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The Meroitic language was spoken in Meroë
Meroë

Mero? is the name of an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east of the Kabushiya station near Shendi, Sudan, approximately 200 km north-east of Khartoum....
 and the Sudan
Sudan

Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World, and List of countries and outlying territories by total area by area....
 during the Meroitic period (attested from 300 BCE) and went extinct about 400 CE
400

Sorry, no overview for this topic
. It was written in two forms of the Meroitic alphabet: demotic, which was written with a stylus
Stylus

A stylus is a writing utensil. The word is also used for a computer accessory . It usually refers to a narrow elongated staff, similar to a modern ballpoint pen....
 and was used for general record-keeping; and hieroglyphic, which was carved in stone or used for royal or religious documents.






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Meroitic Stela
The Meroitic language was spoken in Meroë
Meroë

Mero? is the name of an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east of the Kabushiya station near Shendi, Sudan, approximately 200 km north-east of Khartoum....
 and the Sudan
Sudan

Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World, and List of countries and outlying territories by total area by area....
 during the Meroitic period (attested from 300 BCE) and went extinct about 400 CE
400

Sorry, no overview for this topic
. It was written in two forms of the Meroitic alphabet: demotic, which was written with a stylus
Stylus

A stylus is a writing utensil. The word is also used for a computer accessory . It usually refers to a narrow elongated staff, similar to a modern ballpoint pen....
 and was used for general record-keeping; and hieroglyphic, which was carved in stone or used for royal or religious documents. It is poorly understood owing to the paucity of bilingual texts.

The classification of Meroitic has long been uncertain due to the scarcity of data. Kirsty Rowan (2006) argued for an Afro-Asiatic
Afro-Asiatic languages

The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a language family with about 375 living languages and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and Southwest Asia ....
 classification of Meroitic, based on compatibility constraints and patterns of consonantal dissimilation
Dissimilation

In phonology, particularly within historical linguistics, dissimilation is a phenomenon whereby similar consonant or vowel sounds in a word become less similar....
 that is characteristic of Afro-Asiatic languages. Claude Rilly (2007) convinced the annual Nilo-Saharan Conference that Meroitic is an Eastern Sudanic language
Eastern Sudanic languages

The Eastern Sudanic languages form a family of languages spoken from Northern Sudan to northern Tanzania, usually considered a subfamily of Nilo-Saharan languages, following Joseph Greenberg....
, closest to Nubian and other similar languages.

Bibliography

  • (Paris: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
    Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres

    The Acad?mie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a France learned society devoted to the humanities, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France....
    , 1968)
  • Böhm, Gerhard : "Die Sprache der Aithiopen im Lande Kusch" in Beiträge zur Afrikanistik, 34, (Wien: 1988). ISBN 3-85043-047-2.
  • Rilly, Claude (March 2004) , Sudan Electronic Journal of Archaeology and Anthropology.
  • ———— (2007) La langue du Royaume de Meroe. Paris: Champion.
  • Welsby, Derek A.: The Kingdom of Kush, (London: British Museum
    British Museum

    The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than 7 million Object , are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present....
     Press, 1996), 189-195, ISBN 071410986X