{{Short description|Subgroup of the Semitic languages}}
{{Infobox language family
| name          = East Semitic
| altname = Mesopotamic
| region        = formerly [[Mesopotamia]]
| familycolor   = Afro-Asiatic
| fam2          = [[Semitic languages|Semitic]]
| child1        = [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]]
| child2        = [[Eblaite language|Eblaite]]
| child3        = [[Kishite language|Kishite]]<ref name="Civilizations of Ancient Iraq">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0FGEMW1NQmwC&pg=PA40|title= Civilizations of Ancient Iraq|author1=Benjamin Read Foster |author2=Karen Polinger Foster |page= 40|isbn= 978-0691137223|year= 2009|publisher= Princeton University Press}}</ref><ref name="Rebecca">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eiHXt0yIWiIC&pg=PA3|title= Sargonic Akkadian: A Historical and Comparative Study of the Syllabic Texts|author=Rebecca Hasselbach|page= 3|isbn= 9783447051729|year= 2005|publisher= Otto Harrassowitz Verlag}}</ref>
| glotto        = east2678
| glottorefname = East Semitic
| child4        = [[Dilmun#People and language|Dilmunite]]?
}}
[[File:Semitic languages.svg|thumb|Approximate historical distribution of Semitic languages. '''East Semitic''' in green.]]

The '''East Semitic languages''' are one of three branches of the [[Semitic languages|Semitic language family]]. This branch is known from three languages, [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]], [[Eblaite language|Eblaite]], and possibly [[Kishite language|Kishite]], all of which are now [[extinct language|extinct]].<ref name="Civilizations of Ancient Iraq">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0FGEMW1NQmwC&pg=PA40|title= Civilizations of Ancient Iraq|author1=Benjamin Read Foster |author2=Karen Polinger Foster |page= 40|isbn= 978-0691137223|year= 2009|publisher= Princeton University Press}}</ref><ref name="Rebecca" /><ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeancient1971edwa|url-access=registration|title= The Cambridge Ancient History|publisher=Cambridge University Press|author1=I. E. S. Edwards |author2=C. J. Gadd |author3=N. G. L. Hammond |page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgeancient1971edwa/page/100 100]|isbn= 9780521077910|date= 1971-10-31}}</ref> They were influenced by the non-Semitic [[Sumerian language]] and adopted [[cuneiform]] writing.

East Semitic languages stand apart from other Semitic languages, which are traditionally called [[West Semitic]], in a number of respects. Historically, it is believed that the linguistic situation came about as speakers of East Semitic languages wandered further east, settling in [[Mesopotamia]] during the [[3rd millennium BC]], as attested by Akkadian texts from this period. By the early [[2nd millennium BC]], East Semitic languages, in particular [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]], had come to dominate the region.

==Phonology==
{{unreferenced|section|date=January 2026}}
Modern understanding of the [[phonology]] of East Semitic languages can be derived only from careful study of written texts and comparison with the [[reconstructed language|reconstructed]] [[Proto-Semitic]]. Most striking is the reduction of the inventory of back consonants, the [[velar consonant|velar]] and [[pharyngeal consonant|pharyngeal]] [[fricative consonant|fricatives]], as well as [[glottal consonants|glottals]]. Akkadian preserves {{Transliteration|sem|[[heth (letter)|*ḫ]]}} and (partly) {{Transliteration|sem|*ḥ}} only as a single [[phoneme]] transcribed {{Transliteration|sem|ḫ}} and usually reconstructed as a [[voiceless velar fricative|voiceless velar]] or [[voiceless uvular fricative|uvular fricative]]. All of the sounds {{Transliteration|sem|[[aleph (letter)|*ʾ]], [[he (letter)|*h]], [[ayin (letter)|*ʿ]], [[ġayn|*ġ]]}} have been lost. Their [[elision]] appears to give rise to the presence of an [[close-mid front unrounded vowel|e]] vowel where it is not found in other Semitic languages (for example, [[Akkadian language|Akk.]] ''bēl'' 'master' < [[Proto-Semitic language|PS.]] ''*[[ba‘al]]''). It also appears that the series of interdental fricatives became [[sibilant consonant|sibilants]] (for example, [[Akkadian language|Akk.]] ''šalšu'' 'three' < [[Proto-Semitic language|PS.]] ''*{{Transliteration|sem|ṯalaṯ}}''). However, the exact phonological makeup of the languages is not fully known, and the absence of features may have been the result of the inadequacies of Sumerian orthography to describe the sounds of Semitic languages, rather than their real absence.

The [[word order]] in East Semitic may also have been influenced by Sumerian by being [[subject–object–verb]], rather than the West Semitic [[verb–subject–object]].

== References ==
{{Portal|Language}}
{{Reflist}}

*{{cite book |last=Huehnergard |first=J. |year=1995 |chapter=Semitic Languages |pages=2117–2134 |title=Civilizations of the Ancient Near East |editor-first=Jack |editor-last=Sasson |location=New York }}

{{Semitic languages}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:East Semitic Languages}}
[[Category:East Semitic languages| ]]
[[Category:Languages attested from the 3rd millennium BC]]
[[Category:Semitic languages]]


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