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Ancient North Arabian
http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/aalc/imag...th_arabian.pdf
In the western two-thirds of the Arabian Peninsula, from southern Syria to Yemen, inscriptions testify to the use of a number of different ancient languages and scripts. In the southwest, these inscriptions may date from as early as the thirteenth century BC and continue up to the seventh century AD, while in central and north Arabia they seem to be concentrated in the period between the eighth century BC and the fourth century AD. Some languages, like Aramaic and, later, Greek, came to the region from outside, but the rest were
indigenous tongues expressed in scripts developed locally.
Literacy seems to have been extraordinarily widespread, not only among the settled populations but also among the nomads. Indeed, the scores of thousands of graffiti on the rocks of the Syro-Arabian desert suggest that it must have been almost universal among the latter(see Macdonald 1993:382–388). By the Roman period, it is probable that a higher proportion of the population in this region was functionally literate than in any other area of the ancient world.
North Arabian
The ancient languages in the southwest of the Peninsula are known as Ancient (or Old) South Arabian (see Ch. 15), while those in central and
northern Arabia and in the desert of southern Syria are classed as North Arabian. This latter category is divided into two subgroups. The first of these is Arabic, which is subdivided into (i) Old Arabic (that is Arabic attested in pre-Islamic texts which have survived independently of the early Arab grammarians, thus the Namarah inscription but not the “Pre-Islamic poetry,” see Macdonald, forthcoming); (ii) Classical and Middle Arabic; and (iii) the vernacular dialects. The second subgroup is called Ancient North Arabian.
The most striking difference between the two subgroups lies in the definite article, which is al-in Arabic, but is h-or zero in Ancient North Arabian (see §4.3.1). Until recently, this division was largely unrecognized by linguists working outside the field, and Ancient North Arabian (which was sometimes misleadingly called “Proto-Arabic”) was usually treated as a collection of early dialects of Arabic. However, it is now clear that Ancient North Arabian represents a linguistic strain which, while closely related to Arabic, was distinct from it (Macdonald 2000:29–30).
Arabic
Arabic, and thus by implication the North Arabian group as a whole, has traditionally been classified, along with the Ancient South Arabian, Modern South Arabian and Ethiopic languages, as South West Semitic (e.g., Brockelmann 1908–1913: i, 6). However, more recently, it has been grouped instead with Canaanite and Aramaic, under the rubric Central Semitic (e.g., Faber 1997; see Ch. 6,§2.3), and this classification is certainly more appropriate for Ancient North Arabian.
Old Arabic seems to have coexisted with Ancient North Arabian throughout north and central Arabia but, in contrast to Ancient North Arabian, it remained a purely spoken language. The earliest Old Arabic inscriptions in what we think of as the Arabic script (in fact the latest development of the Nabataean Aramaic alphabet) date from the early sixth century AD. Before that, Old Arabic was written only on very rare occasions and then,
necessarily, in a “borrowed” script (Ancient South Arabian, Dadanitic, Nabataean, or Greek).
At present, seven such documents in Old Arabic have been identified, and in a number of others, Old Arabic features occur in texts which are otherwise in Sabaic (an Ancient South Arabian language), Dadanitic, Safaitic, Nabataean, and possibly East Arabian Aramaic (see Macdonald 2000:50–54 and forthcoming).
The Qaryat al-Faw Inscription: It is written in Arabic using the Musnad script, 1st Century B.C
ʿIgl son of Hafʿam constructed for his brother Rabibil son of Hafʿam the tomb: both for him and for his child and his wife, and his children and their children's children and womenfolk, free members of the folk Ghalwan. And he has placed it under the protection of (the gods) Kahl and Lah and ʿAthtar al-Shariq from anyone strong or weak, and anyone who would attempt to sell or pledge it, for all time without any derogation, so long as the sky produces rain or the earth herbage.
The ‘En ‘Avdat Inscription: The first four lines are in Aramaic and the last two in Arabic. It is written in the Nabataean alphabet. Nabatea, 1st or 2nd century A.D
The inscription contains six lines; first four of which are in Aramaic and the last two are in Arabic. It is the earliest piece of Arabic written in the Nabataean script so far discovered, antedating the famous Namarah inscription of 328 CE by about two centuries. This inscription is written in the Old Arabic. The Arabic article ʾl- occurs as ʾl-mwtw (line 5).
According to Bellamy, the Arabic portion is composed of verses of poetry. He asserts that this inscription shows us that not only was Arabic poetry being composed around the turn of first/second centuries, but also that it was much like the poetry that was familiar to us from four centuries later. The Arabic part of the inscription consists of three hemistichs in al-tawil, the most commonly used of the classical meters.
