SEMITIC LANGUAGES. The current
designation of a group of languages sharply
marked off from other groups by certain
characteristic features pertaining both to morphology
and to lexicography. The name Semitic is an
unfortunate one, derived from the classification
of nations in the tenth chapter of Genesis. (See
.) In retaining it we must not only
bear in mind that it is a purely conventional
designation for a certain group of languages, but
also distinguish between its ethnic and linguistic
applications. It does not follow that nations
speaking the same languages belong necessarily
to the same stock.
Confining ourselves to the linguistic application, we may distinguish two chief branches of Semitic speech — a northern and a southern. To the northern branch belong (1) the Babylono-Assyrian; (2) the Aramaic, subdivided into a western and an eastern branch (see ); (3) Hebræo-Phœnician. To the southern branch belong (1) the Arabic, which again is divided into north and south Arabic, and (2) Ethiopic.
In comparison with the territory throughout
which the Indo-Germanic languages are spoken
the area of Semitic speech is exceedingly limited. Excluding the modern Hebrew and modern Arabic, which have been carried by Jews and Arabs to distant parts, the Mediterranean and the Euphrates, the Indian Ocean and the Taurus range represent the western, eastern, southern, and northern boundaries for the groups of Semitic languages. As a direct consequence of these narrow confines, the relationship of the various Semitic languages to one another is much closer than is the case with the various Aryan groups (e.g. Persian and Teutonic); it is almost justifiable to call them dialects rather than separate languages.
The chief traits characterizing the Semitic
languages are: (1) Within the historical period
of the languages, the triliteral character of most
of the stems underlying both nouns and verbs; (2) in the morphology, the constant character of the consonants forming the stems, the vowels being used to indicate the variations on the main theme; (3) substantial agreement in the noun and verb formation; (4) the arrested development in the expression of time relation in the case of the verb, which does not pass beyond the differentiation between a completed and an incompleted act: (5) the use of certain consonants in all the languages (particularly h, n, sh, t) for pronominal prefixes and suffixes and for indication of plural and feminine, as well as variations of the verbal stem corresponding in a measure to modes in Indo-Germanic languages. Other traits might be mentioned, such as the paucity of auxiliary particles, more particularly conjunctions; and it should be noted that while the Semitic languages agree closely in having the same words for common terms (such as father, mother, brother, water, food, deity, heaven, etc.), there are, however, notable exceptions (e.g. man); and in the case of verbs there is considerable individuality manifested in the specific meanings developed by each language from the very general one which is usually attached to a particular stem.
In the form of writing employed there is even
more variation, no less than three distinct
species being employed in the groups comprising
the Semitic languages: (a) the cuneiform
of Babylonia and Assyria, which, originating in a pictorial script, became linear or wedge-shaped (see ); (b) the Phœnician and its derivatives, Hebrew, the various Aramaic alphabets, and further derivatives from the latter; the Syriac and Arabic alphabets; the Phœnician itself may revert to the characters found in the south-Arabic inscriptions; (c) the Ethiopic, which may likewise be a derivative of the ancient south-Arabic (Sabæan and Himyaritic) alphabet, though other factors have entered into the production of some of the peculiarities presented by the Ethiopic alphabet. See ; .