"THE MOVIE HAS PUT US ON THE MAP." Thanks to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, the Aramaic-speaking village of Maaloula is now a tourist attraction:

Once the town, with its shrine to an ancient saint, was mainly an out-of-the-way destination for Christian pilgrimage. Suddenly tourists are trekking up a winding mountain road to hear the sounds of Aramaic, at once guttural and lilting. Residents happily respond to requests to recite poems or sing songs.

"The movie has put us on the map," said Ranjess Shelhab, a pharmacist who attends the classes given by St. Tekla Greek Melkite Catholic Church here. "Everybody wants us to speak Aramaic. I want to get it right."

Aramaic is related to Hebrew and Arabic. Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls are written in the ancient language. The Arab expansion of the 7th century elbowed out Aramaic, but it survived in small communities in Iran, Syria, Turkey and Iraq. Aside from Maaloula, a predominantly Christian town, villagers in two Muslim towns in Syria also use Aramaic in daily life.

Everybody in the hamlet uses Aramaic; Arab speakers who come to town don't understand what's going on. Before there was a school to teach the language, it survived by being handed down from parents to their children. Today, most people in the village speak Arabic, too. And if people from Maaloula want to work in Damascus, Arabic is a must.

Largely because of "The Passion's" Aramaic dialogue, it's hard to find someone in mountainside Maaloula who has not seen the Mel Gibson film. Therese Chahine, who keeps house at the St. Tekla monastery, was appreciative but quibbled with the linguistics. Except where Jesus is speaking Aramaic versions of familiar Scripture, she had a hard time understanding the dialogue. "I think they were using a mixture. Sometimes it seemed like Hebrew, sometimes like Arabic. It wasn't like we speak," she said gently.

Although Aramaic is spoken here, few residents can read the 29-letter alphabet. Its grammar is improvised. Elias Saliba, the parish priest who began the Aramaic study course three years ago, said he hopes the town can benefit from the new interest in Aramaic.

"The Passion" prompted the Syrian government to announce funding for his courses, but the money has yet to appear. "It may take a miracle," Saliba said. The Greek Melkites owe allegiance to the Roman Catholic pope.