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The Meroitic language (Template:IPAc-en) was a language of uncertain linguistic affiliation spoken in Meroë (in present-day Sudan) during the Meroitic period (attested from 300 BC) and became extinct about 400 AD. It was written in two forms of the Meroitic alphabet: Meroitic Cursive, which was written with a stylus and was used for general record-keeping; and Meroitic Hieroglyphic, which was carved in stone or used for royal or religious documents. It is poorly understood, owing to the scarcity of bilingual texts.
NameEdit
Meroitic is also referred to in some publications as Kushite after the apparent attested endoethnonym<ref>"Vers 2000 av. J.-C., la montée en puissance du royaume de Kerma, le premier État historiquement connu d'Afrique noire, fondé au sud de la 3e cataracte cinq siècles plus tôt, stoppa l'avance égyptienne et contraignit les rois de la xiie dynastie à ériger un dispositif de forteresses entre la 1e et la 2e cataracte pour se protéger des incursions kermaïtes. Un nom apparaît alors dans les textes égyptiens pour désigner ce nouvel ennemi : Koush (ég. Kȝš), sans doute l'appellation que se donnaient les Kermaïtes eux-mêmes, et qui continuera à les désigner jusqu'à la disparition de la langue égyptienne. " — paragraph #2 — Claude Rilly, « Le royaume de Méroé », Afriques [En ligne], Varia, mis en ligne le 21 avril 2010, consulté le 20 juin 2018. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/afriques/379</ref><ref>"En fait, si notre hypothèse concernant l'équivalence du peuple de langue méroïtique avec l'ethnonyme « Koush » est avérée, c'est plus au nord encore, entre la deuxième cataracte et l'île de Saï 3, qu'on pourrait envisager de situer le berceau de cette population." — Rilly, Claude. 2007. La langue du royaume de Méroé: Un panorama de la plus ancienne culture écrite d'Afrique subsaharienne. (Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Hautes Études, 344.) Paris: Honoré Champion. 624pp. p. 37</ref> Meroitic qes, qos (transcribed in Egyptian as kꜣš).<ref>Template:Angbr phonetically = q/kwesa, Template:Angbr phonetically = q/kwusa. There is a form Template:Angbr, but this may simply be Template:Angbr + an affix. See, J. Leclant: "Recherches sur la toponymie meroitique". La toponymie antique. Actes du Colloque de Strasbourg, 12–14 juin 1975, Université des sciences humaines de Strasbourg, Travaux du Centre de recherche sur le Proche-Orient et la Grèce antiques, t. 4, 1977, Leiden. Brill. p. 264. pp.155 – 156.</ref> The name Meroitic in English dates to 1852 where it occurs as a translation of German {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. The term derives from Latin {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, corresponding to Greek {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. These latter names are representations of the name of the royal city of Meroë of the Kingdom of Kush.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Meroitic, this city is referred to as bedewe (or sometimes bedewi), which is represented in ancient Egyptian texts as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or similar variants.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
ClassificationEdit
The classification of the Meroitic language is uncertain due to the scarcity of data and difficulty in interpreting it. Since the alphabet was deciphered in 1909, it has been proposed that Meroitic is related to the Nubian languages and similar languages of the Nilo-Saharan phylum. The competing claim is that Meroitic is a member of the Afroasiatic phylum.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Rowan (2006, 2011) proposes that the Meroitic sound inventory and phonotactics (the only aspects of the language that are secure) are similar to those of the Afroasiatic languages, and dissimilar from Nilo-Saharan languages. For example, she notes that very rarely does one find the sequence CVC, where the consonants (C) are both labials or both velars, noting that is similar to consonant restrictions found throughout the Afroasiatic language family, suggesting that Meroitic might have been an Afroasiatic language like Egyptian.<ref name="Rowan2011">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Rowan2006">Template:Cite journal</ref> Semitist Edward Lipiński (2011) also argues in favour for an Afro Asiatic origin of Meroitic based primarily on vocabulary.