how to say “the Aramaic language” in Hebrew
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/השפה-הארמית-#.m4a” /]הַשָּׂפָה הָאֲרָמִית
Languages borrow from each other, especially ones like Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic, which are (or were, anyway) spoken in neighboring lands.
So it should come as no surprise that a bit of Aramaic appears in the Torah, where Jacob (grandson of Abraham the Hebrew) calls the pile of stones meant to be a monument גלעד[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/השפה-הארמית-#.m4a” /], while his uncle Laban the Aramean calls it יגר שהדותא[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/השפה-הארמית-#.m4a” /]. Both expressions mean literally pile of testimony, but the first is in Hebrew and the second is in Aramaic.
The Aramaic language is השפה הארמית[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/השפה-הארמית-#.m4a” /], as in:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/השפה-הארמית-#.m4a” /]כתבים יהודים רבים נכתבו בשפה הארמית.
Many Jewish texts (writings) were written in the Aramaic language.
שפה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/השפה-הארמית-#.m4a” /] means language, but it also means lip. Likewise, לשון[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/השפה-הארמית-#.m4a” /] – tongue – means both the organ inside our mouths as well as language.
