Script & Dialect
Choose the script families that you would like your translation typeset in. Depending on which family of scripts you choose, we will employ a dialect that is suitable unless you request otherwise. Click on the [view examples] links to see how each script looks.
With over 3,000 years of history, Aramaic has hundreds of dialects which were written in dozens of scripts. Below we have a large selection grouped by family. Click the [view examples] link next to each of the family headers for examples, its history, dialects and historical context.
Beware of other companies that do not specify which dialect they are translating into. Many Aramaic dialects are not mutually intelligible. For example, Modern Syriac is not the same language as the Aramaic of Jesus of Nazereth, nor is the Aramaic found within the books of Daniel and Ezra.
Herodian script is a type of handwriting that became prominent during the reign of Herod. Many of the Dead Sea Scrolls were written in this script, and this form would have been what was prominent in Judea during the lifetime of Jesus of Nazareth.NOTE: This is the script that was used on the authentic portions of the James Ossuary, and all of the Aramaic inscriptions in the
Lost Tomb of Jesus. When you select this script, your translation will be provided in reconstructed early Galilean Aramaic.
The name "Estrangela" comes from the Greek word στρογγυλη (
strongylé) which means "rounded" (in contrast to the square nature of the non-cursive Hebrew/Assyrian scripts). It was used as early as 200 BCE to write Syriac, a prominent dialect of Aramaic that, in several forms, survives to this very day. The oldest copies of the
Syriac Peshitta are found in this script. When you select this script, your translation will be provided in Classical Syriac Aramaic.
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As Estrangela progressed eastward it took on a slightly different form. Called Madnhaya (sometimes spelled "Madinkhaya" or "Madnḥaya") or "Swadaya" (both of which mean "Eastern"), this is what modern Eastern Neo-Aramaic is written in. When you select this script, your translation will be provided in Classical Syriac Aramaic with eastern voweling.
As Estrangela progressed westward and came to be written upon wax tablets it slowly evolved into "Serto" (which literally means "line" or "scratch"). Western Syriac, including modern dialects, are written in this form. When you select this script, your translation will be provided in Classical Syriac Aramaic with western voweling.
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As Aramaic progressed into the Imperial language of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the script used to write it underwent a change into something more cursive. Our best examples of this script come from documents written on papyrus from Egypt. When you select this script, your translation will be provided in Imperial or Biblical Aramaic.
The script that most of us know as "Hebrew" today is actually a script that was adopted during the Jewish exile to Babylon. Since the
lingua franca of the Babylonian Empire was Aramaic, the Jewish people adopted it as a matter of survival. As a result, parts of the books of Daniel and Ezra were authored in Aramaic rather than Hebrew. The script came about from approximately the 6th to 3rd centuries BC from Old Aramaic. When you select this script, your translation will be provided in Biblical Aramaic or later Jewish Aramaic dialects.
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From Wikipedia: The semi-cursive typeface in which Rashi's (
Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki) commentaries are printed both in the Talmud and Tanakh is often referred to as "Rashi script." This does not mean that Rashi himself used such a script: the typface is based on a 15th century Sephardic semi-cursive hand. What would be called "Rashi script" was employed by early Hebrew typographers such as the Soncino family and Daniel Bomberg, a Christian printer in Venice, in their editions of commented texts (such as the Mikraot Gedolot and the Talmud, in which Rashi's commentaries prominently figure) to distinguish the rabbinic commentary from the text proper, for which a square typeface was used. When you select this script, your translation will be provided in Jewish Literary Aramaic.
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Probably one of the oldest scripts that any language classified as Aramaic would have been written in, Old Aramaic script (also known as "Paleo-Hebrew" script) was heavily influenced by Proto-Canaanite. This is the script (with some variants) that would have been employed around the times the Bible describes Moses and Abraham. Most scholars date the formation of this script to the 14th century BCE. When you select this script, your translation will be provided in reconstructed Old Aramaic.
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Forming in approximately the 6th century BCE, Samaritan script came from old Aramaic. It is also the script that ancient copies of the Samaritan Pentateuch were penned and are preserved in today. When you select this script, your translation will be provided in Classical Samaritan Aramaic.