Semitic language originally spoken by the ancient Aramaean s.
The earliest Aramaic texts are inscriptions in an alphabet of Phoenician origin found in the northern Levant dating from 0441; 850 to 600 BC. The period 600200 BC saw a dramatic expansion of Aramaic, leading to the development of a standard form known as Imperial Aramaic. In later centuries, as "Standard Literary Aramaic," it became a linguistic model. Late (or Classical) Aramaic ( 0441; AD 2001200) has an abundant literature, both in Syriac and in Mandaic (see Mandaeanism ). With the rise of Islam, Arabic rapidly supplanted Aramaic as a vernacular in South Asia. Modern Aramaic (Neo-Aramaic) comprises West Neo-Aramaic, spoken in three villages northeast of Damascus, Syria, and East Neo-Aramaic, a group of languages spoken in scattered settlements of Jews and Christians in southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, and northwestern Iran, and by modern Mandaeans in the Shatt Al-Arab . Since 0441; 1900 persecution has forced most contemporary East Neo-Aramaic-speakers, who number several hundred thousand, into diaspora communities around the world.