Social:Thamudic B

From HandWiki
Short description: Central Semitic language
Thamudic B
RegionNorthwest Arabia, occasionally Syria, Egypt, or Yemen
EraMid- to late-1st millennium BCE
Afroasiatic
Language codes
ISO 639-3

Thamudic B is a Central Semitic language and script concentrated in northwestern Arabia, with attestations in Syria, Egypt, and Yemen. As a poorly understood form of Ancient North Arabian, it is included in the Thamudic category. Mentions of the king of Babylon and the Nabataean god Dushara show that Thamudic B was written over a span of centuries, ranging at least from the seventh or sixth to fourth centuries BCE.[1]

Characteristics

Thamudic B is mostly written horizontally, from right to left.[1] Salient linguistic features include the following:[2]

  1. The suffix morpheme of the prefix conjugation in the first person is -t, as in Arabic and Northwest Semitic, as opposed to the -k of Ancient South Arabian and Ethiopic.
  2. The dative preposition is nm, which appears to be an assimilated form of an original *lima.
  3. The consonant /n/ often assimilates to a following contiguous consonant, ʔṯt, from earlier *ʾVnṯat and ʔt, from earlier *[ʔanta].
  4. Imperatives are often augmented by the energic suffix -n.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Norris, Jérôme (2018). "Dushara dans une inscription thamoudique B de la région du Wādī Ramm (Jordanie du Sud)". Topoi. Orient-Occident 22 (1): 185-223. https://www.persee.fr/doc/topoi_1161-9473_2018_num_22_1_3246. 
  2. Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2018). "The Routledge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics". The Routledge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics. pp. 315–331. https://www.academia.edu/18470301.