'Passion' Stirs Interest in Aramaic
Film Features Language that Began to Fade 2,000 Years Ago
» See Enlargement, Read More About the Enoch ScrollA fragment in Aramaic from the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Morning Edition, February 25, 2004 · Mel Gibson's controversial film The Passion of the Christ features two languages that haven't been used in common speech for centuries -- Latin and the even less familiar Aramaic. NPR's Renee Montagne talks to Joseph Amar, a professor of Semitic languages at the University of Notre Dame, about the ancient Middle Eastern language.
Jesus would have spoken the local dialect, referred to by scholars as Palestinian Jewish Aramaic, which was the form common to that region, Amar says. Aramaic began to die out in the 7th century, when Arabic displaced it as the everyday language of the region, Amar says.
To demonstrate the sound of Aramaic, Amar reads the opening lines of the Lord's Prayer in Syriac, a late form from the 2nd century A.D. that was spoken by Christians.
"Aramaic hasn't completely died out, but it continues to survive... these days by a shoestring," used mostly in Christian and Jewish religious ceremonies, he says.
Related NPR Stories
- June 4, 1998The History of Aramaic
- June 4, 1998Syriac Christians Continue to Speak Ancient Language
- The Last Jews of Baghdad
- June 3, 2000Christ in Aramaic
- April 20, 2003Music from the Time of Jesus
- 'Lost and Found Sound:' Losing Languages
- Dec. 18, 2003Bringing Back the Welsh Language
- Saving Alaska's Native Languages
- Feb. 25, 2004Movie Review: 'The Passion of the Christ'
- More Stories about 'The Passion of the Christ'
- Movies on NPR
