Samalian language

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Not to be confused with Somali language.
Samalian
Native toSamʼal
Extinct1st millennium BC
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
Glottologsama1317

Samalian was a Semitic language spoken in Samʼal.

Samalian is primarily known from three inscriptions, two known as the Panamuwa inscriptions (KAI 214–215), unearthed in the late 19th century, and a third known as the Katumuwa inscription, unearthed in 2008.[1]

Classification[]

Among the Semitic languages, Samalian shows most similarities to Aramaic. It has been earlier often considered an outright early dialect of Aramaic, possibly influenced by Canaanite. Strong evidence is however absent, and Samalian is best considered an independent member of the Northwest Semitic group,[2][3] or, together with the Deir Alla Inscription, a sister variety of Aramaic in an "Aramoid" or "Syrian" group.[2][4]

Linguistic features[]

Features connecting Samalian with Aramaic include:

  • a change *n > r in the word br 'son', though this is attested only as a part of personal names and may not have been the native word. The same phenomenon appears also in a Phoenician text from Sam'al (the Kilamuwa Stela).[5][6]
  • loss of *ʔ in the word ḥd (< *ʔḥd) 'one'.[5] This occurs sporadically also in biblical Hebrew and in the Phoenician dialect of Byblos.[6]
  • a change *ɬʼ > q, e.g. ʔrq 'earth', known as an orthographic device also in Old Aramaic[5] (in later Aramaic, Proto-Semitic *ɬʼ shifts instead to /ʕ/).
  • appearance of n for final m.[5]

Pat-El & Wilson-Wright propose as additional general characteristics of Samalian the development of nasal vowels, as expected word-final n after long vowels is systematically absent in the Panamuwa inscriptions;[7] as well as an object marker wt, cognate with Aramean ləwāt 'with'.[8]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Pat-El & Wilson-Wright 2019, p. 372.
  2. ^ a b Huehnergard 1995, p. 282.
  3. ^ Pat-El & Wilson-Wright 2019.
  4. ^ Kogan 2015, p. 601.
  5. ^ a b c d Huehnergard 1995, p. 278.
  6. ^ a b Pat-El & Wilson-Wright 2019, p. 374.
  7. ^ Pat-El & Wilson-Wright 2019, pp. 380–381.
  8. ^ Pat-El & Wilson-Wright 2019, p. 383.

References[]

  • Huehnergard, John (1995), "What is Aramaic?", ARAM Periodical, 7 (2): 261–282, doi:10.2143/ARAM.7.2.2002231
  • Kogan, Leonid (2015), Geneological Classification of Semitic, de Gruyter
  • Pat-El, Na'ama; Wilson-Wright, Aren (2019), "The subgrouping of Samalian: Arguments in favor of an independent branch", Maarav, 23 (2): 371–387


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