Jewish Babylonian Aramaic (

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

: ) was the form of Middle Aramaic employed by writers in Lower Mesopotamia between the fourth and eleventh centuries. It is most commonly identified with the language of the

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...

(which was completed in the seventh century), the Targum Onqelos, and of post-Talmudic ( Gaonic) literature, which are the most important cultural products of Babylonian Jews. The most important

epigraphic Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

sources for the dialect are the hundreds of inscriptions on incantation bowls.

Classification and type

The language was closely related to Eastern Aramaic varieties such as Mandaic. Its original pronunciation is uncertain and has to be reconstructed with the help of these kindred dialects and the reading tradition of the

Yemenite Jews Yemenite Jews, also known as Yemeni Jews or Teimanim (from ; ), are a Jewish diaspora group who live, or once lived, in Yemen, and their descendants maintaining their customs. After several waves of antisemitism, persecution, the vast majority ...

, and where available those of the Iraqi, Syrian and Egyptian Jews. The value of the Yemenite reading tradition has been challenged by Matthew Morgenstern. Vocalized Aramaic texts with which Jews are familiar, from the

Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. ''

siddurim, are of limited usefulness for this purpose, as they are in different dialects. Talmudic Aramaic bears all the marks of being a specialist language of study and legal argumentation like Law French rather than a vernacular mother tongue, and continued in use for these purposes long after Judeo-Arabic languages had become used in daily life. It has developed a battery of technical logic terms such as "conclusive refutation" and "undecidable moot point", which are still used in Jewish legal writings, including those in other languages, and have influenced

modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew (, or ), also known as Israeli Hebrew or simply Hebrew, is the Standard language, standard form of the Hebrew language spoken today. It is the only surviving Canaanite language, as well as one of the List of languages by first w ...

. Like the other Judeo-Aramaic languages, it was written in the

Hebrew alphabet The Hebrew alphabet (, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is a unicase, unicameral abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewish languages, most notably ...

Grammar

Pronouns

Independent nominative pronouns

Copulative pronouns

Genitive pronominal suffixes

Demonstrative pronoun

Accusative pronominal suffixes

Six major verbal patterns

There are six major verb stems or verbal patterns (binyanim) in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. The form ''pe‘al'' (פְּעַל) “to do”, the form ''Aph'el'' (אַפְעֵל) “let do”, and the form ''Pa'el'' (פַּעֵל) “like to do”, are all in the active voice. But the form ''Itpe'el'' (אִתְפְּעֵל), the form ''Itaph'al'' (אִתַפְעַל) and the form ''Itpa'al'' (אִתְפַּעַל) are essentially reflexive and usually function in a passive sense.

Verbal pattern (binyan): ''pe‘al'' (פְּעַל) Basic Verb – Active

; past tense

; Participle The Aramaic verb has two

participle In linguistics, a participle (; abbr. ) is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from a verb and used as an adject ...

s: an active participle with

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

and a passive participle with

: ; active participles with suffix

; passive participle with suffix

; infinitive /gerund

; Future tense

Verbal pattern (binyan): '' Itpe'el '' (אִתְפְּעֵל) Basic Verb – Passive

; past tense

; future tense

Verbal pattern (binyan): ''pa‘el'' (פַּעֵל) Frequentative – Active

The verbal pattern (binyan) ''pa‘el'' are frequentative verbs showing repeated or intense action. The verbal pattern ''pa'el'' is Active Frequentative. ; past tense

; future tense

Verbal pattern (binyan): ''Itpa'al'' (אִתְפַּעַל) Frequentative – Passive

The verbal pattern ''itpa'al'' is Passive Frequentative.

Verbal pattern (binyan): ''aph‘el'' () Causative – Active

The verbal pattern ''aphel'' is Active Causative. ; past tense

; Participle

; Future tense

Verbal pattern (binyan): ''itaphal'' (אִתַּפְעַל) Causative – Passive voice

The verbal pattern ''itaphal'' is Passive Causative.

Noun: singular/plural

List of verbs

Idiom

Modern study

The language has received considerable scholarly attention, as shown in the bibliography below. However, the majority of those who are familiar with it, namely Orthodox Jewish students of Talmud, are given no systematic instruction in the language, and are expected to "sink or swim" in the course of their Talmudic studies, with the help of some informal pointers showing similarities and differences with Hebrew.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * (reprints available) * * (reprints available) * * * * * {{Incubator, tmr Languages attested from the 4th century Languages extinct in the 11th century Eastern Aramaic languages History of Mesopotamia Jewish languages Judeo-Aramaic languages Extinct languages of Asia Languages of Iraq Sacred languages