Himyarian language
| Himyar | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
today's Yemen | |
| speaker | (extinct) | |
| Linguistic classification |
|
|
| Official status | ||
| Official language in | (extinct) | |
The Himyarian language ( Arabic لغة حمير lughat Himyar , DMG luġat Ḥimyar 'language of Himyar') is an extinct language that was spoken in ancient times in what is now Yemen , apparently by the Himyars . It belongs to the Semitic languages , but possibly not the Old South Arabic (Sayhadic) languages in the narrower sense. The precise classification within the Semitic is unknown due to the scarcity of the known material.
Himyarian is known only fragmentarily through statements by Arab scholars from the first centuries after the spread of Islam, who described it as incomprehensible to speakers of Arabic .
Relationship to Old South Arabic
Before Islamization at the beginning of the 7th century, the written language in Himjar was Sabaean, an ancient South Arabic language . It is often assumed that the Sabaean in Himyarite heartland served only as a written language, while it is in the prior art from Arab sources Himyarite acted to the actual spoken language in the Himyaren. This is supported by differences between Himyar and the Old South Arabic languages, especially the himyarian specific article am- / an- , which was not present in the known Old South Arabic languages. Sometimes three difficult to understand, rhyming texts in old South Arabic script from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD are associated with Himjar.
Other scholars consider Himyar to be a later stage of development of Sabaean, and assume that the written language of the Himyars was essentially the same as the spoken language.
distribution
According to the description of Al-Hamdani (893-947), Himyar was spoken in some areas in the highlands of western Yemen in the 10th century, while Arabic was spoken on the coast and Arabic was spoken with himyar influence in large areas in the highlands. In the centuries that followed, Himyarian was completely superseded by Arabic; but today's local dialects of Arabic probably show himyarian substrate influence .
features
The language is delimited from the other Semitic languages by the definite article am- / an- , which it shared with individual dialects of Arabic in the west of the Arabian peninsula. In addition, the endings of the suffix conjugation in the 1st person singular and the 2nd person started with k- , while in Arabic they start with t- . Himyarian had this feature in common with Old South Arabic, Ethiosemitic and New South Arabic . Both features can also be found partly in modern Arabic dialects in Yemen, probably due to the influence of himyarian or old South Arabian substrata , the article am- is also found in other dialects on the Arabian Peninsula and in Central Africa.
Language example
A few sentences have survived in Himyar. The following sentence is said to have been said in AD 654/5 in Dhamar, northeast of Zafar . Since it has only come down to us in unvocalized Arabic script , the exact pronunciation is unclear; the reconstruction is based closely on classical Arabic.
| Himyar | handed down | رايك | بنحلم | كولدك | ابنا | من | طيب |
| reconstructed | raʾay-ku | bi-n-ḥulm | ka-walad-ku | ibn-an | min | ṭīb | |
| meaning | saw-1.Sg. | in- article dream | that -gebar-1.Sg. | Son accusative | out | gold | |
| translation | "I saw in a dream that I had a son made of gold." | ||||||
A short song has also been preserved, but it should show Arab influences. In addition, Al-Hamdani (893–947) quotes alleged Old South Arabic inscriptions, which are, however, probably forged based on the Himyarian model.
literature
- Chaim Rabin: Ancient West Arabian. London, 1951.
- Peter Stein: The “Himyaritic” Language in pre-Islamic Yemen A Critical Re-evaluation . In: Semitica et Classica . tape 1 , 2008, p. 203-212 .
- Christian Robin: Ḥimyaritic . In: Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics . tape 2 , 2007, p. 256-261 .