Deleted member 97083
The Achaemenid Empire used Aramaic because Mesopotamia was their most populous region--their "largest economy" if you will, strongest in trade and tribute--and Cyrus modeled the empire after a typical Mesopotamian empire, absorbing existing Babylonian structures.I disagree about your assumption that the largest economy will by default be the lingua franca. Lingua franca of the Persian Empire wasn't an Iranian language, it was Aramaic (at that point Persia and majority of the world are pretty much the same thing, even China has never had as large of a percentage of the world's people or GDP as the Persians did at their heyday).
Only way to prove it is wait 100 years and see if Chinese ever becomes a lingua franca; im betting no. Resume this convo in 100 years?
The Aramaic language was first adopted by the Assyrian Empire due to its demographic strength; originally the language of peasants and nomads conquered and enslaved by the Assyrians, it had no prestige at all, and no religious significance, when it was first used as an administrative language.
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