Skip to main content

Imperial Aramaic - the language of the Persian Empire.

At its height the Persian Empire was huge stretching from Macedonia and Thrace to the Indian Subcontinent. 

Occupation of Upper Mesopotamia.
In the 6th century B.C.E. the Persian Empire devastated the lands of Mesopotamia incorporating them into the Empire. These lands formerly belonged to the Median and Neo-Babylonian Empires which themselves in turn took them after destroying the Neo-Assyrian Empire. 


Adoption of Aramaic.
The Achaemenids after capturing Upper Mesopotamia- the land of the Arameans- adopted the Aramaic language as a means of communication,trade and official purposes for the entire Empire. This language was called retrospectively Imperial Aramaic or Official Aramaic and served as a very important means of running and keeping the vast Empire together.


Imperial Aramaic was written in the Imperial Aramaic alphabet which dates from the 5th century B.C when Aramaic was adopted as the lingua franca -the language of trade, official documents and communication between the various peoples of the western Persian Empire.It is still used for literary purposes and to write some Neo-Aramaic languages.

The Persian Empire at its height
 stretched from India to Thrace.

Characteristics of Imperial Aramaic.
Imperial Aramaic was a highly standardized language. It is hard to tell where a document in Imperial Aramaic comes from due to this standardization.This standardization is mostly due to Imperial Aramaic not based on one dialect but rather historical roots of words were used. 

This means that a form of Aramaic diglossia existed like in Arabic and Greek-the official Aramaic used throughout the Empire and the local Aramaic dialect.

As a natural result ,being the language of the Persian Empire, many elements of Old Persian were introduced to this formal language.


The Imperial Aramaic alphabet.



Ālaph /ʔ/; /aː/, /eː/
Bēth /b/, /v/
Gāmal /ɡ/, /ɣ/
Dālath /d/, /ð/
Hē /h/
Waw /w/; /oː/, /uː/
Zain /z/
Ḥēth
/ħ/
Ṭēth emphatic /tˤ/
Yudh /j/; /iː/, /eː/
Kāph /k/, /x/
Lāmadh /l/
Mim /m/
Nun /n/
Semkath /s/
‘Ē /ʕ/
Pē /p/, /f/
Ṣādhē , emphatic /sˤ/
Qoph /q/
Rēsh /r/
Shin /ʃ/
Tau /t/, /θ/


Sample text in Imperial Aramaic.

A Jewish letter to Bagoas-the governor of Judaea  requesting the help for rebuilding  the temple of Yahweh in Elephantine (408BC) written in the Imperial Aramaic alphabet.The temple was looted snd destroyed after a conspiracy of a temple of the Egyptian god Khnub.More about this letter read here.


Imperial Aramaic was used up to 3rd century BCE and it gradually evolved into Biblical Aramaic.

The following video shows the handwritten forms of the Imperial Aramaic alphabet.





Some Persian history.

 


Hebrew letters for Imperial Aramaic.
Nowadays the Hebrew alphabet (square Aramaic alphabet) is preferred to write Imperial Aramaic as well as Biblical Aramaic instead of the Aramaic alphabet of the Achaemenids (Persian dynasty) for ease of use. So,learning the Hebrew would be a great help and make things easier.

Also note that the Hebrew letters have different handwritten forms than the typed ones. I will deal with this is other posts.For now take a look at the Hebrew handwritten Alef to get an idea.


Read also
Learn to write the Imperial Aramaic alphabet.
Alap
The Elephantine Papyri
Elephantine Papyri fonts
Letter to Bagoas

External links

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Add comnent

Popular posts from this blog

Hebrew Word of the Week: Mammon.

by Yona Sabar Mammon is not in the Bible, where other words are used, such ashon ve-’osher be-veto, “Wealth and riches are in his house” (of the righteous) (Psalms 112:3), but it is very common in (Aramaic),Targumim and rabbinic literature. It may come from ma’mon “trust, deposit.” In Christianity, however, Mammon* has been associated with covetousness of wealth, the seventh sin (Matthew 6:24: You cannot serve God and mammon). In modern Hebrew, mamon is quite common with regard to financial and property business, such as mimmen, “financed”; mimmun, “financing”; mamonay, “financier”; mamoni, “monetary”; anddine’ mamonot, “civil (property) laws.” *Some Hebrew-Aramaic names and nouns entered English (via Latin-Greek), from the New Testament, such as Thomas, “twin (brother)” and abba, “father.” Yona Sabar is a professor of Hebrew and Aramaic in the department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures at UCLA. Article found here .
Post a Comment
Read more

What's your name in Aramaic.

What's your name in Aramaic. Ancient Aramaic ?מה שׁמך  שׁמי ישׁוע Mah shmakh? (m) What is your name?   ישוע שמי Shmi Yeshua My name is Jesus. מא שמיך ma shmikh (f) What's your name? when talking to a female. Classical Syriac ܡ݃ܗ ܫܡ݃ܟ Mah shmak? ܝܶܫܽܘܥ ܫܡܝ݈ yeshuwʿ shmy݈ My name is Jesus. Neo-Aramaic Sureth (Assyrian Neo-Aramaic) ܡܼܘܕܝܼ ܝܠܸܐ ܫܸܡܘܼܟ Mude le shimukh? What's your name? Other  ܡܢ ܫܡܐ ܕܠܟ  ܫܡܐ ܕܠ ܝܗ ܗܘ man shmo dlokh? Shmo dil Yshu’a haw What's your name? My name is Jesus. Back to short Aramaic lessons. Read also Greetings in Ancient Aramaic . Some Aramaic greetings .
Post a Comment
Read more

Jesus in Aramaic.

Jesus Christ, also known as Jesus of Nazareth, is believed by many scholars to have spoken Aramaic as his native language. Aramaic was a common language in the region of Galilee where Jesus grew up, and it was also used as a lingua franca throughout the Near East during the time of Jesus. There are several Aramaic words and phrases that are attributed to Jesus in the New Testament, such as "Talitha koum" (which means "Little girl, I say to you, get up!") and "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" (which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"). These phrases are evidence of Jesus' use of Aramaic. Additionally, some scholars believe that certain sayings of Jesus in the New Testament may have been originally spoken in Aramaic and later translated into Greek. For example, the saying "You cannot serve both God and money" (Matthew 6:24) is thought by some scholars to have originally been spoken in Aramaic as "You cannot serve both...
27 comments
Read more