Meroitic language
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| Meroitic | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Sudan | |
| Region: | Meroë | |
| Language extinction: | ~400 AD | |
| Language family: | Meroitic |
|
| Writing system: | Meroitic alphabet | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | – | |
| ISO 639-3: | – | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
The Meroitic language was spoken in Meroë and the Sudan during the Meroitic period (about 300 BC-400 AD), and is now extinct. It was written in the Meroitic alphabet. It is not very well understood due to the paucity of bilingual texts; the few words whose meanings have been confirmed are inadequate to determine its genetic affiliation, but some linguists have tentatively suggested that it may be Nilo-Saharan, while others see it as a language isolate, or an Afro-Asiatic language. It was written in two types of script, demotic, which was written with a stylus and was used for general record keeping, and hieroglyphic, which was used for royal or religious documents.
[edit] Bibliography
- Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (Hrsg.): Meroitic newsletter. Paris 1968 ff.
- Gerhard Böhm: Die Sprache der Aithiopen im Lande Kusch in Beiträge zur Afrikanistik, Band 34, Wien 1988, ISBN 3-85043-047-2
- Derek A. Welsby: The Kingdom of Kush, British Museum Press, London 1996, S. 189-195, ISBN 071410986X
[edit] External links
- The Linguistic Position of Meroitic, Claude Rilly, CNRS
- [1]&[2]&[3]&[4]&[5] many texts on deciphering Meroitic language from its writings by Clyde A. Winters(e.g. The Meroitic Word List). Note, these translations are disputed and not accepted by the Meroitic scholarly community.
- Meroitic - An Afroasiatic Language?, Kirsty Rowan, SOAS
- Meroitic Newsletter - online free
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