3. Characteristics of Semitic Languages

These related branches point backward to an original Semitic tongue, the characteristics of which remain more or less plainly evident in the later forms, to which original of speech the Arabic seems the moat nearly related. The chief characteristic of Semitic languages is the tri- consonantal form of the roots; possibly originally the roots consisted of two consonants sub sequently built up by the addition of another conso nant. The language was then formed by vocalic changes inside the word or by additions or prefixes. Another characteristic of these languages is that only the consonants were written, the reader supplying the vocalization in accordance with the native ut terance. Word-building wascomplex,secondaryfor mationa being very numerous. The verbs are lacking in tenses, only two main forms being used. The per sonal pronouns in the genitive and accusative be come mere enclitics, there are but two genders, and a dual is sparingly employed. The syntax is simple, though the use of the numerals is rather complicated.

4. Characteristics and History of the Hebrew Language

The Hebrew language holds a position midway between the Arabic and the Aramaic. It has fewer original vocals than the Arabic, more than the Aramaic, while it retains case. ending and passive forms which the Aramaic has lost, though both have in use a juseive, the Hebrew using it more frequently than the Aramaic. Some of the original consonants are lost to the Hebrew, though it had a double pronunciation for the Ayin. Six other letters had a double pronunciation, a hard and an aspirated. The Hebrew did not develop in its

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syntax a complicated period, while the usual connective is the simple "and," which implies various relationships. Historical narrative usually opens with the phrase " and it came to pass," while delineations of the future begin with " and it shall come to pass." The particles are few, little developed, and therefore ambiguous. Before the Hebrews entered either the East-Jordanic or West-Jordanic territory, the Canaanitic tongue, closely related to the Hebrew, was spoken there, as is shown both by the place-names and by interesting glosses to the Amarna Tablets. Whether the Hebrews got their language from the Canaanites when they settled in Canaan, or already possessed it, is a difficult problem; but at any rate it remained their usual speech till the exile, and during the exile and after it was still cultivated. But in postexilic times it was dislodged by the Aramaic.

The cause of this is to be sought in the diffusion of the Aramaic as the official and commercial tongue of the Persian empire. The first witness to this is in the sources of the Book of Ezra followed by the Aramaic portions of the Book of Daniel. In the time of Christ Aramaic was the common speech, and such it continued till the Arabic conquest; though meanwhile Hebrew had been cultivated as a written language, as is proved by the Hebrew portion of Daniel and by the recovered parts of the original of Ecclesiasticus, as well as by indications in I Maccabees, the Psalms of Solomon, and various pseudepigrapha. It is clear that the supersession of Hebrew was preceded by a period when the land was bilingual, a large part of the people still using Hebrew. But this condition came to an end, and the reading of Hebrew in the synagogue had to be accompanied by translation into the vernacular Aramaic. It was in this way that Hebrew became gradually the speech of the learned only; but it is to be remarked that the Hebrew of the later sort has no more interest for the history of Hebrew than the Latin of the schoolmen for the history of Latin.