The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia

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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Reconstruction indicates that Proto-Semitic nouns occurred in two states, bound and free (adjectives also in a third, predicative) ; two genders, masculine and feminine ; three cases, nominative, genitive, and accusative (and perhaps a fourth, directive) ; and three numbers, singular, dual and plural. Proto-Semitic did not have a definite or indefinite article. A definite article evolved in the Central Semitic branch, while an indefinite article failed to develop in most of the descendant languages (apart from the occasional use of the numeral "one" for "a certain").

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