Posted on 10/01/2011 3:31:36 PM PDT by marshmallow
Two television channels have been involved in initiatives to bring to life, once again, the language that Jesus and his contemporaries spoke. Today, it is spoken by 400 thousand people throughout the world
Two Israeli television channels are trying to see to it that Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus and his contemporaries in that region of the Roman Empire, will once again become a living language and not just be an almost extinct curiosity for scholars of Semitic languages to study. “Suroyo TV” and “Suryoyo TV” offer an endless supply of material for online discussion by fans so they can decide which is best. Among nouns that have the same meaning, there are variations of the term “Syriac” in Aramaic. The aficionados live in the Haifa zone, in Upper Galilee. There are probably others, but living in Syria, in the mountains south of Damascus, and in the small city of Maalula. It seems, however, that it is quite difficult for the latter to connect to the two Israeli channels.
These two channels are nevertheless still valuable: they prove that Aramaic is still living and breathing as a language, according to the inhabitants of Jish, one of the villages in the area. Aramaic is a Semitic language that is very close to Hebrew, and was once spread over the Fertile Crescent, the wide strip of Middle Eastern land that had its center between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but whose cultural and linguistic borders stretch all the way to the Mediterranean. Over the centuries, the use of Aramaic gradually dried up and was replaced by the Arab language of conquerors who came up from the south; and today it is the language of choice for Christians in the Middle East, particularly when in terms of liturgical use. It is even studied.......
(Excerpt) Read more at vaticaninsider.lastampa.it ...
bump.
Actually, East Syriac or Assyrian, is a different, but closely related language. Aramaic and Assyrian are closely related enough that speakers of each can understand the other (rather like Russian and Ukrainian). But Aramaic proper is only spoken in the region near Maalula in Syria.
And you, of course know that what is called the Hebrew alphabet, i.e., the Hebrew letters, are actually Aramaic. The language is most often Hebrew, but the alphabet is Aramaic.
Well, the characters are called Ashurit - Assyrian, and they are different from the older script called Ivrit - Hebrew (Paleo-Hebrew). The Assyrian would be a form of Aramaic.
There are many scholarly discussions, secular and religious (including the Talmud), about the relationship between the two scripts.
I ditto that. The Scriptures have never been more alive to me than when I began studying them in Aramaic & paleo Hebrew.
Zephaniah 3:9 ~ “ For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, That they all may call on the name of the LORD, To serve Him with one accord.
I am very confident it the same languages WILL LAST forever. Plus just your opinion.
AMEN to that!
Yep...I had a feeling that you would know that; I was surprised that no one had mentioned it on this thread, so I thought I would bring it up.
I do see signs of the world going to one language and I think it’ll be Hebrew just as it was before Migdal Bavel.
All I have to say is mene mene tekel upharsin. So there.
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