Afroasiatic (Afro-Asiatic), also known as Afrasian and traditionally Hamito-Semitic (Chamito-Semitic),[3] is a large language family, of several hundred related languages and dialects. There are about 300 or so living languages and dialects, according to the 2009 Ethnologue estimate.[4] It includes languages spoken predominantly in the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel. The Afro-Asiatic family is significant to the field of historical linguistics as possessing the longest recorded history of any language family.
Afro-Asiatic languages are spoken by 350+ million native speakers, the fourth largest number of any language family.[5] The most widely spoken Afroasiatic language is Arabic (including literary Arabic and the spoken colloquial varieties), with about 200 to 230 million native speakers, spoken mostly in the Middle East and parts of North Africa.[6] Berber (including all its varieties) is spoken inMorocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, northern Mali, and northern Niger by about 25 to 35 million people. Other widely spoken Afroasiatic languages are Hausa, the dominant language of northern Nigeria and southern Niger, spoken as a first language by 25 million people and used as a lingua franca by another 20 million across West Africa and the Sahel;[7] Oromo of Ethiopia and Kenya, with about 33 million speakers total; Amharic of Ethiopia, with over 25 million native speakers, not including the millions of other Ethiopians speaking it as a secondary language; Somali, spoken by 15.5 million people in Greater Somalia; and Modern Hebrew, spoken by about seven million people worldwide.
In addition to languages spoken today, Afroasiatic includes several important ancient languages, such as Ancient Egyptian, Akkadian, Biblical Hebrew, and Aramaic.
Etymology[edit]
The Afroasiatic language family was originally referred to as "Hamito-Semitic", a term introduced in the 1860s by the German scholar Karl Richard Lepsius.[8] The name was later popularized by Friedrich Müller in his Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft (Wien 1876-88).[9]
The term "Afroasiatic" (often now spelled as "Afro-Asiatic") was later coined by Maurice Delafosse (1914). However, it did not come into general use until Joseph Greenberg (1963) formally proposed its adoption. In doing so, Greenberg sought to emphasize the fact that Afroasiatic was represented transcontinentally, in both Africa and Asia.[9]
Individual scholars have also called the family "Erythraean" (Tucker 1966) and "Lisramic" (Hodge 1972). In lieu of "Hamito-Semitic", the Russian linguistIgor Diakonoff later suggested the term "Afrasian", meaning "half African, half Asiatic", in reference to the geographic distribution of the family's constituent languages.[8]
The term "Hamito-Semitic" remains in use in the academic traditions of some European countries.
Distribution and branches[edit]
The Afroasiatic language family is usually considered to include the following branches:
While there is general agreement on these six families, there are some points of disagreement among linguists who study Afroasiatic. In particular:
- The Omotic language branch is the most controversial member of Afroasiatic, since the grammatical formatives which most linguists have given greatest weight in classifying languages in the family "are either absent or distinctly wobbly" (Hayward 1995). Greenberg (1963) and others considered it a subgroup of Cushitic, while others have raised doubts about it being part of Afroasiatic at all (e.g. Theil 2006).[1]
- The Afroasiatic identity of Ongota is also broadly questioned, as is its position within Afroasiatic among those who accept it, due to the "mixed" appearance of the language and a paucity of research and data. Harold Fleming (2006) proposes that Ongota constitutes a separate branch of Afroasiatic.[10] Bonny Sands (2009) believes the most convincing proposal is by Savà and Tosco (2003), namely that Ongota is an East Cushitic language with a Nilo-Saharan substratum. In other words, it would appear that the Ongota people once spoke a Nilo-Saharan language but then shifted to speaking a Cushitic language while retaining some characteristics of their earlier Nilo-Saharan language.[1]
- Beja is sometimes listed as a separate branch of Afroasiatic but is more often included in the Cushitic branch, which has a high degree of internal diversity.
- Whether the various branches of Cushitic actually form a language family is sometimes questioned, but not their inclusion in Afroasiatic itself.
- There is no consensus on the interrelationships of the five non-Omotic branches of Afroasiatic (see "Subgrouping" below). This situation is not unusual, even among long-established language families: there are also many disagreements concerning the internal classification of the Indo-European languages, for instance.
- Meroitic has been proposed as an unclassified Afroasiatic language, as it shares the phonotactics characteristic of the family, but there is not enough evidence to secure a classification.
Classification history[edit]
In the 9th century, the Hebrew grammarian Judah ibn Quraysh of Tiaret in Algeria was the first to link two branches of Afroasiatic together; he perceived a relationship between Berber and Semitic. He knew of Semitic through his study of Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic.
In the course of the 19th century, Europeans also began suggesting such relationships. In 1844, Theodor Benfey suggested a language family consisting of Semitic, Berber, and Cushitic (calling the latter "Ethiopic"). In the same year, T.N. Newman suggested a relationship between Semitic and Hausa, but this would long remain a topic of dispute and uncertainty.
Friedrich Müller named the traditional "Hamito-Semitic" family in 1876 in his Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft. He defined it as consisting of a Semitic group plus a "Hamitic" group containing Egyptian, Berber, and Cushitic; he excluded the Chadic group. These classifications relied in part on non-linguistic anthropological and racial arguments that have largely been discredited (see Hamitic hypothesis).
Leo Reinisch (1909) proposed linking Cushitic and Chadic, while urging a more distant affinity to Egyptian and Semitic, thus foreshadowing Greenberg, but his suggestion found little resonance.
Marcel Cohen (1924) rejected the idea of a distinct Hamitic subgroup and included Hausa (a Chadic language) in his comparative Hamito-Semitic vocabulary.
Joseph Greenberg (1950) strongly confirmed Cohen's rejection of "Hamitic", added (and sub-classified) the Chadic branch, and proposed the new name "Afroasiatic" for the family. Nearly all scholars have accepted Greenberg's classification.
In 1969, Harold Fleming proposed that what had previously been known as Western Cushitic is an independent branch of Afroasiatic, suggesting for it the new name Omotic. This proposal and name have met with widespread acceptance.
Several scholars, including Harold Fleming and Robert Hetzron, have since questioned the traditional inclusion of Beja in Cushitic.
Glottolog does not accept that the inclusion or even unity of Omotic has been established, nor that of Ongota or the unclassified Kujarge, and so splits off the following groups as small families:
- South Omotic, Mao, Dizoid, Gonga–Gimojan (North Omotic apart from the preceding), Ongota, Kujarge.
Subgrouping[edit]
| Greenberg (1963) | Newman (1980) | Fleming (post-1981) | Ehret (1995) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
(excludes Omotic)
|
|
|
| Orel & Stobova (1995) | Diakonoff (1996) | Bender (1997) | Militarev (2000) |
|
(excludes Omotic)
|
|
|
Little agreement exists on the subgrouping of the five or six branches of Afroasiatic: Semitic, Egyptian, Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, and Omotic. However, Christopher Ehret (1979), Harold Fleming (1981), and Joseph Greenberg (1981) all agree that the Omotic branch split from the rest first.
Otherwise:
- Paul Newman (1980) groups Berber with Chadic and Egyptian with Semitic, while questioning the inclusion of Omotic in Afroasiatic. Rolf Theil (2006) concurs with the exclusion of Omotic, but does not otherwise address the structure of the family.[11]
- Harold Fleming (1981) divides non-Omotic Afroasiatic, or "Erythraean", into three groups, Cushitic, Semitic, and Chadic-Berber-Egyptian. He later added Semitic and Beja to Chadic-Berber-Egyptian and tentatively proposedOngota as a new third branch of Erythraean. He thus divided Afroasiatic into two major branches, Omotic and Erythraean, with Erythraean consisting of three sub-branches, Cushitic, Chadic-Berber-Egyptian-Semitic-Beja, and Ongota.
- Like Harold Fleming, Christopher Ehret (1995: 490) divides Afroasiatic into two branches, Omotic and Erythrean. He divides Omotic into two branches, North Omotic and South Omotic. He divides Erythrean into Cushitic, comprising Beja, Agaw, and East-South Cushitic, and North Erythrean, comprising Chadic and "Boreafrasian." According to his classification, Boreafrasian consists of Egyptian, Berber, and Semitic.
- Vladimir Orel and Olga Stolbova (1995) group Berber with Semitic and Chadic with Egyptian. They split up Cushitic into five or more independent branches of Afroasiatic, viewing Cushitic as a Sprachbund rather than a language family.
- Igor M. Diakonoff (1996) subdivides Afroasiatic in two, grouping Berber, Cushitic, and Semitic together as East-West Afrasian (ESA), and Chadic with Egyptian as North-South Afrasian (NSA). He excludes Omotic from Afroasiatic.
- Lionel Bender (1997) groups Berber, Cushitic, and Semitic together as "Macro-Cushitic". He regards Chadic and Omotic as the branches of Afroasiatic most remote from the others.
