Script
Sabaean was written in the South Arabian alphabet, and like Hebrew and Arabic marked only consonants, the only indication of vowels being with Matres Lectionis. For many years the only texts discovered were inscriptions in the formal Masnad script (Sabaean ms3nd), but in 1973 documents in another miniscule and cursive script were discovered, dating back to the second half of the 1st century BCE; only a few of the latter have so far been published.
The South Arabic alphabet used in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Yemen beginning in the 8th century BC (all three locations) later evolved into the Ge'ez alphabet.The Ge'ez language however is no longer considered to be a descendant of Sabaean, or of Old South Arabian; and there is linguistic evidence that Semitic languages were in use and being spoken in Eritrea and Ethiopia as early as 2000 BC.
Sabaean is attested in some 1040 dedicatory inscriptions, 850 building inscriptions, 200 legal texts and 1300 short graffiti (containing only personal names). No literary texts of any length have yet been brought to light. This paucity of source material, and the limited forms of the inscriptions has made it difficult to get a complete picture of Sabaean grammar. Thousands of inscriptions written in a cursive script (called Zabur) incised into wooden sticks have been found and date to the Middle Sabaean period; these represent letters and legal documents and as such include a much wider variety of grammatical forms.
Read more about this topic: Sabaean Language
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