Semitic languages

Semitic languages were spoken and written across much of the Middle East and Asia Minor during the Bronze Age and Iron Age, the earliest attested being the East Semitic Akkadian of Mesopotamia (Akkad, Assyria, Isin, Larsa and Babylonia) from the third millennium BC.[14]

The origin of Semitic-speaking peoples is still under discussion. Several locations were proposed as possible sites of a prehistoric origin of Semitic-speaking peoples: Mesopotamia, the Levant, Ethiopia[15] the Eastern Mediterranean region, the Arabian Peninsula, and North Africa. Some claim that the Semitic languages originated in the Levant around 3800 BC, and were introduced to the Horn of Africa at about 800 BC from the southern Arabian peninsula, and to North Africa via Phoenician colonists at approximately the same time.[16][17] Others assign the arrival of Semitic speakers in the Horn of Africa to a much earlier date[18] according to theory believed by many scholars now Semitic originated from an offshoot of a still earlier language in North Africa and desertization made its inhabitants to migrate in the fourth millennium BC into what is now Ethiopia, others northwest out of Africa into West Asia.[19]

The various extremely closely related and mutually intelligible Canaanite languages, a branch of the Northwest Semitic languages included Amorite, first attested in the 21st century BC, Edomite, Hebrew, Ammonite, Moabite, Phoenician (Punic/Carthaginian), Samaritan Hebrew, Ekronite, Amalekite and Sutean. They were spoken in what is today Israel, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, the northern Sinai peninsula, some northern and eastern parts of the Arabian peninsula, southwest fringes of Turkey, and in the case of Phoenician, coastal regions of Tunisia (Carthage), Libya, Algeria and parts of Morocco, Spain and possibly in Malta and other Mediterranean islands. Ugaritic, a Northwest Semitic language closely related to but distinct from the Canaanite group was spoken in the kingdom of Ugarit in north western Syria.

Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature, written in Akkadian.[20]

A hybrid Canaano-Akkadian language also emerged in Canaan (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon) during the 14th century BC, incorporating elements of the Mesopotamian East Semitic Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia with the West Semitic Canaanite languages.[21]

Aramaic, a still living ancient Northwest Semitic language, first attested in the 12th century BC in the northern Levant, gradually replaced the East Semitic and Canaanite languages across much of the Near East, particularly after being adopted as the lingua franca of the vast Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–605 BC) by Tiglath-Pileser III during the 8th century BC, and being retained by the succeeding Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid Empires.[22]

The Chaldean language (not to be confused with Aramaic or its Biblical variant, sometimes referred to as Chaldean) was a Northwest Semitic language, possibly closely related to Aramaic, but no examples of the language remain, as after settling in south eastern Mesopotamia from the Levant during the 9th century BC, the Chaldeans appear to have rapidly adopted the Akkadian and Aramaic languages of the indigenous Mesopotamians.

Old South Arabian languages (classified as South Semitic and therefore distinct from the Central-Semitic Arabic) were spoken in the kingdoms of Dilmun, Sheba, Ubar, Socotra and Magan, which in modern terms encompassed part of the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Yemen. South Semitic languages are thought to have spread to the Horn of Africa circa 8th century BC where the Ge'ez language emerged (though the direction of influence remains uncertain).

Example of Arabic calligraphy

The Akkadian-influenced Syriac, a 5th-century BC Mesopotamian (Assyrian)[23] descendant of Aramaic used in Mesopotamia, northeastern Syria, and south east Anatolia,[24] rose to importance as a literary language of early Christianity in the third to fifth centuries and continued into the early Islamic era.

