Western Aramaic languages

Western Aramaic is a group of Aramaic dialects^[5][6] once spoken widely throughout the ancient Levant, predominantly in the south, and Sinai, including ancient Damascus, Nabatea, Judea, across the Palestine Region, Transjordan, Samaria as well as Lebanon and the basins of the Orontes as far as Aleppo in the north. The group was divided into several regional variants, spoken mainly by the Palmyrenes in the east and the Aramaeans who settled on Mount Lebanon - ancestors of the early Maronites. In the south, it was spoken by Judeans (early Jews), Galileans, Samaritans, Pagans, Melkites (descendants of the aforementioned peoples who followed Chalcedonian Christianity), Nabataeans and possibly the Itureans. All of the Western Aramaic dialects are considered extinct today, except for the modern variety known as Western Neo-Aramaic. This dialect, which descends from Damascene Aramaic, is still spoken by the Arameans (Syriacs) in the towns of Maaloula, Bakh'a and Jubb'adin near Damascus, Syria.^{[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]}

Western Aramaic
Geographic distribution	Levant (western & southern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Transjordan), Sinai
Linguistic classification	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Northwest Semitic Aramaic Western Aramaic
Subdivisions	Orontes Aramaic †[1] Lebanese Aramaic † Damascene Aramaic[1]   • Western Neo-Aramaic Palmyrene Aramaic †[a] Palestinian Aramaic †   • Jewish Palestinian Aramaic   • Samaritan Aramaic   • Galilean Aramaic   • Old Pagan Palestinian Aramaic    • Christian Palestinian Aramaic Perean Aramaic † [b]   • Old Jewish Perean Aramaic   • Old Pagan Perean Aramaic    • Old Christian Perean Aramaic Iturean Aramaic? † Nabataean Aramaic †
Language codes
Glottolog	west2815

History

A Western Aramaic text, written in Christian Palestinian Aramaic, utilizing a modified version of the Syriac alphabet.

During the Late Middle Aramaic period, spanning from 300 B.C.E. to 200 C.E., Aramaic diverged into its eastern and western branches.^[15]

In the middle of the fifth century, Theodoret of Cyrus (d. c. 466) noted that Aramaic, commonly labeled by Greeks as "Syrian" or "Syriac", was widely spoken. He also stated that "the Osroënians, the Syrians, the people of the Euphrates, the Palestinians, and the Phoenicians all speak Syriac, but with many differences in pronunciation",^[16] thus recording the regional diversity of Eastern and Western Aramaic dialects during the late antiquity.^[17][18][19]

Following the early Muslim conquests in the seventh century and the consequent cultural and linguistic Arabization of the Levant and Mesopotamia, Arabic gradually replaced Aramaic, including its Western varieties, as the primary language for most people.^[20]

Despite this, Western Aramaic appears to have survived for a relatively long time, at least in some secluded villages in the mountains of Lebanon and in the Anti-Lebanon mountains in Syria. In fact, up until the 17th century, travelers in the Lebanon region still reported villages where Aramaic was spoken.^[21]

Present

Modern state of Neo-Aramaic languages, showing the remaining enclave of Western Neo-Aramaic (in green color)

Today, Western Neo-Aramaic is the sole surviving remnant of the entire western branch of the Aramaic language,^[22] spoken by no more than a few thousand people in the Anti-Lebanon mountains of Syria, mainly in Maaloula and Jubb'adin. Until the Syrian Civil War, it was also spoken in Bakhʽa, which was completely destroyed during the war, and all the survivors fled to other parts of Syria or to Lebanon.^[23] Their populations of these areas avoided cultural and linguistic Arabization due to the remote, mountainous locations of their isolated villages.

See also

• Aramaic studies
• Bible translations into Aramaic
• Western Neo-Aramaic

Notes

1. The Palmyrene dialect has a dual affiliation because it combines features of both Western and Eastern Aramaic, but it is somewhat closer to the Eastern branch.^[2][3][4]
2. Also known as East Jordanian Aramaic or Transjordan Aramaic.