Central Semitic languages are one of the three groups of
West Semitic languages
The West Semitic languages are a proposed major sub-grouping of ancient Semitic languages. The term was first coined in 1883 by Fritz Hommel.[Modern South Arabian languages
The Modern South Arabian languages (MSALs), also known as Eastern South Semitic languages, are a group of endangered languages spoken by small populations inhabiting the Arabian Peninsula, in Yemen and Oman, and Socotra Island. Together with the ...]
and
Ethiopian Semitic languages
Ethiopian Semitic (also Ethio-Semitic, Ethiosemitic, Ethiopic or Abyssinian) is a family of languages spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan. They form the western branch of the South Semitic languages, itself a sub-branch of Semitic, part of ...
.
Central Semitic can itself be further divided into two groups:
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
and
Northwest Semitic
Northwest Semitic is a division of the Semitic languages comprising the indigenous languages of the Levant. It emerged from Proto-Semitic in the Early Bronze Age. It is first attested in proper names identified as Amorite in the Middle Bronze A ...
. Northwest Semitic languages largely fall into either
Aramaic
The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...
or
Canaanite languages (such as
Phoenician and
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
).
Overview
Distinctive features of Central Semitic languages include the following:
* An innovative
negation marker *bal, of uncertain origin.
* The generalization of ''t'' as the suffix conjugation past tense marker,
levelling
Levelling or leveling (American English; see spelling differences) is a branch of surveying, the object of which is to establish or verify or measure the height of specified points relative to a datum. It is widely used in geodesy and cartogra ...
an earlier alternation between *k in the first person and *t in the second person.
* A new prefix conjugation for the non-past tense, of the form ''ya-qtulu'', replacing the inherited ''ya-qattal'' form (they are schematic verbal forms, as if derived from an example
triconsonantal root
The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or "radicals" (hence the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowels ...
''q-t-l'').
*
Pharyngealization of the emphatic consonants, which were previously articulated as
ejective
In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some ...
.
Different classification systems disagree on the precise structure of the group. The most common approach divides it into Arabic and Northwest Semitic, while
SIL Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensi ...
has
South Central Semitic
The Arabic language family is divided into several categories: Old Arabic, the literary varieties, and the modern vernaculars.
The genealogical position of Arabic within the group of the Semitic languages has long been a problem.
Views on A ...
(including Arabic and Hebrew) vs. Aramaic.
The main distinction between Arabic and the Northwest Semitic languages is the presence of
broken plurals in the former. The majority of Arabic nouns (apart from
participle
In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
s) form plurals in this manner, whereas virtually all nouns in the Northwest Semitic languages form their plurals with a
suffix. For example, the Arabic بَيْت ''bayt'' ("house") becomes بُيُوت ''buyūt'' ("houses"); the Hebrew בַּיִת ''bayit'' ("house") becomes בָּתִּים ''bāttīm'' ("houses").
References
*
Semitic languages
{{Semitic-lang-stub