Phoenician was a member of the Northwest Semitic language group. It was in the "Canaanite subgroup" along with its sibling languages Hebrew, Ammonite, Edomite, and Moabite. All are dead now except Hebrew. Phoenician was spoken in most parts of what is now called Syria, along the coast of Lebanon and into Israel. It was also spoken where Phoenicians settled abroad: on Cyprus, along the North African littoral to Tunisia, Algeria, and beyond; in southern Iberia; on Sardinia, Malta, and Sicily; and at other scattered spots, like western Italy at Pithekoussai.

There were two other branches of Northwest Semitic: Aramaic and Amorite. We have known about the divisions and "family" tree of the Semitic group since at least the 19th century, if not earlier, though many (including Phoenician) did not have good inscriptional evidence until excavations carried out in 20th century.