Semitic languages

The Semitic languages are a family of languages spoken by more than 250 million people across much of the Middle East, where they originated, and North and East Africa. They constitute the northeastern subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic languages, and the only family of this group spoken in Asia.

Common vocabulary

: Main article: List of Proto-Semitic stems.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Due to the Semitic languages' common origin, they share many words and roots in common. For example:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sometimes certain roots differ in meaning from one Semitic language to another. For example, the root {{IPA|b-y-ḍ}} in Arabic has the meaning of "white" as well as "egg", whereas in Hebrew it only means "egg". The root {{IPA|l-b-n}} means "milk" in Arabic, but the color "white" in Hebrew. The root {{IPA|l-ḥ-m}} means "meat" in Arabic, but "bread" in Hebrew; the original meaning in both languages was most probably "food".

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Of course, there is sometimes no relation between the roots. For example, "knowledge" is represented in Hebrew by the root {{IPA|y-d-ʿ}} but in Arabic by the roots {{IPA|ʿ-r-f}} and {{IPA|ʿ-l-m}}.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~