ABSTRACT
By the eighth century BCE, Aramaic came to be adopted as an official language (or lingua franca) of the Assyrian empire. It continued this function in the Neo-Babylonian period (sixth century BCE) and func tioned as the main language of administration of the Persian empire (559-332 BCE). It was not only used for correspondence between offi cials, but abundant evidence from the Persian period shows it being used for day-to-day correspondence, as well as being the language of official documents such as marriage, divorce, and land transfer contracts (see, for example, the Elephantine Papyri from a Jewish community in fifth century BCE Egypt). The Aramaic of this period is often called ‘Imperial Aramaic’. Another name is ‘Standard Aramaic’ since, even though not uniform, and despite late dialect differences, it represents the classic form of the Aramaic language that persists in later periods (Fitzmyer 2000: 49).
