Canaanite languages

The Canaanite languages, sometimes referred to as Canaanite dialects, are one of four subgroups of the Northwest Semitic languages of Western Asia. The others are the still spoken Aramaic and the now-extinct Ugaritic and Amorite languages. These closely related languages originated in the Levant and Upper Mesopotamia. Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples spoke them in an area encompassing what is today Israel, Palestine, Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula, Lebanon, Syria, as well as some areas of southwestern Turkey, Iraq, and the northwestern corner of Saudi Arabia. From the 9th century BCE, they also spread to the Iberian Peninsula, Malta, Sicily and North Africa in the form of Phoenician. The historical Canaanites are broadly defined to include the Hebrews (Israelites, Samaritans and Judeans), Ammonites, Edomites, Ekronites, Hyksos, Phoenicians (including the Punics/Carthaginians), Moabites, and sometimes the ethno-linguistically closely related Ugarites and Amorites. The Canaanite languages continued to be spoken languages until at least the 5th century CE but were gradually supplanted by Aramaic, a language which gained influence as the lingua franca of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and succeeding Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid Empires, as well as a number of other states such as the Palmyrene Empire. Modern Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language today and was revived in the 19th century by political and cultural activists as an everyday spoken language in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This was achieved mainly through the revitalization and cultivation efforts of Zionists throughout Europe and in Palestine. By the mid-20th century, Modern Hebrew had become the primary language of Palestinian Jews and was later made the official language of the State of Israel. Many Jews used Mishnaic Hebrew well into the Middle Ages and up to the present day as both a liturgical and literary language, and they also employed it as a lingua franca for...