Babylonian Aramaic
ארמית Ārāmît
Incantation bowl in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic
Region	Babylonia, modern day southern and some of central Iraq
Era	ca. 200–1200 CE
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Northwest Semitic Aramaic Eastern Aramaic Southeastern Babylonian Aramaic
Early form	Old Aramaic
Writing system	Babylonian Alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tmr
Glottolog	jewi1240

Jewish Babylonian Aramaic (Aramaic: ארמית Ārāmît) was the form of Middle Aramaic employed by writers in Lower Mesopotamia between the fourth and eleventh centuries. It is most commonly identified with the language of the Babylonian Talmud (which was completed in the seventh century), the Targum Onqelos, and of post-Talmudic (Gaonic) literature, which are the most important cultural products of Babylonian Jews. The most important epigraphic sources for the dialect are the hundreds of inscriptions on incantation bowls.^[1]

Classification and type

The language was closely related to other Eastern Aramaic dialects such as Mandaic. Its original pronunciation is uncertain, and has to be reconstructed with the help of these kindred dialects and of the reading tradition of the Yemenite Jews,^[2] and where available those of the Iraqi, Syrian and Egyptian Jews.^{[citation needed]} The value of the Yemenite reading tradition has been challenged by Matthew Morgenstern.^[3] (The vocalized Aramaic texts with which Jews are familiar, from the Bible and the prayer book, are of limited usefulness for this purpose, as they are in different dialects.)^[4]

Talmudic Aramaic bears all the marks of being a specialist language of study and legal argumentation, like Law French,^{[citation needed]} rather than a vernacular mother tongue,^{[citation needed]} and continued in use for these purposes long after Judeo-Arabic had become the languages of daily life. It has developed a battery of technical logical terms, such as tiyuvta (conclusive refutation) and tiqu (undecidable moot point), which are still used in Jewish legal writings, including those in other languages, and have influenced modern Hebrew.^{[citation needed]}

Like the other Judeo-Aramaic languages, it was written in the Hebrew alphabet.

Grammar

Pronouns

Independent nominative pronouns ^[5]5">edit

Copulative pronouns ^[8]edit

Genitive pronominal suffixes ^[20]edit

Demonstrative pronounedit

Accusative pronominal suffixes ^[74]edit

Six major verbal patternsedit

There are six major verb stems or verbal patterns (binyanim) in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. The form pe‘al (פְּעַל) “to do”, the form Aph'el (אַפְעֵל) “let do”, and the form Pa'el (פַּעֵל) “like to do”, are all in the active voice. But the form Itpe'el (אִתְפְּעֵל), the form Itaph'al (אִתַפְעַל) and the form Itpa'al (אִתְפַּעַל) are essentially reflexive and usually function in a passive sense.^[83][84]

Verbal pattern (binyan): pe‘al (פְּעַל) Basic Verb – Activeedit

past tense