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Syriac, an eastern dialect of Aramaic which was once spoken in the lands in between the Roman and Parthian empires. Syriac is still spoken, mainly in Syria. One major variety of Syriac is known as Assyrian.
Aramaic, a language which was the lingua franca of much of the Near East from about 7th century BC until the 7th century AD, when it was largely replaced by Arabic. Classical or Imperial Aramaic was the main language of the Persian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires and spread as far as Greece and the Indus valley.
After Alexander the Great destroyed the Persian Empire, Aramaic ceased to be the official language of any major state, though continued to be spoken widely. It was during this period that Aramaic split into western and eastern dialects. Aramaic was once the main language of the Jews and appears in some of the Dead Sea Scrolls. |
