ARAMAIC LANGUAGES

aramaic languages, a class of languages so called from aram, a geographical term, which in old semitic usage designates nearly the same districts as the greek word syria. aram, however, does not include palestine, while it comprehends mesopotamia (heb. aram of two rivers), a region which the greeks frequently distinguish from syria proper. thus the aramaic languages may be geographically defined as the semitic dialects originally current in mesopotamia and the regions extending south-west from the euphrates to palestine. (see semitic languages; syriac; targum.)