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The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew, Maltese and numerous other ancient and modern languages.
In the early 21st century the most important Semitic language, in terms of the number of speakers, was Arabic. Standard Arabic is spoken as a first language by more than 200 million people living in a broad area stretching from the Atlantic coast of northern Africa to western Iran; an additional 250 million people in the region speak Standard ...
Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language. Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. [27] The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and the emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar.
Arabic language, a Semitic language spoken in areas including North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and other parts of the Middle East. The language of the Qur’an (the sacred book of Islam) is often considered the ideal archetype of Arabic’s many varieties, and the literary standard closely approaches that archetype.
Arabic belongs to a group of languages collectivelyknown as the Semitic languages. To this group belonga number of languages in the Middle East, some ofthem no longer extant.
Arabic is by far the most widely spoken of the Semitic languages, with around 300 million native speakers spread across the vast majority of North Africa and throughout the Arabian Peninsula.
Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It is believed that the ancestors of the (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time.
