Semitic languages

Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family, including Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Amharic, and Akkadian. Many share root-based word formation and related grammatical patterns.

Afroasiatic languages: A language family that includes Semitic, Berber, Cushitic, Chadic, and Egyptian branches. Semitic languages form one major branch of this larger family.
Arabic: A Semitic language with a large family of regional varieties and a standardized literary form. Arabic is one of the branch's largest living languages.
Semitic root: A set of consonants that supplies a core lexical meaning across many Semitic word forms. Root consonants link related words even when vowels and affixes differ.
Proto-Afroasiatic: The reconstructed ancestral language from which the Afroasiatic family is thought to have descended. Its relationship to Proto-Semitic places the branch within a deeper family history.
Berber languages: A branch of Afroasiatic languages spoken across North Africa and parts of the Sahel. Berber shares the wider Afroasiatic family with Semitic but forms a distinct branch.
Language family: A group of languages descended from a common ancestral language. The Semitic branch is classified through shared descent, not merely resemblance.
Hebrew: A Northwest Semitic language used historically and as the principal language of Israel. Hebrew shows both ancient continuity and modern language revival within the branch.
Nonconcatenative morphology: Word formation that changes or interleaves internal material rather than only adding sequences of affixes. Semitic languages commonly build forms by interleaving vowels with consonantal roots.
Ugaritic: An extinct Northwest Semitic language recorded in alphabetic cuneiform at Ugarit. Ugaritic texts preserve early evidence for Northwest Semitic language and literature.
Cushitic languages: A branch of Afroasiatic languages spoken mainly in the Horn of Africa and nearby regions. Cushitic is another Afroasiatic branch, with a different history from Semitic.

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