Editing Meroitic language (section)

==Location and period of attestation==
The Meroitic period began ca. 300 BC and ended ca. 350 AD. Most attestations of the Meroitic language, via native inscriptions, hail from this period, though some attestations pre- and post-date this period. The Kushite territory stretched from the area of the [[First Cataract of the Nile]] to the Khartoum area of Sudan.<ref>Egyptian rulers recognized the 1st Cataract of the Nile as the natural southern border of ancient Egypt. — Bianchi, Robert Steven. ''Daily Life of the Nubians''. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2004. p.6.</ref> It can be assumed that speakers of Meroitic covered much of that territory based on the language contact evidenced in Egyptian texts. Attestations of Meroitic in Egyptian texts, span across the [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]], the [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]], and the late [[Third Intermediate Period of Egypt|3rd Intermediate]], [[Late Period of ancient Egypt|Late]], [[Ptolemaic Kingdom|Ptolemaic]], and [[Egypt (Roman province)|Roman]] periods – respectively corresponding to the Kushite [[Kerma culture|Kerman]] (ca. 2600–ca. 1500 BC),<ref>Louis Chaix (2017). Chapter 26: Cattle, A Major Component of the Kerma Culture (Sudan). In: Umberto Albarella with Mauro Rizzetto, Hannah Russ, Kim Vickers, and Sarah Viner-Daniels, eds. ''The Oxford Handbook of Zooarchaeology'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017, xxii and 839 pp., 126 figs, 40 tables, online supplementary material, {{ISBN|978-0-19-968647-6}}). p. 414.</ref> [[Napata]]n (ca. 900/750–ca. 300 BC), and Meroitic periods.<ref>"Meroitic was the main language spoken in northern Sudan not only during the time of the Kingdom of Meroe (c. 300 BC–350 AD), after which it is named, but probably from as early as the time of the Kingdom of Kerma (2500–1500 BC), as is suggested by a list of personal names transcribed in Egyptian on Papyrus Golenischeff (Rilly 2007b). Similar transcriptions of early Meroitic names are known from some Egyptian texts of the New Kingdom, but such names occur with particular frequency with the rise of the Kushite 25th Dynasty and its Napatan successor state (664–ca. 300 BC), since the birth names of rulers and other members of the royal family were necessarily written in Egyptian documents. These Napatan transcriptions in Egyptian paved the way for the emergence of a local writing around the second half of the third century BC." – Claude Rilly (2016). "Meroitic" in ''UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology''. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3128r3sw. p. 1</ref> The Meroitic toponym {{angbr|qes}}, {{angbr|qos}}, as well as Meroitic anthroponyms, are attested as early as Middle Kingdom Egypt's [[Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt|12th Dynasty]] (ca. 2000 BC) in the Egyptian [[execration texts]] concerning [[Kerma]].<ref>Claude Rilly (2011). Recent Research on Meroitic, the Ancient Language of Sudan. http://www.ityopis.org/Issues-1_files/ITYOPIS-I-Rilly.pdf. Under the sub-heading – The original cradle of Proto-NES: chronological and palaeoclimatic issues. p. 18</ref><ref>Claude Rilly (2007). La langue du royaume de Méroé, Un panorama de la plus ancienne culture écrite d'Afrique subsaharienne, Paris: Champion (Bibliothèque de l'École pratique des hautes études, Sciences historiques et philologiques, t. 344)</ref><ref>Claude Rilly (2004). THE LINGUISTIC POSITION OF MEROITIC. http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/projets/clhass/PageWeb/ressources/Isolats/Meroitic%20Rilly%202004.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923213222/http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/projets/clhass/PageWeb/ressources/Isolats/Meroitic%20Rilly%202004.pdf |date=2015-09-23 }}. p. 1</ref><ref>Ahmed Abuelgasim Elhassan. ''Religious Motifs in Meroitic Painted and Stamped Pottery''. Oxford, England: John and Erica Hedges Ltd., 2004. xii, 176 p. BAR international series. p.1.</ref> Meroitic names and phrases appear in the New Kingdom [[Book of the Dead]] (Book of Coming Forth by Day) in the "Nubian" chapters or spells (162–165).<ref>Leonard Lesko (2003). "Nubian Influence on the Later Versions of the Books of the Dead", in: Zahi Hawass (ed.), ''Egyptology at the Dawn of the Twenty-first Century: Proceedings of the Eight International Congress of Egyptologists''. Cairo 2003. vol. 1,314–318. https://www.academia.edu/36035303/Nubian_Influence_on_the_Later_Versions_of_the_Book_of_the_Dead</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.jebelbarkal.