What's up with Aramaic?

Aberdeen American News ^ | Feb. 04 | Cary Darling

[Barnacle]

I heard that 70% of English is Latin based. That number strikes me as a little high, because English descends to a a great extent from German.

But, it was interesting that as I watched the movie last night, there were parts in Latin that I knew basically what they were saying without the subtitles.

[nutmeg]

ping

[Doctor Stochastic]

I heard that 70% of English is Latin based. That number strikes me as a little high, because English descends to a a great extent from German.

It depends on how you count things. If you count from the dictionary (each word counted once) then Latin (actually mostly French) words make up about 70% of English vocabulary. If you count words as they are used, (each word counted however many times it occurs), then English is mostly Germanic. All the forms of, for example, "be" and "have" come from Germanic; this skews things greatly.

[Inyo-Mono]

American English found it hard to stand up to Mexican Spanish, Arabic, and Farsi as it spread through the regions where American speakers lived. Today, massive immigration to the West is further depleting the number of speakers.

[SkyPilot]

Why is it disappearing? Aramaic found it hard to stand up to Arabic,

When Islam was spread by the sword, Muhammad and his orcs forced his dialect of Arabic and outlawed Aramaic.

[hunter112]

Thank you Mel Gibson.

I'll give Gibson this: All I've seen of the movie is the short excerpt they showed when he was on Jay Leno the other night, but it did seem to lend a great feeling of authenticity to it. I'm always for what makes me forget that I'm in a movie theater when watching a film.

[bethelgrad]

"Muhammad and his orcs"


I could not have put it any better! Is Mecca Mordor?

[HiTech RedNeck]

22:28 seems to fit better: "For the kingdom is the L*RD's, And He rules over the nations" (NASB)

[Rytwyng]

Muhammad and his orcs...

I could not have put it any better! Is Mecca Mordor?

According to "Gimli", yes: Rhys-Davies on Islam (and several similar threads).

[JosephW]

Mohammad and his orcs!

It's been several minutes now and I'm still laughing out loud. I'm just glad I'm alone or people would think I'm crazy.

[JosephW]

Requesting permission to borrow that phrase freely.

[witnesstothefall]

Great article bump.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Latin is the root language of English. A study of Latin will help in the study and comprehension of English, a very difficult language to master.

Regards,

[katana]

Just saw the movie last night with my wife (still overwhelmed, by the way). I took a couple years of Latin in high school and minored in Arabic in college. I wasn't surprised at how much of the Latin I could understand (it sounded a lot like modern Italian) but the Aramaic was very similar to Arabic and therefore probably quite understandable to anybody familiar with that or Hebrew. The "K" sounds at the end of verbs indicating second person (you), "NA" indicating third person plural, "ABBA" meaning "father" (Abu in Arabic), etc. The time it became interesting was when the Chief Priest allowed (as scripture states) that Jesus' blood would be on his and his descendent's hands. That line sealed the deal with Pilate. It was spoken but didn't appear in the subtitles, for what I think are obvious reasons.

[katana]

Latin is the root of many English words (as are Greek, Gaelic, German, Norse, etc.) but the basic grammar and structure owes much more to the Germanic line. The "Romance" languages (French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese) are the direct descendents of Latin. You can partly blame (or credit) William the Conquerer and his band of French speaking Normans (Viking stock, to make it all even more confusing) for the stew of a language we speak today.

[SkyPilot]

Borrow away!

[StriperSniper]

Ping

[Map Kernow]

Every Rabbinical student learns at least some of it-- the Talmud is written in Aramaic, after all. Through studying Talmud, I probably learned a couple words-- though I've forgotten it by now.

Well, if you know the "Kaddish," you still know some Aramaic. ;)

Note however that historically there were different dialects of Aramaic, with the principal division between Eastern and Western Aramaic. The Aramaic of the Talmud is what is referred to as the "Babylonian Jewish" dialect, and was an Eastern dialect. The dialect Jesus and the early Christians spoke (and the dialect of the Midrash) is called "Galilean," and was a Western dialect.

I don't mean to make too much of the differences, but they did exist.

[Map Kernow]

Is it, maybe, "Glory to God in the heavens and on earth peace to men"?

In the Syriac Peshitta, that one goes (approximately, since I don't have the right fonts):

"Teshbohtah l'Alahah b'marawmah, wa-'al ar'ah shlamah wa-sabrah tabah l'bnay nashah!"