Japhetic

[juh-fet-ik]

adjective

1. of or relating to Japheth.

2. of or relating to a hypothesized group of languages of the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and southern Europe, including the Caucasian languages, Sumerian, Basque, and Etruscan, formerly thought by some to represent a stage in language development that preceded the development of Indo-European and Semitic.

Japhetic

/ dʒeɪˈfɛtɪk /

adjective

1. denoting a discredited grouping of languages that postulated a relationship between Basque, Etruscan, and Georgian among others

Word History and Origins

Origin of Japhetic¹

First recorded in 1820–30; Japhet(h) + -ic, on the model of Hamitic, Semitic

Word History and Origins

Origin of Japhetic¹

C19: from New Latin Japheti descendants of _Japheth + _-ic

Example Sentences

The language he called Median, and classified it in “the Scythian, rather than in the Japhetic family.”

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The names Japhet, Gomer, and Thiras are borrowed from the Hebrew scriptures, from the genealogy of the Japhetic nations in Genesis; but the order of succession is altered.

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Indo-European, in′dō-ū-rō-pē′an, adj. a term applied to the family of languages variously called Aryan, Japhetic, Sanscritic, Indo-Germanic, generally classified into seven great branches—viz.

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Japhetic, ja-fet′ik, adj. a term formerly applied in ethnology to European peoples, the supposed descendants of Japhet, as opposed to Hamitic and Semitic.

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For there is no language, ancient or modern, rude or polished, semitic, chamitic, or japhetic, whose metaphorical is not much more copious than its proper vocabulary.

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