Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/856

SEMITIC LANGlTAGES. 778 SEMMEKING. and nil cxcepdingly extensive and important literature was produced in Arabic during the fiye centuries following the appearance of Moham- med. After that period a decline set in, though the literary activity of the Arabs never came to a standstill, and within the past fifty years, through contact with modern European culture, a new era of intellectual activity lias been inau- gurated among the Jloharamedans in Turkey, Egjpt, and India, which appears to be spreading to "other centres of Islam. ( See Ar.bic Lan- Gi'AGE AND LiTERATiBE.) The culture of South- ern Arabia is far older than that which arose in Central and Xorthern Arabia. As early at least as B.C. 1500 a jiowerful Icingdom existed in Yemen, and although no literary remains have been preserved, inscriptions in large numbers have been found, revealing a distinctive variety of Semitic script as well as a distinctive species of Arabic which is commonly termed Sabiean or Himyaritic. The relationship of the south- Araliic script to the Phoenician is a problem that has not yet been cleared up. Jluch speaks in favor of regarding the former as the prototype of the latter, though the links leading from the one to the other are missing. The south-Arabic inscriptions covering a period of about 700 years (so far as they can be dated at all) are chiefly of a votive or commemorative character, and tluow light upon the history and religion of the old south-Arabic kingdoms that at one time played no inconsiderable role. See Inscbip- TIONS ; lIlN.EANS ; SaB.EANS. The Etliiopic literature in the proper sense, or the Geez (to use the native name), dates from the introduction of Christianity into Abyssinia. That literature is almost exclusively religious and ('onsists mainly of homilies, religious poetry, and lives of saints, besides some chronicles. The language .survives in several dialects (Tigre. Tigrina, Amharie) spoken in Abyssinia. The alphal)et, derived from the south-Arabian script, presents the peculiarity that the vow-el sounds are indicated by modifications of the consonants ■which they accompany. See Ethiopia; Ethiopic Writing ; Amiiaric Lakguage. Many attempts have been made, sometimes in a very superficial fashion and sometimes by the use of scientific methods, to establish a re- lationship between the Semitic languages and the Indo-Germanic. But all these endeavors have failed. On the other hand, the Semitic lan- guages bear so striking a resemblance in some respects to certain languages of Northern Africa, that the existence of some relationship between the two groups may be assumed. These lan- guages belong to the family sometimes called 'Hamitie,' and composed of the Egyptian, Berber. Beja (Bishari, etc.), and a number of tongues spoken in Abyssinia and the neighboring coun- tries (Agau, Galla, Dankali, etc)" Some of the indispensable words in the Semitic vocabulary (as, for instance, 'water,' 'mouth.' and certain numerals) are found in Hamitie also, and these words are such as cannot well be derived from triliter.al Semitic roots, and are more or less iiiilependent of the ordinary grammatical rules. Important resemblances in grammar are also noted — for example, the formation of the femi- nine by means of * prefixed or suffixed, that of the cansative by means of s, similarity in the suffixes and prefixes of the verbal ten.ses, and, generally, similarity in the personal pronouns. etc. There is also much disagreement; for in- stance, the widest divergence is found in the mass of the vocabulary. The question is in- volved in great difliculties. Isolated resem- blances may have been produced by the borrow- ing of words. But the great resemblances in grammatical formation are harder to explain as due to borrowing on the part of the Hamites, more especially as these points of agreement are also found in the language of the Berbers, who are scattered over an enormous territory, and whose speech nmst have acquired its character long before they came into contact with the Semites. Bibliography. Zimmern, Tergleichende Clram- miitik dcr semilischeti t^prachen (Berlin, 1898. with bibliography) ; Renan, Histoire ffcnerale ct systeme compare des langiies s^iiiltiques (5th ed., Paris, 1878) ; Wright, Lectures on the Comparatire Grammar of the Semitic Languages (Cambridge, 1890) ; Noldeke, Die semitisclieii Sprachen (■2d ed.. Leipzig, 1899) ; Friedrich jIuller, Die semitiselieti Sprachen. Grinulriss der Sprachwissensehaft. iii. 2, pp. 315-419 (Vienna, 1887) ; Reckendorf, "Zur Karakteristik dcr semitischen Sprachen," Xeme Conyres des Orieii- talisies, sect, ii., pp. 1-9 (Lej-den, 1896) : Hom- mel. Die semitischeyi Volker iind Sprachen (Leip- zig, 1883) ; Lindberg, Tergleichende Grammafik der seniifisehen Sprachen (Gtiteborg, 1897). SEMITONE (Lat. semitomum, half tone, from semi-, half + tonus, tone). In music, the smallest interval in the diatonic scale, as E F or B C. in which the ratio is as 15 to 16. In the pianoforte, the interval between any two notes between which no other note is interposed, as C to C5. or Bb to B, is a semitone. SEMLEB, zem'ler, Johann Salomo ( 1725- 91 ) . One of the most influential German theolo- gians of the eighteenth century. He was born at Saalfeld, where his father was archdeacon. He was edueatcd at Halle, and in 1752 was appointed pro- fessor of theology there. Semler, in the early part of his career, was influenced by Pietism, but later he adopted a moderate rationalism, of which he was the fir.st systematic exponent. His principal works are: Apparatus ad Liberalem Veteris Testamenti Interpretation^m (1773) : De Dcemn- niacis (1760); TJmsliindtiche Untcrsuchnng dcr ddmonischen Leute (1762); Versuch eincr bih- lisclien Diimonologie (1776); Commentatinnes Historicw de Antiquo Christianorum Statu: Oh- serrationes Sovce quibns Historia Christianorum vsr/ue ad Constanfium Magnum lUustratur (1784). Consult his autobiography (Halle. 1781-82) ; Schmid, Die Theologie Scmlers (Nord- lingen, 1858). SEMLIN, zem-len' (Hung. Zimomj) . A city in Croatia-Slavonia, Hungary, situated at the junction of the Save and Danube, opposite Bel- grade. Servia (Map: Austria, G 4). Xote- worthy edifices are the German theatre, and the ruined castle of Hunyady. the Hungarian hero, who died here in 1456. Semlin is the centre of the Turco-Austrian transit trade. Population, in 1900. 14.416. SEMMERING, zem'er-ing. A pass in the Senunering Alps. Austria, crossed by the rail- road from Gloggnitz in Lower Austria (47 miles by rail southwest of Vienna ) to Miirzziischlag in StvTia, a distance bv rail of 33 miles. The