Semitic

Geographical Distribution of Semitic languages before the I ^century BC. JC , from the biblical name of Shem son of Noah. They form one branch of the family Hamito-Semitic (also known as Afro-Asian) , common in the northern half of Africa to the Middle East. The origin and direction of the geographic expansion of these languages are still uncertain, Asia to Africa or from Africa to Asia .

Semitic languages such archaic the Akkadian and Ugaritic are attested in more than four millennia. The earliest Akkadian documents, writing cuneiform , dating from the second half of the third millennium BC Archaeological finds and other documents later Akkadian to early AD .

The most modern Semitic languages spoken are Arabic (over 450 million speakers), the Amharic (27 million), the Hebrew (8 million), Tigrinya (6.75 million). They are today, with the Maltese (400 000 speakers), the only Semitic language, although other official languages in Ethiopia , in Eritrea , to Djibouti and Somalia , and the various dialects neo-Aramaic in the Middle East relate to this family.

Semitic languages are characterized, among others, by the predominance of roots triliteral and by the use of consonants laryngeals , guttural and emphatic.

Summary 1 Historical Development 1.1 Etymology 1.2 The origin and geographical expansion 1.2.1 Fourth millennium BC. AD 1.2.2 Third millennium BC. AD 1.2.3 second millennium BC. AD 1.2.4 first millennium BC. AD 2 Inventory 2.1 East Semitic 2.2 Western Semitic 2.2.1 North West Semitic 2.2.1.1 Amorite 2.2.1.2 Ugaritic 2.2.1.3 Canaanite languages 2.2.1.4 Aramaic 2.2.2 Western South Semitic 2.2.2.1 South Arabian Languages 2.2.2.2 Arabic 2.2.2.3 Ethiopian Languages 2.3 blate 3 Description Language 3.1 Scriptures 3.1.1 Alphabets 3.1.2 Transcript 3.2 Lexicons 3.3 Language Liturgical 3.4 Languages contemporary 4 Notes and references 5 See also 5.1 Links Internal External 5.2 Links 5.3 Bibliography

Historical Development

Etymology

The word "Semitic" derives from the common name " Semite "is used for the first time in Europe in the late ^eighteenth century by the historian German philologist August Ludwig von Schlzer. He built this term from the proper name of Shem son of Noah found in the Bible book of Genesis ( Bereshit in Hebrew) and especially in chapter 10, verse 31 which says: " - "and translates" Those are the descendants of Shem, after their families and their languages, according to their territories and peoples " .

Origin and geographic expansion

The language in the nineteenth ^century , claimed the Asian Semitic languages. The ^twentieth and ^twenty-first centuries , new hypotheses suggest an African origin of Semitic languages whose family is part of a larger group of Hamito-Semitic.

^Fourth millennium BC. AD

For orientalists of the nineteenth ^century , as German Theodor Nldeke (1836-1930), Semitic languages from languages hypothetical, the proto-Semitic. This language-mother would be born in the Middle East , before spreading to the Middle East and to northern Africa.

In 1998, McCall hypothesized inverse of an African origin of proto-Semitic .

In 2004, linguists Ehret, Keita, Newman and Bellwood argue that proto-Semitic is native to Africa and that after probable migration of the Sahara in the late Neolithic period , it appears to the Middle East to 4000 BC. AD

^Third millennium BC. AD

The ancient city of Ebla was discovered in 1964 on the site of Tell Mardikh Syria. In 1974, 42 tablets bearing cuneiform were extracted from the ruins of a palace dating from the Early Bronze Age (2400-2225 BCE). In 1975, 17,000 tablets were then revealed. The study of these tablets has an archaic language that some morphological features reminiscent of the Akkadian, and whose vocabulary seems akin to Hebrew and Aramaic.

Linguistically, the attachment of blate to proto-Semitic is still problematic.

^Second millennium BC. AD

East Semitic languages dominated in the early ^second millennium BC. BC in Mesopotamia. The Akkadian is a generic term which opposes the Sumerian , a language not spoken in low-Semitic Mesopotamia. The Akkadian blooms in two dialects, Babylonian and Assyrian. Archaeology provides cuneiform documents written between 2500 BC. BC and the beginning of the current era .

Western Semitic languages, spoken from Syria to Yemen, deliver progressively written texts. Texts in Proto- canen date from 1500 BC. AD and demonstrate the use of a Western Semitic language at that time. Tablets written in Ugaritic have been discovered in northern Syria, dating from 1300 BC. BC Around that time, nomadic Aramaic make foray into the Syrian desert.

Old South Arabian is a South Semitic language.

