Semitic languages

Introduction

The Semitic languages are a family of languages spoken by more than 300 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa. They constitute the northeastern subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic languages, and the only branch of this group spoken in Asia.

Languages

• Central
  • Aramaic
    • Eastern
      • Central
        • Northeastern
          • Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
          • Lishanid Noshan
          • Bohtan Neo-Aramaic
          • Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic
          • Chaldean Neo-Aramaic
          • Hértevin
          • Hulaulá
          • Koy Sanjaq Surat
          • Lishana Deni
          • Senaya
          • Jewish Babylonian Aramaic
          • Lishán Didán
        • Northwestern
          • Mlahsö
          • Turoyo
      • Mandaic
        • Mandaic
        • Mandaic, Classical
      • Syriac
    • Western
      • Western Neo-Aramaic
      • Samaritan Aramaic
  • South
    • Arabic (35 languages)
    • Canaanite
      • Hebrew, Ancient
      • Hebrew
      • Samaritan
• South
  • Ethiopian
    • North
      • Geez
      • Tigré
      • Tigrigna
    • South
      • Outer
        • n-Group
          • Gafat
          • Kistane
        • tt-Group
          • Inor
          • Mesqan
          • Mesmes
          • Sebat Bet Gurage
      • Transversal
        • Amharic-Argobba
          • Argobba
          • Amharic
        • Harari-East Gurage
          • Harari
          • Silt'e
          • Zay
  • South Arabian
    • Bathari
    • Mehri
    • Hobyót
    • Harsusi
    • Shehri
    • Soqotri

Semitic languages in WikiVerb

The verb

All Semitic languages exhibit a unique pattern of stems consisting of "triliteral" or consonantal roots (normally consisting of three consonants), from which nouns, adjectives, and verbs are formed by inserting vowels with, potentially, prefixes, suffixes, or infixes.

For instance, the root k-t-b, "write", yields in Arabic:
kataba كتب means "he wrote"

and in Hebrew (where it appears as k-t-ḇ):
kataḇ כתב means "he wrote" or "reporter" (m)