檢視闪米特语族的原始碼

{{NoteTA
|T=zh-cn:闪米特语族; zh-hant:闪米特语族; zh-tw:闪米语族;
|1=zh-cn:闪米特; zh-hant:闪米特; zh-tw:闪米;
}}
{{Infobox language family
|name         = 闪米特语族
|altname      = 叙利亚-阿拉伯语族
|region       = [[西亚]]、[[北非]]、[[非洲之角]]、[[马耳他]]
|familycolor  = Afro-Asiatic
|protoname    = [[原始闪米特语]]
|child1       = [[东闪米特语支]] †
|child2 = [[中闪米特语支]]
|child3 = [[南闪米特语支]]
|iso2         = sem
|iso5         = sem
|glotto       = semi1276
|glottorefname= Semitic
|map          = Semitic languages zh-cn.svg
|mapcaption   = 闪米特语言的大致历史分布
}}

'''闪米特语族'''，又称'''闪语族'''、'''塞姆语族'''或'''叙利亚-阿拉伯语族'''<ref name=JK>{{cite book|last=Kitto|first=John|title=A Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature|year=1845|publisher=W. Clowes and Sons|location=London|page=192|quote=That important family of languages, of which the Arabic is the most cultivated and most widely-extended branch, has long wanted an appropriate common name. The term ''Oriental'' languages, which was exclusively applied to it from the time of [[耶柔米|Jerome]] down to the end of the last century, and which is even now not entirely abandoned, must always have been an unscientific one, inasmuch as the countries in which these languages prevailed are only the ''east'' in respect to Europe; and when [[梵语|Sanskrit]], [[汉语|Chinese]], and other idioms of the [[远东|remoter East]] were brought within the reach of our research, it became palpably incorrect. Under a sense of this impropriety, {{tsl|en|Johann Gottfried Eichhorn||Eichhorn}} was the first, as he says himself (Allg. Bibl. Biblioth. vi. 772), to introduce the name ''Semitic'' languages, which was soon generally adopted, and which is the most usual one at the present day. [...] In modern times, however, the very appropriate designation ''Syro-Arabian languages'' has been proposed by Dr. {{tsl|en|James Cowles Prichard||Prichard}}, in his ''Physical History of Man''. This term, [...] has the advantage of forming an exact counterpart to the name by which the only other great family of languages with which we are likely to bring the Syro-Arabian into relations of contrast or accordance, is now universally known—the ''[[印欧语系|Indo-Germanic]]''. Like it, by taking up only the two extreme members of a whole sisterhood according to their geographical position when in their native seats, it embraces all the intermediate branches under a common band; and, like it, it constitutes a name which is not only at once intelligible, but one which in itself conveys a notion of that affinity between the sister dialects, which it is one of the objects of [[比较语言学|comparative philology]] to demonstrate and to apply.}}</ref>，是[[亚非语系]]之下的[[语族]]之一，起源于[[中东]]地区<ref>{{cite book|last=Bennett |first=Patrick R. | title=Comparative Semitic Linguistics: A Manual | url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Comparative_Semitic_Linguistics.html?id=LfruK29pVl8C&redir_esc=y |year=1998 |publisher=Eisenbrauns | location=Winona Lake, Indiana}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Hetzron |first=Robert |year=1997 |title=The Semitic Languages |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Semitic_Languages.html?id=RWhvl4hD7S4C&redir_esc=y |publisher=Routledge |location=London/New York}}</ref>，其下属语言约有3.3亿人作为母语，分布于[[西亚]]、[[北非]]和[[非洲之角]]，也有亚非语系侨民生活于[[欧洲]]和[[北美]]，或[[高加索]]和[[中亚]]。

闪米特语族由哥廷根历史学校的成员于18世纪命名，“[[闪米特]]”一词来源于[[希伯来圣经]][[创世记]]，是[[诺亚]]的三个儿子之一，相传是[[希伯来人]]和[[亚述人]]的祖先<ref>{{cite book|first=Martin|last=Baasten|chapter=A Note on the History of 'Semitic'|p=57–73|title=Hamlet on a Hill: Semitic and Greek Studies Presented to Professor T. Muraoka on the Occasion of His Sixty-fifth Birthday|publisher=Peeters Publishers|year=2003|isbn=9789042912151|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=oIIvqaVaLacC&pg=PA58#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref>。

现代所使用的其分支语言有[[阿拉伯语]]<ref name="Owens300">{{cite book |last=Jonathan |first=Owens |date=2013 |title=The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Linguistics |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Oxford_Handbook_of_Arabic_Linguistic.html?id=1IJoAgAAQBAJ& |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=2 |isbn=0199344094 |accessdate=18 February 2014}}</ref>、[[希伯来语]]<ref>{{e18|heb|Modern Hebrew}}</ref>、[[亚拉姆语|阿拉姆语]]<ref>^ Jump up to: a b Assyrian Neo-Aramaic at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)</ref><ref>Chaldean Neo-Aramaic at Ethnologue (14th ed., 2000).</ref><ref>^ Turoyo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)</ref>、[[马尔他语]]、[[阿姆哈拉语]]<ref>{{e18|amh|Amharic}}</ref>、[[提格里尼亚语]]<ref>{{e18|tir|Tigrinya}}</ref>、[[提格雷语]]和[[马耳他语]]<ref>[https://www.ethnologue.com/language/mlt Ethnologue Entry for Maltese, 21st ed., 2018]</ref>等。闪米特语族中使用人数最多的语言是[[现代标淮阿拉伯语]]，而如果包括所有[[阿拉伯语变体]]的母语人口在内，[[阿拉伯语]]共有2000万人作为母语，广泛分布在西亚、北非和东非地区<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/ara|title=Arabic|author=|date=|website=ethnologue.com|accessdate=14 April 2018}}</ref>。

闪米特语族下属语言在[[形态学]]上有一个被称为“[[不连续形态]]”的显著特征，即词汇的[[词根]]并不是独立的音节或单词，而是多个互相分离的辅音（通常为三个），借由相应的[[元音]]将分离的辅音词根联系起来而组成新词。例如，阿拉伯语中的k-t-b是与“写”相关的词根形式，用这个词根组成的词汇有{{lang|ar|كتاب}} ''kitāb''（书的单数），{{lang|ar|كتب}} ''kutub''（书的复数）、{{lang|ar|كاتب}} ''kātib''（作家的单数）和{{lang|ar|كتّاب}} ''kuttāb''（作家的复数）等。