什麼是阿拉米語

閃米特中北部語支或西北語支語言，原來是古代阿拉米人所使用。最早的阿拉米文字是用腓尼基字母拼寫的，在黎凡特（Levant）北部發現，年代可追溯至西元前850～西元前600年，西元前600～西元前200年阿拉米語大爲擴張，發展成一種標準形式，稱帝國阿拉米語。後來幾個世紀變成一種語言典型，稱「標準文學阿拉米語」。後（古典）阿拉米語（約西元200～1200年）有豐富的文獻資料，包含古敘利亞語和曼達語（參閱Mandaenism）在內。隨伊斯蘭教的興起，阿拉伯語迅速在西南亞一帶取代阿拉米語的地位。現代（新）阿拉米語包含西新阿拉米語和東新阿拉米語，前者通行於大馬士革東北部的三個村落，後者通行於土耳其東南部、伊拉克北部和伊朗西北部散居的猶太人和基督徒聚落，居住在阿拉伯河的現代曼達派人也使用東新阿拉米語。約自1900年以來遭到迫害後，大部分操東新阿拉米語的人（約有數十萬人）分散到全世界各個角落。

Aramaic language

NW Semitic language, originally spoken by the ancient Aramaeans. The earliest Aramaic texts are inscriptions in an alphabet of Phoenician origin found in the northern Levant dating from c. 850-600 BC. The period 600-200 BC saw a dramatic expansion of Aramaic, leading to the development of a standard form known as Imperial Aramaic. In later centuries, as “Standard Literary Aramaic,” it became a linguistic model. Late (or Classical) Aramaic (c. AD 200-1200) has an abundant literature, both in Syriac and in Mandaic (see Mandaeanism). With the rise of Islam, Arabic rapidly supplanted Aramaic as a vernacular in South Asia. Modern Aramaic (Neo-Aramaic) comprises West Neo-Aramaic, spoken in three villages northeast of Damascus, and East Neo-Aramaic, a group of languages spoken in scattered settlements of Jews and Christians in southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq and northwestern Iran, and by modern Mandaeans in the Shatt al Arab. Since c. 1900 persecution has forced most contemporary East Neo-Aramaic-speakers, who number several hundred thousand, into diaspora communities dispersed around the world.