What is a Semitic language?
This is a group of languages spoken in northern Africa and the Middle East, including Arabic and Hebrew. Semitic language script is written from right to left. These alphabets use symbols to represent only the consonants and long vowels. Short vowels are typically not written even though they often determine grammatical and morphological meaning. Special diacritical marks were developed in the 8th century AD to represent short vowels. Such marks are included in text that is geared toward language learning. In Hebrew they are also used for printed literary text. Words are formed from a root (composed of consonants) which represents the core meaning, and a vowel pattern. All languages of the Semitic group have masculine and feminine gender.
