Editing Amorite language (section)

{{Short description|Extinct ancient Semitic language}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Amorite
| states           = Levant
| ethnicity        = [[Amorites]]
| extinct          = [[2nd millennium BC]]
| familycolor      = Afro-Asiatic
| fam2             = [[Semitic languages|Semitic]]
| fam3             = [[West Semitic languages|West Semitic]]
| fam4             = [[Central Semitic languages|Central Semitic]]
| fam5             = [[Northwest Semitic languages|Northwest Semitic]]
| fam6             = (unclassified)
| dia1             = [[Ugaritic]]?
| iso3             = none
| glotto           = amor1239
| glottorefname    = Amorite
}}

'''Amorite''' is an extinct early [[Semitic languages|Semitic language]], formerly spoken during the [[Bronze Age]] by the [[Amorite]] tribes prominent in [[ancient Near East]]ern history. It is known from [[Ugaritic]], which is classed by some as its westernmost dialect,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vTrT-bZyuPcC|title=The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia|last=Woodard|first=Roger D.|date=2008-04-10|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781139469340|pages=5|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Goetze|first=Albrecht|date=1941|title=Is Ugaritic a Canaanite Dialect?|journal=Language|volume=17|issue=2|pages=127–138|doi=10.2307/409619|issn=0097-8507|jstor=409619}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gaktTQ8vq28C&pg=PA49|title=Morphologies of Asia and Africa|last=Kaye|first=Alan S.|date=2007|publisher=Eisenbrauns|isbn=9781575061092|pages=49|language=en}}</ref> and from non-[[Akkadian Empire|Akkad]]ian proper names recorded by [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] [[scribes]] during periods of Amorite rule in [[Babylon]]ia (the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC), notably from [[Mari, Syria|Mari]] and to a lesser extent [[Alalakh]], [[Tell Harmal]] and [[Khafajah]]. Occasionally, such names are also found in early [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]] texts; and one place name, "Sənīr" (שְׂנִיר) for [[Mount Hermon]], is known from the [[Bible]] ([[Book of Deuteronomy]], {{Bibleverse|Deuteronomy|3:9}}).<ref name=":0" />

Amorite is considered an archaic [[Northwest Semitic languages|Northwest Semitic language]].

Notable characteristics include the following:

* The usual Northwest Semitic [[Imperfective aspect|imperfective]]-perfective distinction is found: ''Yantin-Dagan'', '[[Dagon]] gives' (''ntn''); ''Raṣa-Dagan'', 'Dagon was pleased' (rṣy). It included a 3rd-person suffix -''a'' (unlike Akkadian or [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]) and an imperfect vowel, ''a''-, as in [[Arabic]] rather than the Hebrew and [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] -''i''-.
* There was a verb form with a [[geminate]] second consonant — ''Yabanni-Il'', 'God creates' (root ''bny'').
* In several cases that Akkadian has ''š'', Amorite, like Hebrew and Arabic, has ''h'', thus ''hu'' 'his', -''haa'' 'her', causative ''h-'' or ''ʼ''- (I. Gelb 1958).
* The 1st-person perfect is in -''ti'' (singular), -''nu'' (plural), as in the [[Canaanite languages]].

In 2022, two large, 3,800-year-old, Amorite-[[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] bilingual tablets were published, yielding a large corpus of [[Northwest Semitic languages|Northwest Semitic]].<ref name="tablets22">{{cite journal |last1=George |first1=Andrew |last2=Krebernik |first2=Manfred |title=Two Remarkable Vocabularies: Amorite-Akkadian Bilinguals!: |journal=Revue d'assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale |date=12 December 2022 |volume=116 |issue=1 |pages=113–166 |doi=10.3917/assy.116.0113 |url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-d-assyriologie-2022-1-page-113.htm |access-date=24 January 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref>  The text, in the Amorite/Canaanite languages, bears a recognizable similarity to Hebrew, and demonstrates that a spoken language very close to Hebrew existed by the second millennium BCE, rather than the first millennium BCE.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Aderet |first1=Ofer |title=Two 3,800-year-old Cuneiform Tablets Found in Iraq Give First Glimpse of Hebrew Precursor |url=https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2023-01-20/ty-article/two-3-800-year-old-cuneiform-tablets-found-in-iraq-give-first-glimpse-of-hebrew-precursor/00000185-ca23-d3a8-a3cf-cf3326430000 |access-date=24 January 2023 |work=Haaretz |date=20 January 2023 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230121070718/https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/2023-01-20/ty-article/two-3-800-year-old-cuneiform-tablets-found-in-iraq-give-first-glimpse-of-hebrew-precursor/00000185-ca23-d3a8-a3cf-cf3326430000 |archive-date=21 January 2023 |language=en}}</ref>