Old South Arabian

Spoken in

Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Altsüdarabisch

The South Arabian languages (deprecated Himjarische language, even Sayhadisch ) is a group of extinct languages that are from the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, especially in Yemen narrated. They belong to the Semitic languages . The Old South Arabian was apparently displaced in the early 7th century AD with the introduction of Islam in 630 AD by the Arab; but the last dated inscription already dates from the year 669 of the himjarischen era (about 554 AD) It is not impossible that the Old South Arabian in the 4th century AD became extinct as a spoken language. The Old South Arabian is not a predecessor of the South Arabic languages.

6.3.1 conjugation
6.3.2 Derived strains

7.1 Word order
7.2 Subordinate clauses 7.2.1 Relative Clauses

Linguistic relationship

The Old South Arabian is as much as about the Classic Arabic and Hebrew to the Semitic languages , a branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Since the internal classification of the Semitic languages is not secured, there are also different views on how the Old South Arabian is classified within this language family. The traditional model calculates the Old South Arabian with the Arabian, the South Arabic languages and the languages äthiosemitischen to südsemitischen branch. The South Arabic languages are not, despite the name in direct succession to the Old South Arabian. A long time it was assumed the Ethiopian Ge'ez had arisen directly from the South Arabian, but this view is now refuted. Recent research suggests, however, that the Old South Arabian is not to be among the südsemitischen languages , but together with the Arabic and the Northwest Semitic languages ( and others Hebrew, Aramaic ) forms the central Semitic branch. The most obvious feature that separates the Old South Arabian from the other Semitic languages , is the determinative suffix n, which can be found in this use in any other Semitic language.

Languages

The Old South Arabian included several languages; the following have been handed down in writing ( the annual figures are based on the "Long Chronology ", cf Old South Arabia ):

Sabean: Language of the Kingdom of Saba and Himyar of the later; also occupied in the Ethiopian Empire Da'amot; very well documented about 6000 inscriptions Altsabäisch: 8th to 2nd century BC
Mittelsabäisch: 1st century BC to the 4th century AD (most used) Amiritisch / Haramisch: Language of the areas north of Ma'in
Zentralsabäisch: Language of the Sabaean inscriptions from the heartland
Südsabäisch: Language of inscriptions from Radman and Himyar
"Pseudo - Sabean ": written language Arabic groups in Najran, and Qaryat al - Faw Haram

Ausanisch: Language of the Empire Ausan, very slightly used ( about 25 inscriptions, 8th century BC and the 1st century BC to 1st century AD ). Differs from Qatabanischen not recognizable.
Other varieties, such as the tribe's language Radman

Of these languages, the Sabaean is a so-called h- language, the other 's languages , as the Sabaean in the pronoun of the third person and in a Kausativpräfix h shows where the other languages show a s1.

Not all languages of the pre-Islamic South Arabian belonged to the South Arabian. Several incomprehensible inscriptions from Saba appear to be written to a relative of the Old South Arabian language for which a suffix- k was typical. The actual language of the Himyarites that Sabean written before Islamization, does not seem to have been altsüdarabisch. Arab authors from the period after the Islamization, as the South Arabian itself was probably already extinct, describe some of their properties that are different from both the Old South Arabian as well as other well-known Semitic languages clearly.

Tradition

The Old South Arabian, was written with the South Arabian script, one derived from the Phoenician alphabet consonant alphabet. The number of preserved inscriptions is compared with other parts of the ancient world, such as Palestine, very high, supposedly 10,000 inscriptions have been preserved; the Sabaean vocabulary includes about 2500 words. The inscriptions can be divided by writing material and content into the following groups:

For the stone inscriptions a very formulaic, but also precise expression is characteristic; the written down in a cursive form of writing wood inscriptions on the other hand have a less formulaic style.

Research history and didactics

Although inscriptions from the ancient southern Arabia were in Europe since the 18th century known, but only succeeded Wilhelm Gesenius ( 1786-1842 ) and his pupil Emil Roediger in the years 1841/42, independently, a large part of the decipherment of the Old South Arabian script. In the second half of the 19th century brought Joseph Halévy and Eduard Glaser hundreds of South Arabian inscriptions, paper prints and copies to Europe. On the basis of this great material Fritz Hommel laid before 1893 anthology and an attempt at grammar. After him come, in particular the Sabäisten Nicholas Rhodokanakis further substantial progress in understanding the Old South Arabian. A completely new range altsüdarabischer Writing and opened up since the 1970s by the discovery of a pen and wooden cylinders described in Sabaean language. The unknown script and many unintelligible words presented the Sabäistik new problems, and to date the wood cylinders are not fully understood.

