FROM SMITH’S BIBLE DICTIONARY (1884)

Smith’s Bible Dictionary (1884) — public domain, printed whole.

the family of languages spoken by the descendants of Shem, chiefly the Hebrew, Chaldaic, Assyrian, Arabic Phoenician and Aramaic or Syriac. The Jews in their earlier history spoke the Hebrew, but in Christ�s time they spoke the Aramaic, sometimes called the Syro-Chaldaic.