Extinct 5th century BC Linguist list qgg | ISO 639-3 None (mis) | |
Region Formerly spoken in northwestern Jordan Language family Afro-Asiatic
Semitic
Central Semitic
Northwest Semitic
Canaanite
Hebrew
Ammonite Glottolog (insufficiently attested or not a distinct language)
ammo1234 | ||
Ammonite is the extinct Canaanite language of the Ammonite people mentioned in the Bible, who used to live in modern-day Jordan, and after whom its capital Amman is named. Only fragments of their language survive - chiefly the 9th century BC Amman Citadel Inscription, the 7th-6th century BC Tell Siran bronze bottle, and a few ostraca. As far as can be determined from the small corpus, it was extremely similar to Biblical Hebrew, with some possible Aramaic influence including the use of the verb ‘bd (עבד) instead of the more common Biblical Hebrew ‘śh (עשה) for "make". The only other notable difference with Biblical Hebrew is the sporadic retention of feminine singular -t (’šħt "cistern" but ‘lyh "high (fem.)".)
It was first described as a separate language in 1970 by Italian Orientalist Giovanni Garbini. Subsequently, a number of inscriptions previously identified as Hebrew, Phoenician, or Aramaic were reclassified, as a result of consensus around the similarity of the Amman Theatre Inscription, Amman Citadel Inscription, Tell Siren Bottle, Heshbon Ostraca, and Tell el-Mazer Ostraca.
According to Glottolog, referencing Huehnergard & Rubin (2011), Ammonite was not a distinct language from Hebrew.