Whither Semitism... 1965

StriderCabal, that wasn't even the topic of discussion at all. But in any case, "Semitic" is actually a technical linguistic term, which strictly-speaking applies only to purely linguistic matters -- and is also found in the fixed expression "anti-Semitic", which is a 19th-century genteel and ultra-polite Victorian drawing-room euphemism for "Jew-hating" (invented in 1879 by the non-Jewish Jew-hater Wilhelm Marr, by the way); this word has always and only meant "Jew-hating". Outside of these two contexts, "Semitic" basically has no meaning whatsoever, and should be completely avoided (in modern sound scientifically-accurate usage, the term "Semitic" is used to describe languages, but is never used to describe peoples or ethnic groups, unless perhaps in a strictly historical way to describe tribesmen of 1000 B.C.). So if you're trying to describe modern peoples as "Semites" and "non-Semites" on any basis other than a strictly linguistic one (i.e. what languages they speak), then you're trying to resurrect an obsolete and outmoded kind of "racial science" which was pretty well discredited 50 years ago -- in fact, the Nazis were the last prominent proponents of the type of "racial science" which claimed to be able to decide who was "racially" a "Semite". In any case, Israelis who speak the Hebrew language speak a language which is every bit as "Semitic" as the Arabic language is.

This is not originally a place name, but rather the name of the son of Noah and tribal progenitor of Genesis 10:21. It was a somewhat unfortunate diecision by 18th-century European Biblical scholars to name this group of languages after the Biblical figure Shem son of Noah, but we're stuck with the terminology now...

The correct Arabic form would be Shamiy -- an adjective which means either "a Damascene" or "an inhabitant of the Levant or Greater Syria area".

StriderCabal, as I've told you before, the word "Sham" in the Arabic phrase "Bilad-ush-Sham" (meaning the whole Syria-Lebanon-Israel or "Greater Syria" area) has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the Biblical figure Shem (the name of Shem son of Noah actually comes out as "Sam" in the Arabic language, as you could verify by looking at an Arabic Bible translation).

The Arabic phrase "Bilad-ush-Sham" means "Land of the left hand", and refers to the fact that for someone standing in the Hejaz facing east, the Levant area is on the left. Similarly, the Yemen is the "Land of the right hand".

The Arabic word Shamiyyun -- meaning Damascenes (inhabitants of Damascus), or the inhabitants of the Greater Syria area -- is spelled and pronounced differently from the Arabic word Samiyyun -- which means Semites or speakers of Semitic languages -- and the Arabic word "Sham" (Damascus or Greater Syria) also has an internal hamza or alif-madda which Hebrew Shem Arabic Sam conspicuously lacks. Your efforts to confuse these two roots are rather laughably pathetic to someone who knows even a little Arabic and Hebrew, StriderCabal!