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Language Lineage

Aramaic

Proto-Semitic *ð merged with d: Aramaic dəhav 'gold' beside Hebrew zāhāv and Arabic ḏahab.

c. 10th century BCE – presentSyria and Mesopotamia, then the whole Near East from Egypt to Afghanistan; today scattered communities in Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran and in diaspora
On this page
  1. Origins
  2. A Script for Half of Asia
  3. Syriac and Neo-Aramaic
  4. In its own words
  5. Where it's spoken
  6. Turning points

01

Origins

Aramaic first appears in inscriptions of the small Aramean kingdoms of Syria in the 10th–9th centuries BCE. It then became something much larger. The Assyrian empire deported and resettled Aramaic speakers across its territory, and Aramaic spread as the everyday language of the empire. The Babylonians and then the Achaemenid Persians used it as their administrative language from Egypt to India. Parts of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra are in Aramaic, and it was the everyday language of Judea in the time of Jesus.

Aramaic merged some Proto-Semitic consonants differently from Hebrew: *ð became d, so 'gold' is dəhav against Hebrew zāhāv.

02

A Script for Half of Asia

The Aramaic alphabet had even wider descendants than the language. Jews adopted it for Hebrew, and the 'square' Hebrew letters are Aramaic in origin. The Nabataeans developed a cursive form of it that became the Arabic script. Syriac, Mandaic and Palmyrene scripts are Aramaic, and so are the Kharosthi script of northwest India and the Sogdian script of Central Asia. Sogdian in turn gave rise to the Old Uyghur script on the Turkic tree, and through it to Mongolian and Manchu writing.

03

Syriac and Neo-Aramaic

The Aramaic of Edessa, Syriac, became the literary language of Christianity in the east from the 2nd century CE. Its missionaries took it to India and China: a bilingual Chinese–Syriac stele was set up in Xi'an in 781. After the Arab conquests, Arabic gradually replaced Aramaic as the spoken language of the region. The Neo-Aramaic languages of today survived in mountain villages and among Christian, Jewish and Mandaean minorities.

The 20th and 21st centuries have been devastating: massacres during the First World War, and war and emigration from Iraq and Syria, have scattered the remaining speakers. Western Neo-Aramaic survives in Maaloula and two neighbouring villages near Damascus.

A sample

In its own words

Classical Syriac

ܐܒܘܢ ܕܒܫܡܝܐ ܢܬܩܕܫ ܫܡܟ
ʾaḇūn
father-our
dḇašmayyā
who-in-heaven
neṯqaddaš
be.hallowed
šmāḵ
name-your
‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name (Matthew 6:9 in the Peshitta)’
Sources (1)
  • Matthew 6:9, the Peshitta (Syriac Bible).

On the map

Where it’s spoken

Spoken todayShading marks whole countries, not the regions within them.
  1. Germany
  2. Iran
  3. Iraq
  4. Sweden
  5. Syria
  6. Turkey
  7. United States

Figures are rough first-language estimates, rounded, from censuses and Ethnologue. Counts for small or scattered communities are especially uncertain.

Rings along the limb

Turning points

Oldest first.

  1. Sound lawBefore the earliest inscriptions

    *ð merges with d

    *ð → d (dəhav 'gold'; Hebrew zāhāv, Arabic ḏahab)

    Proto-Semitic *ð merges with d: Aramaic dəhav 'gold' against Hebrew zāhāv and Arabic ḏahab. The earliest inscriptions write it with the letter for z, which suggests the merger came after the script was borrowed.

    Compare with other mergers across families →

    Sources (1)
    • Gzella, Holger. 2015. A Cultural History of Aramaic. Leiden: Brill.
  2. Contact8th – 4th century BCE

    Language of empires

    Assyria, then Babylon, then Achaemenid Persia use Aramaic as the everyday and administrative language of their empires. It replaces Akkadian and is written from Egypt to Afghanistan.

    Sources (1)
    • Gzella, Holger. 2015. A Cultural History of Aramaic. Leiden: Brill.
  3. Sound lawc. mid-1st millennium BCEContested

    Spirantisation of b g d k p t

    b g d k p t → v ɣ ð x f θ / V_

    After vowels, the stops b g d k p t become fricatives v ɣ ð x f θ. The change spreads to Hebrew, and the Tiberian vowel signs record it in the Hebrew Bible. Its date and whether it began in Aramaic are debated.

    Compare with other weakening and voicing across families →

    Sources (2)
    • Gzella, Holger. 2015. A Cultural History of Aramaic. Leiden: Brill.
    • Sáenz-Badillos, Angel. 1993. A History of the Hebrew Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  4. Writing1st millennium BCE – 1st millennium CE

    The Aramaic script family

    The Aramaic alphabet becomes the parent of the Hebrew square script, Nabataean (and so Arabic), Syriac, Mandaic and Sogdian. Through Sogdian it leads to the Old Uyghur, Mongolian and Manchu scripts.

    Sources (1)
    • Gzella, Holger. 2015. A Cultural History of Aramaic. Leiden: Brill.
  5. Contact2nd – 8th century CE

    Syriac Christianity travels east

    Syriac becomes the literary language of the churches of the east, and its missionaries reach India, Central Asia and China. The Xi'an stele of 781 is inscribed in Chinese and Syriac.

    Sources (1)
    • Gzella, Holger. 2015. A Cultural History of Aramaic. Leiden: Brill.
  6. Contact7th century CE onward

    Arabic replaces Aramaic

    After the Arab conquests, Arabic becomes the everyday language of Syria and Mesopotamia over several centuries. Aramaic survives mainly in villages and in liturgy.

    Sources (1)
    • Gzella, Holger. 2015. A Cultural History of Aramaic. Leiden: Brill.
  7. Contact20th – 21st century

    Massacre, war and diaspora

    Massacres during the First World War and later wars in Iraq and Syria scatter the Neo-Aramaic-speaking communities, and many now live in diaspora in Europe, North America and Australia. Several Neo-Aramaic varieties have only elderly speakers.

    Sources (1)
    • Weninger, Stefan, ed. 2011. The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.