Linguistic: Aramean living AND dayly serious

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It seems an obscure historic trivia - or was more before THAT Mel Gibson movie - but the Christ and many hebrews lost the old language apparently or spoke it only as a litturgic language anymore by His era. Aramean - another semitic language, (and perhaps already some dialects and varieties) was the living, day to day language of many of them, and neighbors perhaps too, it seemed. A famous version of the Bible, the Peshita, was wrote into it.

The language(s) did survive (and evolve), but the rise of Islam ended overtaking it in time (along other languages found around as Greek), and it is a language confined to some christian minorities nowaday.

(Or so I seem to have understood.)

Hence so... Another random dare. Your mission so is to keep Aramean (or a variety, or 'Neoaramean') not only alive, but thriving, a major language of the area. Bonus if THE language, Bonus if it spread more.


At start, I guess no Islam would help MAJORLY, but... maybe something else would come; because If no Islam, maybe Byzance would rebound one day, and try to expend, and so...
 
Yes, having no Islam (well the aspect of it focusing on having Arabic as its sacred language than the religion itself) would definitely help to a certain degree in boosting the numbers of people speaking and identifying as Aramaic folk. Though with population pressures in the Yemen that occurred sometime around the fourth century, you'll still have a large wave of Arab tribes migrating into Mesopotamia, inner Syria and Palestine and assimilate some of the Aramaic-speaking populations in those areas. And if the Byzantines continue ruling, Koine Greek will likely end up replacing Aramaic as the language of the Levant.

I could see a neo-Aramaic language staying the dominant language in Mesopotamia. They were a lot of them, right up until the Timurid invasions.
 
Its not just a question of no Islam but no Arabs. The spread of Arabic across the Middle East is similar in some ways to Aramaic's own rise (and replacement of Akkadian). You'd need to prevent the Arab takeover of the fertile crescent altogether, which is easier said than done from the 6th century onwards. However, if you can prevent the breaking of the Marib Dam, some of the instability that caused the powder-keg of 6th century Arabia to develop can be prevented. I'm not to sure what else could be done however.
 
Considering the fact Hebrew was a "dead language"... If you can butterfly hebrew at all and keep Aramaic as the language of the anciant Hebrews, when Zionism calls to revive the language in use in anciant Israel it will be Aramaic.
 
Considering the fact Hebrew was a "dead language"... If you can butterfly hebrew at all and keep Aramaic as the language of the anciant Hebrews, when Zionism calls to revive the language in use in anciant Israel it will be Aramaic.

I think you meaned to 'send hebrew in the history and prevent revival'... But possible that indeed, if Hebrew is WHOLY lost to history - but that means no torah and all remaining, an alt zionism or similar thing may latch on aramaic as a collective identity language.
 
I think you meaned to 'send hebrew in the history and prevent revival'... But possible that indeed, if Hebrew is WHOLY lost to history - but that means no torah and all remaining, an alt zionism or similar thing may latch on aramaic as a collective identity language.

If the Torah is originaly written in Aramaic, nothing is lost, nothing is butterflied.. Too much... I think...
 
Considering the fact Hebrew was a "dead language"... If you can butterfly hebrew at all and keep Aramaic as the language of the anciant Hebrews, when Zionism calls to revive the language in use in anciant Israel it will be Aramaic.
I thought Hebrew was still kept as a liturgical language in Judaism during late antiquity.
 
If the Torah is originaly written in Aramaic, nothing is lost, nothing is butterflied.. Too much... I think...

Sorry if unclear - the Peshita is the translation of the Bible (the christian one, with New Testament), not the original jewish and Old Testament only (of course) version - the Torah. There was maybe a translation of the Torah too in arameic, before Christianism, but never heard of that... IF there was no 'only Hebrew' taboo like Islam have for Arabic.

(I doubt christians where the first to make a written version of (their) Bible, I bet hebrew-jews had ancient ones before...)
 
I thought Hebrew was still kept as a liturgical language in Judaism during late antiquity.

It was, but not in a level your everyday Jew could speak it. That is why it was needed to be reinvented http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_of_the_Hebrew_language.

But I opted for a cleanr method. If there is no Hebrew in the first place, and everything happens like in OTL, Zionism will need a language, and that is Aramaic.

Sorry if unclear - the Peshita is the translation of the Bible (the christian one, with New Testament), not the original jewish and Old Testament only (of course) version - the Torah. There was maybe a translation of the Torah too in arameic, before Christianism, but never heard of that... IF there was no 'only Hebrew' taboo like Islam have for Arabic.

(I doubt christians where the first to make a written version of (their) Bible, I bet hebrew-jews had ancient ones before...)

Well the Gospel of Judas was written in the Coptic language, I'm not so sure about the entire New Testament, I'm sure Wiki can help with that.
 
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According to Herodotus after an usurper tried to take over the throne of the Achemnid Empire, the Nobles argued with Darius that they should instate a Republic. So what if the Nobles won, and instead of an Achaemenid empire it was a Republic. I think it would be a more stable unit, and it might take the same kind of path that the Romans did.

I'm not too sure but it seems like Republics often lead to more inclusive citizenship and a more literate society. It could lead to the preservation of the Aramaic language. After all maybe Alexander the Great never is born, so no use of Greek in the Middle east at all. Aramaic was the official language of both the Achemenid and Arsacid empires however under the Arsacid rule it became contaminated with Pahlavi neologisms until the period of the Sassanids when Pahlavi fully took over.
 
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It does not answer the OP's proposal, but as nobody seems to have brought it up or acknowledged it yet, I think it's worth pointing out that Aramaic actually does survive as a living language in OTL, in a number of related dialects or languages under the umbrella term "Neo-Aramaic".
 
It does not answer the OP's proposal, but as nobody seems to have brought it up or acknowledged it yet, I think it's worth pointing out that Aramaic actually does survive as a living language in OTL, in a number of related dialects or languages under the umbrella term "Neo-Aramaic".

I have said so, but many are endangered and small in numbers.

What I aim is to make it BIGGER language, important in modern days.
 
Here's my idea:
The Umayyads made Jeddah its capital, while Damascus remained a provincial capital, governed by newly-converted Aramaic-speaking Muslims.
 
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