Taymanitic was the language and script of the oasis of
Taymāʾ in northwestern Arabia, dated to the second half of the 6th century BCE.
Classification
Taymanitic does not participate in the key innovations of
Proto-Arabic
Proto-Arabic is the name given to the hypothetical reconstructed ancestor of all the varieties of Arabic attested since the 9th century BC. There are two lines of evidence to reconstruct Proto-Arabic:
*Evidence of Arabic becomes more frequent i ...
, precluding it from being considered a member of the
Arabic language family. It shares one key isogloss with
Northwest Semitic
Northwest Semitic is a division of the Semitic languages comprising the indigenous languages of the Levant. It emerged from Proto-Semitic language, Proto-Semitic in the Early Bronze Age. It is first attested in proper names identified as Amorite ...
: the change ''w'' > ''y'' in word-initial position. Examples include ''yrḫ'' for *warḫum 'moon, month' and ''ydʿ'' for ''wadaʿa'' 'to know'.
It is clear that Taymanitic script expressed a distinct linguistic variety that is not Arabic and not closely related to
Hismaic or
Safaitic
Safaitic ( ''Al-Ṣafāʾiyyah'') is a variety of the South Semitic scripts used by the nomads of the basalt desert of southern Syria and northern Jordan, the so-called Ḥarrah, to carve rock inscriptions in various dialects of Old Arabic and A ...
, while it can tentatively be suggested that it was more closely related to Northwest Semitic.
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
There were two diphthongs of a vowel and semivowel: and .
Characteristics
Taymanitic exhibits two major features which are innovative:
# 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
3'', *''ṯ'' > *''s
3'', and *''ṣ'', *''ẓ'' > *''ṣ'' (loss of interdentals).
Unlike Arabic, Taymanitic does not exhibit the merger of Proto-Semitic
and
s
References
{{Reflist
Ancient North Arabian