Aramaic
Topic: Bronze Age Civilisations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 1 "Writing and City Life"; Class 11, Ch 2 "An Empire Across Three Continents"
Meaning
Aramaic is a Semitic language that is close to Hebrew. It began to trickle into Mesopotamia from c. 1400 BCE. After 1000 BCE it was widely spoken there. It was the third main language of Mesopotamia, coming after Sumerian and Akkadian. It is still spoken in parts of Iraq today. Later it became the main language group of the Near East under Roman rule.
Example
In first-millennium BCE Mesopotamia, at the time of the Assyrian empire (720–610 BCE) and later Babylon, Aramaic was the everyday spoken language of many people. Akkadian in cuneiform stayed mostly a language of scribes and scholars.
Don't confuse with
- Akkadian: also Semitic, but older. It replaced Sumerian from c. 2400 BCE and was written in cuneiform. Aramaic later took over as the common spoken language.
Related concepts
- Mesopotamian civilisation
- Fertile Crescent
- Sumerian civilisation
- Babylonia
- Sumerian language
- Akkadian language