Aramaic languages

All Aramaic languages ​​can be divided into two large groups: Western ( Palestine , Damascus ) and Eastern (central Syria and Mesopotamia ). The largest number of written monuments of both groups has been preserved in Jewish sources: Targums , Jerusalem Talmud (western group), Babylonian Talmud (eastern group). In addition to these large texts, there are a huge number of smaller documents of a very different genre, as well as gloss (Aramaic words interspersed in texts in other languages). The lexical units of Aramaic origin are also noticeable in the vocabulary of the modern Yiddish language (it is assumed that Jewish-Aramaic languages were the main means of communication of Jews from the first centuries AD and up to the wide distribution of Yiddish).

The first Aramaic script was based on the Phoenician . Over time, the Aramaic developed their own “square” style (the current Hebrew alphabet ). It is he who is used to record Aramaic biblical texts and other Jewish writings. On the other hand, Christians have taken root in various versions of the Syrian alphabet. A special letter ( mandaean letter ) is used by the Mandaeans to record their dialect ^[1] .

In addition, in ancient times there were groups of Aramaic-speaking with their own letter: the Nabataeans in Petra , the Palmyra in Palmyra . They try to adapt the Latin alphabet to some New Aramaic languages ​​(for example, Turoyo ).

At the turn of the II and I millennia BC. e. Aramaic was spoken in parts of modern Syria and in the surrounding areas of Iraq . The first Aramaic monuments are known from the 9th century. BC e. They are found on the territory of modern Syria.

In chronological terms, Aramaic languages ​​are divided into Old Aramaic, Middle Aramaic and New Aramaic periods. This periodization is based on intralinguistic criteria and in general follows the classification of Aramaic languages ​​proposed by the German Aramaic Klaus Bayer.

• The Old Aramaic period (XII century BC. - II century BC. E.), including:
  • imperial Aramaic (VII — III century BC )
  • biblical Aramaic of some books of the Bible .
  • Aramaic of Jesus Christ .
• The Middle Aramaic period (II century A.D. – 1200), including:
  • Syrian
  • Judeo-Aramaic
• New Aramaic period (from 1200)

The totality of Aramaic languages ​​and dialects used and used by Jews is called the Hebrew-Aramaic languages . For the Central Aramaic period, they are often called the Judeo-Aramaic.

Variants of the Aramaic language, recorded from its first monuments (9th century BC) to the heyday of the Sasanian empire (224 CE) are called the old (ancient) Aramaic . A key phase in the development of the Old Aramaic was its adoption as an official in the Achaemenid empire (500-330 BC). Sometimes distinguish between ancient (pre-Achaemenid) and old (Achaemenid and post-Achaemenid) languages. Ancient Aramaic found the increasing role of Aramaic-speaking cities for trade between Mesopotamia, the Levant and Egypt. After the fall of the Achaemenids, the local Aramaic-speaking population began to develop their own traits more and more, which led to the formation of various dialect groups and written standards.

Ancient Aramaic

In the narrow sense, “ancient Aramaic” is a language that existed before the formation of the lingua franca of the Fertile Crescent. Before its grand exaltation, Aramaic was only the language of the city-states of the Aramaeans in Syria: Damascus, Hama, Arpad (present Tel Rif'at).

The oldest inscriptions that use the Aramaic language date back to the 10th century BC. Most of these inscriptions are diplomatic documents between Aramaic city-states. Their writing is based on the Phoenician. Subsequently, various alphabets formed in the eastern regions of Aram. In addition, the influence of the Aramaic language expanded with the support of the Assyrian kingdom during the reign of Tiglath-Palasar III, who declared Aramit the international language of the empire, instead of Akkadian.

From about 700 BC, language rapidly penetrates into all spheres, but loses its uniformity. Various dialects are formed in Assyria, Babylon, Egypt and the Levant. Ultimately, the Aramaic language of Assyria and Babylonia, which was influenced by Akkadian, became the leader. It was the most important diplomatic language. As the book of Kings 2, 18:26 describes, the diplomats of Ezekiah, the king of Judah, wanted to communicate with the Assyrians in Aramaic so that the common people on the walls would not understand their speech. Around 600 BC e. Adon, king of Canaan, wrote a letter to the Egyptian pharaoh in Aramaic.

The terms "Chaldean" and "Chaldean Aramaic" are used in relation to the language of the Babylonian Chaldean dynasty. It was also used to describe the biblical Aramaic, which, however, was written in a later style. It is necessary to distinguish the modern Chaldean New Aramaic language .

Imperial Aramaic

Around 500 BC e., after the conquest of Mesopotamia by the Achaemenid Empire under Darius I, the Aramaic was adapted by the conquerors as the universal language of correspondence between the regions of the vast multinational empire. The language of this period is called the official, clerical or imperial Aramaic.

