اللغات السامية هي لغات تتبع تحت عائلة الشمالي الشرقي اللغات الأفروآسيوية. ينسب الساميون إلى سام بن نوح، الذي هوأبوالشعوب التي تتحدثها حسب الميثولوجيا الدينية اليهودية، وهوما لم يعد متناسبا مع النظريات اللغوية الحديثة.

يتحدث باللغات السامية حاليا حوالي 400 مليون إنسان تقديرا، ويهجرز متحدثوها حاليا في الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا وشرق أفريقيا. أكثر اللغات السامية انتشارا هذه الأيام هي العربية إذ يفوق متحدثيها المئتي مليون متحدث، تليها الأمهرية بـ27 مليون متحدث ثم العبرية بـ7 ملايين متحدث ثم التجرينية بحواليستة ملايين متحدث.

اللغات السامية كانت لهجات شفاهية متداولة بين شعوب الشرق الأوسط. وقد سبقت الكتابة بها. وجدت كتابات أكادية سامية تعود للألفية الثالثة قبل الميلاد أي قبل حواليخمسة آلاف سنة مما يجعلها من أقدم اللغات المكتوبة في العالم. انقرضت معظم لغات الشرق الأوسط ولم تبق إلا في النصوص الدينية فقط ولعدة قرون.

ولقد كان فك شفرة مخطوطات اللغة المسمارية وهي لغة غير سامية أدى لاستعادة اللغات التي كانت مستعملة قديما في بلاد الرافدين لدي السومريين والبابليين والحيثيين والكاشانيين. وينطق حتى هذه اللغة قد اندثرت في القرن الثالث أوالثاني ق.م. وقد كان في جنوب بلاد الرافدين توجد السومرية ولهجات من اللغات السامية . وكان شمالها وفي الشام لغات ولهجات سامية وفي غربي نهر دجلة كانت اللغة الأكادية وقبلها كانت اللغة العمورية .لكن لم يبت فهماء اللغات القديمة عن مسببات إختفاء هذه اللغات القديمة.

تقسم اللغات السامية إلى ثلاث مجموعات رئيسية هي:

