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Aramaic

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2008 | Copyright

Aramaic , language belonging to the West Semitic subdivision of the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic family of languages (see Afroasiatic languages ). At some point during the second millenium BC, the Aramaeans abandoned their desert existence and settled in Syria, bringing their language, Aramaic, with them. By the beginning of the 7th cent. BC, Aramaic had spread throughout the Fertile Crescent as a lingua franca. Still later the Persians made Aramaic one of the official languages of their empire.

After the Jews were defeated by the Babylonians in 586 BC, they began to speak Aramaic instead of Hebrew, although they retained Hebrew as the sacred language of their religion. Although Aramaic was displaced officially in the Middle East by Greek after the coming of Alexander the Great, it held its own under Greek domination and subsequent Roman rule. Aramaic was also the language of Jesus. Following the rise of Islam in the 7th cent. AD, however, Aramaic began to yield to Arabic, by which eventually it was virtually replaced.

In the course of its long history the Aramaic language broke up into a number of dialects, one of the most important of which was Syriac . Parts of the books of Ezra and Daniel in the Bible were written in an Aramaic dialect, as were some notable Jewish prayers, such as the kaddish. Other important documents in Aramaic include portions of the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds and the Targum Onkelos , a commentary on the Pentateuch. Nabataean (the form of Aramaic current among the Nabataean Arabs), Samaritan, and Palmyrene were other significant ancient dialects of Aramaic. Modern forms of the language (including Syriac) are still spoken today, though not by more than a few hundred thousand people scattered in the Near and Middle East.

Grammatically, Aramaic is very close to Hebrew . The Aramaic alphabet is a North Semitic script that is first attested in the 9th cent. BC After c.500 BC its use became widespread in the Middle East. Descended from the Aramaic alphabet are the Square Hebrew alphabet, which is the ancestor of modern Hebrew writing; the Nabataean, Palmyrene, and Syriac scripts; and the Arabic alphabet, among others. It is believed that the alphabetic writing systems of India and Southeast Asia also have the Aramaic script as their source.

Bibliography: See F. Rosenthal, ed., An Aramaic Handbook (4 vol., 1967).

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Aramaic

A Dictionary of the Bible | 1997 | | Copyright

Aramaic A language closely related to Hebrew and widely spoken in various dialects in Palestine from the 8th cent. BCE up to and after the NT period, and is the liturgical language of a diminishing Christian group in modern Iraq. It was the language of diplomacy in 701 BCE (2 Kgs. 18: 26) but its use gradually spread right through the population, as did Latin in Italy in the Roman Empire. Several words appear in Aramaic in the gospels (‘Abba’, Mark 14: 36; ‘talitha cumi’, Mark 5: 41; ‘golgotha’, Mark 15: 22) and it is likely that Jesus himself spoke Aramaic. The Aramaic bar- for ‘son of’ replaced the Hebrew ben-. A few sections of the OT, notably part of Daniel, were written in Aramaic, and there were translations and interpretations of the Hebrew OT in Aramaic for use in synagogues, called targums.

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W. R. F. BROWNING. "Aramaic." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

W. R. F. BROWNING. "Aramaic." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O94-Aramaic.html

W. R. F. BROWNING. "Aramaic." A Dictionary of the Bible. 1997. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O94-Aramaic.html

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Aramaic

World Encyclopedia | 2005 | Copyright

Aramaic Ancient Semitic language used as a means of everyday communication in Palestine and other parts of the Middle East at the time of Christ. Originally the language of nomadic groups who established small states in Mesopotamia during the late 2nd millennium bc, it became the common spoken and written language of the Middle East under the Persian Empire until replaced by Arabic. Parts of the Old Testament were originally written in Aramaic, and it was the language that Jesus spoke. Minor dialects still persist today in small Christian communities of the Near and Middle East.

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Aramaic

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church | 2000 | | Copyright

Aramaic. The Semitic language which was the vernacular in Palestine in the time of Christ and which He almost certainly used. In later OT times it increasingly ousted Hebrew as the spoken language of Palestine, and a few sections of the OT are written in it. By NT times Aramaic paraphrases of Scripture (Targums) were issued to satisfy the needs of the people. Many passages in the NT reflect Aramaic modes of thought and occasionally Aramaic words are preserved (e.g. Mk. 5: 41).

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E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Aramaic." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Aramaic." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-Aramaic.html

E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Aramaic." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-Aramaic.html

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Aramaic

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable | 2006 | | Copyright

Aramaic a branch of the Semitic family of languages, especially the language of Syria used as a lingua franca in the Near East from the 6th century bc, later dividing into varieties one of which included Syriac and Mandaean. It replaced Hebrew locally as the language of the Jews, and though displaced by Arabic in the 7th century ad, it still has about 200,000 speakers in scattered communities.

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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Aramaic." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Aramaic." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Aramaic.html

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Aramaic

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | Copyright

Ar·a·ma·ic / ˌarəˈmāik/ • n. a Semitic language that was used as a lingua franca in the Near East from the 6th century bc. It replaced Hebrew as the language of the Jews and was itself supplanted by Arabic in the 7th century ad. • adj. of or in this language.

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Aramaic

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions | 1997 | | Copyright

Aramaic. A Semitic language written generally in Hebrew script. Ancient (from 700 BCE) inscriptions have been found as far afield as Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and the Caucasus. In the later period of the second Temple, the Pentateuch was translated into Aramaic (these translations are known as targumim (targums)).

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JOHN BOWKER. "Aramaic." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

JOHN BOWKER. "Aramaic." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-Aramaic.html

JOHN BOWKER. "Aramaic." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-Aramaic.html

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Aramaic

Aramaic •artic, brick, chick, click, crick, dick, flick, hand-pick, hic, hick, kick, lick, mick, miskick, nick, pic, pick, prick, quick, rick, shtick, sic, sick, slick, snick, spic, stick, thick, tic, tick, trick, Vic, wick •alcaic, algebraic, Aramaic, archaic, choleraic, Cyrenaic, deltaic, formulaic, Hebraic, Judaic, Mishnaic, Mithraic, mosaic, Pharisaic, prosaic, Ptolemaic, Romaic, spondaic, stanzaic, trochaic •logorrhoeic (US logorrheic), mythopoeic, onomatopoeic •echoic, heroic, Mesozoic, Palaeozoic (US Paleozoic), Stoic •Bewick •disyllabic, monosyllabic, polysyllabic, syllabic •choriambic, dithyrambic, iambic •alembic •amoebic (US amebic) •aerobic, agoraphobic, claustrophobic, homophobic, hydrophobic, phobic, technophobic, xenophobic •cherubic, cubic, pubic •Arabic, Mozarabic •acerbic • apparatchik • dabchick •peachick

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"Aramaic." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Aramaic." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-Aramaic.html

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