout the Seleucid domains. The period before this, dubbed "Ancient Aramaic", saw the development of the language from being spoken in Aramaean city-states to become a major means of communication in diplomacy and trade throughout Mesopotamia, the Levant and Egypt. The Mandaeans also continue to use Mandaic Aramaic as a liturgical language, although most now speak Arabic as their first language. This 1999 book was the first to use all the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls to reconstruct original Aramaic sources from parts of Mark's Gospel. [2][3][4][5] 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. Last Update: 2021-02-07. The oldest and most complete Greek manuscripts are the Codex Sinaiticaus and the Codex Vaticanus. Of them, the best known is the Story of Ahikar, a book of instructive aphorisms quite similar in style to the biblical Book of Proverbs. Overlapping terminology, used in different periodizations, led to the creation of several polysemic terms, that are used differently among scholars. It is quite distinct from any other Aramaic variety. These inscriptions are mostly diplomatic documents between Aramaean city-states. ", "Classical Syriac, Neo-Aramaic, and Arabic in the Church of the East and the Chaldean Church between 1500 and 1800", "From Lingua Franca to Endangered Language: The Legal Aspects of the Preservation of Aramaic in Iraq", "Die Namen der aramischen Nation und Sprache", "Language Variation, Language Development, and the Textual History of the Peshitta", "The Language of Creation or the Primordial Language: A Case of Cultural Polemics in Antiquity", "Hebrew versus Aramaic as Jesus' Language: Notes on Early Opinions by Syriac Authors", "Bilingualism and Diglossia in Late Antique Syria and Mesopotamia", The Aramaic Language and Its Classification Efrem Yildiz, Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, Jewish Language Research Website: Jewish Aramaic, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aramaic&oldid=1141586719, ()\ ka ka(w)/kabbn, ()\ ka ka(y)/kabbn, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" Since the time of Jerome of Stridon (d. 420), Aramaic of the Hebrew Bible was misnamed as "Chaldean" (Chaldaic, Chaldee). By the year 300 BC, all of the main Aramaic-speaking regions came under political rule of the newly created Seleucid Empire that promoted Hellenistic culture, and favored Greek language as the main language of public life and administration. In Biblical Aramaic, the last form is virtually absent. Find more words! 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. In fact, Arameans carried their language and writing into Mesopotamia by voluntary migration, by forced exile of conquering armies, and by nomadic Chaldean invasions of Babylonia during the period from 1200 to 1000 BC.[59]. Aramaic Peshitta New Testament Translation is a new translation of the New Testament into English that is based on the Gwilliam text. Just let the students type anything in English and it will translate to Aramaic. volume_up. According to the website, "God refuses to meet us only in an intellectual way. Apr 16, 2009. Arabic Translation. Having largely lived in remote areas as insulated communities for over a millennium, the remaining speakers of modern Aramaic dialects, such as the Assyrians, and the Arameans, escaped the linguistic pressures experienced by others during the large-scale language shifts that saw the proliferation of other tongues among those who previously did not speak them, most recently the Arabization of the Middle East and North Africa by Arabs beginning with the early Muslim conquests of the seventh century.[69]. There is some evidence that Middle Babylonian dialects did not distinguish between the short a and short e. In West Syriac dialects, and possibly Middle Galilean, the long a became the o sound. Share Improve this answer Follow edited Oct 26, 2013 at 10:08 answered Oct 26, 2013 at 9:54 Halloworld3 261 1 5 In modern times, Turoyo (see below) has sometimes been written in a Latin script. Because this variant is standard in Akkadian, it is possible that its use in Aramaic represents loanwords from that language. Ahrima. [119], As the Western Aramaic languages of the Levant and Lebanon have become nearly extinct in non-liturgical usage, the most prolific speakers of Aramaic dialects in the 21st century are Sureth Eastern Neo-Aramaic speakers, the most numerous being the Northeastern Neo-Aramaic speakers of Mesopotamia. They are quite distinct from the eastern dialects and Imperial Aramaic. Apparently at this period the Aramaic Onkelos translation of the Pentateuch and Targum Jonathan of the Books of the Prophets came into being in more or less the form in which they are known today. Not all verbs use all of these