Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The term Semitic languages is the traditional way of refering to those languages which constitute the Northeastern subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic languages. In linguistics, it has gradually come to be realized that "Semetic" is a term of some heated cultural objection and is thus no longer considered perfectly politically correct. The most common Semitic languages spoken today are Arabic, Amharic, Hebrew, and Tigrinya. Table of contents 1 The Eastern Semitic Languages 2 The Central Semitic languages 2.1 North & West Central Semitic languages 2.2 South Central (Arabic) languages 3 The South Semitic languages 3.3 Western (within South Semitic) 3.4 Eastern (within South Semitic) 4 Common characteristics The Eastern Semitic Languages Akkadian language -- extinct Eblaite language -- extinct The Central Semitic languages North & West Central Semitic languages Canaanite languages Hebrew language Amorite language -- extinct Moabite language -- extinct El Amarna -- extinct Phoenician language -- extinct Aramaic language Syriac language Ugaritic language -- extinct South Central (Arabic) languages Arabic language Maltese language The South Semitic languages Western (within South Semitic) Ethiopic languages North Tigrinya language Tigre language Ge'ez language -- extinct South Transverse Amharic language Argobba language Harari language East Gurage languages Selti language Wolane language Zway language Ulbare language Inneqor language Outer Soddo language Goggot language Muher language West Gurage languages Masqan language Ezha language Gura language Gyeto language Ennemor language Endegen language Old South Arabian -- extinct Eastern (within South Semitic) Soqotri language Mehri language Jibbali language Harusi language Bathari language Hobyot language Common characteristics These languages all exhibit a pattern of words consisting of triconsonantal roots, with vowel changes, prefixes, and suffixes used to inflect them. For instance, in Hebrew: gdl means "big" but is no part of speech and not a word, just a root gadol means "big" and is an adjective giddel means "he magnified" magdelet means "magnifier" (lens) spr is the root for "count" or "recount" sefer means "book" (containing tales which are recounted) sofer means "scribe" (Masoretic scribes counted verses) mispar means "number". Other Afro-Asiatic languages show similar patterns; e.g. in Tamashek Tawa akhluk means "creation" and ikhlakdu "he created". This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.