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Aramaic (''Arāmāyā'', ) is a family of languages or dialects belonging to the Semitic family. More specifically, it is part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily, which also includes Canaanite languages such as Hebrew and Phoenician. The Aramaic script was widely adopted for other languages and is ancestral to both the Arabic and modern Hebrew alphabets. During its approximately 3000 years of written history,〔Aramaic appears somewhere between the 11th and 9th centuries BC. Beyer (1986: 11) suggests that written Aramaic probably dates from the 11th century BC, as it is established by the 10th century, to which he dates the oldest inscriptions of northern Syria. Heinrichs (1990: x) uses the less controversial date of the 9th century, for which there is clear and widespread attestation.〕 Aramaic has served variously as a language of administration of empires and as a language of divine worship. It became the lingua franca of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC), Neo-Babylonian Empire (605–539 BC), the Achaemenid Empire (539–323 BC), the Parthian Empire (247 BC–224 AD), and the Sasanian Empire (224–651), of the Neo-Assyrian states of Assur, Adiabene, Osroene and Hatra, the Aramean state of Palmyra, and the day-to-day language of Yehud Medinata and of Judaea (539 BC – 70 AD). It was the language that Jesus supposedly used the most,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Aramaic language )〕 the language of large sections of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra, as well as the main language of the Talmud. Aramaic was also the original language of the Bahrani people of Eastern Arabia,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Tradition and Modernity in Arabic Language And Literature )〕 and of the Mandeans and their Gnostic religion, Mandeanism, as well as the language of the once widespread but now extinct Manichaean religion. The major Aramaic dialect Syriac is the liturgical language of Syriac Christianity, in particular the Church of the East, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Saint Thomas Christian Churches in India, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Assyrian Pentecostal Church, and the Maronite Church.〔Beyer 1986: 38–43; Casey 1998: 83–6, 88, 89–93; Eerdmans 1975: 72.〕 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 are distinct enough that they are sometimes considered languages. Therefore, there is not one singular, static Aramaic language; each time and place rather has had its own variation. Aramaic is retained as a liturgical language by certain Eastern Christian churches, in the form of Syriac, the Aramaic variety by which Eastern Christianity was diffused, whether or not those communities once spoke it or another form of Aramaic as their vernacular, but have since shifted to another language as their primary community language. Modern Aramaic is spoken today as a first language by many scattered, predominantly small, and largely isolated communities of differing Christian, Jewish, and Mandean ethnic groups of West Asia〔Heinrichs 1990: xi–xv; Beyer 1986: 53.〕—most numerously by the Assyrians in the form of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic and Chaldean Neo-Aramaic—that have all retained use of the once dominant lingua franca despite subsequent language shifts experienced throughout the Middle East. The Aramaic languages are now considered endangered. ==Etymology== The term "Aramaic", meaning the language of Arameans settling in the region of ancient Aram, ארם or ܐܪܡ (ʾArām), derives from the Hebrew/Aramaic root verb רום (rum) meaning ''to rise, be high, piled up, or tall''.〔Sidrah Sparks: Talking Torah at the Table with Your Family p329 Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins - 2010 "The word “Terumah” comes from the Hebrew root “rum” – meaning rise, or elevation"〕 "Aram" is used as a proper name of several people in the Torah (Hebrew Bible) including descendants of Shem (Genesis 10:22), Abraham (Genesis 22:21) and Jacob (1 Chronicles 7:34). Ancient Aram, bordering Northern Israel and now called Syria, is considered the linguistic epicenter of Aramaic, the language of the Arameans who settled the area during the Bronze Age circa 3500 BC. There is some confusion about the origin of the language, often mistaken to have originated within Assyria (Iraq). In fact, Arameans carried their language and writing into Mesopotamia by voluntary migration, by forced exile of conquering armies, and by nomadic Chaldean invasions of Babylonia in 1200 BC to 1000 BC.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Hittites, Assyrians and Aramaeans )〕 Interestingly, the Christian primary text written in Koine Greek, New Testament, translates the word "Hebrew" as "Aramaic". Part of this confusion is attributed to the Greek naming ''Aram'' "Syria" (Συρια; Acts 15:41, Galatians 1:21), and at the same time calling ''Assyria'' (Iraq) "Syria".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Aram - The amazing name Aram: meaning and etymology )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Aramaic language」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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