1. اللغات السامية الشرقية.
2. اللغات السامية الغربية: تنقسم لثلاث مجموعات لغوية رئيسية هي العمورية والأغورية والمجموعة الثانية الكنعانية والثالثة الآرامية. وقد عهدت اللغة العمورية في النصف الأول من القرن الثاني ق.م. وكانت متداولة بين البدوفي الشام ومعلولا. وقد ورد بعض أسمائها في النصوص الأكادية والمصرية. وكانت الأغورية متداولة بين الكنعانيين بفلسطين والساحل الشمالي للفنيقيين ولاسيما في بلدة أوغاريت بشرق البحر الأبيض المتوسط . وقد إكتشفت مخطوطات في منطقة رأس شمر ترجع للقرنين 12 و13 ق.م. تشبه أبجدية كتاباتهاالكتابة باللغة المسمارية بالعراق. وكانت اللغة الكنعانية تضم مجموعة من اللغات واللهجات الفينيقية بسواحل لبنان وترجع كتاباتها إلي 1500 سنة ق.م. ومنها إنحدرت العبرية والفينيقية والبونيقية والأنوميتية والأدموتية. وكانت تخط بالكتابة الفينيقية. وقد عثر علي رسائل دبلوماسية كنعانية وردت للقصر بتل العمارنة بمصر ترجع للقرن 14 ق.م. كما وجدت سجلات ترجع لسنة 1000 ق.م. بالفينيقية في الشام وفلسطين وقبرص. وكانت هذه اللغة متداولة في المستعمرات الفينيقية حول حوض البحر المتوسط. وظلت حتي القرن الخامس ميلادي. وكانت الأنومتية والأدموتية تسودان بالأردن مابين القرنين التاسع والخامس ق.م. وكان يشوبهما اللغة الآرامية. واللغة الآرامية قد ظهرت عام 850 ق.م. كما يشير حجر منقوش عثر عليه في سوريا بتل فخرية . وانتشرت هذه اللغة وقتها في الشرق الأوسط كلغة رسمية إبان الإمبراطورية الفارسية من أفغانستان مرورا بفارس وحتي مصر. وحلت الآرامية محل الأكادية والعبرية ومنها ظهرت القبطية ولاسيما وأن الروم الأغريق قد ظلوا يحيونها كلغة للمسيحية حتي الفتح العربي بالقرن السابع ميلادي. وكانت أبجديتها من اللغة الكنعانية الفنيقية. وبينما كان سكان الشام وفلسطين يتحدثون الآرامية كان الأنباط لهم مملكتهم في مدينة البتراء وجنوب الأردن. وكانوا يتحدثون النبطية وهي منحدرة من الآرامية التي إنحدرت منها الكتابة العربية.
3. اللغة السامية الغربية والجنوبية: تضم اللغات العربية الجنوبية باليمن وعمان وكانت أبجديتها مشتقة من الكنعانية وظلت سائدة منذ عام 1300 ق.م. حتي عام 500 م. وقد جلبها معهم عرب شمال الجزيرة العربية. وكانت تتكون من عدة لهجات إندثرت حاليا. واللغة العربية التقليدية التي اتى بها الإسلام تبنت لغة قريش بمكة والتي هبط بها القرآن. فانتشرت العربية وحلت محل لغات أخري قبله بالعالم الإسلامي من الصين حتي المحيط الأطلنطي وفي شبه جزيرة إيبيريا بأسبانيا وآسيا الصغري وشرق أوربا بالبلقان. واللغات الحبشية (الإثيوبية) التي تشبه لحد كبير اللغة العربية الجنوبية باليمن حيث حملها المهاجرون الأوائل للحبشة، فنشروا كتاباتها التي حاكتها اللغات الإثيوبية ولاسيما في اللغة الأمهرية التي تنتشر في إثيوبيا وإرتريا وهي اللغة الرسمية حالياً.

الاسم والتعهد

التشابه بين اللغات العربية والعبرية والآرامية قبـِل به دارسواليهودية والإسلام منذ العصور الوسطى. اللغات كانت مألوفة للدارسين الأوروپيين بسبب التواصل التاريخي مع البلدان الإسلامية المجاورة وعبر الدراسات التوراتية، ونُشِر تحليل مقارن للعبرية والعربية والآرامية باللغة اللاتينية في عام 1538 خطه گي‌يوم پوستل. Almost two centuries later, هيوب لودولف described the similarities between these three languages and the Ethiopian Semitic languages. However, neither scholar named this grouping as "Semitic".

The term was created by members of the مدرسة گوتنگن للتاريخ, and specifically by أوگوست لودڤيگ فون شلوتسر (1781) ويوهان گوتفريد أيخ‌هورن (1787) first coined the name "Semitic" in the late 18th century to designate the languages closely related to Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew. The choice of name was derived from Shem, one of the three sons of Noah in the genealogical accounts of the biblical سفر التكوين, or more precisely from the يونانية كوينه rendering of the name, Σήμ (Sēm). أيخ‌هورن is credited with popularising the term, particularly via a 1795 article "Semitische Sprachen" (Semitic languages) in which he justified the terminology against criticism that Hebrew and Canaanite were the same language despite Canaan being "الحامية" في جدول الأمم:

In the Mosaic Table of Nations, those names which are listed as Semites are purely names of tribes who speak the so-called Oriental languages and live in Southwest Asia. As far as we can trace the history of these very languages back in time, they have always been written with syllabograms or with alphabetic script (never with hieroglyphs or pictograms); and the legends about the invention of the syllabograms and alphabetic script go back to the Semites. In contrast, all الشعوب الحامية originally used hieroglyphs, until they here and there, either through contact with the Semites, or through their settlement among them, became familiar with their syllabograms or alphabetic script, and partly adopted them. Viewed from this aspect too, with respect to the alphabet used, the name "Semitic languages" is completely appropriate.

