Thursday, December 15, 2016

Learning Languages: Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew



Problem
What is Aramaic?
Why should I care?

Answer
1 It was the everyday language of Jesus and of the Talmud.
2 A modern ketubah or Jewish marriage document is written in Aramaic.
3 Aramaic helps you to remember words and names in Arabic and Hebrew.
4 Kaddish, the prayer said at prayers for the dead during a "Shiva" - "Seven" (days of mourning)is written in Hebrew but is Aramaic.

Oh vey - both words mean woe. Vey is woe in Aramaic, which is said to be the mutual origin of both ancient and modern Arabic and ancient and modern Hebrew.

The word Mammon, as in You cannot serve both God and mammon, comes from the Aramaic word for wealth or profit.

Bar is Aramaic for son, as in barmitzvah, son of the law. The Hebrew for son is Ben, as in the name Benjamin which means son of my right hand.

Aramaic - English
Bar - son
mammon - wealth
vey - woe
Yonathan - Jonathan
Yoseph - Joseph

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramaic_language
http://www.aish.com/jw/s/Common-Jewish-Words-Their-Origins--Meaning.html
http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/20240/what-word-did-jesus-use-for-god-in-aramaic
Tips
bar mitzvah - son of the law

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Author and speaker. English teacher and teacher of languages.
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