Judaeo-Aramaic languages represent a group of Hebrew-influenced Aramaic and Neo-Aramaic languages. Early use Aramaic, like Hebrew, is a Northwest Semitic language, and the two share many features. From the 7th century BCE, Aramaic became the lingua franca of the Middle East. It became the language of diplomacy and trade, but it was not yet used by ordinary Hebrews. As described in 2 Kings , the messengers of Hezekiah, king of Judah, demand to negotiate with ambassadors in Aramaic rather than Hebrew (yehudit, literally "Judean" or "Judahite") so that the common people would not understand. Gradual adoption During the 6th century BCE, the Babylonian captivity brought the working language of Mesopotamia much more into the daily life of ordinary Jews. Around 500 BCE, Darius I of Persia proclaimed that Aramaic would be the official language for the western half of his empire, and the Eastern Aramaic dialect of Babylon became the official standard. In 1955, Richard Frye questioned the classification of Imperial Aramaic as an "official language", noting that no surviving edict expressly and unambiguously accorded that status to any particular language. Documentary evidence shows the gradual shift from Hebrew to Aramaic: Hebrew is used as first language and in society; other similar Canaanite languages are known and understood. Aramaic is used in international diplomacy and foreign trade. Aramaic is used for communication between subjects and in the imperial administration. Aramaic gradually becomes the language of outer life (in the marketplace, for example). Aramaic gradually replaces Hebrew in the home, and the latter is used only in religious activity. The phases took place over a protracted period, and the rate of change varied depending on the place and social class in question: the use of one or other language was probably a social, political, and religious barometer. From Greek conquest to Diaspora The conquest of the Middle East by Alexander the Great in the years from 331 BCE overturned centuries of Mesopotamian dominance and led to the ascendancy of Greek, which became the dominant language throughout the Seleucid Empire, but significant pockets of Aramaic-speaking resistance continued. Judaea was one of the areas in which Aramaic remained dominant, and its use continued among Babylonian Jews as well. The destruction of Persian power, and its replacement with Greek rule helped the final decline of Hebrew to the margins of Jewish society. Writings from the Seleucid and Hasmonaean periods show the complete supersession of