Numidian was a language spoken in ancient Numidia, a territory covering much of northern

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. The script in which it was written, the

Libyco-Berber alphabet The Libyco-Berber alphabet or the Libyc alphabet (modern Berber name: ''Agemmay Alibu-Maziɣ'') is an abjad writing system that was used during the first millennium BC by various Berber peoples of North Africa and the Canary Islands, to write anci ...

(from which

Tifinagh Tifinagh ( Tuareg Berber language: or , ) is a script used to write the Berber languages. Tifinagh is descended from the ancient Libyco-Berber alphabet. The traditional Tifinagh, sometimes called Tuareg Tifinagh, is still favored by the Tuar ...

descended), has been almost fully deciphered and most characters (apart from a few exceptions restricted to specific areas) have known values. Despite this, the language has barely been deciphered and only a few words are known. Libyco-Berber inscriptions are attested from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD. The language is scarcely attested and can be confidently identified only as belonging to the

Afroasiatic The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...

family, although it was most likely part of the Berber languages, spoken at the start of the breakup of the

Proto-Berber language Proto-Berber or Proto-Libyan is the reconstructed proto-language from which the modern Berber languages descend. Proto-Berber was an Afroasiatic language, and thus its descendant Berber languages are cousins to the Egyptian language, Cushitic ...

Dialects and relation to other ancient languages

Dialects and foreign influences

It is known that there was an orthographical difference between the western and eastern Numidian language. Starting at Kabylia, which was a kind of mixed region, the regions to the east all the way to what is modern day

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

used the east-Libyc writing system, while the regions to the west all the way to approximately the

Moulouya river The Moulouya River ( Berber: ''iɣẓer en Melwect'', ) is a 520 km-long river in Morocco. Its sources are located in the Ayashi mountain in the Middle Atlas. It empties into the Mediterranean Sea near Saïdia, in northeast Morocco. Water ...

spoke the western Numidian dialect, and used the larger and still undecoded west-Libyc writing system. The East-Numidian dialect was much more influenced by the

Punic language The Punic language, also called Phoenicio-Punic or Carthaginian, is an extinct variety of the Phoenician language, a Canaanite language of the Northwest Semitic branch of the Semitic languages. An offshoot of the Phoenician language of coastal W ...

than the West-Numidian, and West-Numidian is thought to be more ancient than East-Numidian. Numidian was influenced mostly by Punic and then Roman, although Numidian and even some modern Berber vocabulary seem to have been also slightly influenced by the Paleohispanic languages and possibly by other Pre-Indo-European languages.

Other ancient Berber or Berber-like languages

Not much is known about the variations of the old Libyc language(s) as none of them have been fully deciphered, and outside of some east-Numidian steles none of the various Old Libyc writings have been interpreted. It may be possible that the language of the neighbouring

Mauri Mauri (from which derives the English term "Moors") was the Latin designation for the Berber population of Mauretania, located in the part of North Africa west of Numidia, in present-day northern Morocco and northwestern Algeria. Name ''Mauri'' ...

people of modern-day Morocco may have been a dialect of the larger Numidian, although there are little to no sources or researches into the language. If Numidian was a Berber language then it is known that by that stage the breakup of

Proto-Berber Proto-Berber or Proto-Libyan is the reconstructed proto-language from which the modern Berber languages descend. Proto-Berber was an Afroasiatic language, and thus its descendant Berber languages are cousins to the Egyptian language, Cushitic lan ...

into various Berber languages was still not fully complete, and thus the ancient Berber languages of the time were very similar to each other, even more so than the modern ones. In circa 500 B.C various nomadic Berber groups penetrated the Sahara from the north, corresponding the area of the later Gaetulians. Although the area where these nomads lived yielded no writing and thus is incomparable to Numidian, it is known that

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

described the Saharan Gaetulian language as very similar or the same as the Numidian one, implying that the Gaetulian language may have been a dialect of Numidian. Not much is known of the Numidian language, and even less of Berber or Proto-Berber languages and dialects at this time, although it is known that for example the language of the native Berbers of

Cyrenaica Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika ( ar, برقة, Barqah, grc-koi, Κυρηναϊκή ��παρχίαKurēnaïkḗ parkhíā}, after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between ...

contained many Greek loanwords according to

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...

. It is also unknown whether the Mauretanian language of the neighbouring

Kingdom of Mauretania Mauretania (; ) is the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It stretched from central present-day Algeria westwards to the Atlantic, covering northern present-day Morocco, and southward to the Atlas Mountains. Its native inhabitants, ...

in what is approximately modern day Morocco formed a part of the Numidian language, or was a separate language from it, as there has been as of yet no major efforts into decoding it, and there are no known sources describing it.

Categorization and reconstruction

As the

Massylii The Massylii or Maesulians were a Berber federation in eastern Numidia, which was formed by an amalgamation of smaller tribes during the 4th century BC.Nigel Bagnall, The Punic Wars, p. 270. They were ruled by a king. On their loosely defined wester ...

, who spoke the language, were ethnically Berber, it is supposed that Numidian was therefore a

Berber language The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages or Tamazight,, ber, label=Tuareg Tifinagh, ⵜⵎⵣⵗⵜ, ) are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related languages spoken by Berber commun ...

