Aramaic, West

Western Arameans are the last speakers of Western Neo-Aramaic (Modern Western Aramaic), the only living descendant of the western Aramaic dialects spoken across Syria and Palestine, Galilee included, in the time of Jesus. They come from three villages a few kilometres apart in the Qalamoun range of the Anti-Lebanon, about 55 km north-east of Damascus: Maaloula, which stayed Christian, and Jubb'adin and Bakh'a (al-Sarkha), whose people became Muslim in the 18th century. Each village has its own dialect, and all speakers are bilingual in Arabic, which supplies about a quarter of the words in everyday speech. Christians and Muslims alike call themselves Arameans: the language and the villages, not the church, define them. Linguists' fieldwork in 2023 counted about 10,000 speakers in Jubb'adin and fewer than 500 living in Maaloula, plus Maaloulans in Damascus and Bakh'a's scattered families; speaker estimates range from under 3,000 to 30,000. The Syrian war hit them hard: Maaloula was overrun by armed groups in 2013-14, Bakh'a was largely destroyed and has stood empty since 2014, and after December 2024 many of Maaloula's remaining Christians left for Damascus.

Village life in steep limestone settlements built into cliffs, with orchards, vineyards and summer tourism; many families spend winters in Damascus and return in summer, when Maaloula's population rises to about 15,000. Aramaic is learned at home and in the street, while schooling is in Arabic; a Damascus University institute taught written Aramaic from 2006 until 2010, and the Syriac script is now preferred. The feast of the Holy Cross (14 September), with bonfires on the cliffs above Maaloula, and the feast of St Thecla draw pilgrims from Syria and Lebanon.

Maaloula's Christians belong to the Melkite Greek Catholic (Mar Sarkis monastery, one of the oldest in Syria) and Antiochian Orthodox (Mar Taqla convent) churches, which pray in Arabic with Aramaic hymns and the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic kept as a cultural treasure. Jubb'adin's and Bakh'a's people are Sunni Muslims. Popular devotion centres on Saint Thecla's shrine and spring, which Muslims also visit.

A Western Neo-Aramaic (Maalouli) New Testament was completed by Aramaic Bible Translation in 2017 and is available as a PDF through Scripture Earth, with Psalms and a 'Portrait of Jesus' published in Syriac script by Rinyo; Scripture Earth also links Global Recordings Network audio. There is no Jesus Film in the language. Because no script is agreed and few speakers read Aramaic, Arabic Scripture and media remain the practical channel. Christians in Maaloula have churches and monasteries, while the Muslim majority in Jubb'adin and Bakh'a has no Christian witness of its own.