@safaitic.bsky.social recently drew my attention to sll’s unusual sibilant correspondences. A hypothesis: The original root was *ṯll = ‘plunder‘. This: a] existed in Aramaic as tolal = ‘plunderer‘, hence תּוֹלָל in Psa. 137, b] was loaned into a Safaitic dialect where ṯ > t,…
@safaitic.bsky.social recently drew my attention to sll’s unusual sibilant correspondences. A hypothesis: The original root was *ṯll = ‘plunder‘. This: a] existed in Aramaic as tolal = ‘plunderer‘, hence תּוֹלָל in Psa. 137, b] was loaned into a Safaitic dialect where ṯ > t,…
An interesting attestation of s³fr = ‘write’ in Taymanitic. And evidence, to my mind, that Heb. sefer (‘book’), SPR = ‘to tell’, Phoen. mspr (‘number’), Ugar. SPR = ‘to count’, etc., go back to a root in *ts (s³), and that Akk. šapāru = ‘to write’ is distinct, from šapāru = ‘to send a message’.
Safaitic@safaitic.bsky.social · 4d ago#Update on #OCIANA: #Taymanitic is one of the most poorly understood epigraphic categories of Ancient Arabia. This inscription, previously misread as ṯfryzbd, a nonsensical string, is in fact: s³fr-h zbd 'Zabd wrote this', further demonstrating that the star/sun glyph = samek.
An interesting attestation of s³fr = ‘write’ in Taymanitic. And evidence, to my mind, that Heb. sefer (‘book’), SPR = ‘to tell’, Phoen. mspr (‘number’), Ugar. SPR = ‘to count’, etc., go back to a root in *ts (s³), and that Akk. šapāru = ‘to write’ is distinct, from šapāru = ‘to send a message’.
Safaitic@safaitic.bsky.social · 4d ago#Update on #OCIANA: #Taymanitic is one of the most poorly understood epigraphic categories of Ancient Arabia. This inscription, previously misread as ṯfryzbd, a nonsensical string, is in fact: s³fr-h zbd 'Zabd wrote this', further demonstrating that the star/sun glyph = samek.
A superb piece of work. Delighted that it’s being done, and that more inscriptions are being published all the time!
Safaitic@safaitic.bsky.social · 6d ago𝑱𝙪𝒔𝙩 𝙥𝒖𝙗𝒍𝙞𝒔𝙝𝒆𝙙! The 1st of 6 volumes: 𝐷𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐼𝑛𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐴𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑁𝑜𝑟𝑡ℎ 𝐴𝑟𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑎 Open Access at this link: tinyurl.com/5n7ht4nj. Nearly 2000 words, with citations and etymological commentary. More soon!
Where does the name Aaron (אַהֲרֹן) come from? I’m wondering if it could be a variation of the Egyptian Hrw-nfr (‘Fair day’?), but with the elements interpreted as plurals. That could then yield, say, *harúw-na(firuw) > *hərūnə > *ʾahrun > אַהֲרֹן. Does that work? pnm.uni-mainz.de/name/727
I was speaking to someone on here recently about a language that had borrowed a word for ‘finger’. Please reply with what strike you as odd examples of borrowing. I’ll start. Why did Safaitic speakers borrow a NW Semitic word for the desert (mdbr)? Not inexplicable, but odd.
Where does the name Aaron (אַהֲרֹן) come from? I’m wondering if it could be a variation of the Egyptian Hrw-nfr (‘Fair day’?), but with the elements interpreted as plurals. That could then yield, say, *harúw-na(firuw) > *hərūnə > *ʾahrun > אַהֲרֹן. Does that work? pnm.uni-mainz.de/name/727
from Enno Littmann, /Sabäische, griechische, altabessinische Inschriften/ vol. 4, p. 70
Syriac attests ˁarpellā = ‘cloud’. This seems closely related to the Hebrew עֲרָפֶל, since עֲרָפֶל’s final segol-lamed goes back to *-ill. But what about the qametz? Could it be an un-Canaanite-Shifted broken plural—ˁarāpill?
#Question for learned colleagues. This comes from NE Jordan. The potent cross carved below could be as early as the 4th century, but is it possible to date the 'dotted' cross? Art history is very far outside my area of expertise, but the answers could be helpful in interpreting the site...
