rew _akharono_, are stated to signify "in his hand," and "after
him." "Dust" is _ghaparu_, where the guttural _gh_ represents the
Canaanitish _ayyin_ ('); "stomach" is _batnu_, the Hebrew _beten_; while
_kilubi_, "a cage," corresponds with the Hebrew _chelub_, which is used
in the same sense by the prophet Jeremiah. Elsewhere we find _risu_, the
Hebrew _rosh_, "a head," _har_ "a mountain," _samama_ "heaven," and
_mima_ "water," in Hebrew _shamayim_ and _mayim_, which we gather from
the cuneiform spelling have been wrongly punctuated by the Masoretes, as
well as _khaya_ "living," the Hebrew _khai_, and _makhsu_, "they have
smitten him," the Hebrew _makhatsu_.

It was the use of the definite article _ha(n)_ which mainly
distinguished Hebrew and Phoenician or Canaanite one from the other. And
we have a curious indication in the Tel el-Amarna tablets, that the same
distinction prevailed between the language of the Canaanites and that of
the Edomites, who, as we learn from the Old Testament, were so closely
related to the Israelites. In the letter to the Pharaoh, in which
mention is made of the hostilities carried on by Edom against the
Egyptian territory, one of the Edomite towns referred to is called
Khinianabi. Transcribed into Hebrew characters this would be
'En-han-nabi, "the Spring of the Prophet." Here, therefore, the Hebrew
article makes its appearance, and that too in the very form which it has
in the language of Israel. The fact is an interesting commentary on the
brotherhood of Jacob and Esau.

If the language of Canaan was influenced by that of Egypt, still more
was it influenced by that of Babylonia. Long before Palestine became an
Egyptian province it had been a province of Babylonia. And even when it
was not actually subject to Babylonian government it was under the
dominion of Babylonian culture. War and trade alike forced the Chaldaean
civilization upon "the land of the Amorites," and the Canaanites were
not slow to take advantage of it. The cuneiform writing of Babylonia was
adopted, and therewith the language of Babylonia was taught and learned
in the schools and libraries which were established in imitation of
those of the Babylonians. Babylonian literature was introduced into the
West, and the Canaanite youth became acquainted with the history and
legends, the theology and mythology of the dwellers on the Euphrates and
Tigris.

Such literary contact naturally left its impress on the language of
Canaan