Aramaic Language - Old Aramaic

Old Aramaic

The term ‘Old Aramaic’ is used to describe the varieties of the language from its first known use until the point roughly marked by the rise of the Sasanian Empire (224 CE), dominating the influential, eastern dialect region. As such, the term covers over thirteen centuries of the development of Aramaic. This vast time span includes all Aramaic that is now effectively extinct.

The central phase in the development of Old Aramaic was its official use by the Achaemenid Empire (500–330 BCE). The period before this, dubbed ‘Ancient Aramaic’, saw the development of the language from being spoken in Aramaean city-states to become a major means of communication in diplomacy and trade throughout Mesopotamia, the Levant and Egypt. After the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, local vernaculars became increasingly prominent, fanning the divergence of an Aramaic dialect continuum and the development of differing written standards.