Ammonite is the extinct

Canaanite language The Canaanite languages, or Canaanite dialects, are one of the three subgroups of the Northwest Semitic languages, the others being Aramaic and Ugaritic, all originating in the Levant and Mesopotamia. They are attested in Canaanite inscriptions ...

of the

Ammon Ammon ( Ammonite: 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''ʻAmān''; he, עַמּוֹן ''ʻAmmōn''; ar, عمّون, ʻAmmūn) was an ancient Semitic-speaking nation occupying the east of the Jordan River, between the torrent valleys of Arnon and Jabbok, in ...

ite people mentioned in the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

, who used to live in modern-day

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, 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 Tel Siran bronze bottle, and a few

ostraca An ostracon ( Greek: ''ostrakon'', plural ''ostraka'') is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ''ostraca'' refer to sherds or even small pieces of ...

. As far as can be determined from the small corpus, it was extremely similar to Biblical Hebrew, with some possible

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...

influence including the use of the verb ''‘bd'' (עבד) instead of the more common Biblical Hebrew ''‘śh'' (עשה) for 'make'. The only other notable difference with Biblical Hebrew is the sporadic retention of feminine singular ''-t'' (''’šħt'' 'cistern', but ''‘lyh'' 'high (fem.)'.) Ammonite also appears to have possessed largely typical correspondences of diphthongs, with words such as ''ywmt'' (יומת ''*yawmōt'', 'days') both preserving /aw/ and showing a shift to /o/, and other words such as ''yn'' (ין 'wine') exhibiting a shift of /ay/ to ''ē'' (''yēn'' < *''yayn'') much like Hebrew. It was first described as a separate language in 1970 by Italian Orientalist

Giovanni Garbini Giovanni Garbini (8 October 19312 January 2017) was an Italian Orientalist and Semitist. His biblical studies revealed historical omissions and helped scholars to interpret the biblical narrative in the larger context of the history of the ancien ...

. Subsequently, a number of inscriptions previously identified as Hebrew, Phoenician, or Aramaic were reclassified, as a result of consensus around the similarity of the Amman Theatre Inscription, Amman Citadel Inscription, Tell Siren Bottle, Heshbon Ostraca, and Tell el-Mazer Ostraca.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ammonite Language Canaanite languages Hebrew language Extinct languages of Asia Languages attested from the 9th century BC Languages extinct in the 5th century BC 5th-century BC disestablishments Spurious languages