. The Berber branch of Afro-Asiatic is sometimes called ''Libyco-Berber'' since it is not certain whether Numidian would fall within the modern Berber languages or form a sister branch to them. Some theorize that it constituted a group of its own, as there is no trace of the noun-case system shared by the modern Berber languages.Robert Martin Kerr, 2010 However,

is theorized to have no grammatical case either, which would also imply a later addition of the system. The Lybico-Berber tifinagh and the

Phoenician alphabet The Phoenician alphabet is an alphabet (more specifically, an abjad) known in modern times from the Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions found across the Mediterranean region. The name comes from the Phoenician civilization. The Phoenician a ...

being

abjad An abjad (, ar, أبجد; also abgad) is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with other alphabets, which provide graphemes for both consonants and vowels ...

s without vowels complicates the matter even more. Work on deciphering the language has not been decisive, although especially recently some tried to reconstruct words by comparing Numidian script to proto and modern Berber languages. Most remaining scripts are funerary, and follow the formula of "''X w-Y''" (X son of Y). BNS is also an often returning words in this script, which probably meant "tomb of". Many words had an H at the end of them, the function of which is unclear. A few gravestones show a different word between the two personal names, plausibly interpreted as a kinship term based on Berber comparisons: ''wlt'' "daughter (of)" (modern Berber ''wəlt''), and, more rarely, ''mt'' "mother (of)" (modern Tuareg ''ma''). Similar to the modern berber languages, the ta-...-t circumfix signified feminine version of the word with a silent h added to the end. In the Dougga inscriptions some political positions are mentioned, such as "gld" (lord) which based on this technique, can be translated into the modern berber word "agellid" which originates from the proto-berber word "''*a-gəllid".'' A few verbs have been unambiguously identified in the various inscriptions. Comparison with modern Berber suggests that ṣkn, probably read as "eṣ(ə)k-n based on modern berber comparison which means"built" is to be analysed as ṣk "build" plus -n, marking 3pl subject agreement (''-ən).'' An example of translation using this method can be demonstrated on a part of a Numidian inscription which is read as "''Msnsn. gldt. w-gjj''." "Msnsn" is the name of king

Massinissa Masinissa ( nxm, , ''MSNSN''; ''c.'' 238 BC – 148 BC), also spelled Massinissa, Massena and Massan, was an ancient Numidian king best known for leading a federation of Massylii Berber tribes during the Second Punic War (218–201 BC), ult ...

while "gldt" is the word for king''.'' Finally, "w-gjj" means "son of Gaia". Thus by attempting to translate the Numidian text through modern and proto-Berber the inscription would read "''Massinissa the king, son of Gaia''". Numidian also featured and shared most or all of its prepositions "n" (of) and "d" (and) with modern Berber, along with various prefixes, such as "ta...-t", "m-" etc. with modern Berber. These facts would strongly suggest that Numidian is a now extinct branch of the Berber languages, although this is not completely accepted and some linguists still criticize this theory.

Naming conventions

Numidian names generally often followed a complicated, but well documented naming convention of Berber antiquity and medieval times. While this wasn't always the case, this was especially true for nobles or higher leaders. The way it worked was simple: Verb in the 3rd person + personal pronouns as an affix (direct or indirect) in 3rd person plural form (he/she-X-they/of them). For example, the actual name of Jughurta most likely sounded as "''y-uger-ten''" (he who surpasses them), while the name of king

(MSNSN in Libyco-Berber) was "''mas-nsen''" (their seignor). Much of the

onomastic Onomastics (or, in older texts, onomatology) is the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. An '' orthonym'' is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onomastic study. Onomastics can be helpful in data mining, ...

work on the Numidian language was done by Salem Chaker, who through his work also help in decoding a few words in the language through dissecting known names.

Known words

Here is a comparison of the few known Numidian words to modern

Northern Berber languages The Northern Berber languages are a dialect continuum spoken across the Maghreb, constituting a subgroup of the Berber branch of the Afroasiatic family. Their continuity has been broken by the spread of Arabic, and to a lesser extent by the Zen ...

and the Tamashek language. Normalized words with vowels added are written in the brackets. Underlined words are based on etymologic or onomastic reconstructions from Numidian names. This comparison suggests that Numidian may be closest to the modern

such as the

Zenati languages The Zenati languages are a branch of the Northern Berber language family of North Africa. They were named after the medieval Zenata Berber tribal confederation. They were first proposed in the works of French linguist Edmond Destaing (1915) (1920 ...

Shilha language , now more usually known as Tashelhit , is a Berber language spoken in southwestern Morocco. The endonym is , and in recent English publications the name of the language is often rendered ''Tashelhit'', ''Tashelhiyt'' or ''Tashlhiyt''. In Morocc ...

