Old South Arabic
Encyclopedia : O : OL : OLD : Old South Arabic
Old South Arabic is the term used for four closely related languages spoken in the southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. These languages are distinct from Classical Arabic. The four languages are Sabaean, Minaean, Qatabanian, and Hadramautic. Together with the Ethiopic language, they form the western branch of the South Semitic languages.
Old South Arabic had its own writing system, the South Arabian alphabet, ultimately sharing a common origin with the other Semitic abjads, the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet.
The arrival of Islam virtually disintegrated Old South Arabic, as Classical Arabic became the lingua franca of the region. Today, Old South Arabic exists in a few ancient texts. It has contributed to the local Arabic dialects of the region in much of the same way that Coptic has contributed to the Egyptian dialect of Arabic.
See also
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.