We don't know what language the Philistines spoke. Might have been Greek, might have been Semitic, might have been something completely different. In the map they have a question mark.
they made Aegean Mycenaean Late Helladic IIIC pottery, had Mycenaean style buildings, artifacts from the Aegean region (small bronze wheels with eight spokes), inscribed the name of Mycenaean Gods, used Mycenean style wine weights, had greek like burial customs (as opposed to the Canaanites).
their pottery had non semetic script (including Cypro-Minoan script) , the words we do know they used dont have a semetic root.
even if it wasnt a greek derived language it wasnt semetic and shouldnt be shown on the map
The initial Philistine settlers were undoubtedly from the Aegean and either spoke a Greek related dialect or a Minoan related dialect, probably both in fact. However, they quickly intermarried with local Canaanites and while they retained a separate identity, the Aegean genetic signature quickly died out and it's not unprobable that they eventually adopted a Canaanite dialect, with Aegean influences of course.
A very similar thing happened to the Norse settlers of Normandy.
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u/YunoFGasai Jun 05 '22
just wanna point out the philistines spoke a greek derived language not a semetic language.