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Old South Arabian (or Epigraphic South Arabian, or Sayhadic) is the term used for four closely related languages spoken in the southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula
Arabian Peninsula

The Arabian Peninsula , Arabia, Arabistan, and the Arabian subcontinent is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia. The area is an important part of the Middle East and plays a critically important geopolitics role because of its vast reserves of petroleum and natural gas....
. These languages are distinct from Classical Arabic
Classical Arabic

Classical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad Caliphate and Abbasid Caliphate times ....
. Among the Semitic groups who did not migrate to the north, a distinct language type developed which is called Southwest Semitic. The Old South Arabian languages with its four main dialects is the most ancient representative of this language type.

The four languages are Sabaean
Sabaean language

The Sabaean language was an Old South Arabian language spoken in Yemen from c. 1000 BC to the 6th century AD, by the Sabaeans; it was used as a written language by some other peoples of Ancient Yemen, including the Hashidites, Sirwahites, Humlanites, Ghaymanites, Himyarites, Radmanites etc....
, Minaean
Minaean language

The Minaean language was an Old South Arabian language spoken in Yemen between 1200 BC and A.D. 100. The main area of its use may be localized in al-Jawf part of North-East Yemen, first of all in the Wadi Madhab....
, Qatabanian
Qatabanian language

One of the four known dialects of Old South Arabian, Qatabian was spoken in Yemen between 100 BC and 600 AD.References...
, and Hadramautic
Hadramautic language

One of the four known dialects of Old South Arabian, Hadramautic was spoken in what is known as present-day Yemen between 100 BC and 600 AD, in particular, but not exclusively, in the area known as Hadramawt....
.






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Encyclopedia


Old South Arabian (or Epigraphic South Arabian, or Sayhadic) is the term used for four closely related languages spoken in the southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula
Arabian Peninsula

The Arabian Peninsula , Arabia, Arabistan, and the Arabian subcontinent is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia. The area is an important part of the Middle East and plays a critically important geopolitics role because of its vast reserves of petroleum and natural gas....
. These languages are distinct from Classical Arabic
Classical Arabic

Classical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad Caliphate and Abbasid Caliphate times ....
. Among the Semitic groups who did not migrate to the north, a distinct language type developed which is called Southwest Semitic. The Old South Arabian languages with its four main dialects is the most ancient representative of this language type.

The four languages are Sabaean
Sabaean language

The Sabaean language was an Old South Arabian language spoken in Yemen from c. 1000 BC to the 6th century AD, by the Sabaeans; it was used as a written language by some other peoples of Ancient Yemen, including the Hashidites, Sirwahites, Humlanites, Ghaymanites, Himyarites, Radmanites etc....
, Minaean
Minaean language

The Minaean language was an Old South Arabian language spoken in Yemen between 1200 BC and A.D. 100. The main area of its use may be localized in al-Jawf part of North-East Yemen, first of all in the Wadi Madhab....
, Qatabanian
Qatabanian language

One of the four known dialects of Old South Arabian, Qatabian was spoken in Yemen between 100 BC and 600 AD.References...
, and Hadramautic
Hadramautic language

One of the four known dialects of Old South Arabian, Hadramautic was spoken in what is known as present-day Yemen between 100 BC and 600 AD, in particular, but not exclusively, in the area known as Hadramawt....
. Together with Ethiopian Semitic languages
Ethiopian Semitic languages

Ethiopian Semitic is a language group, which together with Old South Arabian, forms the Western branch of the South Semitic languages. Today, the name Ethiopian can be considered a misnomer, as the North languages are also found in Eritrea, with two of them being exclusively used there; however, the term came into use before Eritrea had...
 (such as the contemporary Ge'ez language
Ge'ez language

Ge'ez is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the current region of Eritrea and northern Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa. It later became the official language of the Kingdom of Aksum and Ethiopian imperial court....
) and the Modern South Arabian languages (not descended from Old South Arabian but from a sister language), they form the western branch of the South Semitic languages.

Old South Arabian had its own writing system, the South Arabian alphabet
South Arabian alphabet

The ancient South Arabian alphabet branched from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet in about the 9th century BC. It was used for writing the Yemeni Old South Arabic dialects of the Sabaean language, Qatabanian, Hadrami , Minaean language, Himyarite language, and proto-Ge'ez language in D?mt....
, concurrently used for Ge'ez in the Kingdom of D`mt, ultimately sharing a common origin with the other Semitic abjads, the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet.

The arrival of Islam virtually disintegrated Old South Arabian, as Classical Arabic
Classical Arabic

Classical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad Caliphate and Abbasid Caliphate times ....
 became the lingua franca
Lingua franca

A lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues....
 of the region. Today, Old South Arabian exists in a few ancient texts and inscriptions. It has contributed to the local Arabic dialects of the region in much the same way that Coptic
Coptic language

Coptic or Coptic Egyptian is the final stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic languages language spoken in Egypt until at least the seventeenth century....
 has contributed to the Egyptian dialect of Arabic
Egyptian Arabic

Egyptian Arabic is a Varieties of Arabic of the Arabic language of the Semitic languages branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages. It originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt around the capital Cairo....
.

Bibliography


  • Alfred Felix Landon Beeston
    Alfred Felix Landon Beeston

    Alfred Felix Landon Beeston was an England Orientalist best known for his studies of Arabic language and literature, and of ancient Yemeni inscriptions....
    : Sabaic Grammar, Manchester 1984 ISBN 0-9507885-2-X.
  • Maria Höfner: Altsüdarabische Grammatik (Porta Linguarum Orientalium, Band 24) Leipzig, 1943.
  • Leonid Kogan and Andrey Korotayev
    Andrey Korotayev

    Andrey Korotayev is an anthropology, economic historian, and sociology....
    : Sayhadic Languages (Epigraphic South Arabian) // Semitic Languages. London: Routledge, 1997, p. 157-183.
  • N. Nebes, P. Stein: Ancient South Arabian, in: Roger D. Woodard (Hrsg.): The Cambridge encyclopedia of the World's ancient languages Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004 ISBN 0-521-56256-2 S. 454-487 (neuester grammatischer Überblick mit Bibliographie).


See also

  • Modern South Arabian