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Claude Rilly (2004, 2007, 2012, 2016) is the most recent proponent of the Nilo-Saharan idea: he proposes, based on its syntax, morphology, and known vocabulary, that Meroitic is Eastern Sudanic, the Nilo-Saharan family that includes the Nubian languages. He finds, for example, that word order in Meroitic "conforms perfectly with other Eastern Sudanic languages, in which sentences exhibit verb-final order (SOV: subject-object-verb); there are postpositions and no prepositions; the genitive is placed before the main noun; the adjective follows the noun."<ref name="RillyVoogt2012">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Rilly2016">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Location and period of attestationEdit
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 Egyptian Middle Kingdom, the New Kingdom, and the late 3rd Intermediate, Late, Ptolemaic, and Roman periods – respectively corresponding to the Kushite 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, Template:ISBN). p. 414.</ref> Napatan (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 Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, as well as Meroitic anthroponyms, are attested as early as Middle Kingdom Egypt's 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 Template:Webarchive. 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>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</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>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</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>Template:Cite book</ref> as there are detectable Meroitic lexemes and morphological features in Old Nubian. Two examples are: Meroitic: Template:Angbr<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: -Template:Angbr which is made up two morphemes, -Template:Angbr (determinant) + Template:Angbr (copula).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The language likely became fully extinct by the 6th century when it was supplanted by Byzantine Greek, Coptic,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Old Nubian.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
OrthographyEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} During the Meroitic period, Meroitic was written in two forms of the Meroitic alphasyllabary: Meroitic Cursive, which was written with a stylus and was used for general record-keeping; and Meroitic Hieroglyphic, which was carved in stone or used for royal or religious documents. The last known Meroitic inscription is written in Meroitic Cursive and dates to the 5th century.<ref>The inscription of the Blemmye king, Kharamadoye.</ref>
VocabularyEdit
Below is a short list of Kushite words and parts of speech whose meanings are positively known and are not known to be adopted from Egyptian. Angle brackets (Template:Angbr) represent the graphemes, or orthographic letters, used to write a word, as opposed to the word's phonemic representation. All non-syllabic, non-vocalic signs are written with their inherent Template:Angbr in parentheses. All Template:Angbr signs are written in parentheses (or brackets if in a word in parentheses) because of not knowing whether the Template:Angbr is a non-phonemic placeholder to preserve the syllabicity of the script or is actually vocalic. It is known that the final Template:Angbr in Kandake/ Kentake (female ruler) is vocalic and the initial vowel in Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, and Template:Angbr is vocalic. Since those are known to be vocalic, they are not in parentheses. Any known Template:Angbr signs resyllabified<ref>"Resyllabification is a phonological process in which consonants are attached to syllables other than those from which they originally came." Kirsty Rowan speaking of the adoption of Egyptian Template:Angbr (literally, servant of god) → Coptic (hont) "prophet, priest" into Kushite as Template:Angbr /anata/ which, in later Kushite, becomes Template:Angbr /anta/, "However, the nasal sign Template:Angbr /na/ is not written in the late period form Template:Angbr, as the nasal has become resyllabified into coda position due to diachronic vowel reduction/weakening and subsequent complete syncope of the following vowel: Template:Angbr /ˈanata/ → /ˈanəta/ → /ˈanta/ = Template:Angbr..." — Rowan, Kirsty (2015) 'The Meroitic Initial a Sign as Griffith's Initial Aleph.' Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, 142 (1). pp. 70–84. Under 2.2 Meroitic forms with no loss of initial Template:Angbr, p. 78</ref> into coda position are written.
