Aramaic

===Imperial Aramaic===
{{Main|Imperial Aramaic}}
{{Aramaeans}}
Around 500 BC, following the [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid]] (Persian) conquest of Mesopotamia under [[Darius I]], Aramaic (as had been used in that region) was adopted by the conquerors as the "vehicle for written communication between the different regions of the vast empire with its different peoples and languages. The use of a single official language, which modern scholarship has dubbed Official Aramaic or [[Imperial Aramaic]],{{sfn|Gzella|2012a|pp=574–86}}{{sfn|Folmer|2012|pp=587–98}}{{sfn|Gzella|2012b|pp=598–609}} can be assumed to have greatly contributed to the astonishing success of the Achaemenids in holding their far-flung empire together for as long as they did".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |volume=2 |year=1987 |title=Aramaic |pages=251–52 |last=Shaked |first=Saul |publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul |location=New York |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/aramaic- |access-date=10 October 2018}}</ref> In 1955, Richard Frye questioned the classification of Imperial Aramaic as an "official language", noting that no surviving edict expressly and unambiguously accorded that status to any particular language.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Frye |first1=Richard N. |title=Review of G. R. Driver's 'Aramaic Documents of the Fifth Century B. C.' |journal=Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies |volume=18 |issue=3/4 |year=1955 |page=457 |doi=10.2307/2718444 |last2=Driver |first2=G. R. |jstor=2718444}}</ref> Frye reclassifies Imperial Aramaic as the lingua franca of the Achaemenid territories, suggesting then that the Achaemenid-era use of Aramaic was more pervasive than generally thought.

Imperial Aramaic was highly standardised; its orthography was based more on historical roots than any spoken dialect, and the inevitable influence of [[Persian language|Persian]] gave the language a new clarity and robust flexibility. For centuries after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire (in 330 BC), Imperial Aramaic – or a version thereof near enough for it to be recognisable – would remain an influence on the various native [[Iranian languages]]. Aramaic script and – as ideograms – Aramaic vocabulary would survive as the essential characteristics of the [[Pahlavi scripts]].<ref>{{cite journal |author1-link= Wilhelm Geiger |first1= Wilhelm |last1= Geiger |first2= Ernst |last2= Kuhn |year= 2002 |title= Grundriss der iranischen Philologie: Band I. Abteilung 1 |location= Boston |publisher= Adamant |page= 249}}</ref>

One of the largest collections of Imperial Aramaic texts is that of the [[Persepolis Administrative Archives]], found at [[Persepolis]], which number about five hundred.<ref>{{cite journal |first= John A. Matthew |last= Stolper |title= What are the Persepolis Fortification Tablets? |journal= The Oriental Studies News & Notes |issue= winter |year= 2007 |pages= 6–9 |url= https://persepolistablets.blogspot.com/2007/01/what-are-persepolis-fortication.html |access-date= 10 October 2018}}</ref> Many of the extant documents witnessing to this form of Aramaic come from [[Egypt]], and [[Elephantine]] in particular (see [[Elephantine papyri]]). Of them, the best known is the ''[[Story of Ahikar]]'', a book of instructive aphorisms quite similar in style to the biblical [[Book of Proverbs]]. Consensus {{As of|2022|lc=y}} regards the Aramaic portion of the Biblical book of Daniel (i.e., 2:4b–7:28) as an example of Imperial (Official) Aramaic.{{sfn|Collins|1993|pp=710–12}}

Achaemenid Aramaic is sufficiently uniform that it is often difficult to know where any particular example of the language was written. Only careful examination reveals the occasional loan word from a local language.

A group of thirty Aramaic documents from [[Bactria]] have been discovered, and an analysis was published in November 2006. The texts, which were rendered on leather, reflect the use of Aramaic in the 4th century BC Achaemenid administration of Bactria and [[Sogdia]].<ref>{{cite book |title= Ancient Aramaic Documents from Bactria |series= Studies in the Khalili Collection |last1= Naveh |first1= Joseph |last2= Shaked |first2= Shaul |isbn= 1874780749 |publisher= Khalili Collections |location= Oxford |year= 2006|page=}}{{page needed|date=July 2021}}</ref>