Some dialectal words for the hedgehog together with possible cognates in Classical Arabic, just because.
Some dialectal words for the hedgehog together with possible cognates in Classical Arabic, just because.
Looking at a paper on Ancient Egyptian language interaction. To my mind, ⟨ḏ⟩ ends up corresponding to far too many things. I’m happy enough with: /z/: ḏr.t ~ זֶרֶת = ‘span’, /ṣ/: ḏbꜥ ~ אצבע = ‘finger’, /ṭ/: ḏbꜥ ~ טבעת = ‘seal’, /s/: zjr ~ סִיר ~ زِير = ‘bowl’ (my claim), and /t/: ḏbꜢ.t ~ תֵּבָה = ‘ark’.
Looking at a paper on Ancient Egyptian language interaction. To my mind, ⟨ḏ⟩ ends up corresponding to far too many things. I’m happy enough with: /z/: ḏr.t ~ זֶרֶת = ‘span’, /ṣ/: ḏbꜥ ~ אצבע = ‘finger’, /ṭ/: ḏbꜥ ~ טבעת = ‘seal’, /s/: zjr ~ סִיר ~ زِير = ‘bowl’ (my claim), and /t/: ḏbꜢ.t ~ תֵּבָה = ‘ark’.
If anyone is aware of early references to the rainbow as made up of a particular number of colours, please let me know. Intrigued to know if its ‘sevenfoldness’ is a relatively modern idea.
Safaitic names in NʿM have notably different suffixes to others, in part perhaps reflecting the popularity of the name Nuʿmān? If anyone has bright ideas as to why, I'd be keen to know.
New book - "The Khoiak Festival: A Glimpse into Ancient Egyptian Festival Practice," by Dr. Ann-Katrin Gill. Per description, "The first comprehensive analysis of... one of the most important festivals in ancient Egypt." #Egyptology #AncientBlueSky www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/The_Khoiak_F...
The Khoiak Festival
Buch | Harrassowitz Verlag
harrassowitz-verlag.de
Anyone aware of good studies on quadriliteral formation in Semitics? Thinking about Hebrew, there seem to be some observable patterns. E.g., many have r/l as a second letter: גלמוד = ‘barren’ (جرد = ‘hard’?), זלעפה = ‘scorching wind’ (root זע׳׳ף?), גלבוע (name of a mountain, root גב׳׳ע?),…
The Hebrew שֶׁנְהַבִּים (‘a tooth of elephants’) seems to be a kind of loanblend—Semitic ‘tooth’ (שֵׁן/שִׁנַּיִם) plus Egyptian Ꜣbw (‘elephant’, which is why Elephantine is called Yev today). Egyptian Ꜣ > Hebrew h is odd. Could the unusual name Shinab (שִׁנְאָב) reflect a more standard correspondence?
There used to be rhinoceroses in what is now the Sahara desert , and the people who lived there depicted them on stones !
An interesting phenomenon for ignorant Semiticist folk such as myself: s > h in Ancient Greek.
Darin Flynn@phono-logical.bsky.social · 4mo ago“Two /h/s. On debuccalisation in Ancient Greek” by Adèle Jatteau (July ’26) radical.cnrs.fr/jatteau-two-...
BES26 has concluded. Incredible new discoveries. Some will go directly up on OCIANA and others will require full-length publications. Stay tuned.
I keep coming across the word תקף = ‘deed of entitlement’ in Nabataean inscriptions. This reminds me of Daniel’s לְקַיָּמָה קְיָם וּלְתַקָּפָה אֱסָר (‘decreeing a decree, enforcing an obligation’). Question: Since תק׳׳ף means ‘to strengthen’, is the otherwise unusual להגביר ברית (Dan. 9.27) an Aramaic calque?
Rather intrigued by the word שְׁקַעֲרוּרָה—‘a dip/hollow’. Sort of looks like שק׳׳ע = ‘to sink’ combined with ق-ع-ر = ‘to be deep, hollowed out’. Is this a thing in Semitics?—a portmanteau? One that comes to mind from modern Hebrew is דחפור = ‘bulldozer’, combining דח׳׳ף = ‘push’ and חפ׳׳ר = ‘dig’.
