Eblaite (also known as Eblan ISO 639-3) is an extinct Semitic language which was used during the third millennium by the East Semitic speaking populations of Northern Syria. It was named after the ancient city of Ebla, in western modern Syria. Variants of the language were also spoken in Mari and Nagar. According to Cyrus H. Gordon, although scribes might have spoken it sometimes, Eblaite was probably not spoken much, being rather a written lingua franca with East and West Semitic features.