In German-speaking Altsüdarabisch is taught in the context of Semitic Studies, without there being any professorships. Learning the South Arabian requires knowledge of at least one other Semitic language ahead, because learning the peculiarities of the Semitic requires less fragmentary language. Usually an introduction to the grammar of the Old South Arabian is given, it is reading some longer texts connects.

According to system

The Old South Arabian had 29 consonantal phonemes, the most consonant system of the Semitic ( by Nebe / stone in 2004, and the letters in parentheses indicate the transcription):

In the early days of the Old South Arabian Sabäistik was described by the Hebrew alphabet. At issue is the transcription of the alveolar or postalveolar fricatives; by large uncertainties in the early days of Sabäistik the chosen of the corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, Nicholas Rhodokanakis and other transcription prevailed until AFL Beeston, instead, the name by index s plus 1-3 suggested. The latter term has mostly prevailed in the English language, whereas, for example in the German language the older transcription characters have also been included in the table above, are still common.

In the course of linguistic history were particularly in Hadramitischen individual sound changes, such as the change of ʿ ʾ by, Z to S, T to s3 (see spellings like tlmyṯ for " Ptolemy " ( minäisch ) ). In Spätsabäischen fell s1 and s3 to s1 graphic together. N can be assimilated to a following consonant, as in other Semitic languages , compare ʾ nfs1 " souls " > ʾ fs1

Since the Old South Arabian script not mark vowels, detailed statements about the vowels of the South Arabian are not possible. Paraphrases altsüdarabischer name especially in Greek suggest, however, that the Old South Arabian as the Proto -Semitic and Arabic, the vowels a, i and u had. Thus, the name appears krb - ʾ l in Akkadian as Karib - ʾ il -u and in Greek as Chariba -el. The Monophthongisierung of aw ō is by variants such as YWM and ym " day " (compare Arabic yawm ) Ḥḍrmwt / Ḥḍrmt / Greek Chatramot (Arabic Hadramawt ) " Hadhramaut " suggested. However, since only very few words have been handed vocalized, are used in science vocalized forms altsüdarabischer names hypothetical and partly arbitrary.

Morphology

Personal pronouns

Existed, as in other Semitic languages in South Arabian Pronominalsuffixe and independent or absolute pronouns; The latter are occupied only sparsely outside the Sabaean. The personal pronouns loud - if known - in detail:

The use is similar to other West Semitic languages. The Pronominalsuffixe are appended to verbs and prepositions as Objektspronomina: qtl - hmw " he killed them," HMR- hmy t ʾ lb "Ta ʾ lab gave them two," ʿ m- S1MN " with them both ." Appended to nouns they can express a possession ratio: ʿ bd -hw " his servant " bhn - S1W " his sons ". The absolute pronouns were used as the subject of nominal and verbal sentences: mr ʾ ʾ t "are you Lord" ( nominal rate ); hmw f ḥmdw " they thanked " ( verbal sentence ).

Noun

Case, number, gender

The nouns of the South Arabian distinguish the two genera masculine and feminine, the latter is in this case in the singular with the suffix -t: b ʿ l 'Lord ' " ( m. ), b ʿ lt" mistress " ( f ), hgr " city " ( m. ), fnwt "channel" ( f ). It has the three numbers singular, dual and plural. The singular is formed without change of the tribe, the plural, however, can be formed in various ways, which may vary with the same word:

Interior ( "broken " ) Plural: They are very common, as in Arabic. ʾ prefix: ʾ byt "houses" to byt "house"
T- suffix: particularly common in words with m- prefix: mḥfdt " towers " to mḥfd "tower".
Combinations: for example ʾ prefix and suffix t: ʾ hrft " years " to HRF " year ", ʾ bytt "houses" to byt "house".
Without external education feature: FNW "channels" to fnwt ( f ) "channel"
W-/y-Infix: to HRF HRWF / ḫryf / ḫryft " year ", " years " ago.
Reduplikationsplurale are in the South Arabian rarely occupied: ʾ l ʾ lt " gods " to ʾ l "God."

The dual is on the South Arabian already in the task; his endings depend on the status: HRF -n "two years" (status indeterminatus ) to HRF "Year".

The Old South Arabian knew certainly a case inflection, which was formed by vocalic endings, which is why it is not recognizable in the Scriptures; However, traces have V.A. in the case obtain the status Constructus.

