Editing Semitic languages (section)

{{Short description|Branch of the Afroasiatic languages}}
{{Distinguish|Sinitic languages}}
{{Infobox language family
| name          = Semitic
| region        = [[Western Asia|West Asia]], [[North Africa]], [[Horn of Africa]], [[Malta]]
| familycolor   = Afroasiatic
| protoname     = [[Proto-Semitic language|Proto-Semitic]]
| child1        = [[East Semitic languages|East Semitic]] †
| child2        = [[West Semitic languages|West Semitic]]
| iso2          = sem
| iso5          = sem
| glotto        = semi1276
| glottorefname = Semitic
| map           = Semitic map.svg
| mapcaption    = Modern distribution of the Semitic languages
| map2          = Semitic languages.svg
| mapcaption2   = Approximate historical distribution of Semitic languages
}}
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The '''Semitic languages''' are a branch of the [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic language family]]. They include [[Arabic]], 
[[Amharic]], [[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]], [[Aramaic]], [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], [[Maltese language|Maltese]], [[Modern South Arabian languages]] and numerous other ancient and modern languages. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of [[Western Asia|West Asia]], [[North Africa]],{{Efn|[[Arabic]] is one of the world's largest languages, spoken natively in West Asia and Africa by about 300 million speakers, and as a [[second language]] by perhaps another 60 million.{{sfn|Owens|2013|p=2}}}} the [[Horn of Africa]],{{Efn|[[Amharic]] is spoken natively by about 35 million speakers, and as a [[second language]] by perhaps another 25 million speakers, in [[Africa]] probably fewer than only Arabic, Swahili, Hausa, and Oromo, and is the second most populous Semitic language, after just Arabic. It is the lingua franca and constitutionally recognized national language of Ethiopia, and the national language of instruction of Ethiopian public education in the primary grades.{{sfn|Hudson|Kogan|1997|p=457}}}}{{Efn|[[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]], not to be confused with the related but distinct language Tigre, is, like Amharic, a northern Ethiopian Semitic language, is spoken as a native language by the overwhelming majority of the population in the Tigre province of Ethiopia and in the highland part of Eritrea (the provinces of Akkele Guzay, Serae and Hamasien, where the capital of the state, Asmara, is situated). Outside of this area Tigrinya is also spoken in the Tambien and Wolqayt historical districts (Ethiopia) and in the administrative districts of Massara and Keren (Eritrea), these being respectively the southern and northern limits of its expansion. The number of speakers of Tigrinya has been estimated at 4 million in 1995; 1.3 million of them live in Eritrea (around 50 percent of the population of the country), in 2008 by an estimated 5 million.<ref>{{harvnb|Hudson|Kogan|1997|p=424}}; {{harvnb|Austin|2008|p=74}}</ref> [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] speaking about ~5 million native/[[First language|L1]] speakers,{{citation needed|date=December 2021}} [[Gurage languages|Gurage]] has around 1.5 million speakers,{{citation needed|date=December 2021}} [[Tigre language|Tigre]] has c. ~1.05 million speakers,{{citation needed|date=December 2021}} [[Aramaic]] is spoken by around 575,000 to 1 million largely [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] speakers).{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}}} [[Malta]],{{Efn|[[Maltese language|Maltese]] has around 483,000 speakers,{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}}} and in large [[Immigration|immigrant]] and [[Expatriate|expatriate communities]] in [[North America]], [[Europe]], and [[Australasia]]. The terminology was first used in the 1780s by members of the [[Göttingen school of history]], who derived the name from [[Shem]], one of the three [[Generations of Noah|sons of Noah]] in the [[Book of Genesis]].

Semitic languages [[List of languages by first written account|occur in written form]] from a very early historical date in [[West Asia]], with [[East Semitic languages|East Semitic]] [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] (also known as [[Ancient Assyrian language|Assyrian]] and [[Babylonian language|Babylonian]]) and [[Eblaite language|Eblaite]] texts (written in a script adapted from Sumerian [[cuneiform]]) appearing from {{circa|2600 BCE}} in [[Mesopotamia]] and the northeastern [[Levant]] respectively. The only earlier attested languages are [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] and [[Elamite language|Elamite]] (2800 BCE to 550 BCE), both [[language isolate]]s, and [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]] ({{circa|3000 BCE}}), a sister branch within the Afroasiatic family, related to the Semitic languages but not part of them. [[Amorite language|Amorite]] appeared in Mesopotamia and the northern Levant {{circa|2100 BC}}, followed by the mutually intelligible [[Canaanite languages]] (including Hebrew, Phoenician, Moabite, Edomite, and Ammonite, and perhaps Ekronite, Amalekite and Sutean), the still spoken [[Aramaic]], and [[Ugaritic]] during the 2nd millennium BC.

Most scripts used to write Semitic languages are [[abjad]]s{{snd}}a type of [[alphabet]]ic script that omits some or all of the vowels, which is feasible for these languages because the consonants are the primary carriers of meaning in the Semitic languages. These include the [[Ugaritic alphabet|Ugaritic]], [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]], [[Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]], [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]], [[Syriac alphabet|Syriac]], [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]], and [[ancient South Arabian script|ancient South Arabian]] alphabets. The [[Geʽez script]], used for writing the Semitic languages of [[Ethiopia]] and [[Eritrea]], is technically an [[abugida]]{{snd}} a modified abjad in which vowels are notated using [[diacritic]] marks added to the consonants at all times, in contrast with other Semitic languages which indicate vowels based on need or for introductory purposes. [[Maltese language|Maltese]] is the only Semitic language written in the [[Latin script]] and the only Semitic language to be an official language of the [[European Union]].

The Semitic languages are notable for their [[nonconcatenative morphology]]. That is, word [[Semitic root|roots]] are not themselves syllables or words, but instead are isolated sets of consonants (usually three, making a so-called ''[[Semitic root#Triconsonantal roots|triliteral root]]''). Words are composed from roots not so much by adding prefixes or suffixes, but rather by filling in the vowels between the root consonants, although prefixes and suffixes are often added as well. For example, in Arabic, the root meaning "write" has the form ''[[K-T-B|k-t-b]]''. From this root, words are formed by filling in the vowels and sometimes adding consonants, e.g. كِتاب '''''k'''i'''t'''ā'''b''''' "book", كُتُب '''''k'''u'''t'''u'''b''''' "books", كاتِب '''''k'''ā'''t'''i'''b''''' "writer", كُتّاب '''''k'''u'''tt'''ā'''b''''' "writers", كَتَب '''''k'''a'''t'''a'''b'''a'' "he wrote", يكتُب ''ya'''kt'''u'''b'''u'' "he writes", etc.