Semitic

Table 2: The Semitic Languages - Ancient and Modern
Group	Primary Branching	Secondary Branching 1	Sec. Branching 2	Sec. Branching 3	Sec. Branching 4	Main languages or groups	Group members	Dialects and Provenience		Arch. Evidences of Ancient Languages
Semitic	East Semitic					Akkadian		Akkadian (or Babylonian-Assyrian) is the collective name for the spoken languages of the people of Mesopotamia in the 3000 years BC. Often classified into Babylonian & Assyrian, but both are dialects of Akkadian *from different eras. Named after the ancient city-state of Akkad.*		First ever recorded inscriptions are *Akkadian cuneiforms. Evolved from Sumerian* Cuneiform, but Sumerian is an isolate language, not included in any family.
	West Semitic	Central Semitic	North-Western Semitic			Eblaite		This language when first discovered was thought to be a variant of Akkadian, but later proved to be different. Appendages as suggested by Lameen Souag: Eblaite is often regarded as early NW-Semitic rather than E Semitic.		Eblaite was discovered from recent excavations of cuneiform tablets in Ebla, Syria in 1974; the inscriptions are from around 2400 BC. The city of Ebla flourished in the 3rd millennium BC and was destroyed around 2200 BC.
						Language from Biblos		*Once spoken in the Phoenician city of Biblos, on the Eastern Mediterranean shore.*		Some documents with pseudo-hieroglyphic inscriptions from 14th cent. BC.
						Proto-Sinaite		Once spoken in the Sinai peninsula, used by copper-mine workers employed there by the Egyptian Kingdom.		Inscriptions with the oldest alphabet, 15th cent. BC.
						Language from Lachish		*Once spoken in the city of Lachish* of Ancient Palestine.**
						Ugaritic		Once spoken in Syria; it produced immense sensation after its discovery in 1928 in the City of Ras Shamara or ancient Ugarit in N.W. Syria. Concurrent in 15th-13th cent. BC. The Ugaritic language has variously been regarded as an early form of Hebrew, an early form of Phoenician, an early dialect of Canaanite, and an independent dialect of NW Semitic. Its classification is still unresolved. The writings in Ugaritic are important in the study of the Hebrew language and biblical literature of the early period. Appendages as suggested by Lameen Souag: Ugaritic has no real descendants, but it comes from the same NW-Semitic dialect group that both Hebrew and Aramaic descended from. It's actually very much like Arabic in the grammar, because it's so conservative.		In Ugarit was found ancient clay tablets with writing in this language. Ugarit flourished before the 12th cent. BC. The Ugaritic archive is from 1400-1200 BC, and represents the earliest materials of NW Semitic.
						Canaanite Group		The Canaanite group subsumes the ancient languages of Phoenician, Punic, Hebrew, Ammonite, Moabite, and Edomite, primarily geographical dialect designations. Modern Hebrew is a resurrected version of Ancient Hebrew. Canaan is the name of the ancient region that comprised Palestine, Phoenicia, and part of Syria.
							Amorite			Only known from proper names mentioned in the Bible, concurrent in 2000-1600 BC.
							Phoenician, Punic	Languages of the Phoenician city-states and their colonies. Phoenician was spoken on the Eastern Mediterranean shore, while Punic is a variant of original Phoenician used in the city of Carthage, the leading city of North Africa.		The earliest inscriptions in Phoenician that can be deciphered are dated c. 10th cent. BC. The language is also preserved in inscriptions from ancient Phoenician colonies, especially Carthage.
							El-Amarna	Language from archives found in Tell El Amarna, Egypt, which was the capital Akhetaten during Akhenaten's rule. There was a community of Ancient Jews living there during the New Kingdom Period.		Correspondence letters from Imperial Archives from 12th cent. BC.
							Moabite			The existence of Moabite is known from a single inscription dating from c. 9th cent. BC., from proper names that occur in the Old Testament, and from the inscriptions of other peoples.
							Hebrew	Language of the Old Testament and Talmud		Hebrew ceased to be spoken as a native language by 200 BC.
							Modern Hebrew	*Modern Hebrew is called Ivrit, which is a standardized form to facilitate communication through newspapers or radio.*		Modern Hebrew refers either to: a. Revival of Hebrew in Eastern Europe by Jewish intellectuals - mostly as a written language. b. Revival of Modern Hebrew in Israel as a fully functional written and spoken language.
						Aramaic Group
							Old Aramaic			Inscriptions from Syria, 10th-8th cent. BC
							Aramaic	Language of the New Assyrian Empire, 7th-4th cent. BC. Once used as the lingua franca of West Asia for trade and administration.