^first millennium BC. AD

By the ^first millennium BC. BC, the alphabet having widespread, a number of other languages became available: the Aramaic and Old South Arabian. During this period, the system variations, still vigorous in Ugaritic, seems to decline to give birth to the Semitic languages of the northwest. The Phoenicians spread the canen through much of the Mediterranean, while its cousin, the Hebrew is the language of religious literature with the Torah and the Tanakh. With the conquests of the Assyrian Empire, the Aramaic became the lingua franca of the Fertile Crescent, supplanting all other languages, including the Akkadian and Phoenician , Hebrew, while remaining as a liturgical language. It is roughly this time that texts written in Ge'ez , the first written appearance of Ethiopian Semitic languages.

Inventory

East Semitic

This branch contains only one language, Akkadian, known from the cuneiform inscriptions of Mesopotamia (3000 ACN) in a part of the current Iraq. It is the language that has supplanted the Sumerian. Of ancient texts written in Akkadian stand Enuma Elish and the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Two dialects are derived: the Assyrians in northern Mesopotamia and the Babylonian in the south. That language was notably used by Amenhotep IV ( Akhenaten ) to communicate with his Canaanite and Syrian vassals in the Amarna letters dating from the fourteenth century before the current era where a model photographed is visible below cons.

Western Semitic

The main difference between East and West Semitic lies in the verbal system. Indeed, the verb in Western Semitic, uses a prefix to express the future and a suffix for the past. The East Semitic used in 2 cases of prefixes.

The West Semitic also bore the definite article and script (see below).

There are two Western groups: the northern and southern. The two are distinguished primarily by the formation of the plural suffix to the north, broken to the south (internal modification of the name: there is no radical, as in French for example).

North West Semitic

This branch includes four language groups.

Amorite

The Amorite means a language of the first half of the second ACN. His first speakers were nomads. This language may be related to Ugaritic.

Ugaritic

The Ugaritic Canaanite appear before, near the ancient city of Ugarit , north coastal Phoenician (see also Ras Shamra. It was spoken and written in cuneiform around the ^fourteenth and ^thirteenth century BC. J. - C. , before the city was sacked.

Languages Canaanite

Canaanite languages together

• the Phoenician and Punic spoken in Carthage
• the Hebrew ,
• but also languages Ammonite , Moabite , and Edomite spoken on the left bank of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, Jordan is the current. Of these three languages, only a few entries were received until today (the stele of Mesha ).

The Phoenician and Punic are spoken until ^the fifth century in the Mediterranean, St. Augustine was familiar example.

Initially, all these languages were written using the Phoenician alphabet.

Canaanite languages were supplanted by Aramaic.

Aramaic

Aramaic in Syria appeared to -850, and from the ^sixth century was used as the lingua franca of Egypt to Afghanistan. Only the Greek Aramaic rivaled the Middle East. Thus, for example, the lingua franca of Jews at the time of Jesus was Aramaic. It was thus the champion of the Semitic languages ^of the sixth century to the ^seventh century, and the Arab conquests.

The ancient Aramaic (also called imperial, or even pre-Christian) is known through many papyrus documents, and some books of the Old Testament. It differs from the Canaanite languages by the passage of the vowel to vowel.

At the time of Jesus , Aramaic (recent) had evolved into different regional forms. It distinguishes the Western Aramaic ( Palestine ), including the Nabataean (around Petra ), and Eastern Aramaic, including the neo-Aramaic (or Sureth ) and Syriac.

Currently, only Greece can claim such a long uninterrupted history documented that Aramaic (2800 years!).

Western South Semitic

This group differs from the northern group in the conservation of nominal bending and the widespread broken plurals.

South Arabian Languages

Languages South Arabian languages together ancient inscriptions (from ^seventh to ^fifth century BC) and the current vernacular of Yemen and Oman (which did not own writings). The South Arabian was distinguished by the use of two forms of the past indicative and subjunctive.

Currently, there are only 6, in Yemen and Oman : the mehr , the hobyot the harsusi the bathari the jibbali and Soqotri. However, they are endangered, Arabic is the only official language of both countries and language of religion.

Arabic

The Arabic language, which appears today in the form of Modern Standard Arabic , includes a state language called Classical Arabic , and different states of dialect which together form the Arabic dialect .

A list of Arabic-speaking countries allows geographical location of these dialects. The Hassaniyya is spoken in Mauritania , in Western Sahara and in southern Morocco. The Arab Maghreb is spoken in northern Morocco to Libya and its variants are the Moroccan Arabic , the Arab Tunisian and Algerian Arabic , each of these dialects with different variations. Also in northern Africa will also speak the Egyptian Arabic and Chadian Arabic.

