Editing Moabite language (section)

== Grammar ==
The main features distinguishing Moabite from fellow Canaanite languages such as [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]] are: a plural in ''-în'' rather than ''-îm'' (e.g. ''mlkn'' "kings" for [[Biblical Hebrew]] ''məlākîm''), like [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] (also Northwest Semitic) and [[Arabic]] (Central Semitic); retention of the feminine ending ''-at'' or "-ah", which Biblical Hebrew reduces to ''-āh'' only (e.g. ''qiryat'' or ''qiryah'', "town", Biblical Hebrew ''qiryāh'') but retains in the construct state nominal form (e.g. ''qiryát yisrael'' "town of Israel"); and retention of a verb form with infixed ''-t-'', also found in Arabic and [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] (''w-’ltḥm'' "I began to fight", from the root ''lḥm''). Vowel values and diphthongs, which had potential to vary wildly between Semitic languages, were also largely typical of other Semitic tongues: there is inconsistent evidence to suggest that ''ā'' shifted to ''ō'' much like in Hebrew and later Phoenician, at the same time, there is evidence to suggest that the diphthongs /aw/ and /ay/ eventually contracted to ''ō'' and ''ē'', another characteristic shared by Hebrew and later Phoenician.<ref name=":0">{{cite book | author = W. Randall Garr | date = 2004 | title = Dialect Geography of Syria-Palestine, 1000–586 B.C.E. | publisher = Eisenbrauns | pages = 31–39| isbn = 978-1-57506-091-0 | oclc = 1025228731 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=02DaEkaJizMC}}</ref> Moabite differed only dialectally from Hebrew, and Moabite religion and culture was related to that of the [[Israelites]].<ref>{{Cite news |title=Moabite {{!}} people |language=en |work=Encyclopedia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Moabite |access-date=2018-04-13}}</ref>  On the other hand, although Moabite itself had begun to diverge, the script used in the 9th century BC did not differ from the script used in Hebrew inscriptions at that time.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sök på Google |url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0805446796 |access-date=2018-04-13 |language=sv-US}}</ref>

=== Arrows ===
In numbered examples, non-Roman script representations are signaled by arrows, namely ⟶ or ⟵, to indicate the text's direction of writing as it is presented in the volume. As for Ugaritic, Hebrew (epigraphic and Tiberian), Phoenician, and Moabite, the arrow will typically point in the same direction as the original writing.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crellin |first=Robert S. D. |title=The Semantics of Word Division in Northwest Semitic Writing Systems |publisher=Oxbow Books  |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-78925-678-9 |location=United Kingdom |page=53 |language=English}}</ref>

=== Numerals ===
The absolute numeral precedes singular (collective) nouns, for instance “thirty years” is expressed as “šlšn.št” in line 2 of [[Kanaanäische und Aramäische Inschriften|KAI]]; it has been transliterated as well as translated by Alvierra Niccani. Others are followed by a plural noun. Numeral phrases can stand in apposition with a noun (phrase) coming before or after. This is seen in KAI's line 17: “ymh.wḥṣy.ymy.bnh.’rb’nšt,” meaning, “his days and half the days of his son, for forty years.”<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last=Anderson |first=Francis I. |date=1966 |title=Moabite Syntax |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/43073932 |journal=Orentalia |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=81–120 |jstor=43073932 }}</ref>