Editing Moabite language (section)

== Controversy ==

=== Sentence boundaries ===
In the inscriptions on the [[Mesha Stele]] a vertical stroke, /, appears 37 times. However, its function is the subject of disagreement among researchers. Van Zyl claims that the strokes are used to divide clauses.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Van Zyl |first=A.H. |title=The Moabites |publisher= |year=1960 |location=Leiden |pages=185}}</ref> Similarly, Segert explains that they can be seen as tools for the punctuation of sentences.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Segert |first=Stanislav |date=1961 |title=Die Sprache der moabitischen Königsinschrift |journal=Archiv Orientální |page=235}}</ref> A. Poebel offers a different explanation and states that vertical strokes are used to separate sentences forming a mentally cohesive group.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Poebel |first=Arno |title=Das appositionell bestimmte Pronomen der 1. Pers. Sing. in den westsemitischen Inschriften und im Alten Testament |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1932 |page=9}}</ref> According to Andersen the only two parallels that can be found in accordance with the stroke are in the [[Gezer calendar|Gezer Calendar]]. Rather, he suggest that a dot fulfills the function as a word divider based on its occurrence in a variety of Old Aramaic inscriptions, the [[Siloam inscription|Siloam Inscription]] and other texts of the early Hebrew.<ref name=":12"/>

=== Classification as Canaanite dialects ===
The geography of the dialects of the [[Levant]] has been revised the past few years. Dialects of Canaanite, including Moabite, show differences from one another.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Rainey |first=Anson F. |date=2007 |title=Whence Came the Israelites and Their Language? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27927155 |journal=Israel Exploration Journal |volume=57 |issue=1 |pages=41–64 |jstor=27927155 |issn=0021-2059}}</ref>

==== Isogloss ====
A lexical isogloss exists between the Northwest Semitic languages Aramaic, Hebrew and Moabite. For example, the verb 'to be', from the root(s) *HWY/HYY. The coastal languages, Phoenician and Ugaritic, both used the root *KWN, and that seems to be the case in the mother tongue of the Amarna scribes from Canaan as well; and it is also standard in Arabic.<ref name=":4" />

==== Syntactic features ====
A syntactic feature that Aramaic, Hebrew and Moabite share is the [[Syntagma (linguistics)|syntagma]] of the narrative preterit. Supported by three inscriptions, prefix preterite narrative sequences are found in Moabite as well as Old Southern Aramaic and Hebrew. First, it was discerned in the Old Aramaic inscription of [[Stele of Zakkur|Zakkur]] by king of Hamath and proclaimed to be of Canaanite influence on an Aramaic text.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Millard |first=A.R. |title=The Inscription of Zakkur, King of Hamath |publisher=The Context of Scripture |year=2000 |edition=2nd |location=Leiden; Boston; Cologne}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rainey |first=Anson F. |title=The Sacred Bridge |publisher=Carta's Atlas of the Biblical World |year=2006 |location=Jerusalem |pages=220–221}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Segert |first=S. |title=Aramäische Grammatik |year=1975 |location=Leipzig}}</ref> Second, it occurred in the [[Deir Alla Inscription]]. Finally the prefix preterite, appeared in the [[Tel Dan stele]] with and without the sequential conjunction. This feature is absent in Phoenician, a language that is certain to be Canaanite, which suggests that the classification of Moabite as a Canaanite dialect does not apply.<ref name=":4" />