Samalian language

Not to be confused with Somali language.

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

Samalian
Native to	Samʼal
Extinct	1st millennium BC
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Northwest Semitic Aramoid? Samalian
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Linguist List	qey.html
Glottolog	sama1317

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.

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, or, together with the Deir Alla Inscription, a sister variety of Aramaic in an "Aramoid" or "Syrian" group.

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).
• loss of *ʔ in the word ḥd (< *ʔḥd) 'one'. This occurs sporadically also in biblical Hebrew and in the Phoenician dialect of Byblos.
• a change *ɬʼ > q, e.g. ʔrq 'earth', known as an orthographic device also in Old Aramaic (in later Aramaic, Proto-Semitic *ɬʼ shifts instead to /ʕ/).
• appearance of n for final m.

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; as well as an object marker wt, cognate with Aramean ləwāt 'with'.

See also

• Dialect continuum

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. ISBN 978-90-04-22943-3.
• 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. ISBN 978-90-04-28510-1.
• 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.