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Copyright

John Healey;

Published On

2025-03-07

Page Range

pp. 771–796

Language

  • English

Print Length

26 pages

Aramaic: Lingua Franca, Koine, or Both?

  • John Healey (author)
Chapter of: Interconnected Traditions: Semitic Languages, Literatures, Cultures—A Festschrift for Geoffrey Khan: Volume 1: Hebrew and the Wider Semitic World(pp. 771–796)
The study investigates the historical roles of Aramaic as both a lingua franca and a koine, examining its development and usage across various periods. It identifies three main contexts: as the administrative and diplomatic language of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, as the religious and scholarly language of Jewish communities in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and as the liturgical and literary language of Syriac Christianity. Aramaic’s adaptability allowed it to function as an international medium for communication, transcending local dialects and ethnic boundaries. The discussion contrasts the broader concept of a lingua franca, which includes ad hoc languages for specific purposes, with the more structured and culturally embedded nature of a koine, developed within linguistic communities for unified usage. The article highlights Aramaic’s persistence through historical shifts, its role in intercommunal exchanges, and its eventual decline with the rise of Arabic as a dominant language in the region.

Contributors

John Healey

(author)
Professor Emeritus of Semitic Studies at University of Manchester

John Healey (BA, University College, Dublin; PhD, SOAS) has been Professor Emeritus of Semitic Studies at the University of Manchester since 2014, having become professor there in 1997. His research and publications have been mostly focused on Aramaic epigraphy in the Hellenistic and Roman Near East, especially Nabataean, Palmyrene and early Syriac inscriptions, including the history of their scripts. He has also written extensively on religion as evidenced in the epigraphy and on the Aramaic legal tradition. His major publications include The Nabataean Tomb Inscriptions of Mada’in Salih (OUP, 1993), The Religion of the Nabataeans (Brill, 2001), and Aramaic Documents and Inscriptions of the Roman Period (OUP, 2009). Professor Healey was for many years an editor of the Journal of Semitic Studies and he is a Fellow of the British Academy.