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May 3, 2005 My article, "The Intricacies of the Hebrew Language", brought a criticism from one reader about the fact that I had called Assyrian an extinct language, when, in fact, there is an ethnic group whose homeland lies in Turkey, Syria and Iraq, from Lake Van down to south of Kirkuk and who speak a language they call Assyrian. I became aware of these Assyrians about 10 years ago when I met some Iraqi girls who could not speak Arabic. However, this Assyrian is quite a different language from that of the ancient Assyrians who were conquered and nearly annihilated by the Babylonians and Medes in 612 BC. So I thought that an article on the Semitic languages might be worth writing. According to the latest linguistic thinking, the Semitic languages are but one of six or seven subgroups of the Afro-Asiatic languages, which embrace scores of languages spoken in Southwest Asia and North Africa. Originally, the Semitic languages were thought to constitute two separate groups--Semitic and Hamitic, but this division may have been motivated by racial, as well as linguistic considerations, so today, the designation "Hamitic" has been dropped, perhaps disingenuously, and all the languages in the both groups are now called Semitic. The Semitic languages, in accordance with this new definition of "Semitic", are divided into Eastern, Central and Southern subdivisions. The Eastern Semitic language was Akkadian. Akkadian, with its variant forms, Babylonian and Assyrian, is now quite extinct. This is to use the word "Assyrian" in its traditional acceptation, as the language of the ancient Assyrians. Incidentally, one may think that the word "Assyria" was formed from the word "Syria" by adding a prefix, but this is not the case. In the Semitic languages, the "ss" in "Assyria" was really an "sh", but became became mere "ss" when transliterated into Greek, which has no "sh", and so passed into English. In Hebrew, Assyria is Ashur. The Central Semitic Languages are the Canaanite languages, and Aramaic, Ugaritic, Amorite, and Arabic. The Canaanite (or Canaanitish) languages are Ammonite, Moabite, Edomite, Phoenician and Hebrew. The first three, all extinct, were spoken in small kingdoms in or near today's Jordan. Phoenician, also extinct, was the language of Tyre and Sidon, which later was proliferated to Carthage, the famous empire of the Western Mediterranean, with its capital in today's Tunisia. The Phoenician of Carthage is sometimes called Punic. Carthage was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC. And, of course, we all know that Hebrew is once again alive and well. Aramaic (also called Chaldee, Chaldean, Chaldaean, Chaldaic, Aramean and Aramaean, not to be confused with Armenian) is the language of parts of the books of Ezra and Daniel in the Bible. Although Jewish Bibles have the Aramaic in Hebrew letters, anyone who thinks that, because he can read Hebrew, he can also read Aramaic, soon finds out that this is not so. Aramaic had at least two forms, Mandaic and Syriac. Syriac is the liturgical language of the Syriac Orthodox Church (Jacobites, Monophysites), Syrian Catholic Church (Melkites, Maronites), Assyrian Church of the East (Assyrian Orthodox Church, Nestorians). The language now called Assyrian is actually a latter-day development of Aramaic, with dialects from both Syriac and Mandaic. Linguists call it Neo-Aramaic. Some scholars who believe in the historicity of Jesus Christ speculate that he spoke Aramaic. Amorite and Ugaritic are little-known extinct languages of the ancient Middle East. Arabic hardly needs to be explained. Southern Semitic languages include Amharic, Tigrinya, Tigre and other languages of Ethiopia and the Arabian Peninusla. Some specimens of the writing are addressed below. http://www.hope-of-israel.org/missingl.htm (Ancient Assyrian). http://www.cavemanart.com/osroene/images/Syriac2L.JPG (Syriac). http://www.nb.no/baser/schoyen/4/4.1/ms035c.jpg (Aramaic). http://www.language-museum.com/a/assyrian-neo-aramaic.htm (Assyrian Neo-Aramaic). http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/languagelist2/Amharic/$file/Amharic.gif (Amharic). ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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