Semitic studies, or Semitology, is the academic field dedicated to the studies of Semitic languages and literatures and the history of the Semitic-speaking peoples. A person may be called a Semiticist or a Semitist, both terms being equivalent. It includes Assyriology, Arabic, Hebraist and Syriacist studies, as well as comparative studies of Semitic languages aiming at the reconstruction of Proto-Semitic.