Samalian language

Extinct Northwest Semitic language of the northern Levant

Samalian was a Semitic language spoken and first attested in Samʼal.

Samalian is primarily known from three inscriptions, the Hadad Statue and the Panamuwa II inscription (KAI 214–215), both unearthed in the late 19th century, and a third known as the Kuttamuwa stele, unearthed in 2008.^[1]

Classification

Among the Semitic languages, Samalian shows most similarities to Aramaic. It has been earlier often considered an outright early dialect of Aramaic, possibly influenced by Canaanite. Strong evidence is however absent, and Samalian is best considered an independent member of the Northwest Semitic group,^[2][3] or, together with the Deir Alla Inscription, a sister variety of Aramaic in an "Aramoid" or "Syrian" group.^[2][4]

Linguistic features

Features connecting Samalian with Aramaic include:

• a change *n > r in the word br 'son', though this is attested only as a part of personal names and may not have been the native word. The same phenomenon appears also in a Phoenician text from Sam'al (the Kilamuwa Stela).^[5][6]
• loss of *ʔ in the word ḥd (< *ʔḥd) 'one'.^[5] This occurs sporadically also in biblical Hebrew and in the Phoenician dialect of Byblos.^[6]
• a change *ɬʼ > q, e.g. ʔrq 'earth', known as an orthographic device also in Old Aramaic^[5] (in later Aramaic, Proto-Semitic *ɬʼ shifts instead to /ʕ/).
• appearance of n for final m.^[5]

Pat-El & Wilson-Wright propose as additional general characteristics of Samalian the development of nasal vowels, as expected word-final n after long vowels is systematically absent in the Panamuwa inscriptions;^[7] as well as an object marker wt, cognate with Aramean ləwāt 'with'.^[8]

See also

• Dialect continuum

Notes

1. Pat-El & Wilson-Wright 2019, p. 372.
2. Huehnergard 1995, p. 282.
3. Pat-El & Wilson-Wright 2019.
4. Kogan 2015, p. 601.
5. Huehnergard 1995, p. 278.
6. Pat-El & Wilson-Wright 2019, p. 374.
7. Pat-El & Wilson-Wright 2019, pp. 380–381.
8. Pat-El & Wilson-Wright 2019, p. 383.

References

• Huehnergard, John (1995), "What is Aramaic?", ARAM Periodical, 7 (2): 261–282, doi:10.2143/ARAM.7.2.2002231
• Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic, de Gruyter
• Pat-El, Na'ama; Wilson-Wright, Aren (2019), "The subgrouping of Samalian: Arguments in favor of an independent branch", Maarav, 23 (2): 371–387

Further reading

• Dion, Paul-E. (1978). "The Language Spoken in Ancient Samʾal". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 37 (2): 115–18. JSTOR 545138. Accessed 6 July 2023.
• Giusfredi, Federico; Pisaniello, Valerio (2021). "THE POPULATION, THE LANGUAGE AND THE HISTORY OF YADIYA/SAM'AL". In Payne, Annick; Velhartická, Šárka; Wintjes, Jorit (eds.). Beyond All Boundaries: Anatolia in the First Millennium BC. Peeters Publishers. pp. 189–223. doi:10.2307/j.ctv2tjd71x.12.
• Gzella, Holger (2014). "Language and Script". In Niehr, Herbert (ed.). The Aramaeans in Ancient Syria. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Vol. 106. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. pp. 71–107. doi:10.1163/9789004229433_005.
• Gzella, Holger (2015). "The Emergence of Aramaic Dialects in the Fertile Crescent". A Cultural History of Aramaic. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. pp. 72–77. doi:10.1163/9789004285101_003.
• Lemaire, André; Sass, Benjamin (2013). "The Mortuary Stele with Samʾalian Inscription from Ördekburnu near Zincirli". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 369: 57–136. doi:10.5615/bullamerschoorie.369.0057. Accessed 6 July 2023.
• Noorlander, Paul (2012). "Sam'alian in Its Northwest Semitic Setting: A Historical-Comparative Approach". Orientalia. 81 (3): 202–38. JSTOR 43077430. Accessed 6 July 2023.