Editing Proto-Semitic language (section)

{{Short description|Hypothetical reconstructed proto-language}}
{{Infobox proto-language
| name             = Proto-Semitic
| familycolor      = Afroasiatic
| era = c. 4500–3500 BC
| ancestor = [[Proto-Afroasiatic]]
| target = [[Semitic languages]]
| child1 = [[Proto-Arabic]]
}}
{{SpecialChars|fix=Help:Special characters#Phoenician}}

'''Proto-Semitic''' is the [[Linguistic reconstruction|reconstructed]] common ancestor of the [[Semitic languages]]. There is no consensus regarding the location of the [[linguistic homeland]] for Proto-Semitic: scholars hypothesize that it may have originated in the [[Levant]], the [[Sahara]], the [[Horn of Africa]], the [[Arabian Peninsula]], or northern Africa.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=BQfDosHckzEC&dq=proto+semitica&pg=PA259 The Oxford Handbook of the History of Linguistics by Keith Allan]</ref>

The Semitic language family is considered part of the broader macro-family of [[Afroasiatic languages]].