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Reference.org
Eblaite language
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<p>Eblaite , or Palaeosyrian, is an extinct <a href="/facts/East_Semitic_language/ot6b9nSy">East Semitic language</a> used during the <a href="/facts/3rd_millennium_BC/csYpGrX5">3rd millennium BC</a> in Northern Syria. It was named after the ancient city of <a href="/facts/Ebla/GqvmoDgH">Ebla</a>, in modern western <a href="/facts/Syria/7pDXGzq8">Syria</a>. Variants of the language were also spoken in <a href="/facts/Mari%2c_Syria/qoSW361g">Mari</a> and <a href="/facts/Tell_Brak/nu7fcwmj">Nagar</a>. According to <a href="/facts/Cyrus_Gordon/whEwndTM">Cyrus H. Gordon</a>, although scribes might have spoken it sometimes, Eblaite was probably not spoken much, being rather a written <a href="/facts/Lingua_franca/dlGrD7ra">lingua franca</a> with East and West Semitic features. </p><p>The language was discovered through <a href="/facts/Cuneiform/MgIQoGu8">cuneiform</a> tablets found in Ebla. </p>