Wikipedia's first sentence called it “western asian people who lived throughout the ancient near east”. Today it says “speakers of semitic languages who lived throughout the ancient near east and later also north africa”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
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The opening as it read in 2025
Residents of the ancient Near East until the end of antiquity For contemporary Semitic-speaking peoples, see Semitic languages § Semitic-speaking peoples . Approximate historical distribution of the Semitic languages in the Ancient Near East . Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples or Proto-Semitic people were speakers of Semitic languages who lived throughout the ancient Near East and North Africa , including the Levant , Mesopotamia , Anatolia , the Arabian Peninsula and Carthage from the 3rd millennium BC until the end of antiquity, with some, such as Arabs , Arameans , Assyrians , Jews , Mandaeans , and Samaritans having a historical continuum into the present day. Their languages are usually divided into three branches: East , Central and South Semitic languages . The Proto-Semitic language was likely first spoken in the early 4th millennium BC in Western Asia , and the oldest attested forms of Semitic date to the early to mid-3rd millennium BC (the Early Bronze Age ) in Mesopotamia , the northwest Levant and southeast Anatolia . Speakers of East Semitic include the people of the Akkadian Empire , Ebla , Assyria , Babylonia , the latter two of which eventually gradually switched to still spoken (by Assyrians and Mandeans ) dialects of Akkadian influenced East Aramaic and perhaps Dilmun . Central Semitic combines the Northwest Semitic languages and Arabic . Speakers of Northwest Semitic were the Canaanites (including the Phoenicians , Punics , Amorites , Edomites , Moabites and the Hebrews ), Arameans and the Ugarites . South Semitic peoples include the speakers of Modern South Arabian languages and Ethiopian Semitic languages .
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1297097555.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples were Western Asian people who lived throughout the ancient Near East , including the Levant , Mesopotamia , the Arabian Peninsula , and the Horn of Africa from the third millennium BC until the end of antiquity. The languages they spoke are usually divided into three branches: East , Central , and South Semitic languages . The proto-Semitic language was likely spoken in the 4th millennium BC, and the oldest attested forms of Semitic date to the mid-3rd millennium BC (the Early Bronze Age ). Speakers of East Semitic include the people of the Akkadian Empire and Assyria and Babylonia . Central Semitic combines the Northwest Semitic languages and Arabic . Speakers of Northwest Semitic were the Canaanites (including the Phoenicians and the Hebrews ) and the Arameans . South Semitic peoples include the speakers of Modern South Arabian languages and Ethiopian Semitic languages .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 961090636.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Residents of the ancient Near East until the end of antiquity For Contemporary Semitic-speaking peoples, see Semitic languages § Semitic-speaking peoples .Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples or Proto-Semitic people were speakers of Semitic languages who lived throughout the ancient Near East and North Africa , including the Levant , Mesopotamia , the Arabian Peninsula , and Carthage from the 3rd millennium BC until the end of antiquity, with some, such as Assyrians , Mandeans , Arabs , Arameans , Samaritans and Jews having a continuum into the present day. Their languages are usually divided into three branches: East , Central and South Semitic languages . The Proto-Semitic language was likely first spoken in the early 4th millennium BC in Western Asia , and the oldest attested forms of Semitic date to the early to mid-3rd millennium BC (the Early Bronze Age ).Speakers of East Semitic include the people of the Akkadian Empire , Ebla , Assyria , Babylonia , the latter two of which eventually switched to East Aramaic and perhaps Dilmun . Central Semitic combines the Northwest Semitic languages and Arabic . Speakers of Northwest Semitic were the Canaanites (including the Phoenicians , Punics , Amorites , Edomites , Moabites and the Hebrews ), Arameans and the Ugarites . South Semitic peoples include the speakers of Modern South Arabian languages and Ethiopian Semitic languages .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1176931916.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “western asian people who lived throughout the ancient near east”. Today it says “speakers of semitic languages who lived throughout the ancient near east and later also north africa”. Read the current article and compare.
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2020, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
western asian people who lived throughout the ancient near east
Now
speakers of semitic languages who lived throughout the ancient near east and later also north africa
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
