Liturgical language in the context of "Balinese script"

The Syriac language (/ˈsɪriæk/ SIRR-ee-ak; Classical Syriac: ܠܫܢܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ, romanized: Leššānā Suryāyā), also known natively in its spoken form in early Syriac literature as Edessan (Urhāyā), the Mesopotamian language (Nahrāyā) and Aramaic (Aramāyā), is an Eastern Middle Aramaic dialect. Classical Syriac is the academic term used to refer to the dialect's literary usage and standardization, distinguishing it from other Aramaic dialects also known as 'Syriac' or 'Syrian'. In its West-Syriac tradition, Classical Syriac is often known as leššōnō kṯoḇonōyō (lit. 'the written language or the book language') or simply kṯoḇonōyō, or kṯowonōyō, while in its East-Syriac tradition, it is known as leššānā ʔatīqā (lit. 'the old language') or saprāyā (lit. 'scribal or literary').

It emerged during the first century AD from a local Eastern Aramaic dialect that was spoken in the ancient region of Osroene, centered in the city of Edessa. During the Early Christian period, it became the main literary language of various Aramaic-speaking Christian communities in the historical region of Ancient Syria and throughout the Near East. As a liturgical language of Syriac Christianity, it gained a prominent role among Eastern Christian communities that used both Eastern Syriac and Western Syriac rites. Following the spread of Syriac Christianity, it also became a liturgical language of eastern Christian communities as far as India and China. It flourished from the 4th to the 8th century, and continued to have an important role during the next centuries, but by the end of the Middle Ages it was gradually reduced to liturgical use, since the role of vernacular language among its native speakers was overtaken by several emerging Neo-Aramaic languages.

Old Church Slavonic (OCS) or Old Slavonic (/sləˈvɒnɪk, slæˈvɒn-/ slə-VON-ik, slav-ON-) is the first Slavic literary language and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the South Slavic subgroup of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family and remains the liturgical language of many Christian Orthodox churches.

Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with standardizing the language and undertaking the task of translating the Gospels and necessary liturgical books into it as part of the Christianization of the Slavs. It is thought to have been based primarily on the dialect of the 9th-century Byzantine Slavs living in the Province of Thessalonica (in present-day Greece).

Geʽez (/ˈɡiːɛz/ GEE-ez; Ge'ez: ግዕዝ, romanized: Gəʽəz, IPA: [ˈɡɨʕɨz] ) is an abugida used to write several Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-Saharan languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea. It originated as an abjad (consonantal alphabet) and was first used to write the Geʽez language, now the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Eritrean Catholic Church, the Ethiopian Catholic Church, and Haymanot Judaism of the Beta Israel Jewish community in Ethiopia. In the languages Amharic and Tigrinya, the script is often called fidäl (ፊደል), meaning "script" or "letter". Under the Unicode Standard and ISO 15924, it is defined as Ge'ez text.

The Geʽez script has been adapted to write other languages, mostly Ethiopian and Eritrean Semitic, particularly Amharic in Ethiopia, and Tigrinya in both Eritrea and Ethiopia. It has also been used to write Sebat Bet and other Gurage languages and at least 20 other languages of Ethiopia. In Eritrea it has traditionally been used for Tigre and just recently for Bilen. The Geʽez script has also recently been used to write Anuak, and used in limited extent to write some other Nilo-Saharan Nilotic languages, including Majang languages. It was also used in the past to write some Omotic languages, including Wolaytta, Bench, Hamer, and Kafa.For the representation of sounds, this article uses a system that is common (though not universal) among linguists who work on Ethiopian Semitic languages. This differs somewhat from the conventions of the International Phonetic Alphabet. See the articles on the individual languages for information on the pronunciation.

The Syriac Orthodox Church (Classical Syriac: ܥܺܕܬܳܐ ܣܽܘܪܝܳܝܬܳܐ ܬܪܺܝܨܰܬ݂ ܫܽܘܒܚܳܐ, romanized: ʿIdto Sūryoyto Trīṣāth Šubḥō), also informally known as the Jacobite Church, is an Oriental Orthodox denomination that originated from the Church of Antioch. The Church currently has around 1.5 million followers worldwide. The Church upholds the Miaphysite doctrine in Christology and employs the Liturgy of Saint James, associated with James the Just. Classical Syriac is the official and liturgical language of the Church.

