Aramaic (Classical Syriac: ܐܪܡܝܐ Arāmāyā; Old Aramaic ????????????????????; Imperial Aramaic ????????????????????; Jewish Babylonian Aramaic אַרָמָיָא) is a Semitic language that originated among the Arameans in the ancient

During the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires, Arameans, the native speakers of Aramaic, began to settle in greater numbers, at first in

Aramaic's long history and diverse and widespread use has led to the development of many divergent varieties, which are sometimes considered dialects, though they have become

Historically and originally, Aramaic was the language of the Arameans, a Semitic-speaking people of the region between the northern

In historical sources, Aramaic language is designated by two distinctive groups of terms, first of them represented by endonymic (native) names, and the other one represented by variou

Periodization of historical development of Aramaic language has been the subject of particular interest for scholars, who proposed several types of periodization, based on linguistic, chronological and territorial criteria. Overlapping terminology, used in different

The 3rd century AD is taken as the threshold between Old and Middle Aramaic. During that century, the nature of the various Aramaic languages and dialects began to change. The descendants of Imperial Aramaic ceased to be living languages, and