If you want to know what Christ might have sounded like, more or less, go to the online address www.semarch.uni-de.

It will take you to the Semitic Languages Archive of Heidelberg University in Germany, the only place in the world that has canned between 25 and 30 Aramaic dialects, some still spoken, some extinct.

The one-year old archive has been set up primarily for Aramaic speakers to find out what their ancestors sounded like, Werner Arnold, its founder, told United Press International Monday. However, he added, there is little evidence so far that this group showed much interest.

Those who access "semarch.uni.de" are primarily Europeans, Americans and also Japanese. The only Middle Easterners showing an interest have been Israelis so far, according to Arnold, a professor at Heidelberg University's Semitic Studies Institute.

"At a time when people try to preserve every species and every stone from antiquity, I felt it made sense to make sure that the sounds of the Orient do not disappear into oblivion," he said explaining his project that is financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Germany's equivalent of the Research Foundation in the United States.

The Aramaic closest to the language spoken by Jesus and the apostles has survived in three Syrian villages, whose 5,000-10,000 inhabitants are predominantly Greek Catholic or Orthodox Christians, though even their idiom its about as different from Christ's as Italian is from Latin, according to Arnold.

However, it's the highly literary Eastern Aramaic dialects of Christians, Jews and the Mandaean sect of Gnostics that are particularly threatened by extinction, due to persecution or armed conflicts in Iraq, Turkey and Iran.

The last speaker of the Aramaic tongue once spoken in Mlahso, a Turkish village destroyed during the 1915 anti-Armenian genocide, died two years ago. His name was Ibrahim Hanna. He happened to be in the vineyards when the massacre took place and managed to escape.

Another Turkish village that disappeared was Bestin. It was razed during Turkey's bloody conflict with the Kurds. Its survivors now live in Sarcelles, near Paris, where researchers taped them telling fables and poems and discussing their customs and traditional dress.

Arnold estimates there only 200,000-1,000,000 Aramaic-speakers left around the world, most of who live in the United States, France, Britain and other Western countries.

But quite apart from its link to Jesus' language, Aramaic is of great cultic significance. Aramaic was the first language into which the Bible was translated from Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek in the 2nd century A.D.

It is still the liturgical language of a fascinating array of Oriental denominations: the Syrian Orthodox, the Nestorians, who were the first to send missionaries to China and even Japan; the Chaldeans, who are in union with Rome, even the Mar Thoma Church of India, which claims the apostle Thomas – the doubter - as its founder.

"To these churches Aramaic is what Latin used to be to Roman Catholics and Slavonic still is to the Russian Orthodox," explained Arnold.

Another remarkable religious group speaking a version of Aramaic are the persecuted Mandaeans, a Gnostic sect in Iran. They are related to the Manichaeism, which posed a mortal danger to orthodox Christianity in the 3rd century.

There are some 20,000 Mandaeans left in Iran, Arnold said. "They are not recognized as a religion, may not marry and are not allowed to go to school."

Like Manichaeism, the Mandaean religion is a dualistic faith, distinguishing between a world of light and a world of darkness. Its highest deity is Malka Rama-Da, the king of light. Under him, there is a subordinate, sinister god, the Demiurge Ptahil, who created the physical universe.

The Mandaeans consider Jesus a false prophet but revere St. John the Baptist, whose activities one of their Scriptures, the Book of John, describes. If you want to hear what it sounds like when Mandaean priests recite from sacred volumes like this, go to semarch.uni.de.

The time may not be far off when this unique Internet address will be the only place in the world where such echoes from a distant past can be heard.Reuters