The supreme head of the Syriac Orthodox Church is the patriarch of Antioch, a bishop who, according to sacred tradition, continues the leadership passed down from Saint Peter. Since 2014, Ignatius Aphrem II has served as the Syriac Orthodox Antiochian patriarch. The Great Church of Antioch was the patriarchal seat and the headquarters of the Church until c. 518, after which Severus of Antioch had to flee to Alexandria, Egypt. After the death of Severus, the patriarchal seat moved from Egypt to different monasteries like the Mor Bar Sauma Monastery; some patriarchs also set up headquarters in Antioch temporarily. Later, Mor Hananyo Monastery was declared as the patriarchal seat and the headquarters of the Church from c. 1160 until 1932. In 1959, the patriarchal seat and headquarters were relocated to the Cathedral of Saint George in Bab Tuma, Damascus, Syria, due to conflicts in the region.

Classical Arabic or Quranic Arabic (Arabic: العربية الفصحى, romanized: al-ʻArabīyah al-Fuṣḥā, lit. 'the most eloquent Arabic') is the standardized literary form of Arabic used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notably in Umayyad and Abbasid literary texts such as poetry, elevated prose and oratory, and is also the liturgical language of Islam, "Quranic" referring to the Quran. Classical Arabic is, furthermore, the register of the Arabic language on which Modern Standard Arabic is based.

Several written grammars of Classical Arabic were published with the exegesis of Arabic grammar being at times based on the existing texts and the works of previous texts, in addition to various early sources considered to be of most venerated genesis of Arabic. The primary focus of such works was to facilitate different linguistic aspects.

Avestan (/əˈvɛstən/ ə-VESS-tən) is the liturgical language of Zoroastrianism. It belongs to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family and was originally spoken during the Avestan period (c. 1500 – 400 BCE) by the Iranians living in eastern Greater Iran as evidenced from names in Avestan geography.

After Avestan became extinct, its religious texts were transmitted orally, then collected and put into writing during the Sasanian period (c. 400 – 500 CE). The extant material falls into two groups: Old Avestan (c. 1500 – 900 BCE) and Younger Avestan (c. 900 – 400 BCE). The immediate ancestor of Old Avestan was the Proto-Iranian language, a sister language to the Proto-Indo-Aryan language, with both having developed from the earlier Proto-Indo-Iranian language. As such, Old Avestan is quite close in both grammar and lexicon to Vedic Sanskrit, the oldest preserved Indo-Aryan language.

Balinese (/ˈbɑːlɪniːz/ BAH-lih-neez; Basa Bali, Balinese script: ᬩᬲᬩᬮᬶ, IPA: [ˈbasə ˈbali]) is an Austronesian language spoken primarily by the Balinese people on the Indonesian island of Bali, as well as Nusa Penida, Western Lombok, and Eastern Java, and also spread to Southern Sumatra, and Sulawesi due to the transmigration program. Most Balinese speakers also use Indonesian. The 2000 national census recorded 3.3 million people speakers of Balinese with only 1 million people still using the Balinese language in their daily lives according to the Bali Cultural Agency estimated in 2011.

The higher registers of the language borrow extensively from Javanese: an old form of classical Javanese, Kawi, is used in Bali as a religious and ceremonial language, while most of Balinese speakers use the low register known as Kapara Balinese as their everyday language. Most speakers of Balinese also speak Indonesian for official and commercial purposes as well as a means to communicate with non-Balinese-speaking Indonesians.

Old Georgian (ႤႬႠჂ ႵႠႰႧႭჃႪႨ, enay kartuli) is a literary language of the Georgian monarchies attested from the 5th century. The language remains in use as the liturgical language of the Georgian Orthodox Church and for the most part is still intelligible. Spoken Old Georgian gave way to what is classified as Middle Georgian in the 11th century, which in turn developed into the modern Georgian language in the 18th century.