Semitic languages

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The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. The main and most well known Semitic languages are Hebrew, Aramaic (Syriac), Arabic, and Amharic. But modern versions of dialects of some of these languages show intermingling with and influence by some Indo-European languages.


The following examples of Semitic language structure use Hebrew, in the main, as examples to differentiate from IndoEuropean language, but other Semitic languages follow the same pattern.


Noun, Adjective and Verb in singular







Noun, Adjective and Verb in plural

1. Masculine nouns, adjectives and verbs usually are made plural by adding the sound "im" (the i sounds "ee") to the end for masculine, and the sound "ot" to the end for feminine (some of the inner vowels may change). In Aramaic, plural of masculine nouns is "in" and of feminine nouns is "at" or "an"/.

Hebrew: HaYeLaDim ToVim means "The boys are good". HaYelaDot ToVot means " The girls are good".

Attributive Adjectives

1. The adjective goes after the noun in Hebrew instead of before the noun as in English. (You must put the Ha in front of the adjective, as well as in front of the noun).


That Semitic language places the adjective after the noun ("The grass, the tall, the green ones") it modifies or describes, rather than as in Emglish placing the adjective before the noun ("The tall, green grass") suggests to some a difference of mental approach between English and Semitic language speakers. The Semitic wants to know first of all what or who, and then what about. Whereas the English speaker first approaches through qualities and aspects and then grasps the what or whom. But this understanding is conjecture. Greek, the prime example of Indo-European, is comfortable both ways - o anthropos o agathos = the good man and o agathos anthropos = the good man.


1. The consonant B means "in" (It has only the slightest vowel sound). It is attached to the next word. Hebrew has no way of saying the word "a". You just leave it out.




The Hebrew Script


Hebrew in the Bible


Differences between Semitic and Indo-European language structure

Unlike Greek, which has an ample vocabulary, and case ending to determine which words are to be read with which words, what parts of speech (subject, object etc.), Semitic languages are contextual language - that is, relatively few words but each word having a variety of meanings. This requires knowledge of the literature, and literatures - that is, knowledge of the context to determine the precise meaning This general rule is somewhat modified with respect to the Arabic language which does have case endings and does have a more replete vocabulary than Hebrew. (There is evidence that Hebrew and Aramaic once did case endings but they had dropped off in time.)

Here are examples from Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic showing how case ending help tell which is subject, which is object, etc. thereby leaving the order of the words with respect to each other (syntax) more flexible, and how the lack of case endings require a more precise word order

Hebrew: "Eesh Elohim" may mean " man is God (a man is God)" or "man of God". (To mean either one, "Eesh" must be placed before "Elohim", already reducing flexibility in syntax). There is nothing at the end of these words to indicate what part of speech they are. So we must look outside to the context to determine whether the meaning is, or probably is, "man is God" or "man of God" The context decides for us that 'man is God' is highly unlikely and that "man of God"is highly probable.

Greek: "anthropos" (man) has "os" attached to the root "anthrop". This "os" tell us that this word is nominative and the subject of the sentence. Theou (of God) has "ou", meaning "of" attached to the root of "The" meaning God. So there is no mistaking the meaning of "man of God" whether we have the word order of "anthropos theou" or "theou anthropos", or even separate the words by other modifying or qualifying words (Example: "What is this new being spoken by you teaching?" Acts 17:19 - bad English but good Greek). This allows for a variety of syntactical relations in Greek, and the general context is less determinative for meaning as it is in the Semitic group of languages. In addition, either one, "theou anthropos" or "anthropos theou" is stylisticly correct, or, at least, if not equally correct, it is for reasons other than being considered now.

English : Though an Indo-European lannguage, words can be somewhat flexible and precise in meaning (but nevertheless stylistic stiff), by changing word order and insertion, in this case, of the word "of". Example. "the man of God" and " of God, the man" means the same thing but the latter is stilted. "man" and "God" have nothing to indicate which is subject, object, etc.

Arabic (classical), as mentioned above does have case endings and so is an example of the mixing of root language consonental-determinative-for-meaning language, and more of a freedom in word order (syntax)on the "Indo-European" style Example: "Beit" means house. "Beitu"- house is nominative - subject of sentencs. "Beiti" is to or for a house, or indirect object, and "Beita" (or Beitan) is accusative or the direct object of the sentence. "Ana mawjuud filbeiti ilkabiri" - I am in the big house (in the house, the big one) indirect object. Ana ar'a' albeita alkabira I see the big house (the house, the big one)- direct object. The precision that case endings give allow flexibility with full comprehension and style no matter the positioning of the words - The big house I see. I see the big house. I, the house, the big one, see. Yet, as in Hebrew and Aramaic, the particular meaning of the words is determined by its consonental roots, rather than the vowels.

Another difference is that, at least in the classical Semitic languages, verbs were conjugated for aspect (perfect or imperfect) rather than tense. By contrast, Indo-European languages are known for verb conjugations that distinguish both aspect and tense. However, modern Semitic languages have developed ways to distinguish tense as well. For example, in Modern Hebrew, the old perfect and imperfect aspects are used as past and future tenses, respectively, while the present tense is based on a participle.

See Also

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