Aramaic (Arāmāyā, Syriac:ܐܪܡܝܐ‎) is a family of languages or dialects belonging to the Semitic family. More specifically, it is part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily, which also includes Canaanite languages such as Hebrew and Phoenician. The Aramaic alphabet was widely adopted for other languages and is ancestral to the Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic alphabets. Jesus, the central figure of Christianity, spoke an Aramaic dialect during his public ministry.