Arabic is the official language of Syria. Several modern Arabic dialects are used in everyday life, most notably Levantine in the west and Mesopotamian in the northeast. Kurdish (in its Kurmanji form) is widely spoken in the Kurdish regions of Syria. Armenian and Syrian Turkmen (Azeri) are spoken among the Armenian and Turkmen minorities.
Aramaic was the lingua franca of the region before the advent of Arabic, and is still spoken among Assyrians, and Classical Syriac is still used as the liturgical language of various Syriac Christian denominations. Most remarkably, Western Neo-Aramaic is still spoken in the village of Ma‘loula as well as two neighboring villages, 35 miles (56 km) northeast of Damascus.
Syrian Sign Language is the principal language of the deaf community. Many educated Syrians also speak English, French, Russian, German and Spanish, especially in Damascus and Aleppo and in the schools Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle and l’École Française d’Alep.