وقبل ذلك كانت تلك اللغات يشيع معهدتها بإسم "اللغات الشرقية" في الأدبيات الأوروپية. وفي القرن 19، "السامية" أصبحت الاسم المعتاد؛ إلا حتى اسماً بديلاً، "اللغات السورية-العربية"، تم تقديمه لاحقاً من جيمس كاولز پرتشارد and used by some writers.

التاريخ

الشعوب القديمة الناطقة بالسامية

منطق رئيسي: الشعوب القديمة الناطقة بالسامية

توجد عدة أماكن مقترحة كمواقع محتملة لأصول الشعوب الناطقة بالسامية قبل التاريخ: بلاد الرافدين، المشرق، حوض المتوسط، الجزيرة العربية وشمال أفريقيا.

بعد الميلاد

Syriac, a fifth century BCE Assyrian Mesopotamian descendant of Aramaic used in northeastern Syria and Mesopotamia, rose to importance as a literary language of early Christianity in the third to fifth centuries and continued into the early Islamic era.

With the advent of the early Muslim conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries, the hitherto largely uninfluential Arabic language slowly but surely replaced many of the indigenous Semitic languages and cultures of the Near East. Both the Near East and North Africa saw an influx of Muslim Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula, followed later by non-Semitic Muslim Iranian and Turkic peoples. The previously dominant Aramaic dialects gradually began to be sidelined, however descendant dialects of Aramaic (including Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, Turoyo and Mandaic) survive to this day among the Assyrians and Mandaeans of northern Iraq, northwestern Iran, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey. The Arabs spread their Central Semitic language to North Africa where it gradually replaced Coptic and many Berber languages (although Berber is still largely extant), and for a time to the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar).

With the patronage of the caliphs and the prestige of its liturgical status, Arabic rapidly became one of the world's main literary languages. Its spread among the masses took much longer, however, as many (although not all) of the native populations outside the Arabian Peninsula only gradually abandoned their languages in favour of Arabic. As Bedouin tribes settled in conquered areas, it became the main language of not only central Arabia, but also Yemen, the Fertile Crescent, and Egypt. Most of the Maghreb followed, particularly in the wake of the Banu Hilal's incursion in the 11th century, and Arabic became the native language of many inhabitants of al-Andalus. After the collapse of the Nubian kingdom of Dongola in the 14th century, Arabic began to spread south of Egypt into modern Sudan; soon after, the Beni Ḥassān brought Arabization to Mauritania. A number of South Arabian languages distinct from Arabic still survive, such as Soqotri, Mehri and Shehri which are mainly spoken in Socotra, Yemen and Oman, and are likely descendants of the languages spoken in the ancient kingdoms of Sheba, Magan, Ubar, Meluhha and Dilmun.

Meanwhile, Semitic languages were diversifying in Ethiopia and Eritrea, where, under heavy Cushitic influence, they split into a number of languages, including Amharic and Tigrinya. With the expansion of Ethiopia under the Solomonic dynasty, Amharic, previously a minor local language, spread throughout much of the country, replacing both Semitic (such as Gafat) and non-Semitic (such as Weyto) languages, and replacing Ge'ez as the principal literary language (though Ge'ez remains the liturgical language for Christians in the region); this spread continues to this day, with Qimant set to disappear in another generation.

الوضع الراهن

Arabic languages and dialects are currently the native languages of majorities from Mauritania to Oman, and from Iraq to the Sudan. Classical Arabic is the language of the Quran, it is also studied widely in the non-Arabic-speaking Muslim world. The Maltese language is genetically a descendant of the extinct Siculo-Arabic, a variety of Maghrebi Arabic formerly spoken in Sicily. The modern Maltese alphabet is based on the Latin script with the addition of some letters with diacritic marks and digraphs. Maltese is the only Semitic official language of a nation state within the European Union.

