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Amorite language
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A diagram shows the family tree of Semitic languages, branching into West Semitic and East Semitic. West Semitic includes Ethiopic, Modern and Old South Arabian, Arabic and its dialects, Maltese, and Northwest Semitic languages like Amorite, Ugaritic, Canaanite, Aramaic, and Modern Hebrew. East Semitic includes Akkadian, Old Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian.
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Amorite language

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History

Amorite language, one of the most ancient of the archaic Semitic languages, which are part of the Afro-Asiatic language phylum. Amorite was spoken in an area that is now northern Syria. It is known almost exclusively from glosses and names, and the only known grammar is the grammar of names. Despite its many unknown linguistic characteristics, Amorite has been dated to the last century of the 3rd millennium bce by reference to the known chronology of proper names from that period. It was probably the language of the seminomadic Amorite people of the West Semitic area.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Elizabeth Prine Pauls.