Eblaite

Introduction

Eblaite is an extinct Semitic language which was used during the third millennium BCE by the populations of Northern Syria. It was named after the ancient city of Ebla, in modern western Syria. Although scribes might have spoken it sometimes, Eblaite was probably not spoken much, being rather a written lingua franca with East and West Semitic features.

The Eblaite Verb

Eblaite's verbal system follows the same structure as other Semitic languages, where the paradigmatic framework is organized based upon a double axis:

• the derivational axis, within which the verb's basic form goes through a certain number of modifications, and
• the inflectional axis, where the verb takes on an aspectual, personal, or modal value through a system of suffixation and prefixation.