Aramaic (Arāmāyā, Syriac: ܐܪܡܝܐ‎) is a family of languages or dialects belonging to the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic language family. More specifically, it is part of the Northwest Semitic group, which also includes the Canaanite languages such as Hebrew and Phoenician. The Aramaic alphabet was widely adopted for other languages and is ancestral to the Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic alphabets. During its approximately 3000 years of written history, Aramaic has served variously as a language of administration of empires and as a language of divine worship. It became the lingua franca of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC), Neo-Babylonian Empire (605–539 BC), the Achaemenid Empire (539–323 BC), the Parthian Empire (247 BC–224 AD), and the Sasanian Empire (224–651), of the states of Assur, Adiabene, Osroene, Beth Nuhadra, Beth Garmai and Hatra; the state of Palmyra, and the day-to-day language of Yehud Medinata and of Roman Judaea (539 BC – 70 AD). It was the language of Jesus, who spoke a Western Aramaic language during his public ministry, as well as the language of large sections of the biblical books of Daniel and Ezra, and also the main language of the Talmud. Aramaic was also the original language of the Bahrani people of Eastern Arabia, and of the Mandaeans and their gnostic religion, Mandaeism, as well as the language of the once widespread but now extinct religion of Manichaeism. The major Aramaic dialect Syriac is the liturgical language of Syriac Christianity, in particular the Assyrian Church of the East, the Chaldean Catholic Church, the Saint Thomas Christian Churches in India, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Assyrian Pentecostal Church, Assyrian Evangelical Church, Ancient Church of the East, Syriac Catholic Church and the Maronite Church. Aramaic's long history and diverse and widespread use has led to the development of many divergent varieties, which are sometimes considered dialects, though they are distinct enough that they are sometimes considered languages. Therefore, there is not one singular, static Aramaic language; each time and place rather has had its own variation. Aramaic is retained as a liturgical language by certain Eastern Christian churches, in the form of Syriac, whether or not those communities once spoke it or another form of Aramaic as their vernacular, but have since shifted to another language as their primary community language. Neo-Aramaic languages are spoken today as a first language by many scattered and usually small and isolated communities of Christians, Jews, and Mandaeans of Western Asia, most numerously by the Assyrian people in the form of Turoyo, Assyrian Neo-Aramaic and Chaldean Neo-Aramaic that have all retained use of the once dominant lingua franca despite subsequent language shifts experienced throughout the Middle East. The Aramaic languages are now considered endangered.

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