الصوتيات

The phonologies of the attested Semitic languages are presented here from a comparative point of view. See Proto-Semitic language#Phonology for details on the phonological reconstruction of Proto-Semitic used in this article. This comparative approach is natural for the consonants, as sound correspondences among the consonants of the Semitic languages are very straightforward for a family of its time depth; for the vowels there are more subtleties.

Consonants

Each Proto-Semitic phoneme was reconstructed to explain a certain regular sound correspondence between various Semitic languages. Note that Latin letter values (italicized) for extinct languages are a question of transcription; the exact pronunciation is not recorded.

Most of the attested languages have merged a number of the reconstructed original fricatives, though South Arabian retains all fourteen (and has added a fifteenth from *p > f).

In Aramaic and Hebrew, all non-emphatic stops occurring singly after a vowel were softened to fricatives, leading to an alternation that was often later phonemicized as a result of the loss of gemination.

In languages exhibiting pharyngealization of emphatics, the original velar emphatic has rather developed to a uvular stop [q].

Notes:

1. Arabic pronunciation is largely based on Modern Standard Arabic which differs from that of reconstructed Qur'anic Arabic of the 7th and 8th centuries.
2. Proto-Semitic *ś was still pronounced as [ɬ] in Biblical Hebrew, but no letter was available in the Phoenician alphabet, so the letter ש did double duty, representing both /ʃ/ and /ɬ/. Later on, however, /ɬ/ merged with /s/, but the old spelling was largely retained, and the two pronunciations of ש were distinguished graphically in Tiberian Hebrew as שׁ /ʃ/ vs. שׂ /s/ < /ɬ/.
3. Biblical Hebrew as of the 3rd century BCE apparently still distinguished the phonemes ġ /ʁ/ and ḫ /χ/, based on transcriptions in the Septuagint. As in the case of /ɬ/, no letters were available to represent these sounds, and existing letters did double duty: ח /χ/ /ħ/ and ע /ʁ/ /ʕ/. In both of these cases, however, the two sounds represented by the same letter eventually merged, leaving no evidence (other than early transcriptions) of the former distinctions.
4. Although early Aramaic (pre-7th century BCE) had only 22 consonants in its alphabet, it apparently distinguished all of the original 29 Proto-Semitic phonemes, including *ḏ, *ṯ, *ṱ, *ś, *ṣ́, *ġ and *ḫ – although by Middle Aramaic times, these had all merged with other sounds. This conclusion is mainly based on the shifting representation of words etymologically containing these sounds; in early Aramaic writing, the first five are merged with z, š, ṣ, š, q, respectively, but later with d, t, ṭ, s, ʿ. (Also note that due to begadkefat spirantization, which occurred after this merger, OAm. t > ṯ and d > ḏ in some positions, so that PS *t,ṯ and *d, ḏ may be realized as either of t, ṯ and d, ḏ respectively.) The sounds *ġ and *ḫ were always represented using the pharyngeal letters ʿ ḥ, but they are distinguished from the pharyngeals in the Demotic-script papyrus Amherst 63, written about 200 BCE. This suggests that these sounds, too, were distinguished in Old Aramaic language, but written using the same letters as they later merged with.
5. The earlier pharyngeals can be distinguished in Akkadian from the zero reflexes of *h, *ʔ by e-coloring adjacent *a, e.g. pS *ˈbaʕal-um 'owner, lord' > Akk. bēlu(m).
6. Hebrew and Aramaic underwent begadkefat spirantization at a certain point, whereby the stop sounds /b ɡ d k p t/ were softened to the corresponding fricatives [v ɣ ð x f θ] (written ḇ ḡ ḏ ḵ p̄ ṯ) when occurring after a vowel and not geminated. This change probably happened after the original Old Aramaic phonemes /θ, ð/ disappeared in the 7th century BCE, and most likely occurred after the loss of Hebrew /χ, ʁ/ c. 200 BCE. It is known to have occurred in Hebrew by the 2nd century.^[] After a certain point this alternation became contrastive in word-medial and final position (though bearing low functional load), but in word-initial position they remained allophonic. In Modern Hebrew, the distinction has a higher functional load due to the loss of gemination, although only the three fricatives /v χ f/ are still preserved (the fricative /x/ is pronounced /χ/ in modern Hebrew). (The others are pronounced like the corresponding stops, apparently under the influence of later non-native speakers whose native European tongues lacked the sounds /ɣ ð θ/ as phonemes.)
7. In the Northwest Semitic languages, */w/ became */j/ at the beginning of a word, e.g. Hebrew yeled "boy" < *wald (cf. Arabic walad).
8. There is evidence of a rule of assimilation of /j/ to the following coronal consonant in pre-tonic position,^[] shared by Hebrew, Phoenician and Aramaic
9. In Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, [ħ] is nonexistent. In general cases, the language would lack pharyngeal fricative [ʕ] (as heard in Ayin). However though, /ʕ/ is retained in educational speech, especially among Assyrian priests.

