Aramaic

==Modern Aramaic==
[[File:Syriac Dialects EN.svg|thumb|250px|right|Territorial distribution of [[Neo-Aramaic languages]] in the [[Near East]]]]
{{Main|Neo-Aramaic languages}}

As the [[Western Aramaic languages]] of the [[Levant]] have become nearly extinct in non-liturgical usage, the most prolific speakers of Neo-Aramaic dialects in the 21st century are [[Eastern Aramaic languages|Eastern Aramaic]] speakers, the most numerous being the [[Central Neo-Aramaic]] and [[Northeastern Neo-Aramaic]] (NENA) speakers of [[Mesopotamia]]. This includes speakers of the Assyrian (235,000 speakers) and Chaldean (216,000 speakers) varieties of [[Suret language|Suret]], and [[Turoyo language|Turoyo]] (112,000 to 450,000 speakers). Having largely lived in remote areas as insulated communities for over a millennium, the remaining speakers of modern Aramaic dialects, such as the Arameans, [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]] and [[Mizrahi Jews]], escaped the linguistic pressures experienced by others during the large-scale [[language shift]]s that saw the proliferation of other tongues among those who previously did not speak them, most recently the [[Arabization]] of the Middle East and North Africa by [[Arabs]] beginning with the [[early Muslim conquests]] of the seventh century.{{sfn|Weninger|2012|pp=747–55}}

===Modern Eastern Aramaic===
[[File:Amen in East Syriac Aramaic language.svg|thumb|upright=0.7|Amen in [[Syriac language|Eastern Syriac]]]]
{{main|Central Neo-Aramaic|Northeastern Neo-Aramaic|Neo-Mandaic}}
{{listen|filename=|title=Spoken Turoyo Neo-Aramaic|description=|format=[[Ogg]]}}
{{listen|filename=Assyriansample.ogg|title=Spoken Assyrian Neo-Aramaic|description=|format=[[Ogg]]}}

Modern Eastern Aramaic exists in a wide variety of dialects and languages.{{sfn|Murre van den Berg|1999|p=}} There is significant difference between the Aramaic spoken by [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]], [[Mizrahi Jews]], and Mandaeans, with mutually unintelligible variations within each of these groups.

The Christian varieties of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (NENA) are often called "Assyrian", "Chaldean" or "Eastern Syriac", and are spoken by the [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]] in northern Iraq, northeast Syria, southeast Turkey, northwest Iran, and in the [[Assyrian–Chaldean–Syriac diaspora|diaspora]]. However, they also have roots in numerous previously unwritten local Aramaic varieties and, in some cases, even contain [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] influences. These varieties are not purely the direct descendants of the language of [[Ephrem the Syrian]], which was [[Syriac language|Classical Syriac]].{{sfn|Khan|2012|pp=708–24}}

The [[Judeo-Aramaic languages]] are now mostly spoken in [[Israel]], and most are facing extinction. The Jewish varieties that have come from communities that once lived between [[Lake Urmia]] and [[Mosul]] are not all mutually intelligible. In some places, for example [[Urmia]], Christian Assyrians and Mizrahi Jews speak mutually unintelligible varieties of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic in the same place. In others, the [[Nineveh Plains]] around Mosul for example, the varieties of these two ethnicities are similar enough to allow conversation.

Modern [[Central Neo-Aramaic]], being in between Western Neo-Aramaic and Northeastern Neo-Aramaic, is generally represented by Turoyo, the language of the Assyrians/Syriacs of [[Tur Abdin]]. A related Neo-Aramaic language, [[Mlaḥsô language|Mlaḥsô]], has recently become extinct.{{sfn|Jastrow|2012|pp=697–707}}

[[Mandaeans]] living in the [[Khuzestan province]] of Iran and scattered throughout Iraq, speak [[Neo-Mandaic]]. It is quite distinct from any other Aramaic variety. Mandaeans number some 50,000–75,000 people, but it is believed Neo-Mandaic may now be spoken fluently by as few as 5,000 people, with other Mandaeans having varying degrees of knowledge.{{sfn|Häberl|2012|pp=725–37}}

===Modern Western Aramaic===
{{Main|Western Neo-Aramaic}}
{{listen|filename=|title=Spoken Western Neo-Aramaic|description=|format=[[Ogg]]}}

Very little remains of Western Aramaic. Its only remaining vernacular is [[Western Neo-Aramaic]], which is still spoken in the villages of [[Maaloula]] and [[Jubb'adin]] on [[Syria]]'s side of the [[Anti-Lebanon Mountains]], as well as by some people who migrated from these villages, to [[Damascus]] and other larger towns of Syria. [[Al-Sarkha (Bakhah)|Bakh'a]] was completely destroyed during the war and all the survivors fled to other parts of Syria or to Lebanon.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.aymennjawad.org/2020/01/the-village-of-bakha-in-qalamoun-interview | title=The Village of Bakh'a in Qalamoun: Interview | date=26 January 2020 }}</ref> All these speakers of modern Western Aramaic are fluent in Arabic as well.{{sfn|Arnold|2012|pp=685–96}} Other Western Aramaic languages, like [[Jewish Palestinian Aramaic]] and [[Samaritan Aramaic]], are preserved only in liturgical and literary usage.