Semitic languages  

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The term Semitic languages is the traditional way of refering to those languages which constitute the Northeastern subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic languages.



The Eastern Semitic Languages

The Central Semitic languages

North & West Central Semitic languages

South Central (Arabic) languages

The South Semitic languages

Western (within South Semitic)

Eastern (within South Semitic)

Common characteristics


gadol means "big" and is an masculine adjective
gdola means "big" (feminine adjective)
giddel means "he grew" (transitive verb)
gadal means "he grew" (intransitive verb)
higdil means "he magnified" (transitive verb)
magdelet means "magnifier" (lens)
spr is the root for "count" or "recount"
sefer means "book" (containing tales which are recounted)
sofer means "scribe" (Masoretic scribes counted verses)
mispar means "number".

Other Afro-Asiatic languages show similar patterns, but more usually with biconsonantal roots; e.g. in Kabyle afeg means "fly!", while affug means "flight", and yufeg means "he flew.

Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Semitic languages" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on original research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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