Hanging out in Mountains, Ma'lula Speaks Deep HistoryYes, "Ma'lula" is a new spelling. I hope that last paragraph means that the language center at Maaloula, which was closed awhile ago on ridiculous anti-Semitic grounds, has been reopened. The Syrian Government certainly has other battles to concern itself with right now.
Jun 02, 2011
DAMASCUS, (SANA)- The isolated position of Ma'lula in the mountains played a notable role in preserving the Aramaic Language and its Syriac dialect, the language of the Christ.
This immunity, however, was not that invulnerable since other languages found access to Ma'lula, being a first class tourist town known for a deep defile which is believed to have split apart making a way for St. Takla (Thecla) when she fled her powerful pagan father in 68 A.D.
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In realization of the dream of Ma'lula inhabitants and that of their ancestors of keeping their language from extinction, a center for teaching the Aramaic language and the Syriac dialect was opened to be the first of its kind in the world.
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Background here.
Cross-file under "Aramaic Watch."