In addition to those in the table, Modern Hebrew has introduced the new phonemes /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʒ/ through borrowings.

The following table shows the development of the various fricatives in Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic through cognate words:

1. possibly affricated (/dz/ /tɬʼ/ /ʦʼ/ /tθʼ/ /tɬ/)

الصوائط

Proto-Semitic vowels are, in general, harder to deduce due to the nonconcatenative morphology of Semitic languages. The history of vowel changes in the languages makes drawing up a complete table of correspondences impossible, so only the most common reflexes can be given:

1. in a stressed open syllable
2. in a stressed closed syllable before a geminate
3. in a stressed closed syllable before a consonant cluster
4. when the proto-Semitic stressed vowel remained stressed
5. pS *a,*ā > Akk. e,ē in the neighborhood of pS *ʕ,*ħ and before r.
6. i.e. pS *g,*k,*ḳ,*χ > Ge'ez gʷ,kʷ,ḳʷ,χʷ / _u

تناظر الأصوات مع اللغات الأفروآسيوية الأخرى

انظر الجدول في اللغة الأفروآسيوية الأولى#تناظرات الصوامط.

مواضيع ذات صلة

لغات سامية شرقية:

• الأكادية
  • الآشورية
  • البابلية
• الإبلاوية

لغات سامية غربية:

• لغات سامية شمالية
  • العمورية
  • الأوغاريتية
  • لغات آرامية
    • الآرمية العتيقة
    • آرامية شرقية
      • السريانية (ܣܘܪܝܝܐ)
      • الآرامية اليهودية البابلية
      • المندائية
      • التدمرية
    • آرامية غربية
      • الآرامية اليهودية الفلسطينية
      • الآرامية السامرية
      • الآرامية المسيحية الفلسطينية
  • لغات كنعانية
    • الفينيقية والبونيقية
    • العبرية (עברית)
    • المؤابية
    • العمونية
    • الأدومية
• لغات سامية جنوبية
  • العربية
    • المالطية
  • العربية الجنوبية العتيقة
    • السبئية
    • المعينية
    • القتبانية
    • الحضرموتية
  • العربية الجنوبية
    • السقطرية
    • المهرية (ولهجة البطحرية منها)
    • الحرسوسية
    • الجبالية
  • حبشية
    • الجعزية
    • الأمهرية
    • الأرغوبية
    • الخاسية
    • لغة تجرا
    • لغات جراجي
    • هرر
    • الغافات

معجم مشهجر

Due to the Semitic languages' common origin, they share many words and roots. Others differ. For example:

Sometimes, certain roots differ in meaning from one Semitic language to another. For example, the root b-y-ḍ in Arabic has the meaning of "white" as well as "egg", whereas in Hebrew it only means "egg". The root l-b-n means "milk" in Arabic, but the color "white" in Hebrew. The root l-ḥ-m means "meat" in Arabic, but "bread" in Hebrew and "cow" in Ethiopian Semitic; the original meaning was most probably "food". The word medina (root: m-d-n) has the meaning of "metropolis" in Amharic, "city" in Arabic and Ancient Hebrew, and "State" in Modern Hebrew.

