Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/25

 HEBREW GRAMMAR

INTRODUCTION

1. The Hebrew language is one branch of a great family of languages in Western Asia which was indigenous in Palestine, Phoenicia, Syria, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Assyria, and Arabia, that is to say, in the countries extending from the Mediterranean to the other side of the Euphrates and Tigris, and from the mountains of Armenia to the southern coast of Arabia. In early times, however, it spread from Arabia over Abyssinia, and by means of Phoenician colonies over many islands and sea-boards of the Mediterranean, as for instance to the Carthaginian coast. No comprehensive designation is found in early times for the languages and nations of this family; the name or  (based upon the fact that according to  almost all nations speaking these languages are descended from Shem) is, however, now generally accepted, and has accordingly been retained here.