Aramaic

Aramaic (; ; ; ; Western Neo-Aramaic ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria, and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the Southern Levant and eastern Anatolia where it has been continually written and spoken, in different varieties, for over three thousand years, today largely by Assyrians, Mandeans and Mizrahi Jews. Aramaic served as a language of public life and administration of ancient kingdoms and empires, and also as a language of divine worship and religious study. Several modern varieties, the Neo-Aramaic languages, are still spoken by Assyrians (whose dialects are influenced by Akkadian), and Mandeans and Mizrahi Jews and is used as the liturgical language of a number of West Asian churches. Aramaic belongs to the Northwest group of the Semitic language family, which also includes the mutually intelligable Canaanite languages such as Hebrew, Edomite, Moabite, Ekronite, Sutean and Phoenician, as well as Amorite and Ugaritic. Aramaic languages are written in the Aramaic alphabet, a descendant of the Phoenician alphabet, and the most prominent alphabet variant is the Syriac alphabet. The Aramaic alphabet also became a base for the creation and adaptation of specific writing systems in some other Semitic languages of West Asia, such as the Hebrew alphabet and the Arabic alphabet. The Aramaic languages are now considered endangered, since several varieties are used mainly by the older generations. Researchers are working to record and analyze all of the remaining varieties of Neo-Aramaic languages before they or in case they become extinct. Aramaic dialects today form the mother tongues of the Assyrians and Mandaeans, as well as some Mizrahi Jews.