The Arabic language, although originating in the Arabian Peninsula, first emerged in written form in the 1st to 4th centuries CE in the southern regions of The Levant. With the advent of the early Arab conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries, Classical Arabic eventually replaced many (but not all) of the indigenous Semitic languages and cultures of the Near East. Both the Near East and North Africa saw an influx of Muslim Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula, followed later by non-Semitic Muslim Iranian and Turkic peoples. The previously dominant Aramaic dialects maintained by the Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians gradually began to be sidelined, however descendant dialects of Eastern Aramaic (including the Akkadian influenced Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, Turoyo and Mandaic) survive to this day among the Assyrians and Mandaeans of northern and southern Iraq, northwestern Iran, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, with up to a million fluent speakers. Eastern Aramaic is a recognized language in Iraq, furthermore, Mesopotamian Arabic is the most Aramaic-Syriac influenced dialect of Arabic, due to Aramaic-Syriac having originated in Mesopotamia.[25] Meanwhile Western Aramaic is now only spoken by a few thousand Aramean Syriac Christians in western Syria. The Arabs spread their Central Semitic language to North Africa (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and northern Sudan and Mauritania), where it gradually replaced Egyptian Coptic and many Berber languages (although Berber is still largely extant in many areas), and for a time to the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar) and Malta.

Page from a 12th-century Quran in Arabic

With the patronage of the caliphs and the prestige of its liturgical status, Arabic 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,[26] the Fertile Crescent, and Egypt. Most of the Maghreb followed, specifically in the wake of the Banu Hilal's incursion in the 11th century, and Arabic became the native language of many inhabitants of al-Andalus. After the collapse of the Nubian kingdom of Dongola in the 14th century, Arabic began to spread south of Egypt into modern Sudan; soon after, the Beni Ḥassān brought Arabization to Mauritania. A number of Modern South Arabian languages distinct from Arabic still survive, such as Soqotri, Mehri and Shehri which are mainly spoken in Socotra, Yemen and Oman.

Meanwhile, the Semitic languages that had arrived from southern Arabia in the 8th century BC 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.

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].

Note: the fricatives *s, *z, *ṣ, *ś, *ṣ́, *ṱ may also be interpreted as affricates (/t͡s/, /d͡z/, /t͡sʼ/, /t͡ɬ/, /t͡ɬʼ/, /t͡θʼ/).

Notes:

1. Proto-Semitic *ś was still pronounced as [ɬ] in Biblical Hebrew, but no letter was available in the Early Linear Script, 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/.
2. Biblical Hebrew as of the 3rd century BCE apparently still distinguished the phonemes ġ /ʁ/ and ḫ /χ/ from ʻ /ʕ/ and ḥ /ħ/, respectively, 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.
3. 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.[31][32] (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 BCE.[33] This suggests that these sounds, too, were distinguished in Old Aramaic language, but written using the same letters as they later merged with.
4. The earlier pharyngeals can be distinguished in Akkadian from the zero reflexes of *ḥ, *ʕ by e-coloring adjacent *a, e.g. pS *ˈbaʕal-um 'owner, lord' > Akk. bēlu(m).[34]
5. Hebrew and Aramaic underwent begadkefat spirantization at a certain point, whereby the stop sounds /b ɡ d k p t/ were softened to the corresponding fricatives [v ɣ ð x f 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 BCE,[35] and most likely occurred after the loss of Hebrew /χ, ʁ/ c. 200 BCE.[note 5] It is known to have occurred in Hebrew by the 2nd century CE.[37] 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.[38] 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).
6. In the Northwest Semitic languages, */w/ became */j/ at the beginning of a word, e.g. Hebrew yeled "boy" < *wald (cf. Arabic walad).
7. There is evidence of a rule of assimilation of /j/ to the following coronal consonant in pre-tonic position, shared by Hebrew, Phoenician and Aramaic.[39]
8. In Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, [ħ] is nonexistent. In general cases, the language would lack pharyngeal fricative [ʕ] (as heard in Ayin). However, /ʕ/ is retained in educational speech, especially among Assyrian priests.[40]
9. The palatalization of Proto-Semitic gīm /g/ to Arabic /d͡ʒ/ jīm, is most probably connected to the pronunciation of qāf /q/ as a /g/ gāf (this sound change also occurred in Yemenite Hebrew), hence in most of the Arabian peninsula (which is the homeland of the Arabic language) ج is jīm /d͡ʒ/ and ق is gāf /g/, except in western and southern Yemen and parts of Oman where ج is gīm /g/ and ق is qāf /q/.
10. Ugaritic orthography indicated the vowel after the glottal stop.
11. The Arabic letter jīm (ج) has three main pronunciations in Modern Standard Arabic. [d͡ʒ] in north Algeria, Iraq, also in most of the Arabian peninsula and as the predominant pronunciation of Literary Arabic outside the Arab world, [ʒ] occurs in most of the Levant and most North Africa; and [ɡ] is used in northern Egypt and some regions in Yemen and Oman. In addition to other minor allophones.
12. The Arabic letter qāf (ق) has three main pronunciations in spoken varieties. [ɡ] in most of the Arabian Peninsula, Northern and Eastern Yemen and parts of Oman, Southern Iraq, Upper Egypt, Sudan, Libya, some parts of the Levant and to lesser extent in some parts (mostly rural) of Maghreb. [q] in most of Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, Southern and Western Yemen and parts of Oman, Northern Iraq, parts of the Levant especially Druze dialects. [ʔ] in most of the Levant and Lower Egypt, as well as some North African towns such as Tlemcen and Fez. In addition to other minor allophones.
13. ṱ can be written ẓ, and always is in the Ugaritic and Arabic contexts. In Ugaritic, sometimes assimilates to ġ, as in ġmʔ 'thirsty' (Arabic ẓmʔ, Hebrew ṣmʔ, but Ugaritic mẓmủ 'thirsty', root ẓmʔ, is also attested).
14. Early Amharic might have had a different phonology.
15. The pronunciations /ʕ/ and /ħ/ for ʿAyin and Ḥet, respectively, still occur among some older Mizrahi speakers, but for most modern Israelis, ʿAyin and Ḥet are realized as /ʔ, -/ and /χ ~ x/, respectively.

