Jewish Book Mall - Books on Aramaic

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Shma Koleinu: A Jewish People's Commentary on the Siddur
by Rabbi Steven Schwarzman

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Encyclopedia Judaica, Second Edition (21 Volume Set)

Aramaic - a Jewish language?

Looking for a good Aramaic book?

Aramaic was the lingua franca (common language) of the ancient near east. Not originally a Jewish language, it now exists mostly in Jewish books. There is some Aramaic in the Hebrew Bible (especially in Daniel), and the Talmud is primarily in Aramaic. Some prayers we recite to this day are in Aramaic - most notably the Kaddish. Aramaic and Hebrew share the same alphabet.

Today, Aramaic is not much of a living language. It's spoken by a small number of - believe it or not - Jews, Moslems, and Christians from various parts of the Middle East.

Is it Aramaic, or is it Hebrew?

However, Aramaic lives on in Jewish books. If you're not sure if a text is Hebrew or Aramaic, try this quick rule-of-thumb: Hebrew words have the letter hay in the beginning for a definite article ("the"). The Aramaic equivalent is to put an aleph at the end of the word. For example, "father" in Aramaic is abba. Wait a minute, you say? That's Hebrew? No, it's really Aramaic. The Hebrew word for "father" is av. But just to confuse you, or so you might be excused for thinking, modern Hebrew borrows abba and ima ("mother") from Aramaic!