Northwest Semitic is a division of the Semitic languages comprising the indigenous languages of the Levant. It emerged from Proto-Semitic in the Early Bronze Age. It is first attested in proper names identified as Amorite in the Middle Bronze Age. The oldest coherent texts are in Ugaritic, dating to the Late Bronze Age, which by the time of the Bronze Age collapse are joined by Old Aramaic, and by the Iron Age by Sutean and the Canaanite languages (Phoenician/Punic, Edomite, Moabite and Hebrew).[1]
The term was coined by Carl Brockelmann in 1908,[2] who separated Fritz Hommel's 1883 classification of Semitic languages[2] into Northwest (Canaanite and Aramaic), East Semitic (Akkadian, its Assyrian and Babylonian dialects, Eblaite) and Southwest (Arabic, Old South Arabian languages and Abyssinian).[3]
Brockelmann's Canaanite sub-group includes Ugaritic, Phoenician and Hebrew. Some scholars now regard Ugaritic either as belonging to a separate branch of Northwest Semitic (alongside Canaanite) or a dialect of Amorite.
Central Semitic is a proposed intermediate group comprising Northwest Semitic and Arabic.
Central Semitic is either a subgroup of West Semitic or a top-level division of Semitic alongside East Semitic and South Semitic.[4] SIL Ethnologue in its system of classification (of living languages only) eliminates Northwest Semitic entirely by joining Canaanite and Arabic in a "South-Central" group which together with Aramaic forms Central Semitic.[5] The Deir Alla Inscription and Samalian have been identified as language varieties falling outside Aramaic proper but with some similarities to it, possibly in an "Aramoid" or "Syrian" subgroup.[6][7]
It is clear that the Taymanitic script expressed a distinct linguistic variety that is not Arabic and not closely related to Hismaic or Safaitic, while it can tentatively be suggested that it was more closely related to Northwest Semitic.[8]
^Aaron D. Rubin (2008). "The subgrouping of the Semitic languages". Language and Linguistics Compass. 2 (1): 61–84. doi:10.1111/j.1749-818x.2007.00044.x.
^ abThe Semitic Languages: An International Handbook, Chapter V, page 425
^Kurzgefasste vergleichende Grammatik der semitischen Sprachen, Elemente der Laut- und Formenlehre (1908), quote "Das Westsemitische gliedert sich in zwei Hauptgruppen, das Nord- und das Südwestsemitische... Das Nordwestsemitische umfaßt das Kanaanäische und das Aramäische...Das Südwest semitische umfaßt das Arabische und Abessinische."
^Linguist List Central Semitic composite tree (with Aramaic and Canaanite grouped together in Northwest Semitic, and Arabic and Old South Arabian as sisters) Archived 2009-10-14 at the Wayback Machine Linguist List bibliography of sources for composite tree Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine Rubin, Aaron D. 2007. The Subgrouping of the Semitic Languages, Language and Linguistics Compass, vol. 1. Huehnergard, John. 2004. "Afro-Asiatic," The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages (Cambridge, pp. 138–159). Faber, Alice. 1997. "Genetic Subgrouping of the Semitic Languages," The Semitic Languages (Routledge, pp. 3–15) Huehnergard, John. 1991. "Remarks on the Classification of the Northwest Semitic Languages," The Balaam Text from Deir 'Alla Re-evaluated (Brill, pp. 282–293). Huehnergard, John. 1992. "Languages of the Ancient Near East," The Anchor Bible Dictionary, Volume 4, pp. 155–170. Voigt, Rainer M. 1987. "The Classification of Central Semitic," Journal of Semitic Studies 32:1–19. Goldenberg, Gideon. 1977. "The Semitic Languages of Ethiopia and Their Classification," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 40:461–507. Ethnologue Central Semitic entry (with Arabic and Canaanite grouped together against Aramaic) The Ethnologue classification is based on Hetzron, Robert. 1987. "Semitic Languages," The World's Major Languages (Oxford, pp. 654–663). The older grouping of Arabic with South Semitic was "based on cultural and geographical principles", not on principles of empirical historical linguistics (Faber, 1997, pg. 5). "However, more recently, [Arabic] has been grouped instead with Canaanite and Aramaic, under the rubric Central Semitic..., and this classification is certainly more appropriate for Ancient North Arabian" (Macdonald, M.C.A. 2004. "Ancient North Arabian," The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages Cambridge, pp. 488–533. Quote on pg. 489).
^"Semitic". Ethnologue. SIL International. Retrieved 2014-06-02.
^Huehnergard, John (1995). "What is Aramaic?". Aram (7): 282.
^Kogan, Leonid (2015). Genealogical Classification of Semitic. de Gruyter. p. 601. doi:10.1515/9781614515494. ISBN 9781614517269.
^Kootstra, Fokelien. "The Language of the Taymanitic Inscriptions and its Classification". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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