The following table shows the development of the various fricatives in Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic and Maltese through cognate words:

1. possibly affricated (/dz/ /tɬʼ/ /ʦʼ/ /tθʼ/ /tɬ/)

Proto-Semitic vowels are, in general, harder to deduce due to the nonconcatenative morphology 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:

1. in a stressed open syllable
2. in a stressed closed syllable before a geminate
3. in a stressed closed syllable before a consonant cluster
4. when the proto-Semitic stressed vowel remained stressed
5. pS *a,*ā > Akk. e,ē in the neighborhood of pS *ʕ,*ħ and before r.
6. i.e. pS *g,*k,*ḳ,*χ > Ge'ez gʷ, kʷ,ḳʷ,χʷ / _u

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 رأى محمد فريدا 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.[42] Akkadian was also predominantly SOV.

The proto-Semitic three-case system (nominative, accusative and genitive) with differing vowel endings (-u, -a -i), fully preserved in Qur'anic Arabic (see ʾIʿrab), Akkadian and Ugaritic, has disappeared everywhere in the many colloquial forms of Semitic languages. Modern Standard Arabic maintains such case distinctions, although they are typically lost in free speech due to colloquial influence. An accusative ending -n is preserved in Ethiopian Semitic.[note 7] In the northwest, the scarcely attested Samalian reflects a case distinction in the plural between nominative -ū and oblique -ī (compare the same distinction in Classical Arabic).[44] Additionally, Semitic nouns and adjectives had a category of state, the indefinite state being expressed by nunation.[45]

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.

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 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. 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.[46]

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 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.) A special feature in classical Hebrew is the waw-consecutive, prefixing a verb form with the letter waw in order to change its tense or aspect. 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.

All Semitic languages exhibit a unique pattern of stems called Semitic roots consisting typically of triliteral, or three-consonant consonantal roots (two- and four-consonant roots also exist), from which nouns, adjectives, and verbs are formed in various ways (e.g., by inserting vowels, doubling consonants, lengthening vowels or by adding prefixes, suffixes, or infixes).

For instance, the root k-t-b (dealing with "writing" generally) yields in Arabic:

katabtu كَتَبْتُ or كتبت "I wrote" (f and m)

yuktab(u) يُكْتَبُ or يكتب "being written" (masculine)

tuktab(u) تُكتَبُ or تكتب "being written" (feminine)

yatakātabūn(a) يَتَكَاتَبُونَ or يتكاتبون "they write to each other" (masculine)

istiktāb اِسْتِكْتابَ or استكتاب "causing to write"

kitāb كِتابٌ or كتاب "book" (the hyphen shows end of stem before various case endings)

kutayyib كُتَيِّبٌ or كتيب "booklet" (diminutive)

