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.

Present situation

Arabic is spoken natively by majorities from Mauritania to Oman, and from Iraq to the Sudan; as the language of the Qur'an and as a lingua franca, it is widely studied in much of the Muslim world as well. Its spoken form is divided into a number of dialects, some not mutually comprehensible, united by a single written form. Maltese, genetically a descendant of Arabic, is the principal exception, having adopted a Latin orthography in accordance with its cultural situation.

Related Topics:
Mauritania - Oman - Iraq - Sudan - Qur'an - Muslim world - Dialects - Maltese

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Despite the ascendancy of Arabic in the Middle East, other Semitic languages are still to be found there. Hebrew, long extinct, was revived at the end of the 19th century by the Jewish linguist Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, owing to the ideology of Zionism, and has become the main language of Israel, while remaining the liturgical language of Jews worldwide. Descendants of Aramaic continue to be spoken by small minorities in the mountains of northern Iraq, eastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, and Syria, while an older descendant of Aramaic, Syriac, is used liturgically by many Iraqi Christians. In Yemen and Oman, a few tribes continue to speak "Modern South Arabian" languages such as Soqotri, very different both from Arabic and from the languages of the Old South Arabian inscriptions.

Related Topics:
19th century - Jew - Linguist - Eliezer Ben-Yehuda - Zionism - Israel - Iraq - Turkey - Iran - Syria - Syriac - Yemen - Oman - Soqotri

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Ethiopia and Eritrea contain a substantial number of Semitic languages, of which Amharic in Ethiopia, and Tigrigna in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and are the most widely spoken. Both are official languages of their respective countries, while Ge'ez remains the liturgical language for Christians there. A number of Gurage languages are to be found in the mountainous center of Ethiopia, while Harari is restricted to the city of Harar; Tigre, spoken in the Eritrean highlands, has over a million speakers.

Related Topics:
Ethiopia - Eritrea - Tigrigna - Gurage - Harari - Harar - Tigre

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