Old Nubian language

Spoken in

• Nilo-Saharan Ostsudanisch Nubian Altnubisch

Altnubisch is a Nilo-Saharan language that was spoken in the Middle Ages in Nubia and written in a special Nubian alphabet font. Altnubisch is related to the modern Nubian languages ​​, closest to the Nobiin, which can be regarded as a modern continuation of the Altnubischen.

• 6.1 tenses and modes
• Verbi 6.2 Genera

Language family and dissemination

Altnubisch belongs to Nubian subgroup of ostsudanischen languages ​​that constitute a large genetic subunit of the Nilo-Saharan. In contrast to today's mostly written in Arabic script Nubian languages ​​( Nobiin, Kenuzi Dongola ) altnubischen the texts were written in a special Nubian font, which is a modification of the Greek and Coptic alphabet. Three characters are from the Meroitic alphabet, which some knowledge of the Meroitic culture altsudanische presupposes in the medieval Nubians. The Nubian alphabet has 30 characters, including 7 vowels, two characters for semi-vowels (y, w) and 21 consonants. The first texts date from the 8th century AD, the last known text was written in 1485. There are two distinct dialects. The 'classic' Altnubisch that was probably used mainly in the realm of Makuria, and a later variant, which is occupied in the kingdom of Alwa. The vast number of text documents comes from Makuria. The font of the two dialects differs in some characters.

The longest and probably the most important text in altnubischer language, the translation of a Greek original dar. It is a parchment codex, which was 1963/64, excavated by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in the Christian settlement Serra East in Lower Nubia. The bonded and eaten by insects 24 pages have been restored several years in Chicago and located since 1969 in the National Museum in Khartoum. Gerald M. Browne discovered in 1981, that it is in the Code to the full translation of the book ' In venerabilem crucem sermo "by John Chrysostom.

Language type

The Altnubische counts - as the modern Nubian languages ​​- to agglutinative languages ​​, that is, the grammatical forms are formed by appending a number of prefixes and suffixes to the word stem, at least theoretically immutable. However, the foregoing general rule the Altnubische knows numerous assimilation rules for consonant harmonization, so that in practice the root word can change.

In Altnubischen there is no generation, not even with the personal pronouns. tar for example, it is named / she / it. There is also no definite article, while there is an indefinite article.

According to system

The Altnubische had the following consonants (assignment is uncertain in some cases ):

At the vowels existed monophthongs a, e, i, o and u as well as the diphthongs ai, au and oi.

Nouns

There are simple or compound nouns.

Simple nouns:

• Gad - Body
• Eir - Fire
• Aces - Water

Compound nouns can have different affixes.

• Tapp -att - destruction (of tapp / dapp - expire )
• Arm- s - judgment (of arm - watch )

There are a few loanwords from Greek ( angelos - angels), Coptic ( nape - sin ), Egyptian ( orp < Ägyptischer Maler jrp "wine". ) Or Arab ( sachch " hermit ").

The language has five case: Subjectively, with the suffix- il (which may be absent in certain circumstances): it- i " a man," genitive ending in- n ( a): Nod in angelos " angel of God", direktiv on - ka: igu -ka " people ", predicative on -a: uru -a " ( he is) the king and Appositiv on -u: nod u till" the Lord God " the Subjective corresponds to our nominative and. . . marked the subject of a main clause the direktiv marked a direct or indirect object in the sentence the predicative marks the predicate in the sentence, but also the vocative, the Appositiv marked nouns, which are described in more detail by an apposition the classification of Appositivs than. case not sure, perhaps the most - u also only one vowel.

Nouns, usually in the case Subjectively, can be determined by means of a suffix- l: ag -il " the mouth ", Na -l " the son " (without Subjective extension)

The Altnubische distinguishes the Numbers singular and plural, the plural is usually formed with the suffix -gu: indeterminate: uru -i -gu "kings" ( subjectively ), determinacy: dio - l -gu " the dead ". The plural ending can also be determined self: ukr -i -gu -l " the day ", dio - l -gu -l " the dead ". Besides that, there the suffixes -ri -gu Lively and for -ni -gu for inanimate, that are interchangeable with -gu -gu -ri :: angelos " angel " kisse -ni -gu "churches".

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

The personal pronouns are:

Verbs

The Altnubische has three formal types of verbs: simple: ir "may," kar - " bear " taru " bless " reduplicated ( Intensiva and iteratives ): " draw " kaskas and composite: en -it " take with them " (s = cancel, take it = ).

Tenses and modes

Verbs in four tenses are ( present tense, past tense I, II preterite and future). Plus, there's an imperative. Preterite I corresponds by now a standard grammar interpretation of a narrative past tense, while the past tense II corresponds to a selective action in the past. There has to be noted that the tense features of the Nubians are currently still subject to scientific debate, so here's a theory only can be played back.

The verb doll - wish in the present tense in the subjunctive

The verb doll - wish in the present tense in the indicative

Verbi generation

Through various affixes itself more diverse of verbs and nouns verbs generation can be derived:

• Intentiv to an object in the singular: pes -ir " say something " to "speak" pes
• Intentiv to an object in the plural: pes -i ǵ "say" ( or many -to-many )
• Reflexive ( rarely): cape -s "self- eating " (as opposed to other food )
• Passive: au- tak " to be done "
• Incohativ: tull -i -n " be quiet " to tull " be quiet "
• Causative: the Altnubische distinguishes three types of Kausativbildung: 1 dativ: indicates the placing of an action: unn -a- tir " can give birth " to unn - " bear ", 2nd productive: dat -ak ( i) r " to bring together " to dat " collect 3 effective (? ): " let it rain " aru -a- do to aru "Rain".
• Tripod: ogiǵ -en " his man to the above ( i) ǵ " man "

Syntax

The normal sentence order is subject predicate, although it can also be the other way around in rare cases. The negation of a verb is done by the infix -men-, which occurs between the verb stem and suffix: min - pes " not to be".