							Western Aramaic
								Nabataen	*Once spoken by the Arabian population of Petra, Jordan.*	*The famous Qumran Rolls* are written in Nabataean.**
								Palmyrene	*Once spoken by the Arabian population of Palmyra, Jordan.*
								Jewish Palestinian Aramaic	*It is widely believed that Jesus Christ spoke this dialect of Aramaic. Spoken in the Kingdom of Judah* and Isra'el during Roman rule.**
								Samaritan Aramaic	Concurrent around 4th cent. BC.
								Christian Palestinian Aramaic	*Christian Melkieten, 5th-8th cent. AD.*
								Modern Western Aramaic or Western Neo-Aramaic	Still spoken in villages near Damascus. Used by sects of Christians in Syria, Iraq and Iran. Appendages as suggested by Lameen Souag: Western Neo-Aramaic is spoken only near Damascus, but Eastern Neo-Aramaic (see below) is also still spoken natively in parts of Turkey, Iraq, and Iran.
							Eastern Aramaic
								Syriac	*Spoken in the city of Edessa, during 3rd-13th cent. AD.*
								Babylonian Syriac		*The Babylonian Talmud* from around 4th-6th cent. AD.**
								Mandaean	*Spoken by the gnostic religious community of Mandaeans* (3rd-8th cent. AD). Still spoken in some parts of Iran.**
								Modern Eastern Aramaic or Eastern Neo-Aramaic	Present-day Aramaic spoken in villages in South-Eastern Turkey, Iraq and Iran.
			Classical Arabic			Pre-Classical Arabic		Arabic was the main language of the Arabian peninsula in the pre-Islamic era or Jahiliyyah period (4th-5th cent. AD), and in certain areas of Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia.
						Classical North Arabic		Arabic was formalized in extensive written form in the 7th-8th centuries AD in the Qur'an. The Qur'an is read by Muslims around the world, some of whom understand the Classical Arabic, not the modern dialects. Concurrent as spoken from 4th-10th cent. AD.
							Modern Arabic Dialects	Modern Arabic is a standardized modern form of Classical Arabic. Spoken Arabic dialects differ widely depending on the country. The different dialects are listed here: Ethnologue Report for Arabic.	*Western or Maghreb* dialect: spoken in North African countries - Western Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Sudan, Chad, Nigeria.**
									*Eastern or Levantine* dialect: spoken in the Middle East - Arabian peninsula, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Israel, Egypt.**
									Appendages as suggested by Lameen Souag: The Bedouin dialects should be separated from the rest. There Arabic creoles as well, spoken mainly in African countries such as Kenya, Chad, Uganda, Sudan etc. Among these are Ki-Nubi, Babalia Creole and Sudanese Creole. They are listed here: Ethnologue Report for Arabic-Based.
		South Semitic	Western	Ethiopic	North	Ge'ez or Classical Ethiopic		*One of the three members of North Ethiopic Semitic branch, still used as a liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. But no native speakers exist.*
					North		Tigre, Tigrinya	*Originated from Ge'ez.* Tigre is spoken in Northern Eritrea. Tigrinya is one of the official language of Eritrea, spoken in central Eritrea and Northern Ethiopia.**
					South	Outer	many	*Numerous languages such as: Soddo, Goggot, Muher, W. Gurage: Ezha, Masqan, Gyeto, Gura, Ennemor, Endegen, Chaho,* etc.**
						Transverse	Amharic	The official language of Ethiopia. Spoken in Central and Southern highlands of Ethiopia and Addis Ababa.
							Harari	*Also called Ge Sinaan* by its speakers or Adare/Adarinya. Spoken in the walled Muslim city of Harar in Eastern Ethiopia.**
							Gurage	Eastern Gurage Group: Seiti, Wolane, Zway, Ulbare, Inneqor.
							others	Argobba is an endangered language, spoken in a few scattered regions of Ankober north of Addis Ababa. Gafat is a dead language of Gojjam area, last speakers died in the 20th century.
				Old South Arabian				*Closely related languages of the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula, of Yemen, Oman, etc. The main languages are: Sabaean, Minaean, Qatabanian, Hadramautic.*		About 5,000 inscriptions in Ancient South Arabic (or Himyaritic), from the 8th to the 5th century AD, were found in what is now Yemen. Sabaean inscriptions were also found in Ethiopia.
			Eastern				Modern South Arabian	South Arabian languages spoken on the tip of the Arabian peninsula. They share features with both Arabic and Ethiopian Semitic.		The dialects spoken today in parts of Southern Arabian peninsula are called Modern South Arabic. Their relationship to the ancient South Arabic dialects has not yet been determined.
								Soqotri	*Dialect spoken in the island of Soqotra* off the Yemeni coast.**
								Jibbali	Spoken in parts of Oman.
								Mehri	Spoken in Yemen and Oman.
								Harsusi	Spoken in Oman.

