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The Canaanite languages or Hebraic languages are a subfamily of the Semitic languages
Semitic languages

File:Amarna Akkadian letter.pngThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa....
, which were spoken by the ancient peoples of the Canaan
Canaan

Canaan is an ancient term for a region encompassing modern-day Israel and Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of Jordan, Syria and northeastern Egypt....
 region, including Canaanites, Israelites, Phoenicians, and Philistines
Philistines

The Philistines were a ethnic group who occupied the southern coast of Canaan, their territory being named Philistia in later contexts....
. All of them became extinct as native languages in the early 1st millennium
1st millennium

The first millennium is a period of time that commenced on January 1, 1, and ended on December 31, 1000, of the Julian calendar. This millennium is the beginning of the Anno Domini/Common Era for this calendar as there is no "year zero."...
 CE, although Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 remained in continuous literary and religious use among Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
s, and was revived as a spoken, everyday language in the 19th century by Eliezer Ben Yehuda.






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The Canaanite languages or Hebraic languages are a subfamily of the Semitic languages
Semitic languages

File:Amarna Akkadian letter.pngThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa....
, which were spoken by the ancient peoples of the Canaan
Canaan

Canaan is an ancient term for a region encompassing modern-day Israel and Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of Jordan, Syria and northeastern Egypt....
 region, including Canaanites, Israelites, Phoenicians, and Philistines
Philistines

The Philistines were a ethnic group who occupied the southern coast of Canaan, their territory being named Philistia in later contexts....
. All of them became extinct as native languages in the early 1st millennium
1st millennium

The first millennium is a period of time that commenced on January 1, 1, and ended on December 31, 1000, of the Julian calendar. This millennium is the beginning of the Anno Domini/Common Era for this calendar as there is no "year zero."...
 CE, although Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 remained in continuous literary and religious use among Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
s, and was revived as a spoken, everyday language in the 19th century by Eliezer Ben Yehuda. The Phoenician (and especially Carthaginian
Carthage

Carthage refers both to an ancient city in present-day Tunisia, and a modern-day suburb of Tunis. The civilization that developed within the city's sphere of influence is referred to as Punic or Carthaginian....
) expansion spread their Canaanite language to the Western Mediterranean for a time, but there too it died out, although it seems to have survived slightly longer than in Phoenicia
Phoenicia

Phoenicia was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, extending to parts of Israel, Syria and the Palestinian territories....
 itself.

  • Phoenician languages
    Phoenician languages

    Phoenician was a language originally spoken in the coastal region then called Put in Ancient Egyptian, Canaan in Phoenician, Hebrew language, and Aramaic, and Phoenicia in Greek language and Latin....
     - extinct
    • Punic language
      Punic language

      The Punic language is an extinct Semitic language formerly spoken in the Mediterranean region of North Africa and several List of islands in the Mediterranean, by people of the Punic culture....
       - extinct
  • Ammonite language
    Ammonite language

    The Ammonite language is the extinct Hebrew languages Canaanite language of the Ammon people mentioned in the Bible, who used to live in modern-day Jordan, and after whom its capital Amman is named....
     - extinct
  • Moabite language
    Moabite language

    The Moabite language is an extinct Canaanite language language, spoken in Moab in the early first millennium BC. Most of our knowledge about Moabite comes from the Mesha Stele, as well as the ;....
     - extinct
  • Edomite language
    Edomite language

    The Edomite language was a Canaanite language spoken by the Edomites in southwestern Jordan in the first millennium BC. It is known only from a very small corpus....
     - extinct
  • Hebrew languages
    • Biblical Hebrew language
      Biblical Hebrew language

      Biblical Hebrew, also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew languages in which the Hebrew Bible and various Israelites inscriptions were written....
       - Israelite
      Israelite

      According to the Tanakh, the Israelites were the descendants of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. They were divided into twelve tribes, each descended from one of twelve sons or grandsons of Jacob....
      s, literary, poetical, liturgical. It has different pronunciations in different diasporas
        • Samaritan Hebrew language
          Samaritan Hebrew language

          The Samaritan Hebrew language is a descendant of Biblical Hebrew as pronounced and written by the Samaritans. It is used in the reading tradition of the Samaritan Pentateuch....
           - liturgical


      • Tiberian Hebrew language - liturgical
        • Mizrahi Hebrew language
          Mizrahi Hebrew language

          Mizrahi Hebrew or Oriental Hebrew refers to any of the pronunciation systems for Biblical Hebrew used liturgically by Mizrahi Jews, that is, Jews originating in Arab countries or further east, and with a background of Arabic language, Persian language, Hindi language, Turkish language, or other languages of the Middle East and Asia....
           - liturgical
          • Yemenite Hebrew language
            Yemenite Hebrew language

            Yemenite Hebrew, also referred to as Temani Hebrew, is the pronunciation system for Biblical Hebrew language and liturgical Hebrew language traditionally used by Yemenite Jews....
             - liturgical
        • Sephardi Hebrew language
          Sephardi Hebrew language

          Sephardi Hebrew is the pronunciation system for Biblical Hebrew language favored for liturgical use by Sephardi Judaism practice. Its phonology was influenced by contact languages such as Judaeo-Spanish, Portuguese language, Dutch language and Arabic language....
           - liturgical
        • Ashkenazi Hebrew language
          Ashkenazi Hebrew

