Numidian language

Numidian, also known as Old Libyan, was the language of the Maesulians of the eastern part of ancient Numidia during the Pre-Roman era in northern Africa.

Numidian
Old Libyan
Native toancient Numidia and ancient Africa
RegionLimited to the islands
EthnicityMaesulians
Erafl. ca. 200 BCE
Libyco-Berber (Proto-Tifinagh)
Language codes
ISO 639-3nxm
nxm
Glottolognumi1241[1]

The language is scarcely attested and can be confidently identified only as belonging to the Afroasiatic family. As the Maesulians were ethnically Berber,[2][3] it is supposed that East Numidian was therefore a Berber language.[4] The Berber branch of Afro-Asiatic is sometimes called Lybico-Berber since it is not certain whether East Numidian would fall within the modern Berber languages or form a sister branch to them. Indeed, it is widely supposed that it constitutes a group of its own, as there is no trace of the noun-case system shared by the modern Berber languages. However, Proto-Berber is theorized to have no grammatical case either.

References
  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Numidian". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. Jamil M. Abun-Nasr (20 August 1987). A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period. Cambridge University Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-316-58334-0.
  3. Phillip C. Naylor (7 May 2015). Historical Dictionary of Algeria. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-8108-7919-5.
  4. Steven Roger Fischer (4 April 2004). History of Writing. Reaktion Books. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-86189-588-2.
  • Aikhenvald & Militarev, 1991. 'Livijsko-guanchskie jazyki', Jazyki Azii i Afriki, vol. 4, pp. 148–266.
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