conjugations, and, in some, the G-stem is not used. The kingdom (c. 200 BC 106 AD) controlled the region to the east of the Jordan River, the Negev, the Sinai Peninsula and the northern Hijaz, and supported a wide-ranging trade network. Decided to travel the world? [34] There are still also a small number of first-language speakers of Western Aramaic varieties in isolated villages in western Syria. A brief treatment of biblical translation follows. as a profession. It is written quite differently from Achaemenid Aramaic; there is an emphasis on writing as words are pronounced rather than using etymological forms. Here's how you say it. As such, the term covers over thirteen centuries of the development of Aramaic. Periodization of historical development of Aramaic language has been the subject of particular interest for scholars, who proposed several types of periodization, based on linguistic, chronological and territorial criteria. They were probably distinctive yet mutually intelligible. Dictionary. logograms), much like the symbol '&' is read as "and" in English and the original Latin et is now no longer obvious. The masculine construct plural, -, is written with yodh. In the chart below (on the root K-T-B, meaning "to write"), the first form given is the usual form in Imperial Aramaic, while the second is Classical Syriac. The program can handle all types of documents and manuscripts. EN. It is the mixing of literary Hasmonaean with the dialect of Galilee. interpreter: someone who mediates between speakers of different languages. [33], The dialects of Old Western Aramaic continued with Jewish Middle Palestinian (in Hebrew "square script"), Samaritan Aramaic (in the old Hebrew script) and Christian Palestinian (in cursive Syriac script). Aramaic script and as ideograms Aramaic vocabulary would survive as the essential characteristics of the Pahlavi scripts. Some of these letters, though, can stand for two or three different sounds (usually a stop and a fricative at the same point of articulation). This stem carries the basic lexical meaning of the verb. (dehab) gold", "Assyrians, Syrians and the Greek Language in the late Hellenistic and Roman Imperial Periods", "A Legacy of Syria: The Aramaic Language", "Aramaic as a Lingua Franca During the Persian Empire (538333 B.C.E. ; or, according to the analogy of Edessene Aram. The Onkelos translation of the Bible . Tiny Text Generator. Seven Western Aramaic varieties were spoken in the vicinity of Judea in Jesus' time. Achaemenid Aramaic is sufficiently uniform that it is often difficult to know where any particular example of the language was written. Their dialect is often then called Pagan Old Palestinian, and it was written in a cursive script somewhat similar to that used for Old Syriac. English Aramaic Dictionary database will be downloaded when the application is run first time. This translation includes explanatory footnotes marking. Hebrew Keyboard ( ) Send Translate Search. Zalgo Text. The next distinct phase of the language is called Old Judaean lasting into the second century AD. Morse Code Translator. A form of Zidqa brikha for those who have died not wearing the ritual garment. 14470, which dates to the 5th Century AD. The extensive commentary, appearing at the bottom of each page, clarifies the kabbalistic symbolism and terminology, and cites sources and parallels from biblical, rabbinic, and . Thus, an attributive adjective to an emphatic noun, as in the phrase "the good king", is written also in the emphatic state malk king[emph.] Following the tradition of mediaeval Arabic grammarians, it is more often called the Pal (also written Peal), using the form of the Semitic root P--L, meaning "to do". It's unable to do so because the company, Google inc, has yet to give it the instructions. After annexation by the Romans in 106 AD, most of Nabataea was subsumed into the province of Arabia Petraea, the Nabataeans turned to Greek for written communications, and the use of Aramaic declined. [69] However, Aramaic remains a spoken, literary, and liturgical language for local Christians and also some Jews. The influx eventually resulted in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911605 BC) adopting an Akkadian-influenced Imperial Aramaic as the lingua franca of its empire. The video takes it one step farther, translating "Kobe" to Hebrew . [81] Tatian, the author of the gospel harmony the Diatessaron came from Assyria, and perhaps wrote his work (172 AD) in East Mesopotamian rather than Syriac or Greek. Old Judean was the prominent dialect of Jerusalem and Judaea. Predicative adjectives are in the absolute state regardless of the state of their noun (a copula may or may not be written). GoLocalise takes your Aramaic content to new places. In others, the Nineveh Plains around