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Language Lineage

Proto-Semitic

The ancestor of the Semitic branch of Afroasiatic, built on consonantal roots, usually of three consonants, into which vowel patterns are slotted: the root k-t-b 'write' gives Arabic kataba 'he wrote' and kitāb 'book', and Hebrew kātav 'he wrote'.

c. 4th millennium BCE (reconstructed)Probably the Levant or the northern Fertile Crescent
On this page
  1. Origins
  2. The First Split
  3. Where its languages are spoken
  4. Turning points

01

Origins

Semitic is one branch of Afroasiatic, a much older family whose other branches (Egyptian, Berber, Cushitic, Chadic, Omotic) are all in Africa. Its best-known feature is the consonantal root: a sequence of usually three consonants carries the basic meaning, and patterns of vowels and affixes turn it into words. From k-t-b 'write' come Arabic kataba 'he wrote', kitāb 'book' and maktab 'office', and Hebrew kātav 'he wrote' and mikhtāv 'letter'. The same root runs through languages separated by thousands of years.

Where Proto-Semitic was spoken is debated. The main candidates are the Levant or northern Mesopotamia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Africa, where the other Afroasiatic branches are. A computational study by Kitchen and colleagues (2009) put its origin in the Levant around 3750 BCE, but the method and the date are both disputed.

02

The First Split

The oldest division is between East Semitic, the extinct Akkadian and Eblaite of Mesopotamia and Syria, and West Semitic, the ancestor of everything else. This tree then follows the widely used model of Hetzron, Huehnergard and others. West Semitic divides into Central Semitic (Arabic and the Northwest Semitic languages) and the Ethiosemitic languages of the Horn of Africa. The Modern South Arabian languages of Yemen and Oman, and the extinct Old South Arabian, are drawn from West Semitic, but where exactly they belong is uncertain.

On the map

Where its languages are spoken

IsraelLebanonPalestineKuwaitMalta
Spoken todayShading marks whole countries, not the regions within them.
  1. EgyptArabic c. 100 million
  2. EthiopiaEthiosemitic c. 45 million · Old South Arabian
  3. SudanArabic c. 40 million
  4. AlgeriaArabic c. 35 million
  5. IraqEast Semitic · Arabic c. 35 million · Aramaic
  6. YemenModern South Arabian · Old South Arabian · Arabic c. 30 million
  7. MoroccoArabic c. 25 million
  8. Saudi ArabiaModern South Arabian · Old South Arabian · Arabic c. 20 million
17 more countries
  1. SyriaEast Semitic · Arabic c. 20 million · Aramaic
  2. TunisiaArabic c. 12 million
  3. JordanArabic c. 10 million
  4. IsraelArabic c. 2 million · Canaanite c. 5 million
  5. LibyaArabic c. 6 million
  6. LebanonArabic c. 5 million
  7. PalestineArabic c. 5 million
  8. EritreaEthiosemitic c. 3 million · Old South Arabian
  9. OmanModern South Arabian · Old South Arabian · Arabic c. 3 million
  10. ChadArabic c. 2 million
  11. KuwaitArabic c. 1.5 million
  12. MaltaArabic c. 500,000 (Maltese)
  13. GermanyAramaic
  14. IranAramaic
  15. SwedenAramaic
  16. TurkeyEast Semitic · Aramaic
  17. United StatesAramaic

Figures are rough first-language estimates, rounded, from censuses and Ethnologue. Counts for small or scattered communities are especially uncertain.

Rings along the limb

Turning points

Oldest first.

  1. Splitc. 4th millennium BCEContested

    East and West Semitic diverge

    Proto-Semitic divides into East Semitic, in Mesopotamia and Syria, and West Semitic. The homeland, the date and the direction of the first movements are debated.

    Sources (2)
    • Kitchen, Andrew, Christopher Ehret, Shiferaw Assefa & Connie J. Mulligan. 2009. Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of Semitic languages identifies an Early Bronze Age origin of Semitic in the Near East. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 276.
    • Huehnergard, John & Aaron D. Rubin. 2011. Phyla and waves: Models of classification of the Semitic languages. In The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook, ed. Stefan Weninger. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.