one of the most ancient of the archaic Semitic languages, which are part of the Afro-Asiatic language (Afro-Asiatic languages) phylum. Amorite was spoken in an area that is now northern Syria. It is known almost exclusively from glosses and names, and the only known grammar is the grammar of names. Despite its many unknown linguistic characteristics, Amorite has been dated to the last century of the 3rd millennium BCE by reference to the known chronology of proper names from that period. It was probably the language of the seminomadic Amorite people of the West Semitic area.