Group	Primary Branching	Secondary Branching 1	Sec. Branching 2	Sec. Branching 3	Sec. Branching 4	Main languages or groups	Group members	Dialects and Provenience		Arch. Evidences of Ancient Languages

The writing used for Semitic languages is either cuneiform or alphabetic writing. The latter has two principal division, the North Semitic script and the South Semitic script. The oldest known writing system employed by Semitic-speaking peoples is cuneiform. It was adopted by the Akkadians c. 2500 BC from the Sumerians, whose language was not a Semitic tongue. The Sumerian cuneiform goes back to about 4000 BC, and it was used by various peoples until about the 2nd cent. BC. Babylonian and Assyrian, which were later dialects of Akkadian, also employed cuneiform. At first cuneiform was written from top to bottom in vertical rows, with the first row at the right, but at a later date the direction of writing was reversed, that is, it was written in horizontal rows from left to right. The North Semitic and South Semitic scripts are thought by some scholars to go back to a common source, a hypothetical proto-Semitic writing system. Others dispute this and regard the origin of the South Semitic alphabet as a still unsolved problem. The source of the proto-Semitic alphabetic script has been variously conjectured to be Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Babylonian cuneiform, or other writing systems.

The North Semitic writing is alphabetic in that each sign or symbol represents a consonantal sound of the language. Vowels for some time were omitted. Symbols of various kinds to indicate the vowels for Hebrew, Arabic and Syriac probably date from the 8th cent. AD. The North Semitic script consists of a Canaanite branch and an Aramaic branch. The Canaanite branch gave rise to Early Hebrew writing and Phoenician writing. Another descendant of the Canaanite branch is the Greek alphabet, which is the parent of all modern European alphabets, including the Roman and the Cyrillic. According to a Greek tradition, the Phoenicians passed on their alphabet to the Greeks. The oldest extant Early Hebrew text is dated at about the 11th or 10th cent. BC. Early Hebrew writing was the alphabet of the Jews until they adopted Aramaic instead of Hebrew as their spoken language sometime before the Christian era, when they also began to use the Square Hebrew letters derived from the Aramaic writing. The only descendant of the Early Hebrew alphabet still in use is the Samaritan writing. Records of the Aramaic script go back to the 9th cent. BC. After about 500 BC the Aramaic alphabet was used throughout the Middle East. In addition to being the parent of Square Hebrew letters, from which evolved modern Hebrew writing, the Aramaic alphabet is the ancestor of Arabic writing, the Syriac scripts, and other Semitic alphabets. Aramaic writing probably also gave rise to the significant alphabet writing systems of Asia, such as the Devanāgari so widely used in India.

As Islam spread to various nations in Africa and Asia, it was accompanied by the Arabic alphabet. For example, Arabic writing was adapted for Persian, Pushtu, Urdu, Malay, the Berber languages, Swahili, Hausa, and Turkish. (Since 1928, however, the Roman alphabet has been used for Turkish). The Ancient South Arabic inscriptions found in Yemen employed the South Semitic alphabet, which is no longer used on the Arabian peninsula. This alphabet was taken to Ethiopia during the first millennium BC and is still used there, in modified form, for the Ethiopic languages. In fact, the sole noteworthy South Semitic script to survive until modern times is the one employed for the Ethiopic languages. All other known alphabets are believed to be derived from North Semitic writing. Although the South Arabic letters form a consonantal alphabet, the Ethiopic writing is syllabic in nature. Ethiopic consonants have six or more forms, each depending on the vowel following the consonant, but this may be a later development. In any case, the origin of the syllabic nature of the script is an unsolved problem. All Semitic languages are written from right to left except Ethiopic, Assyrian, and Babylonian, which are written from left to right.

In addition to a common source for their most ancient vocabulary, as well as other syntactic similarities, what binds the branches of the Afro-Asiatic family (evidently, the Semitic subfamily, too) together is their tri-consonantal root system, composed of three consonants separated by vowels. In this system most words consist of three consonants, while a lesser number have two or (to an even lesser extent) four consonants. In any one word, these consonants are called the "root", and the root relates to the general concept behind the meaning of the word. Usually, the root is unalterable, although it can be inflected by the use of infixes (elements which are inserted within the root) of vowels and by prefixes and suffixes, all of which denote grammatical changes and which form new words with related meanings. Two genders, masculine and feminine, are found in Semitic languages. The feminine is often indicated by the suffixes -t or -at. The plural can be formed either by adding a suffix to the singular or by an internal vowel change, as in Arabic kitab, "book", but kutub, "books." The Semitic verb is distinguished by it ability to form from the same root a number of derived stems that express new meanings based on the fundamental sense, such as passive, reflexive, causative, and intensive.

Most significantly, the vowels of the root -- and hence its vocalization -- change depending upon how the root is used in any given part of speech, e.g., as a noun, a verb, or in a certain mood, case or verb tense, etc. The pattern of vowel usage and change is called the "scheme". Thus, root and scheme are the two major elements which constitute the word in the Afro-asiatic languages. For example, in Arabic the root pertaining to the concept of teaching and learning is d-r-s. While the consonants drs will always remain the same, the scheme and vocalization will change depending upon usage, e.g.:

The same system holds for Akkadian. The consonants would remain the same, while the vowels and vocalization changed according to use. With the use of the cuneiform writing system (borrowed frm the Sumerians, a non-Semitic langauge), with sign values that stand for syllables. Akkadian is the only Semitic language in which the vowels are explicitly spelled.

The Semitic languages are believed to have evolved from a hypothetical parent tongue, proto-Semitic. The place of origin of proto-Semitic is still disputed: Africa, Arabia, and Mesopotamia are the most probable locations.