The Northwest Semitic languages form a medium-level division of the Semitic language family. The languages of this group are spoken by approximately eight million people today. The group is generally divided into three branches: Ugaritic (extinct), Canaanite (including Hebrew) and Aramaic. Semiticists group the Northwest Semitic languages together with Arabic to form the larger Central Semitic group.

The extinct Ugaritic language is the earliest witness to Northwest Semitic. Phonologically, Ugaritic has lost the sound *ṣ́, replacing it with /sˤ/ (ṣ) (the same shift occurred in Canaanite and Akkadian). That this same sound became /ʕ/ in Aramaic (although in Ancient Aramaic, it was written with qoph), suggests that Ugaritic is not the parent language of the group. An example of this sound shift can be seen in the word for earth: Ugaritic /ʔarsˤ/ (’arṣ), Hebrew /ʔɛrɛsˤ/ (’ereṣ) and Aramaic /ʔarʕaː/ (’ar‘ā’).

Prior to the spread of Aramaic during the Neo-Assyrian Empire (934-608 BC, see also Imperial Aramaic), they were spoken throughout the area that is covered by modern-day Israel, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and the Sinai. The vowel shift from *aː to /oː/ distinguishes Canaanite from Ugaritic. Also, in the Canaanite group, the series of Semitic interdental fricatives become sibilants: *ð (ḏ), *θ (ṯ) and *θ̣ (ṱ) became /z/, /ʃ/ (š) and /sˤ/ (ṣ) respectively. The effect of this sound shift can be seen by comparing the following words:

shift Ugaritic Aramaic Biblical Hebrew translation *ð (ḏ)→/z/ ḏhb דהב /dəhab/ (dəhaḇ) זהב /zaˈhav/ zahav gold *θ (ṯ)→/ʃ/ (š) ṯlṯ תלת /təlaːt/ (təlāṯ) שלוש/שלש /ʃaˈloʃ/ šaloš three *θ̣ (ṱ)→/sˤ/ (ṣ) ṱw טור /tˤuːr/ (ṭûr) צור /sˤur/ çur (ṣur) mountain

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