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Aramaic

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(ârӘmā'ĭk), language belonging to the West Semitic subdivision of the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic family of languages (see Afroasiatic languages ). At some point during the second millenium B.C. , the Aramaeans abandoned their desert existence and settled in Syria, bringing their language, Aramaic, with them. By the beginning of the 7th cent. B.C. , Aramaic had spread throughout the Fertile Crescent as a lingua franca. Still later the Persians made Aramaic one of the official languages of their empire. After the Jews were defeated by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. , they began to speak Aramaic instead of Hebrew, although they retained Hebrew as the sacred language of their religion. Although Aramaic was displaced officially in the Middle East by Greek after the coming of Alexander the Great, it held its own under Greek domination and subsequent Roman rule. Aramaic was also the language of Jesus. Following the rise of Islam in the 7th cent. A.D. , however, Aramaic began to yield…
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Full text Article Aramaic

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
(ârӘmā'ĭk), language belonging to the West Semitic subdivision of the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic family of languages (see Afroasiatic languages ). At some point during the second millenium B.C. , the Aramaeans abandoned their desert existence and settled in Syria, bringing their language, …
| 396 words
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Full text Article Alphabet, Aramaic

From Encyclopedia of World Trade: From Ancient Times to the Present Full text Article A-Z Entries
An alphabet belonging to the northwest Semitic subdivision of the Semitic subfamily of the Hamito-Semitic family of languages. The Aramaic language developed from the Aramaeans who wandered the deserts of Syria and the Middle East before the seventh century B.C.E. After this nomadic tribe settled, …
| 289 words
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Full text Article Aramaic language

From Encyclopedia of World Religions: Encyclopedia of Judaism
Aramaic was a widely spoken language in the Middle East for 2,000 years before and after the start of the Common Era; it was the primary language of Jews during the early rabbinic period (70 CE –640 CE ). The Gemara, the largest component of the Talmud and the major source of Jewish rabbinic law, …
| 363 words
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Full text Article Aramaic language

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Semitic language originally spoken by the ancient Aramaean s. The earliest Aramaic texts are inscriptions in an alphabet of Phoenician origin found in the northern Levant dating from c. 850 to 600 bc . The period 600–200 bc saw a dramatic expansion of Aramaic, leading to the development of a…
| 182 words
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Full text Article Aramaic

From Essential Bible Dictionary
A Semitic language closely related to Hebrew . Already in Gen. 31:47 Aramaic is mentioned as the language used by laban in contrast to Jacob's use of Hebrew. By the eighth century BC Aramaic had become the language of diplomacy (2 Ki. 18:26; Isa. 36:11), and it was adopted…
| 105 words
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Full text Article Aramaic language

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Semitic language of the Hamito-Semitic family of western Asia, the everyday language of Palestine 2,000 years ago, during the Roman occupation and the time of Jesus. In the 13th century BC Aramaean nomads set up states in Mesopotamia, and during the next 200 years spread into northern Syria, where…
| 112 words
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Full text Article Aramaic

From The Chambers Dictionary
| 64 words
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Full text Article Aramaic

From The American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language
| 34 words
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Full text Article Aramaic

From Collins English Dictionary
| 65 words
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Full text Article Aramaic

From Philip's Encyclopedia
| 90 words
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