Aramaic is one of the Semitic languages, an important group of languages known almost from the beginning of human history and including also Arabic, Hebrew, Ethiopic, and Acadian (ancient Babylonian and Assyrian). It is particularly closely related to Hebrew, and was written in a variety of alphabetic scripts. (What is usually called "Hebrew" script is actually an Aramaic script.)
Aramaic
was used by the conquering Assyrians as a language of administration
communication, and following them by the Babylonian and Persian empires, which
ruled from India to Ethiopia, and employed Aramaic as the official language. For
this period, then (about 700–320 B.C.E.), Aramaic held a position similar
to that occupied by English today. The most important documents of this period
are numerous papyri from Egypt and Palestine.
Aramaic
displaced Hebrew for many purposes among the Jews, a fact reflected in the
Bible, where portions of Ezra and Daniel are in Aramaic. Some of the best known
stories in biblical literature, including that of Belshazzar’s feast with the
famous "handwriting on the wall" are in Aramaic.
Aramaic remained a dominant language for Jewish worship, scholarship, and everyday life for centuries in both the land of Israel and in the Diaspora, especially in Babylon.
Jesus
spoke Aramaic.
Aramaic
survives as a spoken language in small communities in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and
Iran.