Moabite language
| Moabite | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
present-day Jordan | |
| speaker | (extinct) | |
| Linguistic classification |
||
| Official status | ||
| Official language in | (extinct) | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
sem (other Semitic languages) |
|
| ISO 639-3 |
obm |
|
The Moabitic language is an extinct Semitic language of the Canaanite language branch , which was founded in the 1st millennium BC. Was spoken of by the people of Moab east of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. It stands in a dialect continuum with Old Hebrew and is closely related to it.
The few clear differences exist in the retention of the old ending of the feminine on "-t", in the masculine plural ending "-n" (as in Aramaic and partly in Middle Hebrew), and in the formation of the reflexive with an infigated -t (e.g. B. in Ugaritic ). The diphthongs are * aj and aw * not reflected in the typeface and are apparently already fully ē to * and * ō contracted .
The most important monument of Moabite is the so-called Meschastele , which praises the deeds of King Mescha (around 850 BC).
literature
- Klaus Beyer: The language of the Moabite royal inscriptions. In: Small studies on the language of the Old Testament and its environment , 11, 2010, pp. 5–41.
- Erasmus Gaß : The Moabites - History and Culture of an East Jordanian People in the 1st Millennium BC BC (Treatises of the German Palestine Association 38). Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 3-447-05108-6