Canaanite languages

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Linguistic classification: Afro-Asiatic
Glottolog: cana1267[1]

The Canaanite languages are a subfamily of the Semitic languages, which were spoken by the ancient peoples of the Canaan region, the Canaanites (including the Israelites and Phoenicians), Amorites, Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and Carthaginians. All of them seem to have become extinct as native languages by the early 1st millennium CE (although it is uncertain how long Punic survived), although distinct forms of Hebrew remained in continuous literary and religious use among Jews and Samaritans. This family of languages has the distinction of being the first group of languages to use an alphabet, derived from the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, to record their writings.




      A part of the Classification of Semitic languages
Hebrew and Phoenician are the two major branches of the subfamily. The Canaanite languages, together with the Aramaic languages and Ugaritic, form the Northwest Semitic genealogical subgroup. Efforts of classification are complicated by the fact that some language varieties thought to be Canaanite or closely related thereto have few or no extant texts written in them, such as the Amorite language.

Distinctive features[edit]

Some distinctive typological features of Canaanite in relation to Aramaic are:


Canaanite texts[edit]

The main sources for study of Canaanite languages are the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and inscriptions such as:

The Deir Alla Inscription is written in a dialect with Aramaic and South Canaanite characteristics, which is classified as Canaanite in Hetzron.

The extra-biblical Canaanite inscriptions are gathered along with Aramaic inscriptions in editions of the book "Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften", from which they may be referenced as KAI n (for a number n); for example, the Mesha Stele is "KAI 181".


  5. ^ [1][dead link]

External links[edit]