Editing Edomite language (section)

{{Short description|Ancient Semitic language of Edom (Jordan)}}{{Cleanup lang|date=November 2024|iso=xdm}}{{Infobox language
| name             = Edomite
| region           = [[Idumea]] (modern-day southwestern [[Jordan]] and southern [[Israel]])
| era              = early 1st millennium BCE
| ref              = linglist
| familycolor      = Afro-Asiatic
| fam2             = [[Semitic languages|Semitic]]
| fam3             = [[West Semitic languages|West]]
| fam4             = [[Central Semitic languages|Central]]
| fam5             = [[Northwest Semitic languages|Northwest]]
| fam6             = [[Canaanite languages|Canaanite]]
| fam7             = [[Canaanite languages#South Canaan|South]]
| iso3             = xdm
| linglist         = xdm
| glotto           = edom1234
| glottorefname    = Edomite
| states           = [[Edom]]
| ethnicity        = Edomites
}}
'''Edomite''' is a [[Northwest Semitic languages|Northwest Semitic]] [[Canaanite language]], very similar to [[Biblical Hebrew]], [[Ekronite language|Ekronite]], [[Ammonite language|Ammonite]], [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]], [[Amorite language|Amorite]] and [[Sutean language|Sutean]], spoken by the [[Edomites]] in [[Idumea]] (modern-day southwestern [[Jordan]] and parts of [[Israel]]) in the 2nd and 1st millennium BCE. It is extinct and known only from an [[Ancient text corpora|extremely small corpus]],<ref name="EHLL 2013">{{cite encyclopedia |author-last=Lemaire |author-first=André |author-link=André Lemaire |year=2013 |title=Edomite and Hebrew |editor1-last=Khan |editor1-first=Geoffrey |editor1-link=Geoffrey Khan |editor2-last=Bolozky |editor2-first=Shmuel |editor3-last=Fassberg |editor3-first=Steven |editor4-last=Rendsburg |editor4-first=Gary A. |editor4-link=Gary A. Rendsburg |editor5-last=Rubin |editor5-first=Aaron D. |editor5-link=Aaron D. Rubin |editor6-last=Schwarzwald |editor6-first=Ora R. |editor7-last=Zewi |editor7-first=Tamar |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics |location=[[Leiden]] and [[Boston]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |doi=10.1163/2212-4241_ehll_EHLL_COM_00000499 |isbn=978-90-04-17642-3}}</ref> attested in a scant number of [[impression seal]]s, [[ostraca]], and a single late 7th or early 6th century BCE letter, discovered in [[Horvat Uza]].<ref name="EHLL 2013"/><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wilson-Wright|first=Aren M.|date=2019|title=The Canaanite Languages|url=https://sites.utexas.edu/scripts/files/2020/10/2019-AWW-The-Canaanite-Languages.pdf|journal=The Semitic Languages. London, Routledge|pages=509–532|doi=10.4324/9780429025563-20 |isbn=9780429025563 |s2cid=189509857 |via=utexas.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Vanderhooft|first=David S.|title="The Edomite Dialect and Script: A Review of Evidence"|year=1995|pages=142}}</ref><ref name="Young 2011">{{cite book | last=Young | first=I. | title=Diversity in Pre-Exilic Hebrew | publisher=Eisenbrauns | series=Forschungen zum Alten Testament | year=2011 | isbn=978-3-16-151676-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T2WgeomUlVkC | access-date=2023-06-03 | page=39|quote=While we were fortunate enough to have a major inscription, the Mesha Stone, for Moabite, we are much less fortunate as regards Edomite. Here we are reliant on a few short and fragmentary inscriptions and a number of seals.}}</ref>

Like [[Moabite language|Moabite]], but unlike Hebrew, it retained the feminine ending ''-t'' in the singular [[absolute state]]. In early times, it seems to have been written with a [[Phoenician alphabet]]. However, by the 6th century BCE, it adopted the [[Aramaic alphabet]]. Meanwhile, [[Aramaic]] or [[Arabic]] features such as ''whb'' ("gave") and ''tgr/tcr'' ("merchant") entered the language, with ''whb'' becoming especially common in proper names.{{cn|date=May 2021}} Like many other Canaanite languages, Edomite features a prefixed definite article derived from the presentative particle (for example as in ''h-ʔkl'' ‘the food’). The [[diphthong]] /aw/ contracted to [[Mid back rounded vowel|/o/]] between the 7th and 5th century BCE, as foreign transcriptions of the divine name "[[Qos (deity)|Qos]]" indicate a transition in pronunciation from ''Qāws'' to ''Qôs''.<ref>{{cite book | author = W. Randall Garr | date = 2004 | title = Dialect Geography of Syria-Palestine, 1000-586 B.C.E. | publisher = Eisenbrauns | pages = 35| isbn = 978-1-57506-091-0 | oclc = 1025228731 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=02DaEkaJizMC}}</ref>