Is there any book to learn Aramaic?

Answer 1

There is a book called An Introduction to Aramaic, by Frederick E. Greenspan. I am sure you can find it on
http://www.amazon.com
Good luck!!

Answer 2

That depends on what your background is in related languages, and which TYPE of Aramaic you are interested in studying -- since the language had many variations in the millenium plus that it reigned in the Near East... from 'Old Aramaic' inscriptions to the 'Official Aramaic' used by the Babylonians and Persians to conduct official business. . . to the Aramaic of Palestine in the time of Jesus, to "Syriac", the main language of the Eastern church in the early centuries (and so of many early Christian writings). That does not include the handful of tiny "Neo-Aramaic" dialects left today.

The typical student of Aramaic comes at it having studied Biblical Hebrew and is interested in being able to read the few Aramaic portions of the Old Testament (basically six chapters of Daniel and a short section of Ezra). For that purpose there are a number of decent textbooks. The most useful one may be the recent *Introduction to Aramaic* by Frederick Greenspahn (NOT "Greenspan"). If you can't find this, many college libraries will probably carry the classic by Franz Rosenthal *A Grammar of Biblical Aramaic*. It includes the necessary grammar and all the biblical Aramaic vocabulary. . .though it may not be as friendly to students not solid in their biblical Hebrew.

If you are interested in OTHER dialects I'd have to go back and do some digging. There are not very many books generally available for learning these (more dictionary materials than grammars). Even for Syriac, in which much is written, I had to study it with a xeroxed copy of an ancient textbook that kept going out of print. (If you really want to know, I can check... since that was more than a decade ago. One possibility is J. F. Coakley’s fifth edition of
T. H. Robinson’s Paradigms and Exercises in Syriac Grammar, publ. 2003 )

Answer 3

For future reference... Aramaic and Armenian are not related. There are still some Aramaic speakers in the world... mostly in southern Iraq (the Mandeans), Syria and southeastern Turkey. Aramaic was likely the native language of Jesus but he was not likely an Aramean. Aramaic became the language of Jews after the Babylonian exile. Aramaic was the main language of commerce of the Persian empire. As well as being in the Hebrew bible, some Rabbinic literature was written in Aramaic.

Answer 4

While I can not tell you if there is a book to learn Aramaic, I would suggest that your search for information may be very difficult. I spent several weeks trying to search out a translation for English to Aramaic and finally gave up, settling for Latin.

if there is not a book, there should be - there is definitely some demand.

Good luck.

Answer 5

Aramaic was the language of Christ who was Aramean. I believe it is now spoken under the language name Armenian. It is very difficult now to find any Armenians living in the world. I wish you Good luck. Cheers.