Dadanitic

Script variant of the Ancient North Arabian (ANA) script family that was used to write inscriptions in and around the ancient oasis of Dadan (modern-day al-ʿUlā) in the northwest of the Arabian Peninsula between the 6th and 1st centuries BCE. Dadanitic is also commonly used to refer to the language of the inscriptions written in Dadanitic script.

The corpus of Dadanitic inscriptions

Distribution and chronology

Dadanitic inscriptions are concentrated in the al-ʿUlā valley, the site of ancient Dadan, and the associated Jabal al-Khurayba area, with a significant cluster of inscriptions found further north at Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ (ancient Hegrā) (Fig. 1). Even though firm dating evidence is lacking for most of the Dadanitic inscriptions, they seem to have been written between the 6th and 1st centuries BCE, during two consecutive dynasties of the Dadanite and the Liḥyanite kings (see Rohmer & Charloux 2015 for an overview).

Number

Currently, the OCIANA database comprises the largest corpus of Dadanitic inscriptions, with about 1700 entries. However, the actual number of inscriptions far exceeds this, as new inscriptions are still being recorded.

Language

Classification

The language of the inscriptions is variable, but contains two of the sixteen recognized Proto-Arabic innovations: the merger of s¹ and s³ and the use of the complementizer ʾn. Aside from these two features, there is positive evidence for five Proto-Arabic innovations in which Dadanitic did not participate or only partially did so. Therefore, Al-Jallad concludes that Dadanitic is most likely a sister language of Arabic and not a direct descendant from Proto-Arabic (Al-Jallad 2018: 21-24).

Main features

The language of the inscriptions displays variation in phonology, orthography, and morphology, in a way that seems indicative of both formal and informal usage. One of the more consistently varying phonemes is /ẓ/, which can be represented with ṭ. Dadanitic used matres lectionis -h and -w for /-ā/ and /-ū/, respectively. The mater -y for /-ī/ seems to have developed within the time span documented by the Dadanitic inscriptions and displays some variation. Even though the ʾ-causative is the most attested form, the more archaic h- causative is also found.

Dadanitic displays a difference in bound and unbound dual and plural suffixes (noted by Macdonald 2008: 194). There is some evidence for the preservation of case in the plural and dual, although in most inscriptions the oblique form of the bound dual (-y) was levelled to all cases (for a complete grammatical discussion see Kootstra 2022a).

Genres, compositional formulae and manners of inscribing

The Dadanitic corpus mostly consists of graffiti, mainly mentioning personal names. However, it also contains monumental inscriptions. These are mainly found at the site of the ancient settlement (modern al-Khurayba), at the cultic site Umm Daraj, and at Jabal ʿIkma. Dadanitic is unique among the Ancient North Arabian (ANA) scripts for the production of inscriptions in relief, made by professional masons (Fig. 2). In particular, non-graffiti tend to make regular use of word dividers.

Non-graffiti are composed of predictable formulae that can be sub-divided into several genres, most importantly: dedicatory inscriptions commemorating the dedication of a religious object or the performance of a ritual, funerary inscriptions, and building inscriptions (Kootstra 2022a: 70-90). The ẓll-inscriptions form an important sub-genre of the dedicatory inscriptions (their meaning is disputed, but see Kootstra 2022b for the most recent discussion) (Fig. 3).

Fokelien Kootstra

References and suggested readings

• Al-Jallad, A. 2018. What is Ancient North Arabian?, in D. Birnstiehl & N. Pat-El (eds) Re-engaging comparative Semitic and Arabic studies: 1–43. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Kootstra, F. 2022a. The writing culture of ancient Dadan (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics, 110). Leiden: Brill.
• Kootstra, F. 2022b. The ẓll of ancient Dadān: ritual and documentary practice. AAE 33: 178-187. DOI: 10.1111/aae.12205.
• Macdonald, M.C.A. 2008. Ancient North Arabian, in R.D. Woodard (ed.) The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia: 179-224. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Rohmer, J. & G. Charloux 2015. From Liḥyān to the Nabataeans: dating the end of the Iron Age in north-west Arabia’. PSAS 45: 297–320. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43783640

_{Alternate spellings: Dedanitic, Dedanite, Lihyanite}