- Alexander Militarev (2000), on the basis of lexicostatistics, groups Berber with Chadic and both more distantly with Semitic, as against Cushitic and Omotic. He places Ongota in South Omotic.
Position among the world's languages[edit]
Afroasiatic is one of the four language families of Africa identified by Joseph Greenberg in his book The Languages of Africa (1963). It is the only one that extends outside of Africa, via the Semitic branch.
There are no generally accepted relations between Afroasiatic and any other language family. However, several proposals grouping Afroasiatic with one or more other language families have been made. The best-known of these are the following:
- Hermann Möller (1906) argued for a relation between Semitic and the Indo-European languages. This proposal was accepted by some linguists (e.g. Holger Pedersen and Louis Hjelmslev) but has little currency today. (For a fuller account, see Indo-Semitic languages.)
- Apparently influenced by Möller (a colleague of his at the University of Copenhagen), Holger Pedersen included Hamito-Semitic (the term replaced by Afroasiatic) in his proposed Nostratic macro-family (cf. Pedersen 1931:336–338), which also included the Indo-European, Finno-Ugric, Samoyed,Turkish, Mongolian, Manchu, and Yukaghir languages. This inclusion was retained by subsequent Nostraticists, starting with Vladislav Illich-Svitychand Aharon Dolgopolsky.
- Joseph Greenberg (2000–2002) did not reject a relationship of Afroasiatic to these other languages, but he considered it more distantly related to them than they were to each other, grouping instead these other languages in a separate macro-family, which he called Eurasiatic, and to which he added Chukotian, Gilyak, Korean, Japanese-Ryukyuan, Eskimo–Aleut, and Ainu.
- Most recently, Sergei Starostin's school has accepted Eurasiatic as a subgroup of Nostratic, with Afroasiatic, Dravidian, and Kartvelian in Nostratic outside of Eurasiatic. An even larger Borean group would contain Nostratic as well as Dené-Caucasian and Austric.
Date of Afroasiatic[edit]
The earliest written evidence of an Afroasiatic language is an Ancient Egyptian inscription of c. 3400 BC (5,400 years ago).[12] Symbols on Gerzeanpottery resembling Egyptian hieroglyphs date back to c. 4000 BC, suggesting a still earlier possible date. This gives us a minimum date for the age of Afroasiatic. However, Ancient Egyptian is highly divergent from Proto-Afroasiatic (Trombetti 1905: 1–2), and considerable time must have elapsed in between them. Estimates of the date at which the Proto-Afroasiatic language was spoken vary widely. They fall within a range between approximately 7500 BC (9,500 years ago) and approximately 16,000 BC (18,000 years ago). According to Igor M. Diakonoff (1988: 33n), Proto-Afroasiatic was spokenc. 10,000 BC. According to Christopher Ehret (2002: 35–36), Proto-Afroasiatic was spoken c. 11,000 BC at the latest and possibly as early as c. 16,000 BC. These dates are older than dates associated with most other proto-languages.
Afroasiatic Urheimat[edit]
The term Afroasiatic Urheimat (Urheimat meaning "original homeland" in German) refers to the 'hypothetical' place where Proto-Afroasiatic speakers lived in a single linguistic community, or complex of communities, before this original language dispersed geographically and divided into distinct languages. Afroasiatic languages are today primarily spoken in the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel. Their distribution seems to have been influenced by the Saharan pump operating over the last 10,000 years.
There is no agreement on when and where this Urheimat existed, though the language is generally believed to have originated somewhere in the area between the Eastern Sahara and the Horn of Africa, including Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan.[13][14][15][16][17]
Similarities in grammar and syntax[edit]
| ↓ Number | Language → | Arabic | Coptic | Kabyle | Somali | Beja | Hausa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meaning → | write | die | fly | come | eat | drink | |
| singular | 1 | ʼaktubu | timou | ttafgeɣ | imaadaa | tamáni | ina shan |
| 2f | taktubīna | temou | tettafgeḍ | timaadaa | tamtínii | kina shan | |
| 2m | taktubu | kmou | tamtíniya | kana shan | |||
| 3f | smou | tettafeg | tamtíni | tana shan | |||
| 3m | yaktubu | fmou | yettafeg | yimaadaa | tamíni | yana shan | |
| dual | 2 | taktubāni | |||||
| 3f | |||||||
| 3m | yaktubāni | ||||||
| plural | 1 | naktubu | tənmou | nettafeg | nimaadnaa | támnay | muna shan |
| 2m | taktubūna | tetənmou | tettafgem | timaadaan | támteena | kuna shan | |
| 2f | taktubna | tettafgemt | |||||
| 3m | yaktubūna | semou | ttafgen | yimaadaan | támeen | suna shan | |
| 3f | yaktubna | ttafgent | |||||
Widespread (though not universal) features of the Afroasiatic languages include:
- A set of emphatic consonants, variously realized as glottalized, pharyngealized, or implosive.
- VSO typology with SVOtendencies.
- A two-gender system in the singular, with the feminine marked by the sound /t/.
- All Afroasiatic subfamilies show evidence of a causativeaffix s.
- Semitic, Berber, Cushitic (including Beja), and Chadic support possessive suffixes.
- Morphology in which words inflect by changes within the root (vowel changes or gemination) as well as with prefixes and suffixes.
One of the most remarkable shared features among the Afroasiatic languages is the prefixing verb conjugation (see table above), with a distinctive pattern of prefixes beginning with /ʔ t n y/, and in particular a pattern whereby third-singular masculine /y-/ is opposed to third-singular feminine and second-singular /t-/.
Tonal languages appear in the Omotic, Chadic, and Cushitic branches of Afroasiatic, according to Ehret (1996). The Semitic, Berber, and Egyptian branches do not use tones phonemically.
[edit]
Following are some examples of Afroasiatic cognates, including ten pronouns, three nouns, and three verbs.
- Source: Christopher Ehret, Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).
- Note: Ehret does not make use of Berber in his etymologies, stating (1995: 12): "the kind of extensive reconstruction of proto-Berber lexicon that might help in sorting through alternative possible etymologies is not yet available." The Berber cognates here are taken from previous version of table in this article and need to be completed and referenced.
- Abbreviations: NOm = 'North Omotic', SOm = 'South Omotic'. MSA = 'Modern South Arabian', PSC = 'Proto-Southern Cushitic', PSom-II = 'Proto-Somali, stage 2'. masc. = 'masculine', fem. = 'feminine', sing. = 'singular', pl. = 'plural'. 1s. = 'first person singular', 2s. = 'second person singular'.
- Symbols: Following Ehret (1995: 70), a caron ˇ over a vowel indicates rising tone, a circumflex ^ over a vowel indicates falling tone. V indicates avowel of unknown timbre. Ɂ indicates a glottal stop. * indicates reconstructed forms based on comparison of related languages.
