Ancient North Arabian
English edit
Etymology edit
Attested since 1904. Calque of German Alt-Nord-Arabisch (itself from 1870s), which corresponds to Altnordarabisch in modern orthography
Adjective edit
Ancient North Arabian (not comparable)
- related to the Ancient North Arabian script or language(s)
- 1985, Ernst A. Knauf, “A South Safaitic Alphabet from Khirbet Es-Samrāʾ”, in Levant[1], volume 17, page 204:
- One of them, a limestone-ostracon found in the debris which covered the remains of a late Roman fortress, is of special significance for Ancient North Arabian palaeography and dialectology.
Synonyms edit
Translations edit
Proper noun edit
- A branch of South Semitic abjads used in northern and central Arabia and southern Syria from the 8th century BCE to the 4th century CE.
- 1904, Enno Littmann, Semitic inscriptions[2], page 115:
- The tribes of the Syrian Harrah may, of course, ultimately have come from Southern Arabia, or their home may have been near the borders of the South-Arabian empires, and their alphabet is no doubt to be derived largely from the so-called Himyaritic script ; for the history of the ancient North-Arabian alphabets seems to be that of a gradual remigration from Southern Arabia, beginning at a time when the Himyaritic alphabet had not yet received the form in which it is known to us.
- A hypothetical Central Semitic language, language group or dialects, expressed by these scripts and closely related to Old Arabic.
- 2001, Muhammed A. Nayeem, Origin of Ancient Writing in Arabia and New Scripts from Oman: An Introduction to South Semitic Epigraphy and Palaeography[3], page 40:
- Macdonald (2000:28ff) has grouped the ancient languages in two classes: Ancient North Arabian (ANA) and Ancient South Arabian (ASA). The ANA comprises: Taymanitic, Dadanitic, Dumaitic, Dispersed ONA, Safaitic, Hismaic, Thamudic (B,C,D, and Southern), and Hasaitic.