Western Aramaic languages

The group was divided into several regional variants, spoken mainly by in the north, by Palmyrenes and the Aramaeans who settled on Mount Lebanon, who would give way to the early Maronites.

In the south, by Judeans (early Jews), Galileans, Samaritans, Pagans, Melkites (who descended from the previously mentioned peoples and followed Chalcedonian Christianity), Nabataeans and possibly the Itureans.

[14] In the middle of the fifth century, Theodoret of Cyrus (d. c. 466) noted that Aramaic, commonly labeled by Greeks as "Syrian" or "Syriac", was widely spoken.

He also stated that "the Osroënians, the Syrians, the people of the Euphrates, the Palestinians, and the Phoenicians all speak Syriac, but with many differences in pronunciation",[15] thus recording the regional diversity of Eastern and Western Aramaic dialects during the late antiquity.

[22] Their populations of these areas avoided cultural and linguistic Arabization due to the remote, mountainous locations of their isolated villages.