Nabataean language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Nabataean | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Formerly in the southern Middle East | |
| Language extinction: | merged seamlessly with Arabic during the 4th century CE | |
| Language family: | Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Northwest Semitic Nabataean |
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| Writing system: | Nabataean script | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | arc | |
| ISO 639-3: | – | |
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| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
The Nabataean language was a Semitic language and was the written language of the Nabataeans.
Contents |
[edit] Origin
With the collapse of the Achaemenid Empire (330 BC), the Aramaic language also increasingly lost importance as the lingua franca of the Near East. The Greek language now appeared beside it. The formerly unified written culture fell apart into local schools and the old dialects now also increased in importance as written languages. The Nabataean language was one of these local developments. The language of the Nabataean inscriptions, attested from the 2nd century BC, shows a local development of the Aramaic language. Since the population of the Nabataean Empire may have predominantly spoken a northern Arabic dialect, the Nabataean language may be regarded as principally a written language.
[edit] Linguistic Classification
As an offshoot of imperial Aramaic, Nabataean is closer to the western Aramaic dialects. Certainly, the Arabic influence can clearly be seen, such as in the common transposition of "l" and "n", in Arabic proper nouns and in numerous loan words. This Aramaic dialect was increasingly affected by the Arabic dialect of the local population. From the 4th century AD, the Arabic influence became overwhelming, in a way that it may be said the Nabataean language shifted seamlessly from Aramaic to Arabic.
[edit] Evidence
Evidence of Nabataean writings can found in the Nabataean cities of Petra, Bostra and Hegra (burial and dedication inscriptions) and there are numerous smaller inscriptions from the southern Sinai peninsula. There are further Nabataean texts from the caves on the Dead Sea.
[edit] Script
Nabataean handwriting is characterized by a very characteristic cursive style. The Nabataean alphabet itself developed out of the Aramaic alphabet. It became the precursor of the Arabic alphabet, which developed out of cursive variants of the Nabataean script in the 5th century.
[edit] Literature
- al-Khraysheh, Fawwaz: Die Personennamen in den nabatäischen Inschriften des Corpus Insciptionum Semiticarum. Marburg 1986. In German
- Euting, Julius: Nabatäische Inschriften aus Arabien. Berlin 1885. In German
- Hackl, Ursula/Jenni, Hanna/Schneider, Christoph: Quellen zur Geschichte der Nabatäer. NTOA 51. Fribourg 2003. ISBN 3-7278-1410-1. In German
This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding German Wikipedia article as of January 10, 2008.
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