Syriac

Syriac is an Eastern Aramaic language, which used to be spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent, and is still used liturgically by followers of several churches in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Iraq, and Turkey. In its "classical" form, it became extinct in the 10th to 12th centuries, but is still very occasionally used as a literary secular language; however, descendant dialects/languages are still spoken in several corners of the Middle East, including western Syria (the village of Ma'lula and two neighboring villages), various villages all over the area known to Aramaic speakers as Bethnahrin and often called Kurdistan in English (and especially around Lake Urmia), and isolated communities as far north as Azerbaijan. It is still used in the liturgy of the Syrian Orthodox Church and, to a lesser extent, in the Malankara Orthodox Church. It is written in the Syriac alphabet.