semitic languages

Broken Plurals: Why Arabic Rejects Suffixes

Unlike English, which relies on suffixes to denote plurality, Arabic utilizes "Broken Plurals"—a system where words are shattered and rearranged…

6 days ago

Maltese: The Sole Survivor of Siculo-Arabic

Explore the fascinating history of Maltese, the only Semitic language in the European Union and the sole survivor of the…

6 days ago

Why Maltese Catholics Pray to ‘Alla’: A Linguistic History

While Malta is a devoutly Roman Catholic nation, its congregants pray to "Alla"—a direct cognate of the Arabic word for…

6 days ago

The Only Semitic Language Written in Latin Script

Maltese is the world's only Semitic language written officially in the Latin script, serving as a unique linguistic bridge between…

6 days ago

The Sound of the Throat: Pharyngeal Consonants

English speakers tend to speak from the front of their mouths, but Semitic languages like Arabic and Hebrew utilize the…

1 week ago

The Lost Vowels of Proto-Semitic

How do you reconstruct the vowels of an ancient language when its descendants, like Hebrew and Arabic, were written without…

3 months ago

The Root of the Word: Arabic’s 3-Letter System

Discover the secret behind Arabic's vast vocabulary: the triliteral root system. This elegant 'word skeleton' method allows a single 3-letter…

6 months ago

From Chariots to Covenants: The Linguistic Archaeology of the Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew Bible was not written in a single moment, and the language itself is a key to unlocking its…

6 months ago

The Alphabet That Isn’t: Unpacking the Logic of Abugidas and Abjads

Most of us learn the ABCs and assume all writing works this way, but that's just one piece of the…

6 months ago

The Revival of Hebrew: The Tale of a Slumbering Language

Many stories surrounding language involve the mystery of deciphering ancient codes, the valor of wartime cryptography, or the mystical origins…

2 years ago

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