Hebrew and North West Semitic: Reflections on the Classification of the Semitic Languages

1. AS IS WELL KNOWN, the comparative method has been elaborated upon with reference to the lndo-European languages. For more than a century, it has been customary to view them from the angle of both the family-tree theory and the wave hypothesis. As far as the continuity of the territory of IndoEuropean languages can be posited, it is the wave hypothesis that best explains the relation of the languages involved. Yet the position of the IndoEuropean languages in historical times presupposes migrations, and the linguistic situation due to them is best interpreted in the light of the family-tree theory .