Mosul for example, the varieties of these two ethnic communities (Assyrians and Iraqi Jews) are similar enough to allow conversation. Neo-Aramaic languages are still spoken in the 21st century as a first language by many communities of Syriac Christians, Jews (in particular, the Jews of Kurdistan), and Mandaeans of the Near East,[35][36] most numerously by Christian Syriacs (Syriac-speakers: ethnic Arameans, Assyrians and Chaldeans), and with numbers of fluent speakers ranging approximately from 1 million to 2 million, with the main languages among Assyrians being Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (590,000 speakers), Chaldean Neo-Aramaic (240,000 speakers) and Turoyo (100,000 speakers); in addition to Western Neo-Aramaic (21,700) which persists in only three villages in the Anti-Lebanon Mountains region in western Syria. . The dialects mentioned in the previous section were all descended from Achaemenid Aramaic. Adjectives agree with their nouns in number and gender but agree in state only if used attributively. [66] In Biblical scholarship, the term "Chaldean" was for many years used as a synonym of Aramaic, due to its use in the book of Daniel and subsequent interpretation by Jerome. The Giving of Garments. The Galilean Targum was not considered an authoritative work by other communities, and documentary evidence shows that its text was amended. [89] Frye reclassifies Imperial Aramaic as the lingua franca of the Achaemenid territories, suggesting then that the Achaemenid-era use of Aramaic was more pervasive than generally thought. Modern Central Neo-Aramaic, being in between Western Neo-Aramaic and Eastern Neo-Aramaic) is generally represented by Turoyo, the language of the Assyrians of Tur Abdin. English - Aramaic Key Word/Phrase List & Dictionary - prepared by James J. DeFrancisco, PhD. Periodization of Klaus Beyer (19292014):[7], Periodization of Joseph Fitzmyer (19202016):[78]. It usually has a back counterpart ("long" a, like the a in "father", [], or even tending to the vowel in "caught", []), and a front counterpart ("short" e, like the vowel in "head", []). We make every effort to ensure that each expression has definitions or information about the inflection. Aramaic preserved in the Peshitta, . [1] Translated literally, this is a blessing that means "peace be upon you." Translate.com. There are multiple ways to say "hello" in Arabic. Aramaic came to coexist with Canaanite dialects, eventually completely displacing Phoenician in the first century BC and Hebrew around the turn of the fourth century AD. Dukhrana: Syriac dictionaries, online search in the dictionaries of Costaz, Payne Smith, Jennings. This period began with the translation of the Bible into the language: the Peshitta, and the masterful prose and poetry of Ephrem the Syrian. [113][114], Jewish Middle Babylonian is the language employed by Jewish writers in Babylonia between the fourth and the eleventh century. (?, , ), Ayin (or E in some dialects), a pharyngealized, Proto-Semitic *// *// are reflected in Aramaic as */t/, */d/, whereas they became sibilants in Hebrew (the number three is , This page was last edited on 25 February 2023, at 20:22. Consensus as of 2022[update] regards the Aramaic portion of the Biblical book of Daniel (i.e., 2:4b7:28) as an example of Imperial (Official) Aramaic.[92]. However, Aramaic continued to be used, in its post-Achaemenid form, among upper and literate classes of native Aramaic-speaking communities, and also by local authorities (along with the newly introduced Greek). Last Update: 2019-02-03. The connection between Chaldean, Syriac, and Samaritan as "Aramaic" was first identified in 1679 by German theologian Johann Wilhelm Hilliger. ThePassion Translation is billed as "a new, heart-level translation that expresses God's fiery heart of love to this generation using Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic manuscripts, merging the emotion and life-changing truth of God's Word.". Luke 15:21 - The son said to him, ' Father, I have sinned against . Among the versions on . Enter Word to Search: English Search Field: English word ( default ) Word Number. [34] Syriac was also the liturgical language of several now-extinct gnostic faiths, such as Manichaeism. Other Western Aramaic languages, like Jewish Palestinian Aramaic and Samaritan Aramaic, are preserved only in liturgical and literary usage. ", "The Book of Daniel and Matters of Language: Evidences Relating to Names, Words, and the Aramaic Language", "The Edessan Milieu and the Birth of Syriac", "Variety in Early Syriac: The Context in Contemporary Aramaic", "Arameans and Aramaic in Transition Western Influences and the Roots of Aramean Christianity", "Old Aramaic and Neo-Aramaic: Some Reflections on Language History", "The Septuagint as a Source of Information on Egyptian Aramaic in the Hellenistic Period", "The Aramaic Background of the Seventy: Language, Culture and History", "Language Contact between Aramaic Dialects and Iranian", "Aramaic in the Medieval and Modern Periods", "Stammbaum or Continuum? In the Torah (Hebrew Bible), "Aram" is used as a proper name of several people including descendants of Shem,[55] Nahor,[56] and Jacob. The central phase in the development of Old Aramaic was its official use by the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-608 BC), Neo-Babylonian Empire (620-539 BC) and Achaemenid Empire (500330 BC). 