Imperial Aramaic was a standardized language, its spelling was based more on historical roots than on any of the spoken dialects. It was so unified that sometimes it is impossible to determine the origin of a single document, except for rare borrowings. The inevitable mutual influence with the ancient Persian seemed to breathe new life into it. Even centuries after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, Aramaic influence can be traced in many Iranian languages. Aramaic writing and Aramaic words (as ideograms) have become an integral part of Pahlavi writing.

One of the largest collections of texts in imperial Aramaic are Persepolis tablets, the number of which is about five hundred pieces. Many of the surviving documents attested to a form of language based on the Egyptian, for example, the Elephantine papyrus . Of these, the story of Akhiakar , similar in style to the biblical Book of Proverbs of Solomon, is known.

A group of thirty Aramaic texts from Bactria was discovered and researched; an analysis was published in November 2006. Texts written on leather capture the use of the Aramaic language in the 4th century BC. e. in the Achaemenid administrations of Bactria and Sogdia.

After the Achaemenid Aramaic

The conquests of Alexander of Macedon could not immediately destroy the unity of the Aramaic language, and by the 2nd century BC e. he remained quite close to the language of the beginning of the 5th century BC. e. Under the Seleucids, Greek pretty soon supplanted the Aramaic from general use in Egypt and part of Syria, but the Aramaic still flourishes in Judea, Assyria, Mesopotamia and in the lands beyond the Syrian desert - in northern Arabia and Parthia .

Biblical Aramaic is a language witnessed in some places of the Tanakh:

1. Ride 4: 8-6: 18.7: 12-26 - documents of the Achaemenid period relating to the maintenance of the Jerusalem temple;
2. Dan. 2: 4-7: 28 — five different narratives and an apocalyptic prophecy;
3. Jeremiah. 10:11 - one sentence among the Hebrew text condemning idols;
4. Gen. 31:47 - a separate toponym.

Biblical Aramaic in nature is a mixed dialect ( koyne ). There are theories that different parts of biblical Aramaic texts were created in Babylonia and Judea before the fall of the Achaemenids. It is believed that parts from Daniel were generated by protest among Jews under the influence of the Seleucids, and could previously exist as oral literature. This could be one of the factors that led to the difference between the texts of Daniel in the Septuagint and the Masoretic text.

The Hasmonaean Aramaic, the official language in Judea in 142-37 AD, also belongs to the post-Achaemenid language. e. This language influenced the Qumran texts , and most of the non-biblical Aramaic texts of the Qumran community are written in it. Many targums (translations of Tanakh parts into Aramit) were originally performed in this dialect. He was quite different from the imperial Aramaic, primarily his spelling - more phonetic than etymological.

The Babylonian Targumic is a late post-Achaemenid dialect in which the "official" Jewish Targums are written: Onkelos (on the Torah) and Jonathan ben Uziel (on the Prophets). The original Hasmonean Targums appeared in Babylon already in the 2nd – 3rd centuries AD. e. According to the results of their editing, in accordance with the Babylonian dialect, a standard Targumic language was created that laid the foundations of Babylonian Jewish literature for centuries.

The Galilean Targum was similar to the Babylonian. Hasmonean Targums came to Galilee in the 2nd century A.D. e. and were recycled for local use in the Galilean dialect. The Galilean targum was not authoritative enough for other communities, it was processed several times. In the end, the Babylonian Targum became standard, while the Galilean version was strongly influenced by it.

The Babylonian Aramaic writing and business, based on the Hasmonean edition with some modifications, began to be used only from the 3rd century AD. e. Initially, only personal letters and documents were written on it, and already from the 12th century all Jewish secular documents were already written on it.

The Nabataean dialect (or language) was used in the Nabataean kingdom (Petra district, 200 BC - 106 AD), occupying the western coast of the Jordan, Sinai and part of Northern Arabia. It is believed that the Nabataeans abandoned one of the ancient Northern Arabic languages ​​in favor of Aramaic (possibly for economic reasons). It was based on the Achaemenid version, but it was also influenced by the ancient Arabian languages ​​and the Arabic proper, which assimilated it by the 4th century. The Nabataeans used their own variety of Semitic writing, which later became the basis of Arabica .

Palmyra Aramaic was used in the city-state of Palmyra from 44 BC. e. until 274 g. e. The Palmyra roundish letter was a prototype of the Extrangelo letter. The Palmyra dialect underwent Arab influence to a lesser extent than the Nabatean one.

Arshakid Aramaic, used in the Parthian kingdom (247 BC - 224 AD), was a continuation of imperial Aramaic, widespread in the west of the empire. The Aramaic letter served as the basis for the Pahlavi, the letters of the Parthians: they used heterograms , that is, they wrote words in Aramaic, and read in Parthian. Arshakids considered themselves the successors of the Achaemenids, therefore the Arshakid Aramaic was called to continue the clerical tradition, laid down by Darius I. After a while, this language was replaced by other rapidly developing languages: spoken Aramaic, Georgian , Persian . Even after the overthrow of the Parthian Arshakid dynasty by the Persian-speaking Sassanids, the Arshakid Pahlavi and Aramaic still influenced the linguistic situation in Iran.

