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Ancient North Arabian is a language known from fragmentary inscriptions in modern-day Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, dating to between roughly the 8th century BC and the 6th century AD, all written in scripts derived from Epigraphic South Arabian. Pre-classical Arabic (or Old Arabic), the predecessor of Classical Arabic, seems to have coexisted with these languages in central and north Arabia.〔Woodard, Roger D. (2008), ''Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia'', p. 180〕 However, Arabic remained exclusively a spoken language until it was first attested in an inscription in Qaryat al-Faw (formerly Qaryat Dhat Kahil, near Sulayyil, Saudi Arabia) in the 1st century BC.〔 ==Dialects== Ancient North Arabian includes a number of closely related extinct dialects of pre-Islamic Arabia, summarized as Ancient or Old North Arabian:〔 *Oasis North Arabian * *Dumaitic: Known from a few inscriptions found at the oasis of Sakakah * *Taymanitic: Known from hundreds of short inscriptions in and around the oasis of Tayma * *Dadanitic: Known from inscriptions at the oasis of Dadan (present day Al-`Ula, Saudi Arabia)). This dialect was formerly divided into Dedanite and Lihyanite based on the Dedan and Lihyan kingdoms respectively. Dadanitic is the only Ancient North Arabian dialect with a large numbers of surviving monumental inscriptions. * *Dispersed Oasis North Arabian: A catch-all category for brief texts from outside of Arabia, principally Mesopotamia, which used varieties of the Oasis North Arabian alphabet *Safaitic: Known from tens of thousands of graffiti concentrated in the Harrat Ash Shamah volcanic field in the Syro-Arabian desert *Hismaic: Known from inscriptions in the Hisma sand-desert of southern Jordan and northwest Saudi Arabia *Thamudic: An interim, catch-all category for inscriptions that don't belong to the categories above but are awaiting classification. These texts are roughly divided into Thamudic B, C, D, and Southern Thamudic. Taymanitic was formerly grouped as Thamudic A. Hismaic was formerly grouped as Thamudic E. *Hasaitic: Known from 40 or so inscriptions, mostly gravestones, at sites like Thāj and Qatif in the present day Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. It is provisionally considered an Ancient North Arabian dialect but unlike the others it used the Ancient South Arabian alphabet with minor adaptations. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ancient North Arabian」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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