The Ammonite language is the extinct Hebrew Canaanite language of the Ammonite people mentioned in the Bible, who used to live in modern-day Jordan, and after whom its capital Amman is named. Only fragments of their language survive - chiefly the 9th century BC Amman Citadel Inscription, the 7th-6th century BC Tell Siran bronze bottle, and a few ostraca. As far as can be determined from this small corpus, it was extremely similar to Biblical Hebrew, with some possible Aramaic influence including the use of ‘bd instead of commoner Biblical Hebrew ‘śh for "work". The only other notable difference with Biblical Hebrew is the sporadic retention of feminine singular -t (eg ’šħt "cistern", but ‘lyh "high (fem.)".)
Sources: F. Israel in D. Cohen (ed.), Les Langues Chamito-semitiques, Paris:CNRS 1988.
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Last updated: 10-23-2005 03:57:00
