Aramaic is a Semitic language, a group of languages known almost from the beginning of recorded human history. It is particularly closely related to Hebrew, and was written in a variety of alphabetic scripts. In fact, what is usually called "Hebrew" script is actually an Aramaic script. Aramaic was the language of administration communication by the Assyrian conquerors; it was also the official language for the Babylonian and Persian empires which followed. From India to Ethiopia between 700 ad 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. Today, Aramaic survives as a spoken language in small communities in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and Iran. Source
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