| Region | Taymāʾ |
|---|---|
| Era | second half of the 6th century BC |
| Familycolor | Afro-Asiatic |
| Fam 1 | Afroasiatic |
| Fam 2 | Semitic |
| Fam 3 | West Semitic |
| Fam 4 | Central Semitic |
| Fam 5 | Northwest Semitic? |
| Iso 3 | none |
| Glotto | taym1240 |
| Glottorefname | Taymanitic |
| Script | Ancient North Arabian |
Taymanitic was the language and script of the oasis of Taymāʾ in northwestern Arabia, dated to the second half of the 6th century BC.[1]
Classification
Taymanitic does not participate in the key innovations of Proto-Arabic, precluding it from being considered a member of the Arabic language family. It shares one key isogloss with Northwest Semitic: the change w > y in word-initial position. Examples include yrḫ for *warḫum 'moon, month' and ydʿ for wadaʿa 'to know'.[2]
It is clear that Taymanitic script expressed a distinct linguistic variety that is not Arabic and not closely related to Hismaic or Safaitic, while it can tentatively be suggested that it was more closely related to Northwest Semitic.[1]
Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Pharyn- geal | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | lateral | |||||||
| Nasal | m | n | |||||||
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | p | t | ts | k | ʔ | |||
| voiced | b | d | dz | ɡ | |||||
| ejective | tʼ | tsʼ | tɬʼ | kʼ | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | ɬ | x | ħ | h | |||
| voiced | ɣ | ʕ | |||||||
| Liquid | trill | r | |||||||
| central | l | ||||||||
| Semivowel | j | w | |||||||
Vowels
| Short | Long | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | Front | Back | |
| Close | i | u | iː | uː |
| Open | a | aː | ||
There were two diphthongs of a vowel and semivowel: /aj/ and /aw/.[1]
Characteristics
Taymanitic exhibits two major features which are innovative:[2]
- The change w > y in word-initial position: yrḫ for *warḫum 'moon, month' and ydʿ for wadaʿa 'to know'.
- The mergers *z, *ḏ > *z; *s, *ṯ > *s; and *ṣ, *ṯ̣ > *ṣ (loss of interdentals).
Unlike Arabic, Taymanitic does not exhibit the merger of Proto-Semitic [s] and [ts].
References
- ^ Kootstra, Fokelien (15 August 2016). "The Language of the Taymanitic Inscriptions and its Classification". Arabian Epigraphic Notes. LeiCenSAA.
- ^ Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2018). "The earliest stages of Arabic and its linguistic classification". The Routledge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics. Benmamoun, Elabbas & Bassiouney, Reem (eds.). Routledge. pp. 315–331. ISBN 9781315147062.