Semitic Language

The Semitic languages are five branches of the Hamito-Semitic or Afro-Asiatic language. Of all the Semitic languages Arabic spread from its home in the Arabian Peninsula and over the centuries throughout the Arabian Empire and is now spoken across North Africa to the Atlantic coast. The other Semitic languages seemed to center in and around the regions of Syria, Iraq, Iran and the Arab Peninsula. Historically Semitic languages have been written in three scripts Assyro-Babylonian, North Semitic and South Semitic.

Assyro-Babylonian was written in cuneiform signs and Ugaritic a cuneiform alphabet. North Semitic was an early alphabetic script. Modern Arabic, Hebrew and Greek consonant only alphabets came from the Aramaic variant of North Semitic. South Semitic was also a consonantal alphabet that gave rise to the syllabic scripts of Ethiopian languages. Written records in the Semitic languages go back 5000 years The Semitic languages are grouped geographically, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest. Northwest Semitic consists of 2 major groups that are Aramaic and Canaanite. The group Canaanite is represented by three forms of languages Ugaritic, Phoenician, and Hebrew. This group includes the ancient and modern Hebrew language ancient tongues such as Ugaritic and Phoenician; and the Aramaic language including Syriac, or Christian Aramaic. Northeast Semitic consists of the Akkadian language represented by Babylonian and Assyrian. The Assyro-Babylonian language or Akkadian is classed as the oldest attested Semitic language along with the oldest Semitic literature known.

The language Akkadian was spoken in Ancient Mesopotamia between approximately 3000 BC and 400 BC and used as a literary language until the 100AD. The Southwest and Southeast Semitic languages consisted of North and South Arabic and Ethiopic. This consists of the literary or standard Arabic and the modern spoken Arabic dialects. Also within this group are the south Arabic dialects that are now spoken in parts of the southern Arabian Peninsula and the languages of Ethiopia, in the ancient times these were spoken by peoples such as the Minaeans and Sabaeans. The five branches of Semitic languages are generally placed into three main groups, Eastern Semitic, North western or Western Semitic and South western or Southern Semitic. Eastern Semitic The East Semitic languages consist of one main language Akkadian. Akkadian had two main dialects Babylonian and Assyrian the former spoken in southern Mesopotamia and Assyrian spoken in the north. The spoken languages of Babylonian and Assyrian eventually faded into history and were replaced by Aramaic.

North Western Semitic The main North Western Semitic groups are the ancient languages of Amorite, Ugaritic, the Canaanite languages and Aramaic. Ugaritic seems to be an early form of the Canaanite language. Most of the Ugaritic texts were written with alphabetic characters similar to cuneiform scripts. The main Canaanite languages were Phoenician, Punic, Moabite, Edomite, Hebrew and Ammonite. The Canaanite languages are a group of closely related languages and dialects that were spoken in Phoenicia. Aramaic spread through territories replacing many dialects and languages. Many of the ancient Semitic languages including Akkadian and Hebrew died out and were supplanted by Aramaic. The Aramaic alphabet was derived from Phoenician Canaanite script. Aramaic divided into different forms under two main groups West Aramaic and East Aramaic. West Aramaic languages included Aramaic of Hatra, Galilean Aramaic, Nabataean, Palmyrene, Samaritan Aramaic and Syriac. East Aramaic is divided into the Syriac dialects Christians, Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and Mandaean. South Western Semitic The Main South Western Semitic groups are the South Arabian languages, Arabic and the Ethiopian languages. The South Arabian language had several dialects including Sabaean, Minaean, Qatabanian and Hadramauth its alphabet was derived from Canaanite consonant script. Arabic spread rapidly through conquest from Persia and Asia Minor to Spain and the Sahara.

The Ethiopian language in its earliest form is known as Ge ez, and is commonly called Ethiopian. It diverged from the South Arabian languages. In Ethiopia several Semitic languages are still spoken but none of them can be considered to be direct descendants of Ge ez.