Canaanite languages

This article deals with the real languages ​​spoken in Canaan and Palestine. For the insider language of conservative free church congregations, see Language of Canaan .

The Canaanite languages (also Canaanite languages ) are a subgroup of the Semitic languages ​​spoken by the ancient inhabitants of Canaan or the Levant . Most of the Canaanite languages ​​were already in existence at the end of the 1st millennium BC. . Chr extinct ; they were mainly supplanted by Aramaic. Only the Hebrew language was passed down through the religious writings of Judaism into modern times and was re-established in Israel in the 20th century as an everyday language and an idiom that was handed down as a native language.

Canaanite varieties are:

• Languages ​​of the 2nd millennium BC Chr.
  • Canaanite words and word forms in the Amarna letters ( Kanaano-Akkadian )
  • the language of some alphabetical inscriptions from Bronze Age Palestine

• Languages ​​of the 1st millennium BC Chr.
  • Ammonite language †
  • Moabite language †
  • Edomite language †
  • Hebrew language ,
    • Old Hebrew ( sacred language )
    • Qumran Hebrew †
    • Samaritan Hebrew (sacred language)
    • Middle Hebrew (sacred language)
    • Ivrith
  • Phoenician-Punic language †

The most important sources for studying the Canaanite languages ​​are the Hebrew Bible and some inscriptions, such as B .:

• in ammonite: Amman Citadel Inscription , Amman Theater Inscription , Tell Siran Inscription
• in Moabi: Mescha stele , Kerak inscription , Heschbon ostraka
• in Old Hebrew: Gezer calendar , ostracon of Khirbet Qeiyafa , Schiloach inscription
• in Phoenician: Ahiram inscription , sarcophagus of Eshmunazar
• in (Neo-) Punic: Poenulus by Plautus (beginning of the 5th act)

The Canaanite languages, together with Aramaic and Ugaritic, form the Northwest Semitic languages . Features of the Canaanite languages ​​include a .:

• the prefix h- used as a definite article (in Aramaic the suffix -a instead )
• the 1st person singular pronoun ʾnk (אנכ - anok [i]) (on the other hand Aramaic ʾnʾ / ʾny ) The Canaanite form is also found in Akkadian and related Afro-Asian languages (cf. Egyptian jnk ). Hebrew, which was heavily influenced by Aramaic, took over Aramaic ʾny .
• the phonetic change ā> ō

literature

• Herbert Donner , Wolfgang Röllig : Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions. Vol. 1: 5th edition, Wiesbaden 2002, Vol. 2: 3rd edition 1973, Vol. 3: 3rd edition 1976.
• W. Randall Garr: Dialect Geography of Syria-Palestine 1000-586 BCE Philadelphia 1985. ISBN 0-8122-7927-1
• Issam KH Halayqa: A Comparative Lexicon of Ugaritic and Canaanite. AOAT 340. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag 2008. ISBN 978-3-934628-95-3
• Zellig S. Harris: Development of the Canaanite Dialects: An Investigation in Linguistic History (= American Oriental Series 16). New Haven 1939.
• Jacob Hoftijzer, Karel Jongeling: Dictionary of North-West Semitic Inscriptions (= Handbuch der Orientalistik I.21). Leiden 1995. ISBN 90-04-09821-6
• Anson F. Rainey: Canaanite in the Amarna Tablets. A Linguistic Analysis of the Mixed Dialect Used by the Scribes from Canaan (= Handbuch der Orientalistik I.25). Brill, Leiden 1996. ISBN 90-04-10503-4 .

Web links

• Some West Semitic Inscriptions (English)