Learn Aramaic

Yes it is. Nowadays some Neo-Aramaic languages survive in the Middle East the most important ones in numbers of speakers being Chaldean, Surayt ( Turoyo the mountain Aramaic ) and Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (not to be confused with Ancient Assyrian). Jesus Christ spoke Galilean Aramaic, a distinct Aramaic dialect which belongs to the Western branch of Aramaic  . Aramaic was the common language of Jews during Jesus's time. Hebrew was long gone as a spoken language at the time since the Babylonian exile when Jews shifted to Aramaic . Hebrew was still used as language of liturgy. The only surviving  descendant of   Western Aramaic  is still spoken by a bunch of people in three villages in Southern Syria in the so-called Antilebanon .  The villages are Maaloula, Bakhah and Jubbadin .Maaloula and Bakhah have mixed Muslim and Christian populations while Jubbadin is inhabited only by Muslims.

This letter was a petition of the Jews of Yebu - (Elephantine) to the Persian governor of Judaea Bagohi -Bagoas in Greek asking for permission and help to rebuild the destroyed by Egyptian troops Jewish temple of the god Jhy (Yahwah) in Yeb (Elephantine). According to the letter the priests  of another rival temple in Yeb  of the Egyptian god Khnub plotted with the local governor Uirdng and destroyed and looted the temple of Jhy also in Yeb. A letter was initially sent to the Jewish high priest in Jerusalem which was ignored and no answer was sent. The entire letter follows in English. Petition to Bagoas requesting help to rebuild the Temple of Yeb (Elephantine) The translation is based on a translation of American journal of theology  which is more like a word-to-word,phrase-to-phrase translation to correspond with the original.A free translation approach is needed to make more sense. 1 To our Lord Bagohi,governor of Judaea,your servants Idnih and his part...

As  you can see in the table below the letters are quite similar. name Arabic Syriac name Arabic Syriac Alaph ا / ء ܐ Lamadh ل ܠ Beth ب ܒ Meem م ܡ Gamal ج ܓ Noon ن ܢܢ Dalath ﺩ ܕ Simkath ܣ Heh ه ܗ 'E ع ܥ Waw ﻭ ܘ Peh ف ܦ Zain ﺯ ܙ Sad'e ص ܨ Heth ح ܚ Qoph ﻕ ܩ Teth ﻁ ܛ Resh ﺭ ܪ Yodh ي ܝ Sheen س / ش ܫ Kaph ﻛ / ك ܟܟ Taw ﺕ ܬ Also take a look at the Arabic-Serto table .

Is Assyrian Aramaic? There is some confusion as to what is Assyrian and Aramaic. Assyrian was a dialect of Akkadian (-the other being Babylonian) a language of the Semitic family which includes Hebrew,Arabic,Aramaic and other languages.It was the language of the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrian Empire adopted Aramaic as a language of trade and official communication initially but Akkadian was gradually completely supplanted by Aramaic. When we say Assyrian Neo-Aramaic we refer to the Aramaic language of the Modern Assyrian people whose lands are traditionally North-Eastern Turkey,North-Eastern Syria and Northern Iraq.Assyrian Neo-Aramaic is often called just Assyrian and this where the confusion between ancient Assyrian-Akkadian and modern Assyrian-Neo Aramaic comes into play. Modern Assyrians who speak an Aramaic language sometimes claim that they are descendents of the ancient Assyrians who spoke Akkadian.

Is Aramaic the oldest language in the world? Aramaic is the oldest language of the Middle East more accurately older even than Arabic and Hebrew. Nevertheless Aramaic is indeed one of the oldest written and spoken languages of the world. Its ancient form was used by some city-states in the Middle East one of them being Damascus first attested from the 10nth century BCE.It was written in a variation of the Phoenician script. Descendent languages of Aramaic are still spoken by some people in the M.E. and immigrants abroad who left their countries due to the ongoing war there.

Khuba or Khubo (ܚܘܒܐ)