Meroitic language

Meroitic language
Meroitic
Spoken in Sudan
Region Meroë
Extinct ~400 CE
Language family
Writing system Meroitic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3 xmr
Meroitic funerary stele of Waleye, son or daughter of Kadeye, from Saï, North Sudan, now at the British Museum.

The Meroitic language was spoken in Meroë and the Sudan during the Meroitic period (attested from 300 BCE) and went extinct about 400 CE. It was written in two forms of the Meroitic alphabet: Meroitic Cursive, which was written with a stylus and was used for general record-keeping; and Meroitic Hieroglyphic, which was carved in stone or used for royal or religious documents. It is poorly understood owing to the scarcity of bilingual texts.

The classification of Meroitic has long been uncertain due to the scarcity of data. Kirsty Rowan (2006) argued for an Afroasiatic classification of Meroitic, based on compatibility constraints and patterns of consonantal dissimilation that is characteristic of Afroasiatic languages.[1] Claude Rilly (French pronunciation: [ʁiji]) (2007) convinced the annual Nilo-Saharan Conference that Meroitic is an Eastern Sudanic language, closest to Nubian and other similar languages.

References

  1. ^ Rowan, Kirsty (2006). "Meroitic – an Afroasiatic language?" (PDF). SOAS Working Papers in Linguistics. pp. 14: 169–206. http://www.soas.ac.uk/linguistics/research/workingpapers/volume-14/file37822.pdf. Retrieved 2008-11-15. 

Bibliography



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