Ar'ama'ic, a branch of the Semitic language, nearly allied to the Hebrew and Phoenician, anciently spoken in Syria and Palestine, and eastward to the Euphrates and Tigris. It was the official language of this region under the Persian domination. In Palestine it supplanted Hebrew, and it was the tongue of the Jews in the time of Christ. Parts of Daniel and Ezra are written in Aramaic, or, as this form of it is often named, Chaldee. An important Aramaic dialect is the Syriac, in which there is an extensive Christian literature. See CHALDEE LANGUAGE; HEBREW LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.