Semitic languages

E12741

Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family that includes historically and culturally significant languages such as Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic, spoken across the Middle East and parts of Africa.

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Observed surface forms (1)

Surface form Occurrences
Canaanite language 1

Statements (65)

Predicate Object
instanceOf language family
hasAncestor Proto-Semitic language
hasCharacteristic broken plurals in many languages
derivational verb stems
emphatic consonants
gendered nouns
grammatical gender distinction
nonconcatenative morphology
prefix and suffix conjugation of verbs
rich consonant inventories
root-and-pattern morphology
triconsonantal roots
use of case in older stages
hasEarliestAttestation 3rd millennium BCE
hasField Semitic philology
hasHistoricalSignificance languages of Judaism Christianity and Islam
languages of major religious texts
hasISOFamilyCode sem
hasLanguage Akkadian
Amharic
Arabic
Aramaic
Geez
Ge'ez
surface form: Geʽez

Hebrew
Maltese
Mehri
Phoenician language
surface form: Phoenician

Sabaic
Syriac
Tigrinya
Ugaritic alphabet
surface form: Ugaritic
hasLivingSpeakers hundreds of millions of people
hasNotableFeature influence on many writing systems worldwide
hasParentFamily Afroasiatic languages
hasRegion Arabian Peninsula
Ethiopian Highlands
Horn of Africa
Levant region
surface form: Levant

Malta
Mesopotamia
Middle East
North Africa
Sahel
hasStatus includes both living and extinct languages
hasSubfamily Central Semitic languages
East Semitic languages
Ethiopian Semitic languages
Modern South Arabian languages
South Semitic languages
Northwest Semitic
surface form: West Semitic languages
hasWritingSystem Arabic script
Geʽez script
Hebrew alphabet
surface form: Hebrew script

Phoenician alphabet
Syriac
surface form: Syriac script

abjad scripts
cuneiform (for Akkadian and Ugaritic)
partOf Afroasiatic languages
surface form: Afroasiatic language family
studiedBy Semitic linguistics
subclassOf Afroasiatic languages
usedIn Tanakh
surface form: Hebrew Bible

Quran
Syriac
surface form: Syriac Christian literature

ancient Mesopotamian texts

Referenced by (39)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Turkic languages areNotGeneticallyRelatedTo Semitic languages
Afroasiatic languages hasSubfamily Semitic languages
Akkadian languageBranch Semitic languages
Chadian Arabic languageBranch Semitic languages
Chaldean Neo-Aramaic languageBranch Semitic languages
Classical Arabic languageBranch Semitic languages
Fus’ha languageBranch Semitic languages
Gulf Arabic languageBranch Semitic languages
MSA languageBranch Semitic languages
Maghrebi Arabic languageBranch Semitic languages
Najdi Arabic languageBranch Semitic languages
Sabaic languageBranch Semitic languages
Sudanese Arabic languageBranch Semitic languages
Yemeni Arabic languageBranch Semitic languages
Amorites languageFamily Semitic languages
Chaldeans languageFamily Semitic languages
Egyptian Arabic languageFamily Semitic languages
Faifi Arabic languageFamily Semitic languages
Geez languageFamily Semitic languages
subject surface form: Geʽez
Hebrews languageFamily Semitic languages
Hijazi Arabic languageFamily Semitic languages
Mesopotamian Arabic languageFamily Semitic languages
Sa'idi Arabic languageFamily Semitic languages
Shami Arabic languageFamily Semitic languages
Tihami Arabic languageFamily Semitic languages
Yafiʿi Arabic languageFamily Semitic languages
Āṯūrāyē languageFamilyContext Semitic languages
Haya linguisticFamily Semitic languages
Horn of Africa majorLanguageBranch Semitic languages
Ammonite partOf Semitic languages
Northwest Semitic partOf Semitic languages
Tamazight (generic) relatedTo Semitic languages
Hebrew subclassOf Semitic languages
this entity surface form: Canaanite language
Old South Arabian subclassOf Semitic languages
South Semitic languages subclassOf Semitic languages
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic subfamilyOf Semitic languages