Editing Amorite language

{{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>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite journal |first1=A. |last1=Andrason |first2=J.-P. |last2=Vita |title=Amorite: A Northwest Semitic Language? |journal=Journal of Semitic Studies |volume=63 |issue=1 |date=2018 |pages=19–58 |doi=10.1093/jss/fgx035 |hdl=10261/194052 |hdl-access=free}}
* {{cite book |first=D. |last=Cohen |title=Les langues chamito-semitiques |location=Paris |publisher=CNRS |date=1985}}
* I. Gelb. ''La lingua degli amoriti'', ''Academia Nazionale dei Lincei. Rendiconti'' 8, no. 13 (1958): 143–163.
* [https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/as21.pdf]Ignace J. Gelb, "[https://archive.org/details/computeraidedana0000gelb Computer-aided Analysis of Amorite]", Assyriological Studies 21, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980
* {{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=2022 |issue=1 |volume=116 |pages=113–166 |doi=10.3917/assy.116.0113 |url=https://www.cairn.info/revue-d-assyriologie-2022-1-page-113.htm|url-access=subscription }}
* Golinets, V. "Amorite Names Written with the Sign Ú and the Issue of the Suffixed Third Person Masculine Singular Pronoun in Amorite". In: ''Proceedings of the 53th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale''. Vol. 1: Language in the Ancient Near East (2 parts). Edited by Leonid E. Kogan, Natalia Koslova, Sergey Loesov and Serguei Tishchenko. University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, 2010. pp. 591–616. {{doi|10.1515/9781575066394-026}}.
* Golinets, Viktor. "Amorite Animal Names: Cognates for the Semitic Etymological Dictionary". In: ''Babel und Bibel 9: Proceedings of the 6th Biennial Meeting of the International Association for Comparative Semitics and Other Studies''. University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, 2016. pp. 55–86. {{doi|10.1515/9781575064499-004}}
* Howard, J. Caleb. "Amorite Names through Time and Space". In: ''Journal of Semitic Studies'', 2023. fgac027. {{doi|10.1093/jss/fgac027}}.
* H. B. Huffmon. ''Amorite Personal Names in the Mari Texts: A Structural and Lexical Study''. Baltimore, 1965.
* {{cite journal |last=Knudsen |first=Ebbe Egede |title=An Analysis of Amorite: A Review Article |journal=Journal of Cuneiform Studies |volume=34 |issue=1/2 |date=1982 |pages=1–18 |doi=10.2307/1359989}} Accessed 22 Jan. 2023.
*Remo Mugnaioni. “Notes pour servir d’approche à l’amorrite” Travaux 16 – ''La sémitologie aujourd’hui''. Aix-en-Provence: Cercle de Linguistique d’Aix-en-Provence, Centre des sciences du language, 2000, p.&nbsp;57–65.
*M. P. Streck. ''Das amurritische Onomastikon der altbabylonischen Zeit'', vol. 1: ''Die Amurriter, Die onomastische Forschung, Orthographie und Phonologie, Nominalmorphologie''. Alter Orient und Altes Testament Band 271/1. Münster, 2000.
* Streck, Michel P. "Amorite". In: ''The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook''. Edited by Stefan Weninger. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, 2012. pp. 452–459. {{doi|10.1515/9783110251586.452}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
*[https://www.livescience.com/tablets-with-lost-canaanite-language Cryptic lost Canaanite language decoded on 'Rosetta Stone'-like tablets – LiveScience – Tom Metcalfe- 30 January 2023 ]

{{Ancient Mesopotamia}}{{Semitic languages}}{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Amorite language| ]]
[[Category:Amorites]]
[[Category:Northwest Semitic languages]]
[[Category:Extinct languages of Asia]]
[[Category:Languages attested from the 3rd millennium BC]]
[[Category:Languages extinct in the 2nd millennium BC]]
[[Category:Book of Deuteronomy]]