Talk:Melite (ancient city)

Latest comment: 7 months ago by LlywelynII in topic Punic name

Punic name

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The name Filigheddu gives ('NN, confirmed here) certainly shouldn't be transcribed as "Maleth", which is presumably MLṬ. Are there inscriptions that support that name for the town? Was it a different name for the same settlement or a different settlement in the same area? — LlywelynII 21:16, 10 December 2018 (UTC)Reply

I am right now looking into it and Culican, W. (1992) in "Phoenicia and Phoenician colonization" suggests 'NN to be "Ann". This would be reasonable as ' often becomes A in Punic transliterations, however Punic being semitic it is reasonable to assume there might be other vowels lost in time (certainly possible between two consonants like NN in this case). 89.206.112.13 (talk) 08:30, 30 March 2023 (UTC)Reply
@89.206.112.13: Ugh. This is going to be a pain to clean up here, at Mdina, at Malta, at Template:Phoenician cities and colonies, and probably other places around the site. The Roman name for the island and this to-them-most-important city was Melita but the Punic name of the island and this base was some version of 'NN. Melita came from the Greek for the Punic for MLṬ which referred to the Grand Harbor and the to-the-Phoenicians-most-important city of Cospicua on its shore. See Talk:Malta for cite. — LlywelynII 03:42, 7 April 2024 (UTC)Reply

Sources for future article expansion

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This article

  • Vassallo, Bernard (29 September 2013), "21 Catacombs and Tombs outside Melita's Walls", Times of Malta.

includes population estimates and boundaries for the Roman city, whose general layout is apparently known. — LlywelynII 01:07, 11 December 2018 (UTC)Reply