Roger Dillard Woodard

Semitic is a close-knit family of languages first attested in Akkadian names and loanwords occurring in Sumerian cuneiform texts of the first half of the third millenium B.C. Akkadian texts proper begin to appear about 2500 BC, and Eblaite shortly thereafter. Many Semitic languages continue to be spoken to this day, including 1) Arabic in many countries of Asia and Africa; 2) Amharic, Tigrinya, and other related languages in Eritrea and Ethiopia ; 3) Hebrew in Israel ; 4) South Arabian languages such as Mehri, Jibbâli, and Soqotri in Yeme and Oman ; and 5) many varieties of Aramaic, now scattered around the globe.

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