Editing Sabaic (section)

== Script ==
Sabaic was written in the [[South Arabian alphabet]], and like [[Hebrew]] and [[Arabic]] marked only consonants, the only indication of vowels being with [[Mater lectionis|matres lectionis]]. For many years the only texts discovered were inscriptions in the formal Masnad script (Sabaic ''ms<sub>3</sub>nd''), but in 1973 documents in another minuscule and cursive script were discovered, dating back to the second half of the 1st century BC; only a few of the latter have so far been published.{{sfn|Kogan|Korotayev|1997|p=221}}

The South Arabian alphabet used in [[Yemen]], [[Eritrea]], [[Djibouti]], and [[Ethiopia]] beginning in the 8th century BC, in all three locations, later evolved into the still-in-use [[Geʽez script]]. The [[Geʽez|Geʽez language]] however is no longer considered to be a descendant of Sabaic or of [[Old South Arabian|Sayhadic]];<ref>Weninger, Stefan. "Ge'ez" in ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica'': D-Ha, p.732.</ref> and there is linguistic evidence that Semitic languages were concurrently in use, being spoken in Eritrea and Ethiopia as early as 2000 BC.<ref>Stuart, Munro-Hay (1991). ''Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity'' page 57. Edinburgh: University Press.</ref>

Sabaic is attested in some 1,040 dedicatory inscriptions, 850 building inscriptions, 200 legal texts, and 1300 short graffiti (containing only personal names).<ref name="ReferenceA">N. Nebes, P. Stein: Ancient South Arabian, in: Roger D. Woodard (Hrsg.): ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages''. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2004</ref> No literary texts of any length have yet been brought to light. This paucity of source material and the limited forms of the inscriptions has made it difficult to get a complete picture of Sabaic grammar. Thousands of inscriptions written in a cursive script (called ''Zabur'') incised into wooden sticks have been found and date to the Middle Sabaic period; these represent letters and legal documents and as such includes a much wider variety of grammatical forms.