Editing Punic language (section)

===Neo-Punic===
Neo-Punic refers to the dialect of Punic spoken after the fall of Carthage and after the Roman conquest of the former Punic territories in 146 BC. The dialect differed from the earlier Punic language, as is evident from divergent spelling compared to earlier Punic and by the use of non-Semitic names, mostly of [[Libyco-Berber]] or [[Iberian language|Iberian]] origin. The difference was due to the dialectal changes that Punic underwent as it spread among the northern [[Berber peoples]].<ref name="Jongeling & Kerr">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oYWnSUaslXYC&q=neo-punic&pg=PP1 |title=Late Punic Epigraphy: An Introduction to the Study of Neo-Punic and Latino-Punic Inscriptions |first1=Karel |last1=Jongeling |first2=Robert M. |last2=Kerr |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |year=2005 |isbn=978-3-1614-8728-6 }}</ref>  [[Sallust]] (86 – 34 BC) claims Punic was "altered by their intermarriages with the [[Numidians]]".<ref>Sall. Iug. 78</ref> That account agrees with other evidence found to suggest a North African Berber influence on Punic, such as Libyco-Berber names in the [[Onomasticon (Eusebius)|''Onomasticon'' of Eusebius]].{{ambiguous |date=October 2015}} Neo-Punic is mostly known from inscriptions, including ''Lepcis Magna N 19'' (= [[Tripolitania Punic inscriptions|''KAI'' 124]]; 92 AD).
[[File:Roman provincial languages 150CE.png|thumb|Map of the regional [[languages of the Roman Empire]] {{circa|150 AD}}]]
Around the fourth century AD, Punic was still spoken in what is now northern parts of [[Tunisia]] and [[Algeria]], other parts of Northwest Africa, and the [[Mediterranean]]. A version of Punic, known as ''Latino-Punic'' was written in the Latin alphabet and is known from seventy texts. These texts include the 1st-century ''Zliten LP1'' and the second century ''Lepcis Magna LP1''.{{clarify |date=July 2015}} They were even written as late as the 4th century, ''Bir ed-Dreder LP2''. [[Augustine of Hippo]] (d. 430) is generally considered the last major ancient writer to have some knowledge of Punic and is considered the "primary source on the survival of [late] Punic". According to him, Punic was still spoken in his region (Northern Africa) in the 5th century, centuries after the fall of Carthage, and there were still people who called themselves "chanani" ("[[Canaan]]ite") at that time.<ref name="Jongeling & Kerr"/>{{rp|4}} He wrote around 401:

{{blockquote|And if the Punic language is rejected by you, you virtually deny what has been admitted by most learned men, that many things have been wisely preserved from oblivion in books written in the Punic tongue. Nay, you ought even to be ashamed of having been born in the country in which the cradle of this language is still warm.<ref>{{citation |author=Augustine of Hippo|title=Epistola 17|trans-title=Letter 17 |url=http://www.augustinus.it/latino/lettere/lettera_017_testo.htm|work={{lang|it|Sant'Agostino — Nuova Biblioteca Agostiniana|nocat=yes}}|editor-first=Franco |editor-last=Monteverde |author-link=Augustine of Hippo}}</ref>
}}

Besides Augustine, the only proof of Punic-speaking communities at such a late period is a series of trilingual [[funerary text]]s found in the Christian [[catacombs]] of [[Sirte]], [[Libya]]: the gravestones are carved in [[Ancient Greek]], [[Latin]] and Punic. It might have even survived the [[Muslim conquest of the Maghreb]], as the geographer [[al-Bakri]] describes a people speaking a language that was not [[Berber languages|Berber]], Latin or [[Coptic language|Coptic]] in [[Sirte]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mideasti.blogspot.com/2013/07/did-punic-survive-until-advent-of_30.html|title=Did Punic Survive Until the Advent of Arabic? Part 4: The Post-Augustine Evidence|last=Dunn|first=Michael Collins|date=2013-07-30|website=MEI Editor's Blog|access-date=2019-08-30}}</ref> where spoken Punic survived well past written use.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/vtw/jongeling/latpun/LPINTRO.htm |title=Latino-Punic texts from North Africa |first1=Karel |last1=Jongeling |publisher=Dept of Comparative Linguistics, [[Leiden University]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051109091842/http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/vtw/jongeling/LATPUN/LPINTRO.htm |archive-date=9 November 2005 }}</ref> However, it is likely that Arabization of Punic speakers was facilitated by their language belonging to the same group (both were Semitic languages) as that of the conquerors and so they had many grammatical and lexical similarities.<ref name="Jongeling & Kerr"/>{{rp|71}}