ARABIC AS A SEMITIC LANGUAGE

Linguists, or the scientists of language, divide the language of the world into a number of families according to their approximate structural relation and interrelation in the history of their evolution. One of the most important amongs these is the semitic family of languages (which includes languages such as Phonecion, Assyrian, Syriac or Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic). Through intensive research and comparative studies, linguists have established a theory which assumes the existence of a parent language for all Semitic languages. They call this Proto-Semitic, the mother of all the extinct and extant Semitic languages. No one knows exactly where it started although some linguists suggest Arabia, others suggest the lower Euphrates, Armenia or even Africa. However the majority seem to consider Arabia as the home of Proto-Semitic from where the various Semitic migrations have started.
One of the most important branches of the Proto-Semitic languages is that known as South-West Semitic which is composed or North Arabic, South Arabic languages and Ethiopic. North Arabic is also subdivided into Lihyante, Thamudie, Safaitic and Arabic as we know it today. Although Arabic is considered, as Professor Nicholson (1977:xiv) states:
“the youngest of the Semitic Languages, it is generally allowed to be nearer akin than any of them to the original archetype, the “Ursemitisch” (or Proto-Semitic) from which they all are derived, just as the Arabs by reason of their geographical situation and the monotonous univormity of desert life, have in some respects preserved the Semitic character more purely and exhibited it more distinctly than any people of the same family.”
This statement falls short of saying that the Arabic Language is more Semitic than its cognates or sister languages, and that the Arabs are more Semitic nations.
The world “Semitic” is derived from the bibilacal name Shem or Sam, one of our prophet noah’s sons (Peace be upon them), who is considered the father of the Semitic peoples. It is a German Professor, August Ludwig Schlozer who first used the term “Semitic Languages” around 1781. It is interesting to note that Ibn Hazm, an Andalusian from Muslim Spain, pointed out more than one thousand years ago that Syriac, Hebrew and Arabic stem from one the same languages.
Some linguists also classify Arabic as a Hamito-Semitic language in so far as these two groups og languages show regular structural relationships in phonology (that is the sound structure), in morphology (that is the word structure), in vocabulary, and syntax (that is the sentence structure). Amongs the Hamitic languages are old Egyptian, old Libyan, Berber, Hausa, Fula and Cushtic languages such as Somali, Galla, Southern Sudanese languages and so on. A slightly different term is currently in usage whice was proposed by the American Professor Greenberg, namely Afro-Asiatic, in which Arabic palys a big role and enjaoys the widest distribution of all.
To exemplify the structural affinity in some of the semitic languages, let us show some regular correspondences in terms of sounds and vocabulary. Note for instance the world for “open”
In Arabic fatah
Hebrew patah
Aramaic pętah
Ethiopic fatah
Akkadian pītū, patū
In conclusion, Arabic appears to be the youngest of all Semitic languages, yet it can be compared, and it shows resemblance to, some of the oldest Semitic languages such as Akkadian which was a living language about the 3rd millennium before the Prophet Jesus. Amongst the Semitic lenguages of today, Arabic is the richest in linguistic literature, and is regarded by some as the most primitive Semitic speech extant (Gray 1971:6).

Sumber:
Nicholson, Reynold A. 1977. A Literary History of the Arabs. Cambride: Cambridge University Press.
Gray, L.H. 1971. Introduction to Semitic Comparative Linguitics. Amsterdam: Philo Press.
M.H, Barkalla. 1984. Arabic Culture Through its Language and Literature.