999. Nldeke, 1871, p. 115: "Die Griechen haben den Namen "Aramer" nie eigentlich gekannt; ausser Posidonius (dem Strabo folgt) nennt ihn uns nur noch ein andrer Orientale, Josephus (Ant. del. Not all dialects of Aramaic give these consonants their historic values. Several modern varieties, namely the Neo-Aramaic languages, are still spoken. The major Targums, translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic, were originally composed in Hasmonaean Aramaic. Different dialects emerged in Assyria, Babylonia, the Levant and Egypt. ctrl . Since the scriptor of the Greek gospel may not have been fluent in Aramaic, or used to transliterate Aramaic with Greek characters, it may be expected that the transliterations are approximates, hence a possible : eloi/alohi confusion. These three derived stems are the Gt-stem, Hipel or Epel (also written Hithpeel or Ethpeel), the Dt-stem, Hipaal or Epaal (also written Hithpaal or Ethpaal), and the Ct-stem, Hihapal, Ettapal, Hitapal or Etapal (also written Hithhaphal, Ettaphal, Hishtaphal or Eshtaphal). The set has a . The varieties are not all mutually intelligible. It was written in script that came from the Phoenician alphabet. In some places, for example Urmia, Assyrian Christians and Jews speak mutually unintelligible varieties of Modern Eastern Aramaic in the same place. Its oldest form is Old East Jordanian, which probably comes from the region of Caesarea Philippi. This vast time span includes all Aramaic that is now effectively extinct. [28] This policy was continued by the short-lived Neo-Babylonian Empire and Medes, and all three empires became operationally bilingual in written sources, with Aramaic used alongside Akkadian. It is interesting to note that in Palestinian Aram. Early evidence for these vernacular dialects is known only through their influence on words and names in a more standard dialect. [24][25][26] It is also the language of the Jerusalem Talmud, Babylonian Talmud and Zohar. From the 11th century AD onwards, once the Babylonian Targum had become normative, the Galilean version became heavily influenced by it. In Syriac and some other variants this ending is diphthongized to -ai. [98] That label remained common in early Aramaic studies, and persisted up into the nineteenth century. Imperial (Persian) Aramaic, however, tended to follow a S-O-V pattern (similar to Akkadian), which was the result of Persian syntactic influence. The open vowel is an open near-front unrounded vowel ("short" a, somewhat like the first vowel in the English "batter", [a]). The term "Old Aramaic" is used to describe the varieties of the language from its first known use, until the point roughly marked by the rise of the Sasanian Empire (224 AD), dominating the influential, eastern dialect region. It is not to be confused with, Other dialects of the Post-Achaemenid period, Eastern dialects of the Post-Achaemenid period, Western dialects of the Post-Achaemenid period, , . noun . Aramaic classically has a set of four sibilants (ancient Aramaic may have had six): In addition to these sets, Aramaic has the nasal consonants m and n, and the approximants r (usually an alveolar trill), l, y and w. Six broad features of sound change can be seen as dialect differentials: As with other Semitic languages, Aramaic morphology (the way words are formed) is based on the consonantal root. (compare with the evil Ahriman) 1001. Its only remaining vernacular is the Western Neo-Aramaic, which is still spoken in the Aramean villages of Maaloula, al-Sarkha (Bakhah), and Jubb'adin on Syria's side of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains, as well as by some people who migrated from these villages, to Damascus and other larger towns of Syria. They have come down to us in the "cuneiform" (i.e. [74] Some Aramaic languages differ more from each other than the Romance languages do among themselves. Since the name of Syria itself emerged as a variant of Assyria,[60][61] the biblical Ashur,[62] and Akkadian Ashuru,[63] a complex set of semantic phenomena was created, becoming a subject of interest both among ancient writers and modern scholars. The Judeo-Aramaic languages are now