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=75&Itemid=68 | title=III. G. Jebel Barkal in the Book of the Dead | access-date=2018-06-23 | archive-date=2018-06-23 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623141303/http://www.jebelbarkal.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=75&Itemid=68 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>Leonard Lesko (1999). "Some Further Thoughts on Chapter 162 of the Book of the Dead", in: Emily Teeter and John A. Larson (eds.), ''Gold of Praise: Studies on Ancient Egypt in Honor of Edward F. Wente''. SAOC 58. Chicago 158 1999, 255–59.</ref><ref>Leonard Lesko (2006). "On Some Aspects of the Books of the Dead from the Ptolemaic Period". ''Aegyptus et Pannonia'' 3 2006. pp. 151 -159. https://www.academia.edu/36035302/ON_SOME_ASPECTS_OF_THE_BOOKS_OF_THE_DEAD_FROM_THE_PTOLEMAIC_PERIOD</ref> Meroitic names and lexical items, in Egyptian texts, are most frequently attested during Napatan Kushite control of some or all parts of Egypt<ref>Peust, Carsten (1999). "Das Napatanische: Ein ägyptischer Dialekt aus dem Nubien des späten ersten vorchristlichen Jahrtausends". ''Monographien zur Ägyptischen Sprache'' 3. Göttingen: Peust & Gutschmidt Verlag. http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/peust1999a</ref> in the late 3rd Intermediate and Late Periods (ca. 750–656 BC).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Buzon |first1=Michele R. |last2=Smith |first2=Stuart Tyson |last3=Simonetti |first3=Antonio |title=Entanglement and the Formation of the Ancient Nubian Napatan State |journal=American Anthropologist |date=June 2016 |volume=118 |issue=2 |pages=284–300 |doi=10.1111/aman.12524 |s2cid=46989272 |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9w47c8hj }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Buzon |first1=Michele R. |title=Tombos during the Napatan period (~750–660 BC): Exploring the consequences of sociopolitical transitions in ancient Nubia |journal=International Journal of Paleopathology |date=December 2014 |volume=7 |pages=1–7 |doi=10.1016/j.ijpp.2014.05.002 |pmid=29539485 }}</ref> Both the Meroitic Period and the Kingdom of Kush itself ended with the fall of Meroë (ca. 350 AD), but use of the Meroitic language continued for a time after that event<ref name=Rilly2008>{{cite book |doi=10.31338/UW.9788323533269.PP.211-226 |chapter=Enemy brothers. Kinship and relationship between Meroites and Nubians (Noba) |title=Between the Cataracts. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference for Nubian Studies Warsaw University 27 August-2 September 2006. Part 1. Main Papers |year=2008 |last1=Rilly |first1=Claude |isbn=978-83-235-3326-9 |s2cid=150559888 }}</ref> as there are detectable Meroitic [[wikt:lexeme|lexemes]] and morphological features in [[Old Nubian]]. Two examples are: Meroitic: {{angbr|m(a)s(a)-l(a)}}<ref>masa (sun) + la (determinant)</ref> "the sun" → Old Nubian: ''mašal'' "sun"<ref name=Rilly2008/><ref>MEROITES AND NUBIANS: TERRITORY AND CONFLICTS: 2.5. Traces of extinct languages in Nile Nubian, p. 222 — https://www.academia.edu/36487671/Claude_Rilly_ENEMY_BROTHERS._KINSHIP_AND_RELATIONSHIP_BETWEEN_MEROITES_AND_NUBIANS_NOBA. There is also Ken(u)z(i): ''masil''. See http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\esu\nub&first=1&off=&text_word=sun for Ken(u)z(i). Further notes, Midob: *massal — proto-Nubian: */b/ or */m/ → Midob: /p/ and Midob: /l/ → /r/.</ref> and Old Nubian: ''-lo'' (focus particle) ← Meroitic: -{{angbr|lo}} which is made up two morphemes, -{{angbr|l(a)}} (determinant) + {{angbr|o}} (copula).<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511920028.006 |chapter=Grammar |title=The Meroitic Language and Writing System |year=2012 |last1=Rilly |first1=Claude |last2=De Voogt |first2=Alex |pages=132–173 |isbn=978-0-511-92002-8 }}</ref> The language likely became fully extinct by the 6th century when it was supplanted by [[Medieval Greek|Byzantine Greek]], [[Coptic language|Coptic]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Khalil |first1=Mokhtar |last2=Miller |first2=Catherine |title=Old Nubian and Language Uses in Nubia |journal=Égypte/Monde arabe |date=31 December 1996 |issue=27–28 |pages=67–76 |doi=10.4000/ema.1032 |doi-access=free }}</ref> and [[Old Nubian]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ochała |first1=Grzegorz |title=Multilingualism in Christian Nubia: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches |journal=Dotawo: A Journal of Nubian Studies |date=10 June 2014 |volume=1 |issue=1 |doi=10.5070/D61110007 |s2cid=128122460 |url=https://escholarship.org/content/qt1pz103c0/qt1pz103c0.pdf?t=pr4u2t |doi-access=free }}</ref>