Ancient South Arabian, also known as Old South Arabian, Epigraphic South Arabian, Sayhadic, or Yemenite, is a group of extinct Semitic languages attested mainly in inscriptions from pre-Islamic South Arabia. The four principal languages are Sabaic, Minaic (also called Madhabic), Qatabanic, and Hadramitic. They were written in the Ancient South Arabian script and are attested from the early first millennium BCE until Late Antiquity.
Facts
Disputed
Proto-Language StatusNo separate proto-language reconstructed: the four principal languages, Sabaic, Minaic, Qatabanic and Hadramitic, are directly attested in their own inscriptions rather than derived by reconstruction; their placement within Semitic is itself debated between an older South Semitic classification and a newer Central Semitic one for at least Sabaic. 1 RegionAttested mainly in inscriptions from pre-Islamic South Arabia, present day Yemen and adjoining parts of the Arabian Peninsula. 1 Speaker CountExtinct; known only from epigraphic inscriptions attested from the early first millennium BCE to Late Antiquity. Sources
1. Wikipedia: Ancient South Arabian
Wikimedia FoundationIntroduction
They were written in the Ancient South Arabian script and are attested from the early first millennium BCE until Late Antiquity.
Classification issues section
The Old South Arabian languages were originally classified (partly on the basis of geography) as South Semitic, along with Modern South Arabian and Ethiopian Semitic; but many modern classifications place it, or at least Sabaic, within Central Semitic on the basis of verbal morphology.
Introduction, opening sentence
Ancient South Arabian (ASA), also known as Old South Arabian (OSA), Epigraphic South Arabian, Ṣayhadic, or Yemenite, is a group of extinct Semitic languages attested mainly in inscriptions from pre-Islamic South Arabia.
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