In the second century n e. new literary Central Aramaic languages ​​appear, based on the spoken Aramaic languages ​​contemporary to them. Their heyday falls on the 1st millennium, and the decline was associated with the Arab conquest and the widespread displacement of Aramaic languages ​​by Arabic in the 7th-9th centuries. During this period, the division of Aramaic languages ​​into the Western and Eastern groups is clearly traced, which arose even in the Old Aramaic period.

The most famous eastern Aramaic languages ​​spoken in northeastern Syria and Mesopotamia :

• classic syriac
• Babylonian Judeo-Aramaic - the language of the Babylonian Talmud and the Babylonian Targums ;
• Classical Mandian language is the spoken and liturgical language of the Mandan community .

In the Levant at this time, Western Aramaic languages ​​were used:

• Jewish Aramaic - the language of the Talmud , Midrash and Targums of the Early Byzantine era;
• Christian Aramaic - translations of Christian literature from Greek in the early Byzantine period;
• Samaritan Aramaic is the language of religious literature of the Samaritan community.

All Central Armenian languages ​​used an alphabet of 22 characters. The Syriac and Mandean had special types of graphics, the Babylonian Jewish Aramaic used the so-called. square font , arising from Old Aramaic italics. Christian Palestinian Aramaic used Syriac writing , Samaritan Palestinian Aramaic written in Paleo-Jewish italics.

With the invasion of the Arabs , the sunset of Aramaic begins. Nevertheless, throughout the Middle Ages Aramaic was in use in many places on the territory of Syria , Iraq , Lebanon .

It should also be noted that throughout the Middle Ages and until today, the Jewish dialect of the Aramaic language continued and continues to be created by extensive rabbinical literature. In particular, a significant part of the halachic works are traditionally created in this language. Since such literature is intended for a relatively narrow circle of people who have received the appropriate education, the social status of the Aramaic language in Orthodox Jewish communities is quite high.

In the New Aramaic period, the division of Aramaic languages ​​into Western and Eastern groups remains.

The Western group is represented in only one language.

• Western New Aramaic is spoken among Christians and Muslims in three villages in Syria , north of Damascus , each of which has its own dialect: Maalula , Baha and Jubbadin. About 1-2 thousand carriers have been preserved.

The eastern group is represented by a large number of New Aramaic languages, spread by the beginning of the 20th century within the Ottoman Empire and Iran, mainly among speakers of Kurdish languages : in the southeast of modern Turkey, in northern Iraq , in northwestern Iran and northeast Syria. Separate islands of immigrants were represented far beyond the borders of Kurdistan, in particular in Armenia , Georgia, Khuzistan and southern Iraq. Speakers of Eastern New Aramaic languages ​​in a confessional respect differ from the majority of the surrounding population in that they belong to the religious minorities of the Middle East: Christians, Jews and Mandeans. During the XX centuries. most of the speakers of eastern New Aramaic languages ​​were either destroyed or forced to emigrate, primarily to Europe (Sweden, Germany), the USA and Russia (incl. Transcaucasia ). The number of speakers of the New Aramaic languages ​​by the end of the 20th century was, according to some estimates, about 400 thousand people. The total number of eastern New Aramaic languages ​​is unknown. They are divided into three subgroups:

• the Turovo language and the Mlahso dialect close to it are in southeastern Turkey (the mountain region of Tur Abdin in the province of Mardin ), spoken by about 70 thousand people (most of the speakers live outside of Tur Abdin, as in the Middle East, so in Europe and America);
• New Mandarin is the spoken language of the Mandeans ; several dozens of carriers remained in the city of Ahvaz ( Iranian Khuzistan ), previously also in southern Iraq;
• northeastern New Aramaic languages - include dozens of languages, between the speakers of which there is often a lack of understanding; the number of these languages ​​during the XX century. decreased due to genocide and mass migrations of their carriers outside the region. In one of these languages ​​- Urmian New Aramaic - in the XIX century. the so-called (modern) Assyrian or “New Syrian” literary language was created using the vocabulary of the classical Syriac language. It has become a literary language for speakers of many East Aramaic languages. It uses Syrian graphics .

A serious problem of Aramaic is that quite a lot of Aramaic texts have come down to us, but they are all quite short. Short texts make it possible to identify the language, to study its phonetics and, to a lesser extent, morphology , but they are unproductive in the study of syntax and vocabulary. Really vast and rich literature is represented either by Judeo-Aramaic (about half of the books of Daniel and the books of Ezra from the Old Testament , both Talmuds , and they are written in different dialects, the Zohar book , the writing time of which is often attributed to a much later era, targums and mass Gallagic rabbinical literature, which continues to replenish), or Syriac (translations of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible , a large number of Christian literature, historical chronicles, poetry) languages.

• Mel Gibson 's film “The Passion of Christ ” is staged in Aramaic and Latin .

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