Editing Punic language (section)

{{Short description|Extinct ancient Phoenician language}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Punic
| altname          = Phoenicio-Punic, Carthaginian, Western Tyro-Sidonian
| image = Inscription Theatre Leptis Magna Libya.JPG
| imagecaption = One of the [[Tripolitania Punic inscriptions]], in both Latin (top) and Punic (bottom) script.
| region           = [[Tunisia]], coastal parts of [[Algeria]], [[Morocco]], southern [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberia]], [[Balearic islands]], [[Libya]], [[Malta]], western [[Sicily]], southern and eastern [[Sardinia]]
| era              = 8th century BC to 6th century AD
| script           = [[Phoenician alphabet]]
| familycolor      = Afro-Asiatic
| fam2             = [[Semitic languages|Semitic]]
| fam3             = [[West Semitic languages|West Semitic]]
| fam4             = [[Central Semitic languages|Central Semitic]]
| fam5             = [[Northwest Semitic languages|Northwest Semitic]]
| fam6             = [[Canaanite languages|Canaanite]]
| fam7             = [[Canaanite languages#North Canaan|North]]
| fam8             = [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]]
| fam9             = Tyro-Sidonian
| fam10            = Western
| ancestor         = [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]]
| iso3             = xpu
| linglist         = xpu
| glotto           = puni1241
| glottorefname    = Punic
| glotto2          = neop1239
| glottoname2      = Neo-Punic
}}
{{Contains special characters
| special    = Phoenician characters
| fix        = Help:Multilingual support
| error      = [[Specials (Unicode block)#Replacement character|question marks, empty boxes, or other symbols]]
| characters = the intended characters
| image      = Phoenician mem.svg
| alt        = Phoenician character mem
| link       = Specials (Unicode block)#Replacement character
| section    = article
| compact    = 
}}
The '''Punic language''', also called '''Phoenicio-Punic''' or '''Carthaginian''', is an extinct variety of the [[Phoenician language]], a [[Canaanite languages|Canaanite language]] of the [[Northwest Semitic languages|Northwest Semitic]] branch of the [[Semitic languages]]. An offshoot of the Phoenician language of coastal [[West Asia]] (modern [[Lebanon]] and north western [[Syria]]), it was principally spoken on the [[Mediterranean]] coast of [[Northwest Africa]], the [[Iberian Peninsula]]  and several [[List of islands in the Mediterranean|Mediterranean islands]], such as [[Malta]], [[Sicily]], and [[Sardinia]] by the [[Punic people]], or western [[Phoenicia]]ns, throughout [[classical antiquity]], from the 8th century BC to the 6th century AD.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1EEtmT9Tbj4C&pg=PA200|title=The Phoenicians|last=Moscati|first=Sabatino|date=2001|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=9781850435334|pages=200|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FFKPBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA139|title=L'Histoire des marques depuis l'antiquité jusqu'au moyen âge|last=Palma|first=Salvatore Di|date=2014-11-18|publisher=Société des Ecrivains|isbn=9782342031201|pages=139|language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RJIFAQAAIAAJ|title=Historie de l'Afrique du Nord|last=Jouhaud|first=Edmond Jules René|date=1968|publisher=Éditions des Deux Cogs d’Or|pages=22|language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a8dXDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT45|title=L'Afrique du Nord au féminin|last=Camps|first=Gabriel|date=1992|publisher=Perrin (réédition numérique FeniXX)|isbn=9782262057435|pages=45|language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BuV8DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA664|title=Politische Geschichte (Provinzen und Randvölker: Allgemeines; Britannien, Hispanien, Gallien)|editor-last=Temporini|editor-first=Hildegard|date=1975|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG|isbn=9783110882070|pages=664|language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M8oNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA50|title=Report on the Phœnician and Roman Antiquities in the Group of the Islands of Malta|last=Caruana|first=A. A.|date=1852|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|pages=50|language=en}}</ref>