A recent article in The Guardian reported how the ancient language of Aramaic has received a boost in Syria with the opening of a new institute in Maaloula (sometimes spelt Ma'loula), a small town in the mountains about 40 miles north of Damascus. Maaloula is something of a linguistic oasis, being the only place, apart from two neighbouring villages where the Western branch of the Aramaic group of languages is spoken.
Aramaic is a very old language (at least 3,000 years) and is nowadays considered an endangered language (strictly speaking it is not one language, but has different varieties spoken in different places). It was the native language of Christ and at one time was the lingua franca of the Middle East region, before Arabic took hold. Originally, speakers of Aramaic were Christians and Jews, although there are Muslim speakers of Aramaic in Syria and other places.
Aramaic is a Semitic language, related to Arabic and Hebrew. Its script looks similar to Hebrew, since the letters are 'square' in appearance.
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