          Ashkenazi Hebrew is the pronunciation system for Biblical Hebrew language and Mishnaic Hebrew language favored for Liturgy use by Ashkenazi Judaism practice....
           - liturgical
    • Mishnaic Hebrew Or Rabbinical Hebrew - Jew
      Jew

      A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
      s, liturgical, rabbinical,
    • Medieval Hebrew language - Jew
      Jew

      A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
      s, liturgical, poetical,rabbinical, scientific, literary, lingua franca based on Bible, Mishna and neologisms forms created by translators and commentators/
    • Haskala Hebrew language - Jew
      Jew

      A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
      s, scientific, literary and journalistic language based on Biblical but enriched with neologisms created by writers and journalists, a transition to the later
    • Modern Hebrew language
      Hebrew language

      Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
       - The transformation and enlargement of the former into a spoken language which in turn emerged as the new
    • Contemporary Israeli Hebrew the main language of the State of Israel, revived
      Language revival

      Language revitalization, language revival or reversing language shift is the attempt by interested parties, including individuals, cultural or community groups, governments, or political authorities, to reverse the decline of a language....


The main sources for study of Canaanite languages are the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh
Tanakh

The Tanakh is the Bible used in Judaism. The name "Tanakh" is a Hebrew language Acronym and initialism formed from the initial Hebrew alphabet of the Tanakh's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim - hence TaNaKh....
), and inscriptions such as:

  • in the Moabite language
    Moabite language

    The Moabite language is an extinct Canaanite language language, spoken in Moab in the early first millennium BC. Most of our knowledge about Moabite comes from the Mesha Stele, as well as the ;....
    : Mesha Stele
    Mesha Stele

    The Mesha Stele is a black basalt stone, bearing an inscription by the 9th century BC Moabite King Mesha, discovered in 1868 at Dhiban now in Jordan....
    , El-Kerak Stela
  • in the Biblical Hebrew language
    Biblical Hebrew language

    Biblical Hebrew, also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew languages in which the Hebrew Bible and various Israelites inscriptions were written....
    : Gezer calendar
    Gezer calendar

    The Gezer calendar is a tablet of soft limestone inscribed in a Paleo-Hebrew alphabet script. It is one of the oldest known examples of Hebrew language writing, dating to the 10th century BCE....
  • in the Phoenician languages
    Phoenician languages

    Phoenician was a language originally spoken in the coastal region then called Put in Ancient Egyptian, Canaan in Phoenician, Hebrew language, and Aramaic, and Phoenicia in Greek language and Latin....
    : Ahiram inscription, sarcophagus of Eshmunazar
    Eshmunazar

    Eshmunazar was the name of several Phoenician kings of Sidon.The sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II, which is now in the Louvre, was unearthed in 1855 in a site near Sidon, and contains an inscription, in Phoenician languages Canaanite languages, inscribed using the Phoenician alphabet....
    , Kilamuwa inscription, the Byblos inscription
  • in the later Punic language
    Punic language

    The Punic language is an extinct Semitic language formerly spoken in the Mediterranean region of North Africa and several List of islands in the Mediterranean, by people of the Punic culture....
    : in Poenulus
    Poenulus

    Poenulus, also called The Little Carthaginian or The Puny Punic, is a Latin comedic Play for the early Theatre of ancient Rome by Titus Maccius Plautus....
     - by Plautus
    Plautus

    Titus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as Plautus, was a Ancient Rome playwright. His comedy are among the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature....
     - beginning of 5th-Act.


The extra-biblical Canaanite inscriptions are gathered along with Aramaic inscriptions in editions of the book "Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften", from which they may be referenced as KAI n (for a number n); for example, the Mesha Stele
Mesha Stele

The Mesha Stele is a black basalt stone, bearing an inscription by the 9th century BC Moabite King Mesha, discovered in 1868 at Dhiban now in Jordan....
 is "KAI 181".

The Canaanite languages, together with the Aramaic languages and Ugaritic
Ugaritic language

The Ugaritic language, discovered by France archaeology in 1928, is known only in the form of writings found in the lost city of Ugarit, near the modern village of Ras Shamra, Syria....
, form the Northwest Semitic
Northwest Semitic languages

The Northwest Semitic languages form a medium-level division of the Semitic languages. The languages of this group are spoken by approximately eight million people today....
 subgroup. Some distinctive features of Canaanite in relation to Aramaic are:
  • The prefix 'h-' used as the definite article (whereas Aramaic has a postfixed -a). This seems to be an innovation of Canaanite.
  • The first person pronoun being '' (??? - anok(i)) (versus Aramaic - /) - which is similar to Akkadian
    Akkadian language

    Akkadian or Assyrian-Babylonian is a Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian language, an unrelated language isolate....
    , Ancient Egyptian
    Egyptian language

    Egyptian is a branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages language family along with the Chadic languages, Berber languages, Semitic languages, Cushitic languages and possibly Omotic languages languages....
     and Berber
    Berber languages

    The Berber languages are a group of closely related languages spoken in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, as well as by Berber people communities in parts of Niger and Mali....
    .
  • The *a > o vowel shift
    Vowel shift

    A vowel shift is a systematic sound change in the pronunciation of the vowel sounds of a language.The best-known example in the English language is the Great Vowel Shift, which began in the 15th century....
     (Canaanite shift
    Canaanite shift

    In historical linguistics, the Canaanite shift is a sound change that took place in the Canaanite languages, which belong to the Northwest Semitic languages branch of the Semitic languages family....
    ).


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