

Aramaic: Does anyone still speak it?

Discussion in 'Other Languages' started by JLanguage, May 30, 2005.

  1. JLanguage Senior Member

    Georgia, US
    USA: American English, Learning Hebrew and Spanish
    I know that Aramaic is still used as a religious language in Judaism and by some Middle-Eastern Christians. But is it still spoken anywhere?

  2. Outsider Senior Member

    Portuguese (Portugal)
    Aramaic survives as a spoken language in small communities in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Iran.

    The Aramaic language

    Over four hundred thousand people speak Aramaic to this day. They are Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Mandaeans, living in remote areas and preserving their traditions with printing presses, and now electronic media. The Modern Aramaic (or Neo-Aramaic) languages are now farther apart in their comprehension of one another than perhaps they have ever been. The last two-hundred years have not been good to Aramaic speakers. Instability throughout the Middle East has lead to a worldwide diaspora of Aramaic speakers.

  3. Apus Senior Member

    Confederatio Helvetica French
    Aramaic is still spoken in the village of Maloula (population c. 1500) an hour's drive north of Damascus. Everyone in Maloula is now bilingual in Arabic and Aramaic. Source: Time magazine, December 25, 1972.

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