AbstractThis article will discuss the dating formula in the Dadanitic inscriptions. So far, some of these have been interpreted to refer not only to the reign of the local king (mlk lḥyn), but also to another political official called rʾy. The article will discuss the merit of this interpretation based on both the questionable etymology of the term rʾy and the problematic interpretation of the terms following this word as personal names. Instead, a new interpretation of this formula as a reference to a local calendar will be explored in light of the occurrence of a similar word rʾy in Safaitic dating formula, and comparison to other ancient methods of time reckoning in the region.

The Taymanitic inscriptions, written in the c. mid-sixth century BCE, largely consist of personal names. While personal names cannot inform us directly on the language or ethnicity of their bearers, name-giving practices do reflect a choice made by the person bestowing it on someone. This article will focus on the personal names of the inscriptions; what they can tell us about their linguistic and cultural background, and how this might inform us on the cultural heritage of the authors of the Taymanitic inscriptions.

No abstract

The Arabic documentary papyri (seventh–ninth centuries Ce) are precious wit- nesses to the day-to-day written Arabic of their time. These texts exhibit consider- able variation in grammar and orthography. Classical Arabic and the prescriptive attitudes of the Arabic grammarians traditionally provided the lens through which the earliest documents of the Islamic period have been read. Since Classical Ara- bic was only fully canonized in the tenth century, approaching the early Arabic papyri, and the variation attested in them, through this standard is anachronistic. This article seeks to understand the language of these documents on their own terms. It employs a quantitative approach to investigate the nominal case system, focusing on the form of ʾab in construct, producing a fine-grained analysis of how inflection operated in early documentary Arabic, and attempts to account for points of divergence within a historical and sociolinguistic framework.

No abstract