The north Shemitic Aramaic, to which we now turn, is the language of the whole district, between the Mediterranean and the Tigris, s. of the Taurus, n. of Phenicia, the Israelitish territory, and Arabia. Here we have again to distinguish between Syria Proper, Mesopotamia (between Euphrates and Tigris). and Babylonia (s. of whither the Israelites were carried by Nebuchadnezzar. Yet, with respect to this latter country, it eau hardly be doubted that another dialect besides the Aramaic was spoken in it. But whether this was " Medo-Persian," (" like the Assyrian"), or some °filet " Turanie" Idiom, largely mixed with Shemitic ingredients, must remain doubtful until our knowledge of "Turanian" and our reading of cuneiforms shall have advanced some. what further. There is, however, but one voice among competent investigators, that whatever strange elements the Babylonian and Assyrian languages may contain, they have a full claim to be reckoned among the Shemitic. The Aramaic in general is, as has been observed before, poorer than the Hebrew in grammatical forms, vowels, etc., besides baying a peculiar tendency to blunting its consonants, changing its soft s into (1, is into t, et into tit, and the like. further does not express its article by a prefix, but by an AV, and it forms its passives, not by a change of vowels, but by a special syllable prefixed to the root. The first distinct trace of a difference between Hebrew and Aramaic is found in Gen. xxxi. 47, where it is found necessary to translate Laban's designation of the stone-heap erected in memory of his peace with Jacob. Although the ancient Babylonians had, in all probability, a rich and important literature; yet nothing of it has survived. The so-called Babylonian fragments supposed to have come down in Arabic translations are a mere fiction. All the Aramaic literature which we now possess is derived from the Jews, and of a very late date. The Babylonian exiles, both those who returned to Palestine and those who stayed iu the land of their captivity, made Aramaic their habitual language. It was the common tongue of Palestine at the time of Christ, the Hebrew being then chiefly the "holy language"—i.e., the language of temple and synagogue. Thus the Shemitic words used in the New Testament are one and all Aramaic (_liamrnon; Rake; Eli, Eli, etc.; Talitha Kumi; iA.bba; etc.), and the same may be said of the Shemitic terms found in Josephus. The oldest remains in this idiom (variously called liebraisti, Arami, Sursi, Chaldee) are certain portions of the Old Testament (Daniel, Ezra, etc.), the Targums (q.v.), the Mishua (to a certain extent at least), the Talinuds, and the Midrashim. Idiomatic shades arc again observable in
these different documents; but while, as a living language, it was spoken and pro nounced- differently in the different districts of Palestine and Babylon, yet the special subdivisions into special provincial dialects which have been attempted can hardly be said to 'be correct. From the 2d c. A.D. Christian writers, chiefly in Mesopotamia, Edessa, Carrhx, Nisibis, began to use this language in their writings, which are princi pally theological (translation of the Bible) and dogmatical, but which also treat of medi cine,. history, philosophy, mathematics, etc. Yet theirAraMaie assumed a character so essentially that, in some respects at least, it became an entirely distinct dialect, viz., Syriac, which, at 'a later period, assumed also—to make the breach complete—an alphabet of its own (Estrangelo). Many have been the attempts to account for this strange difference (the very existence of which was, on the other hand, almost totally denied at one Lime). but with no satisfactory result. Certain it is that the mere geographical (east and west Aramaic, etc.) do not hold good, and are arbitrary and fallacious. The Syriac, as a living language, ceased to be spoken since the 10th c., and only a few -Syrian Christians in Kurdistan and Mesopotamia are supposed to use a kind'of vulgar Aramaic. Syriac literature ceased about three centuries later. As the language of the church, however, it is still in use with the Jakobite, Nestorian, and Marmite branches of the Syrian church. Minor sister dialects of Aramaic are the Samaritan, a corrupt Judwo-Aramaic mixed with Arabic words; the Zabian or Nftzarpean (Mandaic) the language of a theosophical sect (" disciples of John the Baptist") standing between the Syriac and Chaldee, and mixed with Persian, but bearing altogether the stamp of an uncouth, ungrammatical, sadly-neglected idiom; further, the Palmyrene (Palmyra), which, with a written character closely akin to the square Hebrew, offers but little varia tions from the Syriac; and finally, the /Egypto-Aramaic: which is found on is few monuments (stone of Cztrpentras, Papyri), and probably belongs to Jews, who: at a late period, had immigrated into Egypt, and had adopted the Egyptian religion. Its words are princillally but with a large infusion of foreign elements.
The third principal branch, the middle Shemitic, which comprises Hebrew and Phenician (Punic)—and all the questions connected with these—have been discussed at some length under JEWS and PITENICIA to which we refer.. See also the special articles