kitābah كِتابةٌ or كتابة "writing"

kuttāb كُتّابٌ or كتاب "writers" (broken plural)

katabah كَتَبةٌ or كتبة "clerks" (broken plural)

maktab مَكْتَبٌ or مكتب "desk" or "office"

maktabah مَكْتَبةٌ or مكتبة "library" or "bookshop"

maktūb مَكْتُوبٌ or مكتوب "written" (participle) or "postal letter" (noun)

katībah كَتِيبةٌ or كتيبة "squadron" or "document"

iktitāb اِكْتِتابٌ or اكتتاب "registration" or "contribution of funds"

muktatib مُكتَتِبٌ or مكتتب "subscription"

and the same root in Hebrew:

kāṯaḇti כָּתַבְתִּי or כתבתי "I wrote"

kattāḇ כַּתָּב or כתב "reporter" (m)

katteḇeṯ כַּתָּבֶת or כתבת "reporter" (f)

kattāḇā כַּתָּבָה or כתבה "article"

miḵtāḇ מִכְתָּב or מכתב "postal letter"

miḵtāḇā מִכְתָבָה or מכתבה "writing desk"

kəṯōḇeṯ כְּתֹבֶת or כתובת "address"

kəṯāḇ כְּתָב or כתב "handwriting"

kāṯūḇ כָּתוּב or כתוב "written"

hiḵtīḇ הִכְתִּיב or הכתיב "he dictated"

hiṯkattēḇ הִתְכַּתֵּב or התכתב "he corresponded"

niḵtaḇ נִכְתָּב or נכתב "it was written" (m)

kəṯīḇ כְּתִיב or כתיב "spelling" (m)

taḵtīḇ תַּכְתִּיב or תכתיב "prescript" (m)

məḵuttāḇ מְכֻתָּב or מכותב "addressee"

kəṯubbā כְּתֻבָּה or כתובה "ketubah (a Jewish marriage contract)" (f)

(Underlined consonants ⟨ḵ⟩, ⟨ṯ⟩, ⟨ḇ⟩ represent the fricatives /x/, /θ/, /v/ respectively.)

In Tigrinya and Amharic, this root was used widely but is now seen as an archaic form. Ethiopic-derived languages use different roots for things that have to do with writing (and in some cases counting). The primitive root ṣ-f and the trilateral root stems m-ṣ-f, ṣ-h-f, and ṣ-f-r are used. This root also exists in other Semitic languages, such as Hebrew: sep̄er "book", sōp̄er "scribe", mispār "number" and sippūr "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 hap̄lēḡ means "set sail!", hap̄lāḡā means "a sailing trip", and hip̄līḡ means "he sailed", while the unrelated ʕūp̄, təʕūp̄ā and ʕāp̄ pertain to flight).

These are the basic numeral stems without feminine suffixes. In most older Semitic languages, the forms of the numerals from 3 to 10 exhibit polarity of gender (also called "chiastic concord" or "reverse agreement"), i.e. if the counted noun is masculine, the numeral would be feminine and vice versa.

Some early Semitic languages are speculated to have had weak ergative features.[51]

