Taymanitic
Taymanitic was the language and script of the oasis of Taymāʾ in northwestern Arabia, dated to the second half of the 6th century BC.[1] ClassificationTaymanitic does not participate in the key innovations of Proto-Arabic, precluding it from being considered a member of the Arabic language family. It shares one key isogloss with Northwest Semitic: the change w > y in word-initial position. Examples include yrḫ for *warḫum 'moon, month' and ydʿ for wadaʿa 'to know'.[2] It is clear that Taymanitic script expressed a distinct linguistic variety that is not Arabic and not closely related to Hismaic or Safaitic, while it can tentatively be suggested that it was more closely related to Northwest Semitic.[1] PhonologyConsonants
Vowels
There were two diphthongs of a vowel and semivowel: /aj/ and /aw/.[1] CharacteristicsTaymanitic exhibits two major features which are innovative:[2]
Unlike Arabic, Taymanitic does not exhibit the merger of Proto-Semitic [s] and [ts]. References
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