Sabaean Language

Sabaean Language

Sabaean (Sabaic), also sometimes incorrectly known as Ḥimyarite (Himyaritic), was an Old South Arabian language spoken in Yemen from c. 1000 BC to the 6th century AD, by the Sabaeans; it was used as a written language by some other peoples (sha‘bs) of Ancient Yemen, including the Ḥimyarites, Ḥashidites, Ṣirwāḥites, Humlanites, Ghaymānites, and Radmānites. The Sabaean language belongs to the South Arabian subgroup of the Semitic group of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Sabaean is distinguished from the other members of Old South Arabian by the use of h to mark the third person, and as a causative prefix; the other language all use s₁ in these cases; Sabaean is therefore called an h-language, and the others s-languages.