, and the

Kabyle language Kabyle () or Kabylian (; native name: ''Taqbaylit'' , ) is a Berber language spoken by the Kabyle people in the north and northeast of Algeria. It is spoken primarily in Kabylia, east of the capital Algiers and in Algiers itself, but also by va ...

although the modern northern Berber languages have gone through grammatical changes, and they have also taken loanwords from Arabic, Latin, and French. Kabyle may be the closest to Numidian, but has absorbed loanwords and phrases from the other languages mentioned. According to many linguists the H at the end of many numidian words were either silent or disappeared by modern times, or that in many cases such as MSWH or MWSNH was possibly used as a replacement for, or possibly was the ancestor of the modern berber '' ɣ sound.''

Thugga inscription

The Thugga inscription is the longest known Numidian inscription as of yet, and has served with the most clues regarding the language. Numidian script ''ṢKN•TBGG•BNYFŠ•MSNSN•GLDṮ•WGYY•GLDṮ•WZLLSN•ŠFṬ SBSNDH•GLDṮ•SYSH•GLD•MKWSN ŠFṬ•GLDṮ•WFŠN•MWSNG•ŠNK•WBNY•WŠNK•DŠFṬ•WM WTNKW•MṢṢKW•MGN•WYRŠTB•WSDYLN•GẒB•MGN•WŠFṬ•MW WŠMN•GLDṮ•GLDGMYL•ZMR•WMSNF•WŠMN•GLDMṢK•M WŠYN•GLDṮ•WMGN•GLDṮ•ṬNYN•ŠYN•WNKKN•WFṬŠ•DR ŠFṬ•WŠNK•'' Normalization and adding of known or possible vowels ''əṣk(ə)-n Tubgag BNYFŠ Masnsen a-gəllidṯ u-Gayya a-gəllidṯ u-Zelalsen šufeṭ'' ''Asəbbas NDH a-gəllidṯ(?) s-yusa a-gəllid Mikiwsan'' Translation from Punic The people of Thugga built this temple for Masinissa the King son of Gaia the King son of Zilalsan the Judge, in the tenth year since Micipsa ruled, in the year of Shufet the King son of Afshan the King, The Centurion: Shanok son of Banay and Shufet son of Magon son of Tanaku. The ''ms s kwy'' Magon son of Yirashtan son of Sadyalan, and ''gzby'': Magon son of Shufet the Centurion son of Abdeshmun the King. Erectors of this property: Ashyan son of Ankikan son of Patash and Arash son of Shufet son of Shanok.

Example texts

These texts are examples of bilingual inscriptions with known meanings, most of which are funerary texts

Bilingual texts

Cenotaph inscription

Punic '' n��bt š'ṭbn bn ypmṭt bn plw'' ''hbnm š'bnm ʕb'rš bn ʕbdštrt'' ''zmr bn 'ṭbn bn ypmṭt bn plw'' ''mngy bn wrsbn'' ''wb'zrt šl' **t* zzy wṭmn wwrskn'' ''hḥršm šyr msdl bn nnpsn w'nkn b 'šy'' ''hnskm šbrzl špṭ bll wppy bn bby'' Punic to English translation ''The monument of 'ṭbn son of Ypmṭt son of Plw. '' ''Builders of the stones: ʕb'rš son of ʕbdštrt;'' ''Zmr son of 'ṭbn son of Ypmṭt son of Plw;'' ''Mngy son of Wrsbn. '' ''And for its ???, Zzy son of Ṭmn and Wrskn. '' ''Workers of the wood: Msdl son of Nnpsn and 'nkn son of 'šy.'' ''Casters of the iron: Šfṭ son of Bll and Ppy son of Bby.'' Numidian ''****N WYFMṬT W*******DRŠ WWDŠTR'' ''*****BN WYFMṬṮ WFLW'' ''MNGY WWRSKN'' ''KSLNS ŻŻY WṬMN WRSKN'' ''NBBN NŠ H MSDL WNNFSN NKN WŠY'' ''NB*N NZLH ŠFṬ WBLL FFY WBBY'' Normalization and adding of known or possible vowels ''Aṭeban w-Yefmaṭat w-Falu****D'rš w-Wadaštar'' ''Zamir w-Aṭeban w-Yefmaṭat w-Falu'' ''Mangy w-Wareskan'' ''KSLNS Żaży w-Ṭaman w-Raskn'' ''inababen n a-šɣarh Masdil w-Nanafsen Naken w-šy'' ''inababen (?) n uzzal Šufeṭ w-Balil Fafy W-Beby''

Kef Beni Fredj inscriptions

Latin ''SACTUT•IHIMIR F•VIXIT•ANORVM•LXX H E' Latin to English Sactut son of Ihimir lived 70 years. e is buried here. Numidian ''ZKTT WYMR MTYBLH MSWH MNKDH'' Normalization and adding of known or possible vowels ''Zaktut w-Iymir MTYBLH amsiweɣ amenkad'' Possible Numidian to English translation Zaktut son of Iyimir MTYLBH soldier of the emperor.

Notes

Meaning either "the good one" or the "resting one".

References

*Aikhenvald & Militarev, 1991. 'Livijsko-guanchskie jazyki', ''Jazyki Azii i Afriki'', vol. 4, pp. 148–266. {{Languages of Tunisia Extinct languages of Africa Languages of Africa Languages of Algeria Languages of Morocco Languages of Tunisia Numidia Unclassified languages of Africa Undeciphered writing systems