| Proto-Afroasiatic | Omotic | Cushitic | Chadic | Egyptian | Semitic | Berber |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *Ɂân- / *Ɂîn- or *ân- / *în- ‘I’ (independent pronoun) | *in- ‘I’ (Maji (NOm)) | *Ɂâni ‘I’ | *nV ‘I’ | ink 'I' | *Ɂn ‘I’ | nek / nec "I, me" |
| *i or *yi ‘me, my’ (bound) | i ‘I, me, my’ (Ari(SOm)) | *i or *yi ‘my’ | *i ‘me, my’ (bound) | -i (1s. suffix) | *-i ‘me, my’ | inu "my" |
| *Ɂǎnn- / *Ɂǐnn- or *ǎnn- /*ǐnn- ‘we’ | *nona / *nuna /*nina (NOm) | *Ɂǎnn- / *Ɂǐnn- ‘we’ | — | inn ‘we’ | *Ɂnn ‘we’ | nekni "we" |
| *Ɂânt- / *Ɂînt- or *ânt- / *înt-‘you’ (sing.) | *int- ‘you’ (sing.) | *Ɂânt- ‘you’ (sing.) | — | ntt IInd pers fem | *Ɂnt ‘you’ (sing.) | keyy / kem "you" (sing.) |
| *ku, *ka ‘you’ (masc. sing.,bound) | — | *ku ‘your’ (masc. sing.) (PSC) | *ka, *ku (masc. sing.) | -k (2s. masc. suffix) | -ka (2s. masc. suffix) (Arabic) | -k / nnek "your" (masc. sing.) |
| *ki ‘you’ (fem. sing., bound) | — | *ki ‘your’ (fem. sing.) | *ki ‘you’ (fem. sing.) | -ṯ (fem. sing. suffix, < *ki) | -ki (2s. fem. sing. suffix) (Arabic) | nnem / inem"your" (fem. sing.) |
| *kūna ‘you’ (plural, bound) | — | *kuna ‘your’ (pl.) (PSC) | *kun ‘you’ (pl.) | -ṯn ‘you’ (pl.) | *-kn ‘you, your’ (fem. pl.) | kent, kennint"you" (fem. pl.) |
| *si, *isi ‘he, she, it’ | *is- ‘he’ | *Ɂusu ‘he’, *Ɂisi ‘she’ | *sV ‘he’ | sw ‘he, him’,sy ‘she, her’ | *-šɁ ‘he’, *-sɁ‘she’ (MSA) | -s / nnes / ines"his/her/its" |
| *ma, *mi ‘what?’ | *ma- ‘what?’ (NOm) | *ma, *mi (interr. root) | *mi, *ma‘what?’ | m ‘what?’, ‘who?’ | mā ‘what?’ (Arabic) | 'Ma / Mayen /Min? "what?" |
| *wa, *wi ‘what?’ | *w- ‘what?’ | *wä / *wɨ ‘what?’ (Agaw) | *wa ‘who?’ | wy ‘how ...!’ | mamek? "how?" | |
| *dîm- / *dâm- ‘blood’ | *dam- ‘blood’ (Gonga) | *dîm- / *dâm- ‘red’ | *d-m- ‘blood’ (West Chadic) | i-dm-i ‘red linen’ | *dm ‘blood’ | idammen "blood" |
| *îts ‘brother’ | *itsim- ‘brother’ | *itsan or *isan ‘brother’ | *sin ‘brother’ | sn ‘brother’ | ax "brother" | |
| *sǔm / *sǐm- ‘name’ | *sum(ts)- ‘name’ (NOm) | *sǔm / *sǐm- ‘name’ | *ṣǝm ‘name’ | smi ‘to report, announce’ | *ism ‘name’ | isem |
| *-lisʼ- ‘to lick’ | litsʼ- ‘to lick’ (Dime(SOm)) | — | *alǝsi ‘tongue’ | ns ‘tongue’ | *lsn ‘tongue’ | iles "tongue" |
| *-maaw- ‘to die’ | — | *-umaaw- / *-am-w(t)- ‘to die’ (PSom-II) | *mǝtǝ ‘to die’ | mwt ‘to die’ | *mwt ‘to die’ | mmet "to die" |
| *-bǐn- ‘to build, to create; house’ | bin- ‘to build, create’ (Dime (SOm)) | *mǐn- / *mǎn- ‘house’;man- ‘to create’ (Beja) | *bn ‘to build’;*bǝn- ‘house’ | — | *bnn ‘to build’ | *bn (?) |
There are two etymological dictionaries of Afroasiatic, one by Christopher Ehret, and one by Vladimir Orel and Olga Stolbova. The two dictionaries disagree on almost everything. The following table contains the thirty roots or so (out of thousands) that represent a fragile consensus of present research:
| Number | Proto-Afroasiatic Form | Meaning | Berber | Chadic | Cushitic | Egyptian | Omotic | Semitic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | *ʔab | father | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| 2 | (ʔa-)bVr | bull | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| 3 | (ʔa-)dVm | red, blood | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| 4 | *(ʔa-)dVm | land, field, soil | ✔ | ✔ | ||||
| 5 | ʔa-pay- | mouth | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| 6 | ʔigar/ *ḳʷar- | house, enclosure | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| 7 | *ʔil- | eye | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| 8 | (ʔi-)sim- | name | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| 9 | *ʕayn- | eye | ✔ | ✔ | ||||
| 10 | *baʔ- | go | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| 11 | *bar- | son | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| 12 | *gamm- | mane, beard | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| 13 | *gVn | cheek, chin | ✔ | ✔ | ||||
| 14 | *gʷarʕ- | throat | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| 15 | *gʷinaʕ- | hand | ✔ | ✔ | ||||
| 16 | *kVn- | co-wife | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| 17 | *kʷaly | kidney | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| 18 | *ḳa(wa)l-/ *qʷar- | to say, call | ✔ | ✔ | ||||
| 19 | *ḳas- | bone | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| 20 | *libb | heart | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| 21 | *lis- | tongue | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| 22 | *maʔ- | water | *aman | *aman | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| 23 | *mawVt- | to die | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| 24 | *sin- | tooth | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| 25 | *siwan- | know | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||
| 26 | *inn- | I, we | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| 27 | *-k- | thou | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| 28 | *zwr | seed | ✔ | ✔ | ||||
| 29 | *ŝVr | root | ✔ | ✔ | ||||
| 30 | *šun | to sleep, dream | ✔ | ✔ |
- paras "horse" (Semitic, Chadic, Cushitic) is a very old loanword and does not belong here, as the horse was introduced in the region in the late fifth–early fourth millennium BP, after the split of Afroasiatic and even Semitic.
Etymological bibliography[edit]
Some of the main sources for Afroasiatic etymologies include:
- Cohen, Marcel. 1947. Essai comparatif sur le vocabulaire et la phonétique du chamito-sémitique. Paris: Champion.
- Diakonoff, Igor M. et al. 1993–1997. "Historical-comparative vocabulary of Afrasian", St. Petersburg Journal of African Studies 2–6.
- Ehret, Christopher. 1995. Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian): Vowels, Tone, Consonants, and Vocabulary (= University of California Publications in Linguistics 126). Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
- Orel, Vladimir E. and Olga V. Stolbova. 1995. Hamito-Semitic Etymological Dictionary: Materials for a Reconstruction. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 90-04-10051-2.
encyclopedia
| Semitic | |
|---|---|
| Syro-Arabian | |
| Geographic distribution: | Western Asia, North Africa, Northeast Africa, Malta |
| Linguistic classification: | Afro-Asiatic
|
| Proto-language: | Proto-Semitic |
| Subdivisions: |
|
| ISO 639-2 / 5: | sem |
| Glottolog: | semi1276[1] |
Approximate historical distribution of Semitic languages.
| |
The Semitic languages are a language family originating in the Near East whose living representatives are spoken by more than 470 million people across much of Western Asia, North Africa and the Horn of Africa, as well as in large expatriate communities in North America andEurope. They constitute a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. The most widely spoken Semitic languages today are (numbers given are for native speakers only) Arabic (300 million),[2]Amharic (21.8 million),[3] Hebrew (7 million),[4][5][6] Tigrinya (6.7 million),[7] and Aramaic (550,000).
Semitic languages are attested in written form from a very early date, with Akkadian and Eblaitetexts (written in a script adapted from Sumerian cuneiform) appearing from around the middle of the third millennium BC in Mesopotamia and the northern Levant respectively. However, most scripts used to write Semitic languages are abjads — a type of alphabetic script that omits some or all of the vowels, which is feasible for these languages because the consonants in the Semitic languages are the primary carriers of meaning. Among them are the Ugaritic, Phoenician, Aramaic,Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and South Arabian alphabets. The Ge'ez alphabet, used for writing the Semitic languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea, is technically an abugida — a modified abjad in which vowels are notated using diacritic marks added to the consonants. Maltese is the only Semitic language written in the Latin script and the only official Semitic language of the European Union.
The Semitic languages are notable for their nonconcatenative morphology. That is, word roots are not themselves syllables or words, but instead are isolated sets of consonants (usually three, making a so-called triliteral root). Words are composed out of roots not so much by adding prefixes or suffixes, but rather by filling in the vowels between the root consonants (although prefixes and suffixes are often added as well). For example, in Arabic, the root meaning "write" has the form k-t-b. From this root, words are formed by filling in the vowels and sometimes adding additional consonants, e.g. kitāb "book", kutub "books", kātib "writer", kuttāb "writers", kataba "he wrote",yaktubu "he writes", etc.
Contents
[hide]Name[edit]
The German orientalists August Ludwig von Schlözer[8] and Johann Gottfried Eichhorn[9] first coined the name "Semitic" in the late 18th century to designate the languages closely related to Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew.[8]
Schlözer derived the name from Shem, one of the three sons of Noah in the genealogical accounts of the biblical Book of Genesis,[8] or more precisely from the Greek rendering of the name, Σημ (Sēm).
Before Schlözer these languages had been known as the Oriental languages in European literature.[8][9] In the 19th century, Semitic became the conventional name; however, an alternative name: Syro-Arabian languages was introduced and used by some writers.[9]
History[edit]
Origins[edit]
Main article: Proto-Semitic
The Semitic family is a member of the larger Afroasiatic family, all of whose other five or more branches have their origin in North Africa and North East Africa. Largely for this reason, the ancestors of Proto-Semitic speakers were originally believed by some to have first arrived in the Middle East from North Africa, possibly as part of the operation of the Saharan pump, around the lateNeolithic.[10][11] Diakonoff sees Semitic originating between the Nile Delta and Canaan as the northernmost branch of Afroasiatic. Blench even wonders whether the highly divergent Gurage languages indicate an origin in Ethiopia (with the rest of Ethiopic Semitic a later back migration).
