AramaicDesigns

Mandalynn, the same comments I addressed to Frannie would also apply to your request. Are you looking for modern Aramaic, classical Jewish Aramaic, or an ancient or Biblical dialect? Chances are you will not find an ancient or Biblical dialect of Aramaic (ie what Jesus spoke) lying around the internet. Scholars in the field don't tend to do translations, either for free or commercially, and there are lots of abominable mistranslations out there, some tattooed on peoples' skins (look of "Aramaic tattoos" on Google, there's a blog that documents these).

If you're certain you want an ancient or Biblical Aramaic translation, I'd be glad to happy to point you in the right direction, it's not undoable. As for any translation, be very, very careful and please get a "second opinion" before you do anything permanent!
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Nayla Caruso
Customer Service
Aramaic Designs

mandalynn

Aramaic Designs,
I wasn't aware of the countless types of Aramaic. Would it be possible to get the type that Jesus would've spoken? Or is that the one you referred to as being hard to find? What kind of translation could you do for me?

AramaicDesigns

Mandalynn, The dialect of Jesus would be 1st century Galilean, which obviously predates Aramaic dialects such as Classical Syriac (300-800 AD) and New Testament dialects by a bit. It's absolutely not synonymous with Neo-Aramaic dialects or Jewish literary Aramaics. (In point of fact, there was some controversy in the 1st century about even letting Galileans pray in the Temple! Their pronunciation was so different, think of it as the Southern drawl of the Near East, that Pharisees claimed their prayers sounded like curses. Snobs, huh?) There is only one provider of ancient and Biblical dialects of Aramaic that I know of, that would be the firm that I represent, and we're commercial. We do offer 1st century Galilean, so in that sense it's not hard, but there aren't many options out there. For the most part, the people who know ancient and Biblical dialects are academics, they'd translate a scroll you found in a cave, but that's it. Not many people are motivated to learn all of these dialects to proficiency unless that's their field. In our case, it is our field, we just lean more towards academic support and professional translating than professorship (although, actually, professorship is in the works).

Pointer for 1st century Galilean Aramaic translations: get it in the proper script. Herodian is a family of scripts based on handwriting examples from the "Herodian" period, ie contemporary to Jesus. One of the benefits of using the correct script is that people are less likely to bother you with "I know Aramaic and that's not Aramaic!" Classic example: you can write Aramaic with Hebrew characters, but if you get a tattoo of it, you'll be endlessly explaining that, no, it is not misspelled Hebrew. If you want to see an example of Herodian script, you can go to Aramaic Designs, then click on the "more info" link next to the description of Herodian.

__________________
Nayla Caruso
Customer Service
Aramaic Designs
http://aramaicdesigns.blogspot.com/
http://aramaicdesigns.rogueleaf.com/

Doonay

I would love the word

Family

for a tattoo, but as it is really written...
I am female.

beky4

Family - משפחה - in Hebrew.
Please do not use the Hebrew Language for a tatto.
thanks.

Doonay

why is that??
are you able to write it in aramaic??

beky4

The prohibition of tattooing is found in the Torah: "You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the Lord" (Leviticus 19:28).Thanks for understanding.

I can not help you with Aramic, sorry.