http://canaanite.org/?page_id=14

"The Canaanite Language, also know as Phoenician is a branch of the West Semitic languages that include Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic and others. Where Hebrew and Aramaic are closely related to the Canaanite language in vocabulary and grammar, Arabic is a little further off from grammatical proximity, but still retains much common vocabulary. Canaanite was spoken in Lebanon for thousands of years, and most of its lexicon is retained within the Lebanese colloquial dialect.

The Canaanite language underwent a revolution during the first millennium BC, where it became the official language of the whole Phoenician city states in the land of Canaan, reaching all the way to Cyprus, as well as the Canaanite colonies in Greece, and the respective Canaanite communities there as well."