Semitic

A. The best-known Semitic languages are Arabic and Hebrew, spoken in the Middle East, along with a few others, such as Aramaic (the language of Jesus). There are records of many extinct Semitic languages, such as Akkadian (written in cuneiform) and Phoenician.

B. Semitic languages are almost unique in the world in basing words on roots of three consonants, creating a range of related meanings by altering the vowels around and between them and adding prefixes and suffixes.

C. For example, in Arabic, the root K-T-B has to do with the concept of writing. Here is the way the language creates a wide range of meanings from this one root:

The dash over the vowel means that the vowel is long; notice that the difference in vowel length can make a difference in meaning. The apostrophe stands for a glottal stop, as in the first sound one makes in saying “uh-oh.”

D. Language families can spread across very different cultures and peoples. Most Semitic languages are actually spoken in Ethiopia, across the Red Sea from the Middle East. This is why, for example, “night” is laila in Hebrew and leylat in Amharic, the major Ethiopian Semitic language.

E. The sentence “You’re wearing it” looks quite different in Hebrew and Amharic. But if we look closely, we can see a similar trio of consonants, the Semitic root for wearing clothes. Hebrew has L-V-SH, and lurking in the Amharic word is the similar L-B-S.