The recently re-interpreted Raqush inscription by Healey and Smith. This was hailed by them as the earliest pre-Islamic Arabic inscription corresponding to 267 CE. This inscription also shows diacritical points for د, ش and ر. Also note that there is a short summary in Thamudic written vertically to the right of the inscription.
The Namarah inscription was discovered by Réné Dussad and Macler 100 km southeast of Damascus. This inscription is unique is several respects. It is one of the earliest inscription so far discovered in the classical Arabic language, though many Arabic personal names and isolated words are found in other Nabataean inscriptions. The presence of classical Arabic in this inscription validates the conservatism of Arabic language.
As stated earlier, it is the one of the two Arabic inscriptions written in Nabataean alphabet. Also it is the only contemporary evidence we have in Arabic about the life of King Imru'l Qais. This inscription, therefore, is of great interest both to the historians as well as philologians.
The translation of the inscription is (after Bellamy):
This is the funerary monument of Imru'l Qais, son of ‘Amr, king of of the Arabs; and (?) his title of the honour was Master of Asad and Madhij.
And he subdued the Asadis, and they were overwhelmed together with their kings, and he put to the flight Madhij thereafter and came
driving them into the gates of Najran, the city of Shammar, and he subdued Ma‘add, and he dealt gently with the nobles
of the tribes, and appointed them viceroys, and they became phylarchs for the Romans. And no king has equalled in his achievements.
Thereafter he died in the year 223 on the 7th day of Kaslul. Oh the good fortune of those who were his friends!
The date is equivalent to 328 CE, i.e., 223 plus 105, the Bosra era.
More --> http://www.islamic-awareness.org/His.../Inscriptions/
Ancient North Arabian
Ancient North Arabian is made up of a number of interrelated dialects, attested only in inscriptions. These are dated roughly between the eighth century BC and fourth century AD, after which the language disappears from the record. Well over forty thousand of these texts have been discovered so far and it is known that scores of thousands remain to be recorded. However, approximately 98 percent of these are graffiti, informal inscriptions the majority of which consist only of names. The amount of linguistic evidence they can provide is therefore relatively meager and our knowledge of the structure of these dialects is extremely fragmentary – a situation exacerbated by the nature of the writing systems used
(see § 2). Despite this, a surprising amount of information is to be found in these inscriptions, and more is being identified every year.
Ancient North Arabian was used by the settled peoples and nomads of central and north Arabia and by the nomads in what is now southern Syria and eastern and southern Jordan. It is attested in the following dialects (see Macdonald 2000:29–30, 32–36, 40–46): (i) Oasis North Arabian (ONA), consisting of Taymanitic, Dadanitic, Dumaitic, and Dispersed Oasis NorthArabian; (ii) Safaitic; (iii) Hismaic; (iv) Thamudic B, C, D, and “Southern Thamudic”; and, possibly, (v) Hasaitic.
Safaitic:
Taymanitic:
Taymanitic [formerly called 'Thamudic A'] is the name given to the ANA script used in the oasis of Taymāʾ (in north-west Saudi Arabia). This was an important stopping point on the caravan route from South Arabia to the Levant and Mesopotamia. The Taymanitic alphabet is probably mentioned as early as c. 800 BC when the regent of Carchemish (on what is now the Turkish-Syrian border) claimed to have learned it. About the same time an Assyrian official west of the Euphrates reported that he had ambushed a caravan of the people of Taymāʾ and Sabaʾ (an ancient South Arabian kingdom, Biblical ‘Sheba’) because it had tried to avoid paying tolls. There are two Taymanitic inscriptions dated to the mid-sixth century BC, since they mention the last king of Babylon, Nabonidus (556–539 BC), who spent ten years of his seventeen-year reign in Taymāʾ. One of these texts is illustrated here. At present, Taymanitic appears to have the same phonemic repertoire as Arabic except that it seems to lack letters for [ḏ] and [ẓ]. The majority of the texts are gravestones and graffiti and at present we have no — even indirect — evidence of the alphabet being used to write in ink. Taymanitic inscriptions and graffiti are found both within the oasis and in the surrounding desert.
Go to 12:00 to learn more about the Lihyanites, Gerrha and etc:
More about the North Arabian languages(both Arabic and old North Arabian languages):
http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/aalc/imag...th_arabian.pdf
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but your very own Arabic Islam destroyed your ancient heritage. If you want to revive your ancient glories, FIRST, get rid of Islam.
Originally Posted by FustanTheVlach
England
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