A recent Bayesian analysis of alternative Semitic histories supports the former possibility and identifies an origin of Semitic languages in the Levantaround 3,750 BC with a single introduction from southern Arabia into Africa around 800 BC.[12]
In one interpretation, Proto-Semitic itself is assumed to have reached theArabian Peninsula by approximately the 4th millennium BC, from which Semitic daughter languages continued to spread outwards. When written records began in the late 4th millennium BC, the Semitic-speaking Akkadians(Assyrians/Babylonians) were entering Mesopotamia from the deserts to the west, and were probably already present in places such as Ebla in Syria. Akkadian personal names began appearing in written record in Mesopotamia from the late 29th Century BC.[13]
2nd millennium BC[edit]
By the late 3rd millennium BC, East Semitic languages, such as Akkadian and Eblaite, were dominant in Mesopotamia and north east Syria, while West Semitic languages, such as Amorite, Canaanite and Ugaritic, were probably spoken from Syria to the Arabian Peninsula, although Old South Arabian is considered by most people to be South Semitic despite the sparsity of data. The Akkadian language of Akkad, Assyria andBabylonia had become the dominant literary language of the Fertile Crescent, using the cuneiform script that was adapted from the Sumerians. The Middle Assyrian Empire, which originated in the 14th century BC, facilitated the use of Akkadian as a 'lingua franca' in many regions outside its homeland. The related, but more sparsely attested, Eblaite disappeared with the city, and Amorite is attested only from proper names in Mesopotamian records.
For the 2nd millennium, somewhat more data are available, thanks to the spread of an invention first used to capture the sounds of Semitic languages — the alphabet. Proto-Canaanite texts from around 1500 BC yield the first undisputed attestations of a West Semitic language (although earlier testimonies are possibly preserved in Middle Bronze Age alphabets), followed by the much more extensive Ugaritic tablets of northern Syria from around 1300 BC. Incursions of nomadic Semitic Aramaeans, and later stillChaldeans and Suteans, from the Syrian desert begin around this time. Akkadian continued to flourish, splitting into Babylonian and Assyrian dialects.
1st millennium BC[edit]
In the 1st millennium BC, the alphabet spread much further, giving us a picture not just of Canaanite, but also ofAramaic, Old South Arabian, and early Ge'ez. During this period, the case system, once vigorous in Ugaritic, seems to have started decaying in Northwest Semitic. Phoenician colonies (such as Carthage) spread their Canaanite language throughout much of the Mediterranean, while its close relative, Hebrew, became the vehicle of a religious literature, the Torah and Tanakh, which would have global ramifications. However, as an ironic result of the Assyrian Empire's vast conquests, Aramaic became the lingua franca of the Fertile Crescent and much of theNear East and parts of Asia Minor, gradually pushing Akkadian, Hebrew, Phoenician-Canaanite, and several other languages to extinction, although Hebrew and Akkadian remained in use as liturgical languages, Hebrew in particular developing a substantial literature. Ethiopian Semitic is attested by the 9th century BC, with the earliest proto-Ge'ez inscriptions of the kingdom of D'mt using the South Arabian alphabet.[14]
Common Era (AD)[edit]
Syriac, an Assyrian Mesopotamian descendant of Aramaic used in North Eastern Syria, Assyria (Assuristan) and Mesopotamia, rose to importance as a literary language of early Christianity in the 3rd to 5th centuries and continued into the early Arab Islamic era.
With the emergence of Islam in the 7th century, the ascendancy of Aramaic was dealt a fatal blow by the Arabconquests, which made another Semitic language — Arabic — the official language of an empire stretching fromSpain to Central Asia.
With the patronage of the caliphs and the prestige of its liturgical status, it rapidly became one of the world's main literary languages. Its spread among the masses took much longer, however, as many (although not all) of the native populations outside the Arabian Peninsula only gradually abandoned their languages in favour of Arabic. As Bedouin tribes settled in conquered areas, it became the main language of not only central Arabia, but also Yemen,[15] the Fertile Crescent, and Egypt. Most of theMaghreb (Northwest Africa) followed, particularly in the wake of the Banu Hilal's incursion in the 11th century, and Arabic became the native language of many inhabitants of Spain. After the collapse of the Nubiankingdom of Dongola in the 14th century, Arabic began to spread south of Egypt; soon after, the Beni Ḥassān brought Arabization to Mauritania.
Meanwhile, Semitic languages were diversifying in Ethiopia and Eritrea, where, under heavy Cushitic influence, they split into a number of languages, including Amharic and Tigrinya. With the expansion of Ethiopia under the Solomonic dynasty, Amharic, previously a minor local language, spread throughout much of the country, replacing both Semitic (such as Gafat) and non-Semitic (such as Weyto) languages, and replacing Ge'ez as the principal literary language (though Ge'ez remains the liturgical language for Christians in the region); this spread continues to this day, with Qimant set to disappear in another generation.
Present situation[edit]
Arabic languages are the native languages of majorities from Mauritania to Oman, and from Iraq to theSudan. Classical Arabic is the language of the Qur'an, it is also studied widely in the non-Arabic-speakingMuslim world. Maltese language is genetically a descendant of the extinct Sicilian Arabic dialect. TheMaltese alphabet is based on the Latin script with the addition of some letters with diacritic marks anddigraphs. Maltese is the only Semitic official language within the European Union.
Despite the ascendancy of Arabic in the Middle East, other Semitic languages still exist. Hebrew, long extinct as a colloquial language and in use only in Jewish literary, intellectual, and liturgical activity, was revived in spoken form at the end of the 19th century. It has become the main language of Israel, while remaining the language of liturgy and religious scholarship of Jews worldwide.
Several smaller ethnic groups, in particular the Christian ethnic Assyrians and Gnostic Mandeans, continue to speak and write Mesopotamian Aramaic dialects (especially Neo-Aramaic, descended from Syriac) in those areas roughly corresponding to Kurdistan (northern Iraq, northeast Syria, south eastern Turkey and northwestern Iran ) and theCaucasus. These dialects still contain a number of Akkadian loan words and have more structural commonality with the Akkadian language thanWestern Aramaic. Syriac itself, a descendant of Mesopotamian Old Aramaic, is used liturgically by Lebanese (the Maronites), Syrian and Assyrian Christians throughout Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Turkey.
In Arab-dominated Yemen and Oman, on the southern rim of the Arabian Peninsula, a few tribes continue to speak Modern South Arabian languagessuch as Mahri and Soqotri. These languages differ greatly from both the surrounding Arabic dialects and from the (unrelated but previously thought to be related) languages of the Old South Arabian inscriptions.
Historically linked to the peninsular homeland of the Old South Arabian languages, Ethiopia and Eritrea contain a substantial number of Semitic languages; the most widely spoken are Amharic in Ethiopia, Tigre in Eritrea, and Tigrinya in both. Respectively, Amharic is the official language of Ethiopia. Tigrinya is a working language in Eritrea. Tigre is spoken by over one million people in the northern and central Eritrean lowlands and parts of eastern Sudan. A number of Gurage languages are spoken by populations in the semi-mountainous region of southwest Ethiopia, while Harari is restricted to the city of Harar. Ge'ez remains the liturgical language for certain groups of Christians in Ethiopia and in Eritrea.
Phonology[edit]
The phonologies of the attested Semitic languages are presented here from a comparative point of view. See Proto-Semitic language#Phonology for details on the phonological reconstruction of Proto-Semitic used in this article. This comparative approach is natural for the consonants, as sound correspondences among the consonants of the Semitic languages are very straightforward for a family of its time depth; for the vowels there are more subtleties.
Consonants[edit]
Each Proto-Semitic phoneme was reconstructed to explain a certain regular sound correspondence between various Semitic languages. Note that Latin letter values (italicized) for extinct languages are a question of transcription; the exact pronunciation is not recorded.
Most of the attested languages have merged a number of the reconstructed original fricatives, though South Arabian retains all fourteen (and has added a fifteenth from *p > f).
In Aramaic and Hebrew, all non-emphatic stops occurring singly after a vowel were softened to fricatives, leading to an alternation that was often later phonemicized as a result of the loss of gemination.
