Old Arabic

E7622

Old Arabic is the early stage of the Arabic language attested in pre-Islamic inscriptions and poetry, representing the linguistic ancestor of Classical and Modern Arabic varieties.

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Statements (50)

Predicate Object
instanceOf historical language stage
variety of Arabic
ancestorOf Classical Arabic
Modern Standard Arabic
modern Arabic vernaculars
attestedIn Dadanitic inscriptions
Hismaic inscriptions
Nabataean inscriptions
Safaitic inscriptions
pre-Islamic Arabic poetry
pre-Islamic inscriptions
closelyRelatedTo Classical Arabic
Nabataean Arabic
Classical Arabic
surface form: Quranic Arabic
hasFeature case inflection on nouns
contrast between long and short vowels
definite article al-
emphatic consonants
mood inflection on verbs
triconsonantal root-and-pattern morphology
hasSourceType early poetic corpora
graffiti
rock inscriptions
ISOStatus not assigned a separate ISO 639-3 code (treated under Arabic)
languageBranch Semitic
languageFamily Afroasiatic languages
surface form: Afroasiatic
languageSubbranch Central Semitic languages
surface form: Central Semitic
precedes Classical Arabic
Modern Standard Arabic
modern Arabic dialects
roleIn development of Classical Arabic grammar
reconstruction of Proto-Arabic
spokenIn Arabian Peninsula
Nabataean kingdom
Syrian Desert
surface form: Syro-Arabian desert

northwestern Arabia
oases of northwestern Arabia
studiedInField Arabic philology
Semitic linguistics
epigraphy
historical linguistics
subclassOf Afroasiatic language
Arabic
surface form: Arabic language

Central Semitic language
Semitic language
timePeriod 1st millennium BCE–1st millennium CE (approximate scholarly range)
pre-Islamic era
writingSystem Ancient North Arabian scripts
Nabataean alphabet
surface form: Nabataean Aramaic script

early Arabic script

Referenced by (3)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Tihami Arabic hasAncestor Old Arabic
Arabic historicalForm Old Arabic