Sabaic Grammar

Manchester, Journal of Semitic Studies, Monograph No. 6, 1984, 86 p. Among the pre-Islamic inscriptions of south-western Arabia in Epigraphic South Arabian (or Old South Arabian or Sayhadic) four principal languages can be discerned: Minaic (Minaean), Sabaic (Sabaean), Qatabanic and Hadramitic. The greatest bulk of available inscriptions are Sabaic in character, it is therefore this language that must be the foundation of any grammatical description. Written after A Descriptive Grammar of Epigraphic South Arabian (1962) by Beeston and Sabaic Dictionary (1980) by Beeston, Ghul, Müller and Ryckmans, this book describes the grammar of Sabaic, a Semitic language belonging to the Afro-Asiatic (Afrasian) language family attested in inscriptions between the 6th century BCE and the 6th c. CE. It was the dominant language westward from Marib as far as the Red Sea in present Yemen. Beeston distinguishes Sabaic dialects and compares Sabaic with Minaic, Qatabanic and Hadramitic (pp. 59-70).