In languages exhibiting pharyngealization of emphatics, the original velar emphatic has rather developed to a uvular stop [q].
| Proto-Semitic | IPA | Akkadian | Ugaritic | Phoenician | Hebrew | Modern Hebrew | Aramaic | Arabic1 | Ge'ez | Modern South Arabian | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *b | b | b | b |  | b | ב | ḇ/b6 | /v/, /b/ | ב | ḇ/b6 | ب | b | በ | /b/ | /b/ |
| *d | d | d | d |  | d | ד | ḏ/d6 | /d/ | ד | ḏ/d6 | د | d | ደ | /d/ | /d/ |
| *g | ɡ | g | g |  | g | ג | ḡ/g6 | /ɡ/ | ג | ḡ/g6 | ج | ǧ/g1 | ገ | /ɡ/ | /ɡ/ |
| *p | p | p | p |  | p | פ | p̄/p6 | /f/, /p/ | פ | p̄/p6 | ف | f | ፈ | /f/ | /f/ |
| *t | t | t | t |  | t | ת | ṯ/t6 | /t/ | ת | ṯ/t6 | ت | t | ተ | /t/ | /t/ |
| *k | k | k | k |  | k | כ | ḵ/k6 | /χ/, /k/ | כ | ḵ/k6 | ك | k | ከ | /k/ | /k/ |
| *ṭ | tʼ | ṭ | ṭ |  | ṭ | ט | ṭ | /t/ | ט | ṭ | ط | ṭ [tˤ] | ጠ | /tʼ/ | /tʼ/ |
| *ḳ | kʼ | q | ḳ |  | q | ק | q | /k/ | ק | q | ق | q | ቀ | /kʼ/ | /kʼ/ |
| *ḏ | ð | z | ḏ > d |  | z | ז | z | /z/ | ז4/ד | ḏ4/d | ذ | ḏ [ð] | ዘ | /z/ | /ð/ |
| *z | z / dz | z | ז | z | ز | z | /z/ | ||||||||
| *ṯ | θ | š | ṯ |  | š | שׁ | š | /ʃ/ | ש4/ת | ṯ4/t | ث | ṯ [θ] | ሰ | /s/ | /θ/ |
| *š | ʃ | š | שׁ | š | س | s | /ʃ/, /h/ | ||||||||
| *ś | ɬ / tɬ | שׂ2 | ś2 | /s/ | שׂ4/ס | ś4/s | ش | š [ʃ] | ሠ | /ɬ/ | /ɬ/ | ||||
| *s | s / ts | s | s |  | s | ס | s | ס | s | س | s | ሰ | /s/ | /s/ | |
| *ṱ | θʼ / tθʼ | ṣ | ṱ > ġ |  | ṣ | צ | ṣ | /ts/ | צ4/ט | ṯʼ 4/ṭ | ظ | ẓ [ðˤ~zˤ] | ጸ | /tsʼ/ | /θʼ/ |
| *ṣ | sʼ / tsʼ | ṣ | צ | ṣ | ص | ṣ [sˤ] | /sʼ/ | ||||||||
| *ṣ́ | ɬʼ / tɬʼ | ק4/ע | *ġʼ 4/ʻ | ض | ḍ *[ɮˤ] > [dˤ]1 | ፀ | /ɬʼ/ | /ɬʼ/ | |||||||
| *ġ | ʁ | – | ġ,ʻ |  | /ʕ/ | ע3 | ʻ3 | /ʔ/, - | ע4 | ġ4/ʻ | غ | ġ [ɣ~ʁ] | ዐ | /ʕ/ | /ɣ/ |
| *ʻ | ʕ | -5 | ʻ | ע | ʻ | ع | ʻ [ʕ] | /ʕ/ | |||||||
| *ʼ | ʔ | – | ʼ |  | /ʔ/ | א | ʼ | /ʔ/, - | א | ʼ | ء | ʼ [ʔ] | አ | /ʔ/ | /ʔ/ |
| *ḫ | χ | ḫ | ḫ |  | ḥ | ח | ḥ | /χ/ | ח4 | ḫ4/ḥ | خ | ḫ [x~χ] | ኀ | /χ/ | /x/ |
| *ḥ | ħ | -5 | ḥ | ח | ḥ | ح | ḥ [ħ] | ሐ | /ħ/ | /ħ/ | |||||
| *h | h | – | h |  | h | ה | h | /h/, - | ה | h | ه | h | ሀ | /h/ | /h/ |
| *m | m | m | m |  | m | מ | m | /m/ | מ | m | م | m | መ | /m/ | /m/ |
| *n | n | n | n |  | n | נ | n | /n/ | נ ר | n r | ن | n | ነ | /n/ | /n/ |
| *r | ɾ | r | r |  | r | ר | r | /ʁ/ | ר | r | ر | r | ረ | /r/ | /r/ |
| *l | l | l | l |  | l | ל | l | /l/ | ל | l | ل | l | ለ | /l/ | /l/ |
| *w | w | w | w y7 |   | w y7 | ו י | w y7 | /v/, /w/ /j/ | ו י | w y7 | و | w | ወ | /w/ | /w/ |
| *y | j | y | y | | y | י | y | /j/ | י | y | ي | y [j] | የ | /j/ | /j/ |
| Proto-Semitic | IPA | Akkadian | Ugaritic | Phoenician | Hebrew | Modern Hebrew | Aramaic | Arabic | Ge'ez | Modern South Arabian | |||||
Notes:
- Arabic pronunciation is largely based on Modern Standard Arabic which differes from that of reconstructed Qur'anic Arabic of the 7th and 8th centuries CE.
- Proto-Semitic *ś was still pronounced as [ɬ] in Biblical Hebrew, but no letter was available in the Phoenician alphabet, so the letter ש did double duty, representing both /ʃ/ and /ɬ/. Later on, however, /ɬ/ merged with /s/, but the old spelling was largely retained, and the two pronunciations of ש were distinguished graphically in Tiberian Hebrew as שׁ /ʃ/ vs. שׂ /s/ < /ɬ/.
- Biblical Hebrew as of the 3rd century BCE apparently still distinguished the phonemes ġ /ʁ/ and ḫ /χ/, based on transcriptions in the Septuagint. As in the case of /ɬ/, no letters were available to represent these sounds, and existing letters did double duty: ח /χ/ /ħ/ and ע /ʁ/ /ʕ/. In both of these cases, however, the two sounds represented by the same letter eventually merged, leaving no evidence (other than early transcriptions) of the former distinctions.
- Although early Aramaic (pre-7th century BCE) had only 22 consonants in its alphabet, it apparently distinguished all of the original 29 Proto-Semitic phonemes, including *ḏ, *ṯ, *ṱ, *ś, *ṣ́, *ġ and *ḫ — although by Middle Aramaic times, these had all merged with other sounds. This conclusion is mainly based on the shifting representation of words etymologically containing these sounds; in early Aramaic writing, the first five are merged with z, š, ṣ, š, q, respectively, but later with d, t, ṭ, s, ʿ.[16][17] (Also note that due to begadkefat spirantization, which occurred after this merger, OAm. t > ṯ and d > ḏ in some positions, so that PS *t,ṯ and *d, ḏ may be realized as either of t, ṯ and d, ḏ respectively.) The sounds*ġ and *ḫ were always represented using the pharyngeal letters ʿ ḥ, but they are distinguished from the pharyngeals in the Demotic-script papyrus Amherst 63, written about 200 BC.[18] This suggests that these sounds, too, were distinguished in Old Aramaic language, but written using the same letters as they later merged with.
- These are only distinguished from the zero reflexes of *h, *ʔ by e-coloring adjacent *a, e.g. pS *ˈbaʕal-um 'owner, lord' > Akk. bēlu(m).[19]
- Hebrew and Aramaic underwent begadkefat spirantization at a certain point, whereby the stop sounds /b ɡ d p k t/ were softened to the corresponding fricatives [v ɣ ð f x θ] (written ḇ ḡ ḏ ḵ p̄ ṯ) when occurring after a vowel and not geminated. This change probably happened after the original Old Aramaic phonemes /θ, ð/ disappeared in the 7th century BC,[20] and most likely occurred after the loss of Hebrew /χ, ʁ/ c. 200 BC.[nb 1] It is known to have occurred in Hebrew by the 2nd century.[21] After a certain point this alternation became contrastive in word-medial and final position (though bearing low functional load), but in word-initial position they remained allophonic.[22] In Modern Hebrew, the distinction has a higher functional load due to the loss of gemination, although only the three fricatives /v χ f/ are still preserved (the fricative /x/ is pronounced /χ/ in modern Hebrew). (The others are pronounced like the corresponding stops, apparently under the influence of later non-native speakers whose native European tongues lacked the sounds /ɣ ð θ/ as phonemes.)
- In the Northwest Semitic languages, */w/ became */j/ at the beginning of a word, e.g. Hebrew yeled "boy" < *wald (cf. Arabic walad).
- There is evidence of a rule of assimilation of /y/ to the following coronal consonant in pre-tonic position, shared by Hebrew, Phoenician and Aramaic [23]
In addition to those in the table, Modern Hebrew has introduced the new phonemes /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʒ/ through borrowings.