- Template:Angbr "man"<ref>In Kushite, initial Template:Angbr, in some words, undergoes aph(a)eresis. Kirsty Rowan believes Kushite Template:Angbr to be /ʔa/. The validity of that proposal is unknown. Claude Rilly follows that initial Template:Angbr is an unstressed vowel in some words and undergoes an aphetic process. Kirsty Rowan states, "The stress assignment of Meroitic forms can only be speculated although there are common variant forms where the Meroitic sign Template:Angbr is frequently omitted and these forms are suggestive for proposals on the placement of stress. It is claimed here that the omission of Template:Angbr in Meroitic is due to its pretonic position in the word. When Template:Angbr is not in a pretonic position, there is no omission of this sign. This is comparable to the diachronic loss of Egyptian Template:Angbr /ʔ/ in pretonic position (Peust 1999b, 149)." — Rowan, Kirsty (2015) 'The Meroitic Initial a Sign as Griffith's Initial Aleph.' Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, 142 (1). pp. 70–84. Under 2.1 Pretonic loss of Meroitic Template:Angbr, p. 77</ref>
- Template:Angbr "bread"
- Template:Angbr (← *as[V]tu)<ref>Apparently, the /s/ is resyllabified in the same manner as Template:Angbr. The /s/ is known to exist via the Egyptian transcriptions of Kushite toponyms from the New Kingdom African Peoples List Template:Angbr (ı͗s[V]tʰ[w]...𓈗Template:Font), from the late Napatan era Nastasen Stele Template:Angbr (ı͗s[V]tˀ / tʰ𓈗), and Ptolemaic Era Greek transcriptions of Ἀστά- from the hydronyms: Ασταβόρας, Ἀστάπους/ Ἄσταπος, and Ἀστασόβας. Based on the Egyptian and Greek transcriptions, the /s/ is present before the 1st century AD then disappears after the first century AD. See, Peust, Carsten (1999a). 20. "Namen von Personen, Göttern, Tempeln, Städten, Völkern, und Ländern". In Napatanische: ein ägyptischer Dialekt aus dem Nubien des späten ersten vorchristlichen Jahrtausends. Peust & Gutschmidt Verlag, 1999 – 371 pages, Under "Jsdrst" on p. 222. http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/peust1999a/0227?sid=c68725dccdf226c9001489b686df6882&navmode=fulltextsearch&ft_query=dgr&nixda=1 After discussing the 𓈗 determinative in Template:Angbr, Mr. Peust says: "Dasselbe determinative steht schon im Neuen Reich in dem toponyme istdgr, das als ortschaft in Kusch gennant wird." → English: "The same determinative is already in the New Kingdom in the toponym, Template:Angbr, which is called as a village in Kush."</ref> "water"
- -Template:Angbr- (plural)
- Template:Angbr "born, be born, child of"
- Template:Angbr "beget, begotten"
- Template:Angbr<ref>The resyllabified /n/ is known, firstly, from transcriptions of Kushite: Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr "female ruler" as Egyptian: Template:Angbr, Greek: κανδάκη, Latin: Candace, and Ge'ez: xan(ə)dākē of which Template:Angbr is the base and, secondly, from Hesychius' gloss of Kushite: Template:Angbr as κάνδη /kɒndɛː/ translated as Greek: γυνὴ "woman, lady, wife". See, I. Hofmann, Material für eine meroitische Grammatik (Veröffentlichungen der Institute für Afrikanistik und Ägyptologie der Universität Wien 16. Beiträge zur Afrikanistik 13), Wien 1981, p. 41. https://books.google.com/books?id=bHMOAAAAYAAJ&dq=searchwithinvolume&q=hesychius</ref> "woman, lady, female".
- -Template:Angbr (ablative)
- -Template:Angbr- (determinant)
- Template:Angbr "great, big"
- Template:Angbr "god, deity"
- Template:Angbr, (later) Template:Angbr "child, son"
- Template:Angbr "sun, sun god"
- Template:Angbr "king, ruler"
- Template:Angbr "feet, foot, pair of feet"
- -Template:Angbr- (genitive)
- Template:Angbr "to love, beloved, to respect, to revere, to desire"
- -Template:Angbr (locative)/ -Template:Angbr (a type of locative)<ref>The regular locative is -Template:Angbr. A form of the locative, written as -Template:Angbr, seems to indicate direction towards a destination, the destination arrived to, or is arriving to. For instance, in the Kushite phrase: Template:Angbr = "From Simalu (going/ traveling/ proceeding) to Selele."</ref>
- -Template:Angbr-, (later) -Template:Angbr- (verbal pronominal suffix)
- Template:Angbr "a non-filial, non-(grand)parental, non-avuncular-maternal familial relation"
ReferencesEdit
BibliographyEdit
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Further readingEdit
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