Status

Like other Semitic languages also knows the Old South Arabian noun multiple states, which were formed depending on the gender and number with different endings. This outer plurals and dual endings have their own status while behave inner plurals as singulars. Besides the well known even in the other Semitic languages status constructus there determinatus the status indeterminatus and status, their functions are described below. Specifically, we have the following status endings ( forms of Sabean, in Hadramitischen and Minean found in certain forms before ending in an hour ):

The three states have different syntactic and semantic functions:

Status indeterminatus: it marks the indefinite noun: SLM -m " ( any ) a statue ."
Status determinatus: it marks the determinate noun: SLM -n " statue " ( hadramitisch ) BHR -hn "the sea ".
Construct state: it occurs when the noun with a genitive, a personal suffix or - unlike in other Semitic languages - is linked with a relative clause: With Pronominalsuffix: ( Sabean ) ʿ bd -hw " his servant " ( qatabanisch ) bn- s1ww " his sons "
With nominal genitive: ( hadramitisch ) gn ʾ ʾ t hy myf " the two walls of Maifa'at " mlky s1b ʾ " the two kings of Sheba "
With relative clause: kl 1 s1b ʾ t 2 w - DBY ʾ 3 W tqdmt 4 s1b ʾ y5 w DB ʾ 6 tqdmn7 mr ʾ y hmw8 " All1 Expeditionen2, Schlachten3 and Angriffe4 that their two Herren8 leiteten5, schlugen6 and anführten7 " are ( the nouns in the status constructus in italics marked)

Verb

Conjugation

Like the other West Semitic languages also distinguishes the two types of finite verb forms Old South Arabian: The conjugated with suffixes Perfect and imperfect conjugated with prefixes. In the past tense can be distinguished two forms: a short form and a plane formed by n- suffix form ( long form or n- past tense ), which is missing, however, in Qatabanischen and Hadramitischen. In use, can not be separated exactly the two Imperfektformen. The conjugation of perfect and imperfect can be summarized as follows ( active and passive voice can be used in the consonantal letters do not differ; Beispielverb f ʿ l "to make" ):

The Perfect is mainly used to refer to a past action, just before conditionals and relative clauses with konditionalem secondary meaning it denotes, as in Arabic there is a current action. Example: w- s3ḫly Hlk ʾ mr w - hm ʿ TT ' and TT Hlk mr ʾ and ʿ HM have pleaded guilty (Dual ) ".

The past tense is usually called the simultaneity at a pre- specified event or simply the present or future. There are four different modes formed by prefixes:

Derived strains

From verbs can be formed by changing the consonantal root different strains derived that are associated with this in terms of their importance in terms. In the South Arabian six such strains are occupied. Examples:

QNY " get " > hqny ( Sabean ) / s1qny ( other languages) " sacrifice, donate '
QWM "Arrange " > HQM ( Sabean ) / s1qm ( other languages) " Rule", tqwmw " testify "

Syntax

Word order

The word order of the Old South Arabian is not uniform. The first set an inscription always has the set position (particle - ) subject - predicate ( SV), the other main sets an inscription be initiated by w 'and' and have - as the subordinate clauses - usually the position predicate - subject ( VS). The predicate can be initiated by f.

Examples:

Subordinate clauses with verbal predicate the Old South Arabian knows how the other Semitic languages nominal sentences whose predicate can be a noun, adjective, or a prepositional phrase; the subject is mostly above:

Subordinate clauses

The Old South Arabian has a variety of means for the formation of subordinate clauses by different conjunctions:

Relative clauses

In the South Arabian relative clauses can be as d-, ʾ l, mn - marked by Relativisierer; in free relative clauses, the label is mandatory. Unlike many other Semitic languages to resumptive pronouns in Old South Arabian rarely found.

Vocabulary

The vocabulary of the Old South Arabian is due to the diversity of the inscription genera relatively diverse, however, is quite isolated, which hinders its development in the field of Semitic. Even on the basis of closely related languages such as Ge'ez and the classical Arabic can be only part of the South Arabian vocabulary tap, not a small part has to be inferred from the text context, and a few words remain unintelligible. In contrast, many words from the agriculture and irrigation technology in works of Yemeni scholars of the Middle Ages and partly also in the modern Yemeni dialects find it again. Foreign loanwords in Old South Arabian rar, only Greek and Aramaic words found in the rahmanistischen, Christian and Jewish period ( 5th to 7th century AD) in South Arabian inscriptions input, such as qls1 -n from Greek ἐκκλησία " church ", which has been preserved in the Arabic al - Qillīs as the name of the church built by Abraha in Sanaa.

Swell

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