Aramaic

Aramaic is a semitic language. It is spoken today in a number of villages in the Middle East, and some distributed, often exiled, or alternatively isolated, communities.

• In the version often called Syriac, it is the liturgical language of much of eastern orthodox Christianity.
• It is the language believed to have been spoken by Jesus of Nazareth as he grew up. Aramaic appears to have been the common language of Judaea, including Galilee, the area where he grew to manhood. Hebrew remained the language of the Bible, and Jesus probably spoke that as well. These two Semitic languages influenced each other.