ARAMAIC WATCH: Even at the Pope's funeral?

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals led the funeral ceremony with great tenderness and craft. It was conducted mainly in Latin and Italian but also included several passages in languages used throughout the Catholic world such as Spanish, Swahili, Polish, Filipino, French and English. Arguably, the most spellbinding part was the prayer sung in Greek and, I think, Aramaic by members of the Eastern Churches in an emotional swirl of bejewelled robes, incense and eastern mystery.

It probably was Aramaic, most likely Syriac.

Also, David Nishimura's comments over at Cronaca on the coverage of the funeral by the New York Times are worth reading.

UPDATE: The Syriac Orthodox Church and the Assyrian Church were represented at the funeral, as was the Iraqi Syriac Catholic Church.