Of course, there is sometimes no relation between the roots. For example, "knowledge" is represented in Hebrew by the root y-d-ʿ, but in Arabic by the roots ʿ-r-f and ʿ-l-m and in Ethiosemitic by the roots ʿ-w-q and f-l-ṭ.

For more comparative vocabulary lists, see Wiktionary appendices:

• List of Proto-Semitic stems
• Swadesh lists for Afro-Asiatic languages

الشعوب الناطقة بالسامية

The following is a list of some modern and ancient Semitic-speaking peoples and nations:

السامية الوسطى

• Ammonite speakers of Ammon
• Amorites – 20th century BCE
• Arabs
• Ancient North Arabian-speaking bedouins
• Arameans – 16th to 8th centuries BCE / Akhlames (Ahlamu) 14th century BCE.
• Canaanite-speaking nations of the early Iron Age:
• Chaldea  – appeared in southern Mesopotamia c. 1000 BCE and eventually disappeared into the general Babylonian population.
• Edomites
• Hebrews/Israelites – founded the nation of Israel which later split into the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The remnants of these people became the Jews and the Samaritans.
• Maltese
• Mandaeans
• Moab
• Mhallami – Tiny minority of Syriac-Arameans who converted to secular Islam but retained Syriac identity
• Nabataeans
• Phoenicia – founded Mediterranean colonies including Tyre, Sidon and ancient Carthage. The remnants of these people became the modern inhabitants of Lebanon.
• Ugarit, 14th to 12th centuries BCE
• Nasrani (Syrian Christian)

السامية الشرقية

• Akkadian Empire – ancient Semitic speakers moved into Mesopotamia in the fourth millennium BCE and settled among the local peoples of Sumer. The remnants of these people became the modern Assyrian people (also known as Chaldo-Assyrians) of Iraq, Iran, south eastern Turkey and northeast Syria.
• Ebla – 23rd century BCE

السامية الجنوبية

• Kingdom of Aksum – 4th century BCE to 7th century CE
• Amhara people
• Argobba people
• Dahalic people
• Gurage people
• Harari people
• Mehri people
• Old South Arabian-speaking peoples
• Sabaeans of Yemen – 9th to 1st centuries BCE
• Silt'e people
• Tigrayans
• Tigre people
• Tigrinyas
• Zay people

غير المعروفة

• Suteans – 14th century BCE
• Thamud – 2nd to 5th centuries CE

انظر أيضاً

• اللغة السامية الأولى
• أبجديات العصر البرونزي الأوسط

ملاحظات

الهامش

مراجع

• http://www.angelfire.com/tx4/lisan/fiqhlughah/part_3.htm
• http://www.semarch.uni-hd.de/index.php4
• http://semitistik.uni-hd.de/askari/index_e.htm
• من موسوعة حضارة العالم ،أحمد محمد عوف.

وصلات خارجية

Wikisource has the text of the 1905 New International Encyclopedia article Semitic Languages.

• Semitic genealogical tree (as well as the Afroasiatic one), presented by Alexander Militarev at his talk "Genealogical classification of Afro-Asiatic languages according to the latest data" (at the conference on the 70th anniversary of Vladislav Illich-Svitych, Moscow, 2004; short annotations of the talks given there (بالروسية)
• Ancient snake spell in Egyptian pyramid may be oldest Semitic inscription
• Swadesh vocabulary lists of Semitic languages (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)