Mediterranean talked once the Arab Andalusian and Arab Sicily , the latter having drifted Maltese , one of the few Arabic dialects written using the Latin alphabet. Maltese, hybrid language, was strongly influenced by the Phoenician, Arabic, the Ottoman , the Sicilian , the Italian and English.

Among the Arabic dialects spoken in Asia stand the Arab Syrian-Lebanese-Palestinian and the Arab Gulf countries , but also the Judeo-Arabic.

The earliest texts in Arabic, written with an alphabet derived from the Nabataean date from the ^fourth century NCP.

Southern Arab tribes use the writing safatique.

Henri Fleisch is the author of a treatise written in Arabic philology between 1961 and 1977.

Ethiopian Languages

The oldest form of the language is Ge'ez (or Ge'ez), commonly known as Ethiopian and South Arabian languages diverged near the beginning of the Christian era. His writing was syllabic vowel and consonant concluded. The Ge'ez died around 1000.

Several Semitic languages survive today in Ethiopia, but are not direct descendents of Ge'ez. Today is the dominant language of Amharic, the official language, but whose origin is obscure. It differs particularly strongly Semitic language in its syntax.

blate

blate language is a Semitic language very archaic, spoken in ^the third millennium BC. AD in the ancient city-state of Ebla. On the site, approximately 17,000 tablets were found written in cuneiform (80% of Sumerian origin, 20% fit for the use of blate).

Although close to Akkadian, the language also has features unique to Western Semitic. We do not know what category to place it.

Description Language

Scriptures

Alphabets

One can not speak Semitic languages without adding a note on the alphabets to transcribe them. Indeed, the most famous of them (the Phoenician alphabet) is the direct ancestor of the alphabets Greek, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew. To say his success in these last 34 centuries.

For more information, visit the following specific items.

Protosinaitique alphabet based on hieroglyphics.

• Phoenician XIV ^centuryBC. AD
  • Aramaic ^ninth century BC. AD
    • Brahms & Family VI ^century
      • Tibetan ^seventh century
      • Khmer / Javanese , ^ninth century
    • Hebrew III ^centuryBC. AD
    • Syriac II ^centuryBC. AD
    • Din Dabireh ^third century
    • Arabic IV ^century
  • Greek ^ninth century BC. AD
    • Etruscan ^eighth century BC. AD
      • Latin ^seventh century BC. AD
      • Rune II ^centuryBC. AD
    • Gothic IV ^centuryBC. AD
    • Armenian 405
    • Glagolitic 862
    • Cyrillic ^tenth century
  • Samaritan ^sixth century BC. AD
  • (In) Iberian ^sixth century BC. AD
• (En) South Arabian ^ninth century BC. AD
  • Geez ^fifth and ^sixth centuries BC. AD

Transcript

Glossaries

All Semitic languages have a common characteristic of their words on a build root triliteral consists of three consonants carry the basic meaning of the lexeme that integrity.

Because of the common origin of Semitic languages, they share many words and roots. The table below shows some of these similarities.

Akkadian	Aramaic	Arabic	Hebrew	French translation
zikaru	Dhikr	Dakar	zakar	man, male
maliku	malka	malik	melek	King
Imeru	Hamar	Hammar	Hamor	ass

This is obviously not a generality, but it explains that from ancient times the relationship between Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic were quickly established.

Languages liturgical

Many of the Semitic languages have become liturgical languages , used in religious ceremonies. Thus, Hebrew as a living language has been supplanted by Aramaic and died around 200 BC. AD She only survived as a liturgical language, and it is only the nineteenth ^century that Hebrew spoken in Israel has been rebuilt by Eliezer Ben-Yehudah on the basis of Hebrew liturgical and drawing also Arabic.

Knowledge of these languages is a particular need for scholars of Christianity , of Islam and Judaism.

p> Here is a list with some Semitic languages liturgical and religious groups correspondents.

• The Arabic classic: The Muslims (different from modern dialects), some Eastern Christian Churches : Melkite Greek Catholics , Maronites (the Syriac) Orthodox of Antioch (with Greek)
• The Aramaic , in its Syriac : the Chaldean , the Syriac Orthodox , the Syriac Catholic and Protestant Assyrians , the Maronites (with Arabic)
• The Ge'ez : the Christian Copts of Ethiopia and the Falasha (Ethiopian Jews, or Beta Israel)
• The Hebrew : the Jewish religious
• The Mandaean : the Mandistes

Languages contemporary

(Estimated number of current speakers of Semitic languages in widespread use.) ^References