Hadramitic

Hadramitic is the easternmost of the four Ancient South Arabian (ASA) languages, and was spoken in the kingdom of Ḥaḍramawt. During the acme of the kingdom, it extended from the desert of Ramlat as-Sabatayn down to the coastal plain of Yemen, into the Mahra region and even further east up to the Omanite Dhofar. The corpus of formal Hadramitic texts includes about 1500 inscriptions, dating from between the 7th century BCE and the end of the 3rd century CE.

The languages bordering Hadramitic are Qatabanic and the more southern Sabaic (SAB) dialects to the west, and Mehri, a Modern South Arabian (MSA) language, to the east. The harbour city of Sumhuram (see Khawr Rūrī), founded by Ḥaḍramawt around the 3rd century BCE, was probably just an enclave surrounded by Jibbali speakers (also a MSA language). Hadramitic shares some interesting traits with these neighbouring languages.

The collection includes about 1500 inscriptions (half of which are fragmentary), dating from between the 7th century BCE and the end of the 3rd century CE, when the kingdom of Ḥaḍramawt was conquered by Ḥimyar and SAB was imposed as a written language. Isolated evidence of Hadramitic linguistic features is still found in the 4th-5th century SAB inscriptions from that area. With the exception of a few minuscule texts on wooden sticks (which are still unpublished), the corpus of Hadramitic inscriptions is made up of formal texts inscribed on stone or bronze. These are textual genres such as votive and construction inscriptions. No legal texts are known in this language.

Epigraphic documentation is not homogeneous throughout the history of Ḥaḍramawt, since it followed the political fortunes of the kingdom. The second half of the 1st millennium BCE is the richest: the inscriptions on the city wall of the capital Shabwa and the most interesting texts from Raybūn are dated to between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE. Only a few inscriptions are dated to the 1st century CE (including the important foundation texts of the king Ilīʿazz Yaluṭ [Eleazos], in Sumhuram), but many inscriptions from Shabwa and its outskirts date back to the latest chronological phase (2nd-3rd centuries CE).

In spite of the geographical and chronological extension of the kingdom, the epigraphic material is discontinuous and sparse, and many grammatical forms are lacking or poorly represented. Specific regional variations can only be recognised in a few cases, although several local features were introduced into some inscriptions, especially in lexicon and palaeographic formularies.

In the same way as the other ASA languages, Hadramitic shows distinctive specific or shared traits with other languages of the family. The most notable linguistic features of Hadramitic are as follow.

Orthography and phonology

• A reduced phonemic repertoire of 27 phonemes. The interdental fricatives ṯ and ḏ were probably merged in the spoken language with their dental counterparts s³ and z respectively, even though this confusion is very curiously reflected in orthography (with spellings such as *s³ > *ṯ or *ṯ > *s³ for the voiceless series, and *z > *ḏ for the voiced series).
• An extensive use of a non-etymological h (same as the rest of non-SAB), affixed alone or as an additional sign to w or y in certain nominal forms, in pronouns and in some particles. The h marks the external plural -hy (bnhy “the sons of”), the decades in numerals (ts¹ʿhy “90”) and the adverbial accusative (qrnhm “with a garrison”).

Morphology

• In the determinate state of the noun, the retention of the singular ending -hn instead of -n (ṣlmhn vs. rest of ASA ṣlmn, “the statue”); the affixation of the non-SAB plural ending -yhn to the construct state and not to the nunated form (ṣlmhyhn vs. QAT ṣlmnyhn “the statues”)
• In the construct state of the noun: the plural -hy (mas) and -hty (fem), and the dual -w/-y (mas. nominative and oblique case).
• Personal pronouns in -s¹ (same as the rest of non-SAB), and opposition between short and long forms in the suffixed pronouns (bn-s¹ “his son” vs. bnh-s¹ww “his children”).
• Morphological opposition in personal pronouns between masculine -s¹ and feminine -s³/ṯ.
• Verbal causative in -s¹ (same as the rest of non-SAB).
• Long prefix-conjugation augmented with -m.

Particles

• Prepositions h- vs. l “to” (rest of ASA) and ʾd vs. ʿd “until” (rest of ASA).
• Conjunction mt as a variant of ywm “when”.

Lexicon

• A varied lexicon combining hapaxes, archaisms recalling Akkadian, and many semantic isoglosses with MSA and Ethiopian languages.

Alessia Prioletta

References and suggested reading

• Frantsouzoff S. A. 2003. En marge des inscriptions de Raybūn (remarques sur la grammaire, le lexique et le formulaire de la langue ḥaḍramoutique épigraphique). Arabia 1: 39–58.
• Hasselbach R. 2012. Old South Arabian. In H. Gzella (ed.), Languages from the World of the Bible: 160–193. Boston, Berlin: De Gruyter. URI: library.oapen.org
• Multhoff A. 2010. Phalluskult und Bilderverbot? Beiträge zur ḥaḍramitischen Sprache und Kultur. ZDMG 160/11: 7–40. jstor.org/stable/10.13173/zeitdeutmorggese.160.1.0007
• Nebes N. & P. Stein. 2004. Ancient South Arabian. In R. D. Woodard (ed.), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages: 454–487. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Prioletta A. 2013. Remarks on some processes of assimilation and innovation in the language and culture of Ḥaḍramawt during its ancient history. AulOr 31: 93–108.
• Prioletta A. 2014. Towards a Ḥaḍramitic lexicon: Lexical notes on terms relating to the formulary and rituals in expiatory inscriptions. In O. Elmaz, J.C.E. Watson (eds), Languages of Southern Arabia. Papers from the Special Session of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held on 27 July 2013. (Supplement to the PSAS 44): 101–110. Oxford: Archaeopress. jstor.org/stable/43782854.
• Stein P. 2011. Ancient South Arabian. In S. Weninger (ed.) in collaboration with G. Kahn, M. P. Streck and J. C.E. Watson, The Semitic Languages. An International Handbook (Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft 36): 1042–1073. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
• Suchard B. 2017. The origin of *s3 in the Ḥaḍramitic and Modern South Arabian third person feminine personal pronouns. JSS LXII/1: 69–76. DOI: 10.1093/jss/fgw061

_{Alternate spellings: Ḥaḍramitic; Ḥaḍramawtic; Hadramawtic}