Introduction
This page offers an introduction, including curated media resources and links, related to the study of Semitic languages from ancient Arabia, namely the so-called Ancient North Arabian (ANA, including Safaito-Arabic) and Old South Arabian (OSA) branches. Along with the Northwest Semitic languages, ANA and OSA are generally considered to belong to the Central Semitic branch.
ANA: The Ancient North Arabian languages are a group of Semitic languages written in over a dozen alphabetic scripts dating from the first millennium BCE and first centuries CE. The most important of these is Safaitic (written c. 500 BCE – 200 CE), a language closely related to Arabic (Al-Jallad 2019; 2022; 2025; Al-Jallad and Jaworska 2019. Other languages and scripts include Taymanitic (Kootstra 2016; Macdonald 2021; previously called Thamudic A), Thamudic B (Norris 2018), Jubbaitic (Al-Theeb 2000; Norris 2018), Thamudic C (Winnett 1937; Tsafrir 1996), “archaic” Thamudic C (Winnett and Reed 1973), Thamudic D (Al-Jallad 2025), Hasaitic (Sima 2002; Al-Jallad 2024), Himaitic (Robin and Gorea 2016; Prioletta 2018), Dumaitic (Winnett and Reed 1970; Norris 2018; Al-Jallad 2021; Macdonald 2023), Dadanitic (Sima 1999; Kootstra 2022), Hismaic (King 1990; Al-Jallad 2020; previously called Thamudic E), and “Unclassified Thamudic” (F, G, etc.).
OSA: Old South Arabian is the name given to a group of four or so related languages spoken in the southern portion of the Arabian peninsula (mostly modern Yemen and Oman; their relationship to the Modern South Arabian still spoken there today remains unclear, but they are likely not the direct ancestor languages). While the languages of these inscriptions (Sabaic, Qatabanic, Hadramitic, Minaic, and others) are likely Central Semitic, the script type is historically related to the Ethiopic (Ge’ez) abugida (alphasyllabary). Only Sabaic has been the subject of a grammar (Beeston 1984; Stein 2013). A. Prioletta’s (2004) unpublished dissertation addresses the Ḥaḍramitic inscriptions (see also Prioletta 2014 on Ḥaḍramitic lexicography). Qatabanic and Minaic remain understudied.
Resources (links)
OCIANA Database Project: The Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia (OCIANA: https://ociana.osu.edu/) “aims to help transform our knowledge of the history, languages and cultures of ancient Arabia by creating a digital corpus of all known Ancient North Arabian inscriptions in North and Central Arabia, and elsewhere.” Its Scientific Directors are Michael C. A. Macdonald (Oxford) and Ahmad Al-Jallad (Ohio State).
DASI: Description forthcoming.
DiCoNAB: Description forthcoming.