mostly spoken in Israel, and most are facing extinction. "Ancient Aramaic" refers to the earliest known period of the language, from its origin until it becomes the lingua franca of the Fertile Crescent. Luke 15:18 - I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, " Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. The industry works towards delivering safe and efficient technologies, supplying both the need for daily transportation, as well as the passion for certain models and luxurious designs. The open e and back a are often indicated in writing by the use of the letters "alaph" (a glottal stop) or "he" (like the English h). During that century, the nature of the various Aramaic languages and dialects began to change. ywhna. 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. However, as most of those cases were expressed by short final vowels, they were never written, and the few characteristic long vowels of the masculine plural accusative and genitive are not clearly evidenced in inscriptions. en. East of the Jordan, the various dialects of East Jordanian were spoken. Possessive phrases in Aramaic can either be made with the construct state or by linking two nouns with the relative particle -[[ d[]-. Two basic diphthongs exist: an open vowel followed by y (ay), and an open vowel followed by w (aw). Compare the Mormon Temple rite of "robing" performed in "Work for the dead". ", "A Preliminary List of Aramaic Loanwords in Kurdish", "The Aramaic of Daniel in the Light of Old Aramaic, by Zdravko Stefanovic", "The Aramaic Language and the Study of the New Testament", "Imperial Aramaic as an Administrative Language of the Achaemenid Period", "Lost and Found in the Grammar of First-Millennium Aramaic", "Aramaic in the Parthian Period: The Arsacid Inscriptions", "New Light on Linguistic Diversity in Pre-Achaemenid Aramaic: Wandering Arameans or Language Spread? Some variants of Aramaic are also retained as sacred languages by certain religious communities. [108] Other examples: The 2004 film The Passion of the Christ used Aramaic for much of its dialogue, specially reconstructed by a scholar, William Fulco, S.J. Aramaic also continues to be spoken by the Assyrians of Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and northwest Iran, with diaspora communities in Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and southern Russia. The first inscriptions, called Old Assyrian (OA), were made in the Old Assyrian period. The basic form of the verb is called the ground stem, or G-stem. [40][41] In 181921 Ulrich Friedrich Kopp published his Bilder und Schriften der Vorzeit ("Images and Inscriptions of the Past"), in which he established the basis of the paleographical development of the Northwest Semitic scripts. A word meaning God. The Greek of the New Testament preserves some semiticisms, including transliterations of Semitic words. Missionary activity led to the spread of Syriac from Mesopotamia and Persia, into Central Asia, India and China. Babylonian Documentary Aramaic is a dialect in use from the 3rd century AD onwards. * Keystrokes of the Estrangelo Font character set. Search the online Aramaic Lexicon and Concordance, the dictionary of our language using English or Aramaic words including many other options. Aramaic language, Semitic language of the Northern Central, or Northwestern, group that was originally spoken by the ancient Middle Eastern people known as Aramaeans. Thus, it is better known as the Hebrew alphabet. [13] The Aramaic alphabet also became a base for the creation and adaptation of specific writing systems in some other Semitic languages, such as the Hebrew alphabet and the Arabic alphabet.[14]. [16][17] Aramaic dialects today form the mother tongues of the Assyrians and Mandaeans as well as some Syriac Arameans and Mizrahi Jews. As a liturgical language, it was used up to the 13th century. The standard vowel pointing for the Hebrew Bible, the Tiberian system (7th century), was developed by speakers of the Galilean dialect of Jewish Middle Palestinian. For full treatment, see biblical literature: Texts and versions. Ezra 4:8-6:18. Aramaic Translation ARAMAIC LANGUAGES WESTERN ARAMAIC: Very little remains of Western Aramaic. Tt malkuthach: Your Heavenly Domain approaches. The most important epigraphic sources for the dialect are the hundreds of incantation bowls written in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. Each dialect of Aramaic has its own distinctive pronunciation, and it would not be feasible here to go into all these properties. For example, means "he went astray", whereas a means "he deceived". The close back vowels often use the consonant w to indicate their quality. Aramaic is often spoken of as a single language, but is in reality a group of related languages.