In spite of their alphabets being different are the Hebrew and Arabic languages related?

Snowman

Yes, both are one of the Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic family of languages. It seems likely that the Semitic languages first developed in Eastern Africa, possibly in Ethiopia. It's speakers then migrated to the Arabian peninsula in the 4th millennium BCE and then spread further north from there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_languages Sep 12 11, 11:18 PM

bloomsby

The alphabet used for writing a language says nothing at all about its relationship to other languages. After all, most of the world's languages are written in the Roman alphabet but are not related to Latin. "The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the ancestor of most of the alphabets used in the world today". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_alphabet Note that the quote from Wikipedia refers to 'the ancestor of most alphabets', not languages. Sep 13 11, 6:00 AM

Arpeggionist

Yes, Hebrew and Arabic are related. While their alphabets are different (Arabic developed from Nabatean and Egyptian writing, while the Hebrew alphabet has Mesopotamian and Assyrian roots), the two languages - their grammar and vocabulary - are very much alike. Sep 13 11, 9:33 AM