The following table shows the development of the various fricatives in Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic through cognate words:
| Proto-Semitic | Hebrew | Aramaic | Arabic | Examples | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hebrew | Aramaic | Arabic | meaning | ||||
| */ð/ *ḏ | */z/ ז | */d/ ד | */ð/ ذ | זהב זָכָר | דהב דכרא | ذهب ذَكَر | 'gold' 'male' |
| */z/1 *z | */z/ ז | */z/ ز | מאזנים אורז | מאזניא – | موازين الأرز | 'scale' 'rice' | |
| */ʃ/ *š | */ʃ/ שׁ | */ʃ/ שׁ | */s/ س | שׁנה שלום | שׁנה שלאם | سنة سلام | 'year' 'peace' |
| */θ/ *ṯ | */t/ ת | */θ/ ث | שלוש שתיים | תלתא תרין | ثلاثة اثنان | 'three' 'two' | |
| */θʼ/1 *ṱ | */sʼ/1 צ | */tʼ/ ט | */ðˤ/ ظ | צל צהרים | טלה ܛܗܪܐ | ظل ظهر | 'shadow' 'noon' |
| */ɬʼ/1 *ṣ́ | */ʕ ע | */ɮˤ/ ض | ארץ צחק | ܐܪܥܐ עחק | أرض ضحك | 'land' 'laughed' | |
| */sʼ/1 *ṣ | */sʼ/ צ | */sˤ/ ص | צרח צבר | צרח צבר | صرخ صبر | 'shout' 'water melon like plant' | |
| */χ/ *ḫ | */ħ/ ח | */ħ/ ח | */χ/ خ | חֲמִשָׁה צרח | חַמְשָׁא צרח | خمسة صرخ | 'five' 'shout' |
| */ħ/ *ḥ | */ħ/ ح | מלח חלום | מלח חלם | ملح حلم | 'salt' 'dream' | ||
| */ʁ/ *ġ | */ʕ/ ע | */ʕ/ ע | */ʁ/ غ | עורב מערב | עראב ܡܥܪܒܐ | غراب غرب | 'raven' 'west' |
| */ʕ/ *ʻ | */ʕ/ ع | עבד שבע | עבד שבעא | عبد سبعة | 'slave' 'seven' | ||
| */ɬ/ *ś | */s/ שׂ | */s/ שׂ | */ʃ/ ش | עשׂר | ܥܣܪ | عشر | 'ten' |
- possibly affricated (/dz/ /tɬʼ/ /ʦʼ/ /tθʼ/ /tɬ/)
Vowels[edit]
Proto-Semitic vowels are, in general, harder to deduce due to the templatic nature of Semitic languages. The history of vowel changes in the languages makes drawing up a complete table of correspondences impossible, so only the most common reflexes can be given:
| pS | Hebrew | Aramaic | Arabic | Ge'ez | Akkadian | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /ˈ_.1 | /ˈ_Cː2 | /ˈ_C.C3 | usually4 | /_C.ˈV | ||||
| *a | ā | a | ɛ | a | ə | a | a | a, e, ē5 |
| *i | ē | e | ɛ, e | e, i, WSyr. ɛ | ə | i | ə | i |
| *u | ō | o | o | u, o | ə | u | ə, ʷə6 | u |
| *ā | ō[nb 2] | ā | ā | ā | ā, ē | |||
| *ī | ī | ī | ī | ī | ī | |||
| *ū | ū | ū | ū | ū | ū | |||
| *ay. | ayi, ay | BA, JA ay(i), ē, WSyr. ay/ī & ay/ē | ay | ay, ē | ī | |||
| *aw. | ō, pausal ˈāwɛ | ō, WSyr. aw/ū | aw | ō | ū | |||
- in a stressed open syllable
- in a stressed closed syllable before a geminate
- in a stressed closed syllable before a consonant cluster
- when the proto-Semitic stressed vowel remained stressed
- pS *a,*ā > Akk. e,ē in the neighborhood of pS *ʕ,*ħ and before r.
- I.e. pS *g,*k,*ḳ,*χ > Ge'ez gʷ,kʷ,ḳʷ,χʷ / _u
Correspondence of sounds with other Afroasiatic languages[edit]
See table at Proto-Afroasiatic language#Consonant correspondences.
Grammar[edit]
The Semitic languages share a number of grammatical features, although variation – both between separate languages, and within the languages themselves – has naturally occurred over time.
Word order[edit]
The reconstructed default word order in Proto-Semitic is verb–subject–object (VSO), possessed–possessor (NG), and noun–adjective (NA). This was still the case in Classical Arabic and Biblical Hebrew, e.g. Classical Arabic ra'ā muħammadun farīdan. (literally "saw Muhammad Farid", Muhammad saw Farid). In the modern Arabic vernaculars, however, as well as sometimes in Modern Standard Arabic (the modern literary language based on Classical Arabic) and Modern Hebrew, the classical VSO order has given way to SVO. Modern Ethiopian Semitic languages follow a different word order: SOV, possessor–possessed, and adjective–noun; however, the oldest attested Ethiopian Semitic language, Ge'ez, was VSO, possessed–possessor, and noun–adjective.[25] Akkadian was also predominantly SOV.
Cases in nouns and adjectives[edit]
The proto-Semitic three-case system (nominative, accusative and genitive) with differing vowel endings (-u, -a -i), fully preserved in Qur'anic Arabic (seeʾIʿrab), Akkadian and Ugaritic, has disappeared everywhere in the many colloquial forms of Semitic languages. Modern Standard Arabic maintains such case distinctions, although they are often lost in free speech (due to colloquial influence). An accusative ending -n is preserved in Ethiopian Semitic.[26]The archaic Samalian dialect of Old Aramaic reflects a case distinction in the plural between nominative -ū and oblique -ī (compare the same distinction in Classical Arabic).[16][27] Additionally, Semitic nouns and adjectives had a category of state, the indefinite state being expressed by nunation.
Number in nouns[edit]
Semitic languages originally had three grammatical numbers: singular, dual, and plural. Classical Arabic still has a mandatory dual (i.e. it must be used in all circumstances when referring to two entities), marked on nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns. Many contemporary dialects of Arabic still have a dual, as in the name for the nation of Bahrain (baħr "sea" + -ayn "two"), although it is marked only on nouns. It also occurs in Hebrew in a few nouns (šana means "one year", šnatayim means "two years", and šanim means "years"), but for those it is obligatory. The curious phenomenon of broken plurals – e.g. in Arabic, sadd "one dam" vs. sudūd "dams" – found most profusely in the languages of Arabia and Ethiopia, may be partly of proto-Semitic origin, and partly elaborated from simpler origins.
Verb aspect and tense[edit]
| Past | Present Indicative | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | |||||
| 1st | katab-tu | كَتَبْتُ | ʼa-ktub-u | أَكْتُبُ | |
| 2nd | masculine | katab-ta | كَتَبْتَ | ta-ktub-u | تَكْتُبُ |
| feminine | katab-ti | كَتَبْتِ | ta-ktub-īna | تَكْتُبِينَ | |
| 3rd | masculine | katab-a | كَتَبَ | ya-ktub-u | يَكْتُبُ |
| feminine | katab-at | كَتَبَتْ | ta-ktub-u | تَكْتُبُ | |
| Dual | |||||
| 2nd | masculine & feminine | katab-tumā | كَتَبْتُمَا | ta-ktub-āni | تَكْتُبَانِ |
| 3rd | masculine | katab-ā | كَتَبَا | ya-ktub-āni | يَكْتُبَانِ |
| feminine | katab-atā | كَتَبَتَا | ta-ktub-āni | تَكْتُبَانِ | |
| Plural | |||||
| 1st | katab-nā | كَتَبْنَا | na-ktub-u | نَكْتُبُ | |
| 2nd | masculine | katab-tum | كَتَبْتُمْ | ta-ktub-ūna | تَكْتُبُونَ |
| feminine | katab-tunna | كَتَبْتُنَّ | ta-ktub-na | تَكْتُبْنَ | |
| 3rd | masculine | katab-ū | كَتَبُوا | ya-ktub-ūna | يَكْتُبُونَ |
| feminine | katab-na | كَتَبْنَ | ya-ktub-na | يَكْتُبْنَ | |
All Semitic languages show two quite distinct styles of morphology used for conjugating verbs. Suffix conjugations take suffixes indicating the person, number and gender of the subject, which bear some resemblance to the pronominal suffixes used to indicate direct objects on verbs ("I saw him") and possession on nouns ("his dog"). So-called prefix conjugations actually takes both prefixes and suffixes, with the prefixes primarily indicating person (and sometimes number and/or gender), while the suffixes (which are completely different from those used in the suffix conjugation) indicate number and gender whenever the prefix does not mark this. The prefix conjugation is noted for a particular pattern of ʔ- t- y- n-prefixes where (1) a t- prefix is used in the singular to mark the second person and third-person feminine, while a y- prefix marks the third-person masculine; and (2) identical words are used for second-person masculine and third-person feminine singular. The prefix conjugation is extremely old, with clear analogues in nearly all the families of Afroasiatic languages (i.e. at least 10,000 years old). The table on the right shows examples of the prefix and suffix conjugations in Classical Arabic, which has forms that are close to Proto-Semitic.
