Persian King Darius I in the western half of the Persian Empire in 500 BC. Biblical Aramaic
was used in the composition of portions of the Old Testament books of Ezra 4:8-6:18, 7:12-26,
Daniel 2:4-7:28, Jeremiah 10:11, and Genesis 31:47. Aramaic was also the language spoken by
Christ. Various dialects of Aramaic, spoken by Syriac Christians, Samaritans, Babylonian and
Palestinian Jews have survived through the middle ages into contemporary times.
There are more than 445,000 people in the world who use modern Aramaic for
communications in their daily lives.
More than 4,500,000 people have some fluency in Aramaic. Most of the people who know
Aramaic but do not use it on a daily basis have learned it through their exposure to Aramaic as
a liturgical language.
About 210,000 people speaking Assyrian (Aturaya or Suret) in the Mosul region of Northern
Iraq and around Lake Urmia in Northwestern Iran and Armenia. The Assyrian dialects of
neo-Aramaic are spoken by members of the Assyrian Church. Most Assyrians have emigrated
from Iraq and Iran in recent times to Australia, Western Europe, North America, Lebanon and
the ex-Soviet Union. In addition to vernacular Assyrian, worldwide there are well over
1,000,000 people who use Aramaic as the liturgical language of the Assyrian Church. The
liturgical language is closer to classical Syriac than to the commonly spoken Assyrian dialect.
There are about 200,000 speakers of the Chaldean dialect of Neo-Aramaic (Kaldaya), living
mainly in Iraq and Turkey. Chaldean speakers are members of the Chaldean Catholic Church.
Many Chaldeans have emigrated to Lebanon, Syria, Central Europe, North America and
Australia. In addition to those speaking vernacular Chaldean, about 460,000 Chaldeans living
worldwide use Classical Aramaic as their liturgical language.
There are about 70,000 of the Turoyo dialect of Syriac in Tur Abdin region of the Mardin
province of southeastern Turkey, living mainly around the city of Midyat. Many Turoyo
speakers have emigrated to Syria, Lebanon and central Europe. The Turoyo speakers are
members of the Syrian Orthodox Church.
Western neo-Aramaic (Aramith or Arami) is spoken by about 15,000 people in the
anti-Lebanon Mountains in Syria, in the villages of Ma'loula, Bakh'a and Jubb'adin. Most
villagers in Ma'Ioula are members of the Melkite Catholic Church, while most villagers in
Bakh'a and Judd'adin are Muslim.
Modern Jewish Aramaic dialects, Bijil neo-Aramaic, Lishana Deni, Lishanid Noshan (all from
Iraqi Kurdistan) Hulaula (from Iranian Kurdistan) and Lishan Didan (from Iranian Azerbaijan)
have all gone into decline since the 1950s when virtually all of their speakers emigrated to
Israel. Several thousand speakers of these languages live in Israel.
There are about 1000 speakers of the Mandaic dialect of Eastern Aramaic (Mandayi, Mandi,
Subbi, or Sa'iba). They live in the town of Ahwaz in Iranian Khuzestan and follow the
Mandaean religion.
Syriac is used as the liturgical language of the Syrian Orthodox Church, which has about
3,000,000 adherents worldwide. The two main groups are in Syria and in India.
Aramaic is used as a liturgical language in the Maronite Church, which is used by more than
1,500,000 people throughout the world. Most Maronites still live in their traditional homeland
of Lebanon but almost as many have migrated abroad to North America, Australia, Europe and
Africa.
Syriac is the Liturgical language of the Syrian Catholic Church. There are 210,000 Syrian
Catholics worldwide. Most live in their traditional homeland in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Sources:
WIKIPEDIA
http://lexicorient.com