The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa. They constitute a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. The most widely spoken Semitic languages today are Arabic (206 million native speakers),Amharic (27 million),Hebrew (about 7 million)Tigrinya (6.7 million), and Aramaic (about 2.2 million).

Semitic languages are attested in written form from a very early date, with texts in Eblaite and Akkadian appearing from around the middle of the third millennium BC, written in a script adapted from Sumerian cuneiform. However, most scripts used to write Semitic languages are abjads — a type of alphabetic script that omits some or all of the vowels, which is feasible for these languages because the consonants in the Semitic languages are the primary carriers of meaning. Among them are the Ugaritic, Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and South Arabian alphabets. The Ge'ez alphabet, used for writing the Semitic languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea, is technically an abugida — a modified abjad in which vowels are notated using diacritic marks added to the consonants. Maltese is the only Semitic language written in the Latin script and the only official Semitic language of the European Union.

In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical "Shem", Hebrew: שם‎, translated as "name", Arabic: ساميّ‎) was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages. This family includes the ancient and modern forms of; Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, Ge'ez, Maltese, Canaanite/Phoenician, Amorite, Eblaite, Ugaritic, Sutean, Chaldean, Mandaic, Old Persian, Ahlamu, Amharic, Tigre and Tigrinya among others.

As language studies are interwoven with cultural studies, the term also came to describe the extended cultures and ethnicities, as well as the history of these varied peoples as associated by close geographic and linguistic distribution.

The term Semite means a member of any of various ancient and modern Semitic-speaking peoples originating in southwestern Asia, including; Akkadians (Assyrians and Babylonians), Eblaites, Ugarites, Canaanites, Phoenicians (including Carthaginians), Hebrews (Israelites, Judeans and Samaritans), Ahlamu, Arameans, Chaldeans, Amorites, Moabites, Edomites, Hyksos, Arabs, Nabateans, Maganites, Shebans, Sutu, Ubarites, Dilmunites, Maltese, Mandaeans, Sabians, Syriacs, Mhallami, Amalekites and Ethiopian Semites. It was proposed at first to refer to the languages related to Hebrew by Ludwig Schlözer, in Eichhorn's "Repertorium", vol. VIII (Leipzig, 1781), p. 161. Through Eichhorn the name then came into general usage (cf. his "Einleitung in das Alte Testament" (Leipzig, 1787), I, p. 45). In his "Geschichte der neuen Sprachenkunde", pt. I (Göttingen, 1807) it had already become a fixed technical term.

Coburn Dyas "Cobe" Jones (August 21, 1907 – June 3, 1969) was a Major League Baseball player. Jones played for the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League for two seasons. In 1928, Jones only played in 1 game and went 1-2. In 1929 Jones played in 28 games, batting .254. Jones was born and died in Denver, Colorado.

SHI 360 (Hebrew: שי 360‎) (born Shai Haddad) (Hebrew: שי חדד‎) (born July 19, 1976) is an Israeli hip hop artist, song writer and record producer.

Shai was born to a Tunisian Jewish father and a Moroccan Jewish mother and his childhood was spent growing up in Haifa, Israel until his family moved to Montreal when he was eleven years old. The move was difficult for Shai as he faced a new language and some anti-semitism which he describes within his lyrics of his first album. During a 1997 visit to Israel, Shai met Kobi Shimoni another young adult interested in rap music. The two struck up a friendship and during Shai's visits back to Israel he DJ'd at Shimoni's club during the summer months. He also gave Shimoni his stage name, Subliminal.

After completing his undergraduate degree at Concordia University in Canada, Shai released his first underground single called "Linguistiks". He was performing in underground hip hop venues in Montreal. Soon after he released a full album in English entitled Chapters. He then decided to make aliyah back to Israel, after a visit made through Birthright Israel. His name SHI 360 derives from his music legacy in North America and the Middle East. Starting in the underground hip hop scene in Montreal (where he spent his childhood), he was given the name SHI short for Supreme Hebrew Intelekt. He later affixed “360” to symbolize the full circle he completed by returning to his homeland.