Semitic Language Subgroups Classification

For an extended period, the Semitics have benefited from the study of cultural languages, as it forms one of the world languages most studied to date. Due to continued research, our knowledge of both the modern and ancient languages impacts our understanding of the Semitic family internal subgroupings. The contemporary model of Sematic family subgrouping is predominantly founded on Robert Hetzron (Rubin, 61). However, within the last two decades, Semitists from multiple subfields have enhanced Hetzron’s model.

One of the subgroupings of the Semitic languages includes East and West Sematic. The east Sematic consists of the dialects of Elbaite and Akkadian. The division has been uncontroversial for almost a century. The west is distinguished from the east Sematic by introducing the handed down stative (qatala) to past tense, while the handed down past tense (yaqtul) has been lost. Another subgroup is the East Sematic and Eblaite, where the Eblaite represents the ancient language of Ebla, currently known as Tell Mardikh, found at the south of Aleppo, Syria (Rubin, 62). Due to the style of cuneiform writing used for Eblaite, specifically, the wide use of logograms, almost all vowels and consonants knowledge are not well understood to date.

Subsequently, one of the subgroups, Akkadian, has been attested on several dialects over time, close to two and a half millennia. It is divided into two huge dialects, Babylonian and Assyrian. The old Babylonian language is assumed the Classical language today. Also, Central Semitic forms another subgroup where exists a division between Modern South Arabian languages, the central Semitic languages, and the Ethiopian languages (Pat-El, 80). The establishment of indicative form yaqtulu mainly distinguishes the central Semitic. However, it is scanty whether or not MSA and Ethiopian languages have a common ancestor different from Central Semitic (Rubin, 64). Subsequently, within the central Semitic, Northwest Semitic languages can be distinguished by a shift of initial W to Y, amongst others.

Arabic, another subgroup, has common linguistic distinctions with other southern Semitic languages like the OSA, Ethiopian, and MSA languages groups (Aikhenvald et al. 3). As a result, Arabic has been grouped with these other languages into a new branch of Semitic known as Southwest Semitic. Another subgroup is the Old South Arabian, composed of four dialects: Minaic, Sabaic, Hadramitic, and Sabaic. Subsequently, Northwest Semitic also forms another subgroup with languages including Aramaic, Sam’alian, the Canaanite dialects, the Deir ‘Alla inscription, and the Ugaritic. These dialects have multiple common developments, for instance, the conjunction wa-) of word-initial w > y (Rubin, 66). The shift means that verbal roots cannot have “w” as the first consonant.

Another subgroup is the Canaanite, which has several closely linked ancient dialects. Phoenician and Hebrew are well attested among the languages, while Edomite, Ammonite, and Moabite are poorly certified. Within the poorly attested, only Moabite possess a tangible inscription length (Hetzron,10). On the other hand, the Aramaic subgroup was the first attested beginning ninth-century BCE, around a similar period of Hebrew’s first attestation (Rubin, 67). As a result, Hebrew and Aramaic became the most extended attested Semitic languages. However, unlike Hebrew, Aramaic has never stopped being a spoken living language.