• East Semitic (All extinct)
  • Akkadian
    • Old Akkadian
    • Babylonian
    • Assyrian
    • Canaano-Akkadian
  • Eblaite
  • Kishite
• West Semitic
  • Central Semitic
    • Northwest Semitic
      • Aramaic
        • Old Aramaic
          • Samalian (extinct)
          • Imperial Aramaic (extinct)
            • Biblical Aramaic (extinct)
          • Middle Aramaic
            • Eastern Aramaic (dialect continuum)
              • Syriac
              • Hatran Aramaic (extinct)
              • Central Neo-Aramaic
                • Turoyo
                • Mlaḥsô
              • Northeastern Neo-Aramaic (dialect continuum)
                • Suret
                  • Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
                    • Christian Urmi Neo-Aramaic
                    • Bohtan Neo-Aramaic
                    • Senaya
                  • Chaldean Neo-Aramaic
                • Koy Sanjaq Christian Neo-Aramaic
                • Hertevin Neo-Aramaic
                • Jewish Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
                  • Lishanid Noshan
                  • Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic
                  • Hulaulá
                  • Lishana Deni
                  • Lishán Didán
                  • Betanure Jewish Neo-Aramaic
              • Southeastern Aramaic
                • Mandaic
                  • Neo-Mandaic
                • Jewish Babylonian Aramaic (extinct)
            • Western Aramaic (dialect continuum)
              • Nabataean Aramaic (extinct)
              • Palmyrene Aramaic (extinct)
              • Western Neo-Aramaic (dialect continuum)
              • Palestinian Aramaic (All extinct)
                • Samaritan Aramaic
                • Jewish Palestinian Aramaic
                  • Galilean dialect
                • Christian Palestinian Aramaic
            • Armazic (extinct)
      • Canaanite
        • North Canaanite
          • Phoenician (extinct)
            • Punic (extinct)
        • South Canaanite
          • Ammonite (extinct)
          • Moabite (extinct)
          • Edomite (extinct)
          • Hebrew
            • Biblical Hebrew
              • Mishnaic Hebrew
                • Medieval Hebrew
                  • Modern Hebrew (revived)
              • Samaritan Hebrew (extinct)
      • Ugaritic (extinct)
      • Amorite (extinct)
      • Taymanitic?
    • Arabic
      • Old Arabic
        • Ancient North Arabian (dialect continuum, All extinct)
          • Dadanitic
          • Dumaitic
          • Hasaitic
          • Thamudic
        • Nabataean Arabic
        • Safaitic
        • Hismaic
        • Pre-classical Arabic
          • ˀAzd dialect
          • Huḏayl dialect
          • Ṭayyiˀ dialect
          • Old Hijazi Arabic
      • Classical Arabic
        • Mashriqi Arabic (Eastern Arabic) (dialect continuum)
          • Peninsular Arabic (dialect continuum)
            • Gulf Arabic
              • Emirati Arabic
              • Bahraini Gulf Arabic
              • Kuwaiti Arabic
            • Bahrani Arabic
            • Omani Arabic
            • Modern Hejazi Arabic
            • Shihhi Arabic
            • Dhofari Arabic
            • Yemeni Arabic (dialect continuum)
              • Hadhrami Arabic
              • Sanʽani Arabic
              • Taʽizzi-Adeni Arabic
                • Taʽizzi Arabic
                • Adeni Arabic
              • Judeo-Yemeni Arabic
              • Tihamiyya Arabic
                • Zabidi dialect
              • Yafi'i Arabic
            • Bedawi Arabic
            • Najdi Arabic
            • Bareqi Arabic
          • Egypto-Sudanic Arabic (dialect continuum)
            • Egyptian Arabic (dialect continuum)
              • Judeo-Egyptian Arabic
              • Upper Egyptian Arabic
            • Sudanese-Chadian Arabic (dialect continuum)
              • Sudanese Arabic
              • Chadian Arabic
          • Levantine Arabic (dialect continuum)
            • North Levantine Arabic
              • Cilician Arabic
              • Syrian Arabic (dialect continuum)
                • Aleppine Arabic
                • Damascene Arabic
              • Lebanese Arabic
            • South Levantine Arabic
              • Palestinian Arabic
              • Jordanian Arabic
          • Mesopotamian Arabic (dialect continuum)
            • North Mesopotamian Arabic (dialect continuum)
              • Anatolian Arabic
              • Judeo-Iraqi Arabic
                • Jewish Baghdadi Arabic
              • Cypriot Arabic
            • Gilit Mesopotamian Arabic (dialect continuum)
              • Baghdadi Arabic
              • Shawi Arabic
              • Khuzestani Arabic
              • South Mesopotamian Arabic
          • Central Asian Arabic (dialect continuum)
            • Bakhtiari Arabic
            • Bukharian Arabic
            • Kashkadarian Arabic
            • Khorasani Arabic
          • Shirvani Arabic (extinct)
        • Maghrebi Arabic (Western Arabic) (dialect continuum)
          • Algerian Arabic (dialect continuum)
            • Western Algerian Arabic
            • Eastern Algerian Arabic
          • Moroccan Arabic
            • West Moroccan Arabic
            • East Moroccan Arabic
            • Fessi dialect
            • Judeo-Moroccan Arabic
          • Libyan Arabic
            • Western Libyan Arabic
            • Eastern Libyan Arabic
            • Western Egyptian Bedawi Arabic
            • Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic
          • Tunisian Arabic
            • Judeo-Tunisian Arabic
          • Jebli Arabic
          • Jijel Arabic
          • Hassaniya Arabic
          • Algerian Saharan Arabic
          • Andalusi Arabic (extinct)
          • Siculo-Arabic
            • Maltese
              • Cottonera Dialect
              • Gozitan dialects
              • Qormi dialect
              • Żejtun dialect
              • Maltralian
              • Corfiot Maltese (extinct)
      • Modern Standard Arabic
  • South Semitic
    • Western South Semitic
      • Ethio-Semitic
        • North Ethiopic
          • Geʽez (Classical Ethiopic)
            • Dahalik
            • Tigre
          • Tigrinya
        • South Ethiopic
          • Transversal South Ethiopic
            • Amharic–Argobba
              • Amharic
              • Argobba
            • Harari–East Gurage
              • Harari
              • East Gurage
                • Silt'e
                • Zway
          • Outer South Ethiopic
            • n-group
              • Gafat (extinct)
              • Soddo
            • tt-group
              • Mesmes (extinct)
              • Muher
              • West Gurage
                • Mesqan
                • Sebat Bet
                  • Sebat Bet Gurage
                  • Inor
      • Old South Arabian (Ṣayhadic)
        • Sabaic (extinct)
        • Minaean (extinct)
        • Qatabanian (extinct)
          • Awsānian (extinct)
        • Hadramautic (extinct)
        • Razihi?
        • Faifi?
    • Modern South Arabian (Eastern South Semitic)
      • Baṭḥari
      • Ḥarsusi
      • Hobyót
      • Mehri
      • Shehri
      • Soqotri