In Proto-Semitic, as still largely reflected in East Semitic, prefix conjugations are used both for the past and the non-past, with different vocalizations. Cf. Akkadian niprus "we decided" (preterite), niptaras "we have decided" (perfect), niparras "we decide" (non-past or imperfect), vs. suffix-conjugated parsānu "we are/were/will be deciding" (stative). Some of these features, e.g. gemination indicating the non-past/imperfect, are generally attributed to Afroasiatic. According to Hetzron,[28] Proto-Semitic had an additional form, the jussive, which was distinguished from the preterite only by the position of stress: the jussive had final stress while the preterite had non-final (retracted) stress.
The West Semitic languages significantly reshaped the system. The most substantial changes occurred in the Central Semitic languages (the ancestors of modern Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic). Essentially, the old prefix-conjugated jussive and/or preterite became a new non-past (or imperfect), while the stative became a new past (or perfect), and the old prefix-conjugated non-past (or imperfect) with gemination was discarded. New suffixes were used to mark different moods in the non-past, e.g. Classical Arabic -u (indicative), -a (subjunctive), vs no suffix (jussive). (It is not generally agreed whether the systems of the various Semitic languages are better interpreted in terms of tense, i.e. past vs. non-past, or aspect, i.e. perfect vs. imperfect.) However, in Hebrew, elements of the old system survived alongside the new system for a while, in forms known as the waw-consecutive and marked with a prefixed w-. The South Semitic languages show a system somewhere between the East and Central Semitic languages.
Later languages show further developments. In the modern varieties of Arabic, for example, the old mood suffixes were dropped, and new mood prefixes developed (e.g. bi- for indicative vs. no prefix for subjunctive in many varieties). In the extreme case of Neo-Aramaic, the verb conjugations have been entirely reworked under Iranian influence.
Morphology: triliteral roots[edit]
Main article: Semitic root
All Semitic languages exhibit a unique pattern of stems consisting typically of "triliteral", or 3-consonant consonantal roots (2- and 4-consonant roots also exist), from which nouns, adjectives, and verbs are formed in various ways: e.g. by inserting vowels, doubling consonants, lengthening vowels, and/or adding prefixes, suffixes, or infixes.
For instance, the root k-t-b, (dealing with "writing" generally) yields in Arabic:
- kataba كَتَبَ or كتب "he wrote" (masculine)
- katabat كَتَبَت or كتبت "she wrote" (feminine)
- katabtu كَتَبْتُ or كتبت "I wrote" (f and m)
- kutiba كُتِبَ or كتب "it was written" (masculine)
- kutibat كُتِبَت or كتبت "it was written" (feminine)
- katabū كَتَبُوا or كتبوا "they wrote" (masculine)
- katabna كَتَبْنَ or كتبن "they wrote" (feminine)
- katabnā كَتَبْنَا or كتبنا "we wrote" (f and m)
- yaktub(u) يَكْتُب or يكتب "he writes" (masculine)
- taktub(u) تَكْتُب or تكتب "she writes" (feminine)
- naktub(u) نَكْتُب or نكتب "we write" (f and m)
- aktub(u) أَكْتُب or أكتب "I write" (f and m)
- yuktab(u) يُكْتَب or يكتب "being written" (masculine)
- tuktab(u) تُكتَب or تكتب "being written" (feminine)
- yaktubūn(a) يَكْتُبُونَ or يكتبون "they write" (masculine)
- yaktubna يَكْتُبْنَ or يكتبن "they write" (feminine)
- taktubna تَكْتُبْنَ or تكتبن "you write" (feminine)
- yaktubān(i) يَكْتُبَانِ or يكتبان "they both write" (masculine) (for 2 males)
- taktubān(i) تَكْتُبَانِ or تكتبان "they both write" (feminine) (for 2 females)
- kātaba ##### or ##### "he exchanged letters (with sb.)"
- yukātib(u) ##### "he exchanges (with sb.)"
- yatakātabūn(a) يَتَكَاتَبُونَ or يتكاتبون "they write to each other" (masculine)
- iktataba اِكْتَتَبَ or اكتتب "he is registered" (intransitive) or "he contributed (a money quantity to sth.)" (ditransitive) (the first t is part of a particular verbaltransfix, not part of the root)
- istaktaba اِسْتَكْتَبَ or استكتب "to cause to write (sth.)"
- kitāb كِتَاب or كتاب "book" (the hyphen shows end of stem before various case endings)
- kutub كُتُب or كتب "books" (plural)
- kutayyib كُتَيِّب or كتيب "booklet" (diminutive)
- kitābat كِتَابَة or كتابة "writing"
- kātib كاتِب or كاتب "writer" (masculine)
- kātibat كاتِبة or كاتبة "writer" (feminine)
- kātibūn(a) كاتِبونَ or كاتبون "writers" (masculine)
- kātibāt كاتِبات or كاتبات "writers" (feminine)
- kuttāb كُتاب or كتاب "writers" (broken plural)
- katabat كَتَبَة or كتبة "clerks" (broken plural)
- maktab مَكتَب or مكتب "desk" or "office"
- makātib مَكاتِب or مكاتب "desks" or "offices"
- maktabat مَكتَبة or مكتبة "library" or "bookshop"
- maktūb مَكتوب or مكتوب "written" (participle) or "postal letter" (noun)
- katībat كَتيبة or كتيبة "squadron" or "document"
- katā’ib كَتائِب or كتائب "squadrons" or "documents"
- iktitāb اِكتِتاب or اكتتاب "registration" or "contribution of funds"
- muktatib مُكتَتِب or مكتتب "subscription"
- istiktāb اِستِكتاب or استكتاب "causing to write"
and the same root in Hebrew (where it appears as k-t-ḇ):
- kataḇti כתבתי "I wrote"
- kataḇta כתבת "you (m) wrote"
- kataḇ כתב "he wrote"
- kattaḇ כתב "reporter" (m)
- katteḇet כתבת "reporter" (f)
- kattaḇa כתבה "article" (plural kataḇot כתבות)
- miḵtaḇ מכתב "postal letter" (plural miḵtaḇim מכתבים)
- miḵtaḇa מכתבה "writing desk" (plural miḵtaḇot מכתבות)
- ktoḇet כתובת "address" (plural ktoḇot כתובות)
- ktaḇ כתב "handwriting"
- katuḇ כתוב "written" (f ktuḇa כתובה)
- hiḵtiḇ הכתיב "he dictated" (f hiḵtiḇa הכתיבה)
- hitkatteḇ התכתב "he corresponded (f hitkatḇa התכתבה)
- niḵtaḇ נכתב "it was written" (m)
- niḵteḇa נכתבה "it was written" (f)
- ktiḇ כתיב "spelling" (m)
- taḵtiḇ תכתיב "prescript" (m)
- meḵuttaḇ מכותב "addressee" (meḵutteḇet מכותבת f)
- ktubba כתובה "ketubah (a Jewish marriage contract)" (f) (note: b here, not ḇ)
In Tigrinya and Amharic, this root survives only in the noun kitab, meaning "amulet", and the verb "to vaccinate". Ethiopic-derived languages use different roots for things that have to do with writing (and in some cases counting) primitive root: ṣ-f and trilateral root stems: m-ṣ-f, ṣ-h-f, and ṣ-f-r are used. This roots also exists in other Semitic languages like (Hebrew: sefer "book", sofer "scribe", mispar "number" and sippur "story"). (this root also exists in Arabic and is used to form words with a close meaning to "writing", such as ṣaḥāfa "journalism", and ṣaḥīfa "newspaper" or "parchment"). Verbs in other non-Semitic Afroasiatic languages show similar radical patterns, but more usually with biconsonantal roots; e.g. Kabyle afeg means "fly!", while affug means "flight", and yufeg means "he flew" (compare with Hebrew, where hafleg means "set sail!", haflaga means "a sailing trip", and hifligmeans "he sailed", while the unrelated ʕūf, təʕūfā and ʕāf pertain to flight).
