Wikipedia on Aramaic

Jim Davila discusses the Wikipedia article on "Aramaic Language" in this post (follow his link to Wikipedia).

It should be pointed out that the entire Wikipedia article represents the dialectal views of principally one scholar only: Klaus Beyer, as presented in his Die aramäische Texte vom Toten Meer (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1984). The sections on dialectology have been translated into English as The Aramaic Language (1986).

Beyer is a fine scholar, but his dialect divisions and periodizations are not universally or even generally accepted. If I have time, maybe I'll discuss this some more in future posts. But for now note that the Wikipedia article, to reflect more mainstream views, would have to be totally rewritten, not revised here and there. Use it with caution.