Taymanitic


Taymanitic is the language and script of the oasis of Taymāʾ in northwestern Arabia, dated to the second half of the 6th century BCE.

Classification

Taymanitic does not participate in the key innovations of Proto-Arabic, precluding it from being considered a member of the Arabic language family. It shares one key isogloss with Northwest Semitic: the change w > y in word-initial position. Examples include yrḫ for *warḫum 'moon, month' and ydʿ for wadaʿa 'to know'.
It is clear that Taymanitic script expressed a distinct linguistic variety that is not Arabic and not closely related to Hismaic or Safaitic, while it can tentatively be suggested that it was more closely related to Northwest Semitic.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Closer component
is front		Closer component
is back
Opener component is unrounded

Characteristics

Taymanitic exhibits two major features which are innovative:
  1. The change w > y in word-initial position: yrḫ for *warḫum 'moon, month' and ydʿ for wadaʿa 'to know'.
  2. The mergers *z, *ḏ > *z, *s3, *ṯ > *s3, and *ṣ, *ẓ > *ṣ.
Unlike Arabic, Taymanitic does not exhibit the merger of Proto-Semitic and .