Independent personal pronouns[edit]
| English | Proto-Semitic | Akkadian | Arabic | Ge'ez | Hebrew | Aramaic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| standard | vernaculars | ||||||
| I | *ʔanāku,[nb 3] *ʔaniya | anāku | ʔanā | ana, āni, āna | ʔana | ʔānōḵī, ʔănī | ʔanā |
| Thou (sg., masc.) | *ʔanka > *ʔanta | atta | ʔanta | inta, inti | ʔánta | ʔattā | ʔantā |
| Thou (sg., fem.) | *ʔanti | atti | ʔanti | inti, init | ʔánti | ʔatt | ʔanti |
| He | *suʔa | šū | huwa | huwwa, huwwe | wəʔətu | hū | hu |
| She | *siʔa | šī | hiya | hiyya, hiyye | yəʔəti | hī | hi |
| We | *niyaħnū, *niyaħnā | nīnu | naħnu | iħna, niħna | nəħnā | ʔānū, ʔănaħnū | náħnā |
| Ye (dual) | *ʔantunā | ʔantumā | |||||
| They (dual) | *sunā [nb 4] | *sunī(ti) | humā | ||||
| Ye (pl., masc.) | *ʔantunū | attunu | ʔantum | intu, intum | ʔantəmu | ʔattem | ʔantun |
| Ye (pl., fem.) | *ʔantinā | attina | ʔantunna | ʔantən | ʔatten | ʔanten | |
| They (masc.) | *sunū | šunu | hum(u) | hum(ma), hinne | ʔəmuntu | hēm | hinnun |
| They (fem.) | *sinā | šina | hunna | ʔəmāntu | hēn, hēnnā | hinnin | |
Cardinal numerals[edit]
| English | Proto-Semitic[29] | IPA | Arabic | Hebrew | Tigrinya | Sabaean |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| One | *ʼaḥad-, *ʻišt- | ʔaħad, ʔiʃt | waːħid-, ʔaħad- | ʔɛˈħad | ħade | ʔḥd |
| Two | *ṯin-ān (nom.), *ṯin-ayn (obl.),*kilʼ- | θinaːn, θinajn, kilʔ | iθn-āni (nom.), iθn-ajni (obj.), fem. θint-āni, θint-ajni | ˈʃn-ajim, fem. ˈʃt-ajim | klte | *ṯny |
| Three | *śalāṯ- > *ṯalāṯ-[nb 5] | ɬalaːθ > θalaːθ | θalaːθ- | fem. ʃaˈloʃ | seleste (Ge'ezśälas) | *ślṯ |
| Four | *ʼarbaʻ- | ʔarbaʕ | ʔarbaʕ- | fem. ˈʔarbaʕ | arbaʕte | *ʼrbʻ |
| Five | *ḫamš- | χamʃ | χams- | fem. ˈħameʃ | ħamuʃte | *ḫmš |
| Six | *šidṯ-[nb 6] | ʃidθ | sitt- (ordinal saːdis-) | fem. ʃeʃ | ʃduʃte | *šdṯ/šṯ |
| Seven | *šabʻ- | ʃabʕ | sabʕ- | fem. ˈʃɛβaʕ | ʃewʕate | *šbʻ |
| Eight | *ṯamāniy- | θamaːnij- | θamaːn-ij- | fem. ʃǝˈmonɛ | ʃemonte | *ṯmny/ṯmn |
| Nine | *tišʻ- | tiʃʕ | tisʕ- | fem. ˈteʃaʕ | tʃʕate | *tšʻ |
| Ten | *ʻaśr- | ʕaɬr | ʕaʃ(a)r- | fem. ˈʕɛśɛr | ʕaserte | *ʻśr |
These are the basic numeral stems without feminine suffixes. Note that in most older Semitic languages, the forms of the numerals from 3 to 10 exhibit gender polarity (also called "chiastic concord" or reverse agreement), i.e. if the counted noun is masculine, the numeral would be feminine and vice versa.
Typology[edit]
Common vocabulary[edit]
Due to the Semitic languages' common origin, they share many words and roots. Others differ. For example:
| English | Proto-Semitic | Akkadian | Arabic | Aramaic | Hebrew | Ge'ez | Mehri | Maltese |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| father | *ʼab- | ab- | ʼab- | ʼaḇ-āʼ | ʼāḇ | ʼab | ḥa-yb | missier |
| heart | *lib(a)b- | libb- | lubb- | lebb-āʼ | lēḇ(āḇ) | libb | ḥa-wbēb | qalb |
| house | *bayt- | bītu, bētu | bayt- | bayt-āʼ | báyiṯ, bêṯ | bet | beyt, bêt | dar |
| peace | *šalām- | šalām- | salām- | šlām-āʼ | šālôm | salām | səlōm | sliem |
| tongue | *lišān-/*lašān- | lišān- | lisān- | leššān-āʼ | lāšôn | lissān | əwšēn | ilsien |
| water | *may-/*māy- | mû (root *mā-/*māy-) | māʼ-/māy | mayy-āʼ | máyim | māy | ḥə-mō | ilma |
Sometimes, certain roots differ in meaning from one Semitic language to another. For example, the root b-y-ḍ in Arabic has the meaning of "white" as well as "egg", whereas in Hebrew it only means "egg". The root l-b-n means "milk" in Arabic, but the color "white" in Hebrew. The root l-ḥ-m means "meat" in Arabic, but "bread" in Hebrew and "cow" in Ethiopian Semitic; the original meaning was most probably "food". The word medina (root: m-d-n) has the meaning of "metropolis" in Amharic and "city" in Arabic and Hebrew, but in Modern Hebrew it is usually used as "state".
Of course, there is sometimes no relation between the roots. For example, "knowledge" is represented in Hebrew by the root y-d-ʿ, but in Arabic by the roots ʿ-r-f and ʿ-l-m and in Ethiosemitic by the roots ʿ-w-q and f-l-ṭ.
For more comparative vocabulary lists, see Wiktionary appendices:
Classification[edit]
There are six fairly uncontroversial nodes within the Semitic languages: East Semitic, Northwest Semitic, Arabic, Old South Arabian (also known as Sayhadic), Modern South Arabian, and Ethiopic. These are generally grouped further, but there is ongoing debate as to which belong together. The classification based on shared innovations given below, established by Robert Hetzron in 1976 and with later emendations by John Huehnergard and Rodgers as summarized in Hetzron 1997, is the most widely accepted today. In particular, several Semiticists still argue for the traditional (partially nonlinguistic) view of Arabic as part of South Semitic, and a few (e.g. Alexander Militarev or the German-Egyptian professor Arafa Hussein Mustafa[citation needed]) see the South Arabian languages[clarification needed] as a third branch of Semitic alongside East and West Semitic, rather than as a subgroup of South Semitic. Roger Blench notes that the Gurage languages are highly divergent and wonders whether they might not be a primary branch, reflecting an origin of Afroasiatic in or near Ethiopia. At a lower level, there is still no general agreement on where to draw the line between "languages" and "dialects" – an issue particularly relevant in Arabic, Aramaic, and Gurage – and the strong mutual influences between Arabic dialects render a genetic subclassification of them particularly difficult.
The Himyaritic language appears to have been Semitic, but is unclassified due to insufficient data.
- East Semitic
- Central Semitic
- South Semitic
- Western: Ethiopic and Old South Arabian
- Eastern: Modern South Arabian
Living Semitic languages by number of speakers[edit]
| Languages | speakers |
|---|---|
| Arabic | 300,000,000[2] |
| Amharic | 21,800,000 |
| Hebrew | 7,000,000[4][5][6] |
| Tigrinya | 6,700,000 |
| Silt'e | 830,000 |
| Tigre | 800,000 |
| Sebat Bet Gurage | 440,000 |
| Maltese | 371,900[31] |
| Inor | 280,000 |
| Soddo | 250,000 |
| Assyrian Neo-Aramaic | 220,000[32] |
| Mehri | 120,000[33] |
| Soqotri | 64,000[34] |
| Turoyo | 62,000[35] |
| Shehri | 25,000[36] |
| Harari | 21,283 |
| Western Neo-Aramaic | 15,000[37] |
| Hulaulá | 10,000[38] |
| Lishana Deni | 7,500[39] |
| Neo-Mandaic | 5,000[40] |
| Lishán Didán | 4,500[41] |
| Lishanid Noshan | 2250[42] |
| Hértevin | 1,000[43] |
| Koy Sanjaq Syriac | 800[44] |
| Harsusi | 600[45] |
| Senaya | 500[46] |
| Bohtan Neo-Aramaic | 499[47] |
| Bathari | 200[48] |
| Hobyót | 100[49] |
| Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic | 20[50] |
| Major Arabic languages | speakers |
|---|---|
| Egyptian | 54,000,000[51] |
| Moroccan | 30,000,000[52] |
| Algerian | 28,000,000[53] |
| Saidi | 19,000,000[54] |
| Sudanese | 17,000,000[55] |
| Mesopotamian | 15,100,000[56] |
| North Levantine | 14,000,000[57] |
| Tunisian | 11,000,000[58] |
| Najdi | 10,000,000[59] |
| Sanaani | 7,600,000[60] |
| Taizzi-Adeni | 7,100,000[61] |
| North Mesopotamian | 6,300,000[62] |
| South Levantine | 6,200,000[63] |
| Hejazi | 6,000,000[64] |
| Gulf | 3,600,000[65] |
| Hassaniya | 3,300,000[66] |
| Bedawi | 1,700,000[67] |
| Chadian | 1,100,000[68] |