Editing Sabaic (section)

== Varieties ==
*
* '''Sabaic''': the language of the kingdom of [[Sheba|Saba]] and later also of [[Himyar|Ḥimyar]]; also documented in the kingdom of [[Dʿmt|Da'amot]];<ref>A. Avanzini: ''Le iscrizioni sudarabiche d'Etiopia: un esempio di culture e lingue a contatto.'' In: ''Oriens antiquus'', 26 (1987), Seite 201–221</ref> very well documented, c. 6000 inscriptions
** '''Old Sabaic''': mostly [[boustrophedon]] inscriptions from the 9th until the 8th century BC and including further texts in the next two centuries from [[Ma'rib]] and the Highlands.<ref name="Avanzini 2006 253–260">{{cite journal|last=Avanzini|first=A|title=A Fresh Look at Sabaic|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|date=April–June 2006|volume=126|issue=2|pages=253–260|url=http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/509855185|access-date=2013-09-20}}</ref>
** '''Middle Sabaic''': 3rd century BC until the end of the 3rd century AD. The best-documented language.<ref name="Avanzini 2006 253–260" /> The largest corpus of texts from this period comes from the [[Awwam]] Temple (otherwise known as Maḥrem Bilqīs) in Ma'rib.
*** '''[[Amir (Arabia)|Amiritic]]'''/'''Ḥaramitic''': the language of the area to the north of Ma'īn<ref>{{cite journal|first=Peter |last=Stein |journal=Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft |title=Materialien zur sabäischen Dialektologie: Das Problem des amiritischen ("haramitischen") Dialektes |trans-title=Materials on Sabaean Dialectology: The Problem of the Amirite ("Haramite") Dialect |volume=157 |pages=13–47 |date=2007 |language=de}}</ref>
*** '''Central Sabaic''': the language of the inscriptions from the Sabaean heartland
*** '''South Sabaic''': the language of the inscriptions from [[Radman, Yemen|Radmān]] and [[Himyar|Ḥimyar]]
*** '''"Pseudo-Sabaic"''': the literary language of Arabian tribes in [[Najran|Najrān]], [[Haram (Yemen)|Ḥaram]] and [[Qaryat al-Faw|Qaryat al-Fāw]]
** '''Late Sabaic''': 4th–6th centuries AD.<ref name="Avanzini 2006 253–260" /> This is the monotheistic period when Christianity and Judaism brought Aramaic and Greek influences.
[[File:Rabibum Yakhdaf.jpg|thumb|Bronze plaque, written in Sabaic. A dedication from Rabibum Yakhdaf 𐩧𐩨𐩨𐩣 𐩡 𐩺𐩭𐩳𐩰]]
In the Late Sabaic period the ancient names of the gods are no longer mentioned and only one deity [[Raḥmānān]] is referred to. The last known inscription in Sabaic dates from 554 or 559 AD.<ref name="autogenerated1" /> The language's eventual extinction was brought about by the later rapid expansion of Islam, bringing with it [[Classical Arabic]] (or ''[[Mudhar|Muḍarī]]'' Arabic), which became the language of culture and writing, totally supplanting Sabaic.

The dialect used in the western Yemeni highlands, known as Central Sabaic, is very homogeneous and generally used as the language of the inscriptions. Divergent dialects are usually found in the area surrounding the Central Highlands, such as the important dialect of the city of [[Haram (Yemen)|Ḥaram]] in the eastern al-[[Al Jawf Governorate|Jawf]].<ref>Rebecca Hasselbach, Old South Arabian in Languages from the World of the Bible, edited by Holger Gzella</ref> Inscriptions in the [[Haramic|Ḥaramic]] dialect, which is heavily influenced by North Arabic,{{clarify|date=May 2025|reason=Ancient North Arabian, or Classical Arabic?}} are also generally considered a form of Sabaic. The [[Himyarites]], whose [[Himyaritic language|spoken language]] was Semitic but not South Arabian, used Sabaic as a written language.<ref>Norbert Nebes and Peter Stein, op. cit</ref>