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Canaanite

large language family from the Levant and Mesopotamia

Key facts

Geographic distribution: Levant , Ancient Carthage
Linguistic classification: Afroasiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Northwest Semitic Canaanite
Subdivisions: Amarna Canaanite †, • Canaano-Akkadian † Amorite ? † North †, • Philistine †, • Phoenician †, • ( Punic ) † South , • Hebrew , • Ammonite †, • Moabite †, • Edomite †
Glottolog: cana1267

via Wikipedia infobox

Article

The Canaanite languages, sometimes referred to as Canaanite dialects, are one of four subgroups of the Northwest Semitic languages of Western Asia. The others are the still spoken Aramaic and the now-extinct Ugaritic and Amorite languages. These closely related languages originated in the Levant and Upper Mesopotamia. Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples spoke them in an area encompassing what is today Israel, Palestine, Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula, Lebanon, Syria, as well as some areas of southwestern Turkey, Iraq, and the northwestern corner of Saudi Arabia. From the 9th century BCE, they also spread to the Iberian Peninsula, Malta, Sicily and North Africa in the form of Phoenician.

The historical Canaanites are broadly defined to include the Hebrews (Israelites, Samaritans and Judeans), Ammonites, Edomites, Ekronites, Hyksos, Phoenicians (including the Punics/Carthaginians), Moabites, and sometimes the ethno-linguistically closely related Ugarites and Amorites.