• Amorites – 20th century BC
• Arabs
  • Alawites
  • Ancient North Arabian-speaking bedouins
  • Itureans
  • Nabataeans
• Arameans – 16th to 8th centuries BC[54]
  • Akhlames (Ahlamu) 14th century BC.[55]
  • Mhallami
• Canaanite-speaking nations of the early Iron Age:
  • Ammonite speakers of Ammon
  • Edomite
  • Hebrews/Israelites – founded the nation of Israel which later split into the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
    • Jews
    • Samaritans
  • Moabites
  • Phoenicia – founded Mediterranean colonies including Tyre, Sidon and ancient Carthage/Punics. The remnants of these people became the modern inhabitants of Lebanon.
• Chaldea  – appeared in southern Mesopotamia c. 1000 BC and eventually disappeared into the general Babylonian population.
• Druze
• Maltese
• Nasrani/Nazarenes
  • Antiochian Greek Christians
  • Mandaeans
  • Maronites
• Thamud – 2nd to 5th centuries AD
• Ugarit, 14th to 12th centuries BC

• Akkadian Empire – ancient Semitic speakers moved into Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium BC and settled among the local peoples of Sumer.[56][57]
• Assyrian Empire. The remnant of them became the Assyrian people.
• Babylonian Empire
• Ebla – 23rd century BC

• Abyssinian-speaking peoples
  • Axum – 4th century BC to 7th century AD
  • Amhara people
  • Argobba people
  • Dahalik people
  • Gurage people
  • Harari people
  • Judaised Abyssinians like Beta Israel, Beta Abraham and Falash Muras.
  • Jeberti people
  • Silt'e people
  • Tigrigna People
  • Tigray people
  • Tigre people
  • Wolane people
  • Zay people
• Old and Modern South Arabian-speaking peoples
  • Bathari people
  • Faifi people
  • Ancient Hadramitic-speakers. Eventually evolved into the modern day Hadhrami people.
  • Himyarites from 110 BCE until 578 CE
  • Yemenite Jews
  • Harsusi people
  • Hobyot people
  • Mehri people
  • Minaeans 10th century BCE to 2nd centuries BC
  • Qatabanians
  • Shehri people
  • Razihi people
  • Sabaeans of Yemen – 9th to 1st centuries BC
  • Soqotri people

• Suteans – 14th century BC