Phoenician-Punic

It is generally agreed that Phoenician-Punic and Hebrew are characterized by a certain, if not high, degree of mutual intelligibility. However, several features clearly differentiate the two in terms of phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon. After delineating the history and dialectal subdivision of Phoenician-Punic, and then summarising the debate surrounding both its position among the Semitic languages and its relations with the languages and dialects of Syria-Palestine in the first half of the first millennium BCE, this paper goes on to focus on noteworthy linguistic features of Phoenician-Punic through a comparison with Hebrew and its dialectal varieties.