STOUPS . Only in these See also:

• SOUTHERN

2 It is not quite certain whether all the Semitic languages originally had the hardest of the gutturals gh and kh in exactly the same places that they occupy in Arabic. In the See also:

• CASE
• CASE, JOHN (d. 1600)

Assyrian. See also:

• LONG, GEORGE (1800-1879)
• LONG, JOHN DAVIS (1838– )

44—passages all belonging to the 6th See also:

• CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

It is only as the language of the See also:

• PEOPLE

The first rise of an historical literature may very probably date from before the See also:

• ESTABLISHMENT (0. Fr. establissement, Fr. etablissement, late Norm. Fr. establishement, from O. Fr. establir, Fr. etablir, Lat. stabilire, to make stable)

6, which shows that the ancient Ephraimites pronounced samek instead of shin. The destruction of the Judaean See also:

• KINGDOM

Meanwhile the See also:

• PRINCIPAL

The " language of the learned " borrows a great part of its vocabulary from Aramaic,3 and this exercises a strong influence upon the grammatical forms. The See also:

• GRAMMAR (from Lat. grammatica, sc. ars; Gr. ypaµ)

The ancient Hebrew language, especially in the See also:

• MATTER

The Old Testament is no very large work; vit contains, moreover, many repetitions, and a great Vocabu- oc number of pieces which are of little use to the lexicolary. grapher. On the other hand, much may be derived from certain poetical books, such as See also:

• JOB

The difficulty of See also:

• INTERPRETATION (from Lat. interpretari, to expound, explain, inter pres, an agent, go-between, interpreter; inter, between, and the root pret-, possibly connected with that seen either in Greek 4 p4'ew, to speak, or irpa-rrecv, to do)

The connecting of clauses is scarcely carried farther in the former language than in the latter. A slight See also:

• ATTEMPT (Lat. adtemptare, attentare, to try)

In these the gutturals, which had lost their real sound, are frequently interchanged in writing: and other modifications may also be perceived. Unfortunately the Neo-Punic inscriptions are written in such a debased indistinct character that it is often impossible to discover with certainty the real form of the words. This dialect was still spoken about 400, and perhaps long afterwards, in those districts of North Africa which had once belonged to Carthage. It would seem that in the mother-country the Phoenician language withstood the encroachment of Greek on the one hand and of Aramaic on the other somewhat longer than Hebrew did. Aramaic. Aramaic is nearly related to Hebraeo-Phoenician; but there is nevertheless a See also:

• SHARP, GRANVILLE (1735-1813)
• SHARP, JAMES (1618-1679)
• SHARP, JOHN (1645-1714)
• SHARP, RICHARD (1759-1835)
• SHARP, WILLIAM (1749-1824)
• SHARP, WILLIAM (1856-1905)

The language of all these inscriptions is Aramaic, though in certain places it agrees with Hebrew. It is especially surprising that in the case of the Arabic sounds th, dh, z, they have not t, d, t,—as Aramaic generally has,—but sh, z, s, as is the See also:

• RULE

No. 93). ' The consonants of his name are ZKR; the pronunciation, perhaps, was Zakkiir. in the period of our inscriptions: it would seem, therefore, that we must assume a dialectical cleavage, perhaps originated by the influence of Hebrew or Canaanean. Particularly remarkable is the use of the waw consecutivum in the inscriptions of the king of Hamath hitherto only known from Hebrew. Traces of the divergent phonetic treatment are found in the Hellenistic era, and—here and there—even later. Still, at the most, these can scarcely be more than conscious archaisms,—a view which is particularly corroborated by the fact, that, in certain Aramaic documents of the Persian period, both forms are used interchangeably, e.g. argil, " See also:

• EARTH
• EARTH (a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. Erde, Dutch aarde, Swed. and Dan. jord; outside Teutonic it appears only in the Gr. 'pq'e, on the ground; it has been connected by some etymologists with the Aryan root ar-, to plough, which is seen in
• EARTH, FIGURE OF
• EARTH, FIGURE OF THE

We possessed, even before this, a few official documents and other written pieces in Aramaic, inscribed upon See also:

• PAPYRUS

26; Isa. See also:

• XXXVI

I2 sqq.) Is in its present form a comparatively late See also:

• PRODUCTION (Lat. productionem, from producere, to pro-duce)

In Aramaic" the synagogues it was necessary that the See also:

• READING

This, however, is a far too venturesome undertaking. How far these Jewish works actually exhibit the Galilean language can hardly be definitely determined; and to this must be added the inexactitude of the traditional text, and, finally, the by no means inconsiderable difference in time. Not only the Jews, but also the Christians of Palestine retained their native dialect for some time as an ecclesiastical and literary language. We possess See also:

• TRANSLATIONS

The later works written in the Samaritan dialect are, from a linguistic point of view, as worthless as the compositions of Samaritans in Hebrew; the writers, who spoke Arabic, endeavoured to write in languages with which they were but half acquainted. All these Western Aramaic dialects, including that of the oldest inscriptions, have this feature among others in common, that they form the third See also:

• PERSON, OFFENCES AGAINST THE

In Babylonia, as in Syria, the language of the Arabic conquerors rapidly drove out that of the country. The latter has long been totally extinct, unless possibly a few surviving Mandaeans still speak among themselves a more modern form of their dialect. At See also:

• EDESSA
• EDESSA (mod. , Vodena)

In the development of this literature the Syrians of the Persian empire took an eager part. In the eastern See also:

• ROMAN

Up to the present day Syriac has remained in use for literary and ecclesiastical purposes, and may perhaps be even spoken in some monasteries and schools; but it has long been a dead language. When Syriac became extinct in Edessa and its neighbourhood is not known with certainty (see SYRIAC LANGUAGE). This language, called Syriac See also:

• PAR (Lat. par, equal)

These Aramaeans have all adopted a See also:

• MOTLEY
• MOTLEY, JOHN LOTHROP (1814–1897)

It is also very free as regards the order of words. That this quality, which renders it suitable for a clear and limpid prose style, is not the result of Greek influence may be seen by the Mandaean, on which Greek has left no See also:

• MARK
• MARK, CARL (1858– )
• MARK, GOSPEL OF ST
• MARK, ST

For travellers have recently discovered at al Ula in the northern I3ijaz inscriptions in a hitherto unknown character, de-rived from the Sabaean (see below), which appear to have been Thamudlc written before our era. Since it is probable that TLMJ, Thatn di the name of two kings mentioned in them, is IlroXegaiss, /ascrlp- we are directed to the Hellenistic period, and other cir- uoas. cumstances confirm this conjecture. These inscriptions have been called " Thamudic," because they were found in the country of the Thamud; but this designation is scarcely a suitable one, because during the period when the power of the Thamud was at its height, and when the buildings mentioned in the See also:

• KORAN

For the most part, these also are short fugitive pieces scratched on rough stones, though a few of them show more careful See also:

• EXECUTION (from Lat. ex-sequor, exsecutus, follow or carry out)

It is possible that the inscription of Nemara, south-east of Damascus, Arabic, but in Nabataean letters, dating from A.D. 328, and the two oldest known specimens of distinctively Arabic writing—namely, the Arabic portion of the trilingual inscription of Zabad, south-east of Haleb (See also:

• ALEPPO (native Haleb)

More-over, the Arabic philologists recognize the existence of various small distinctions between the dialects of individual tribes and of their poets, and the traditions of the more ancient schools of Koran readers exhibit very many dialectical nuances. It might indeed be conjectured that for the See also:

• MAJORITY (Fr. majorite; Med. Lat. majoritas; Lat. major, greater)

The fact that they were Christians does not explain this, since the Taghlibites and other tribes who produced eminent poets also professed Christianity. Moreover, poets from the interior were gladly welcomed at the See also:

• COURT
• COURT (from the O. Fr. court, Late Lat. cortis, curtis, a popular form of class. Lat. cohors, gen. cohortis; the mod. Fr. form tour is due to the influence of the Lat. curia, the word used in medieval documents to translate " court " in the feudal sense)
• COURT, ANTOINE (1696-176o)

Thus the Koran and its language exercised but very little influence upon the poetry of the following century and upon that of later times, whereas this poetry closely and slavishly copied the productions of the old heathen period. The fact that the poetical literature of the early Moslems has been preserved in a much more authentic form than the works of the heathen poets proves that our idea of the language of its See also:

• PATTERN

About the end of the and century the system of Arabic grammar was constructed, and never underwent any essential modification in later times. The theory as to how one should express oneself was now definitely fixed. The majority of those Arabs who lived beyond the limits of Arabia already diverged far from this See also:

• STANDARD
• STANDARD, BATTLE OF THE

But in spite of these qualifications it must be admitted that the vocabulary is surprisingly See also:

• RICH, BARNABE (c. 1540-1617)
• RICH, CLAUDIUS JAMES (1787-1821)
• RICH, JOHN (1692-1761)
• RICH, PENELOPE, LADY (c. 1562–1607)
• RICH, RICHARD, 1ST BARON RICH (1490?-1567)

The attempts to define the tenses more clearly by the addition of adverbs and See also:

• AUXILIARY (from Lat. auxilium, help)

On the contrary, scarcely any language is so well adapted to be the organ of See also:

• SCHOLASTICISM

Yet, in spite of this, the Arabic dialects have See also:

• DEVELOPED

The histories of dialects which differ completely from one another often pursue an analogous course. In general, the Arabic dialects still resemble one another more than we might expect when we take into consideration the immense extent of country over which they are spoken and the very considerable See also:

• GEOGRAPHICAL

The isolated Maltese alone has succeeded in producing a new written language distinct from the classical tongue; and in this a .fair amount of material has already been printed in Latin characters. In See also:

• RECENT

To this latter branch belong the numerous South Arabic inscriptions recently found in the north of the Hijaz, near IIejr, where the Minaeans must have had a commercial See also:

• SETTLEMENT
• SETTLEMENT, ACT OF

It is especially important to See also:

• NOTICE

Farther to the east, in the See also:

• SEA (in O. Eng. sae, a common Teutonic word; cf. Ger. See, Dutch Zee, &c.; the ultimate source is uncertain)
• SEA, COMMAND OF THE

In Abyssinia, too, and in the neighbouring countries we find languages which bear a certain resemblance to Arabic. The Geez, or Ethiopic2 proper, the language of the ancient kingdom Gees, or of Axum, was reduced to writing at an early date. At Ethiopic first Sabaean letters were employed. But even the proper. See also:

• MONUMENT (Lat. monumentum or monumentum; from monere, to advise, bring to mind, remind; the German equivalent is Denkmal)

The missionaries who gave the Bible to the Abyssinians must, at least in some cases, have spoken Aramaic as their mother-tongue, for this alone can explain the fact that in the Ethiopic Bible certain religious conceptions are expressed by Aramaic words. During the following centuries various works were produced by the Abyssinians in this language; they were all, so far as we are able to See also:

• JUDGE (Lat. judex, Fr. juge)

And this colonization in Africa probably began much sooner than is usually supposed. In certain respects Geez represents a more modern stage of development than Arabic; we may cite as instances the loss of some inflexional terminations and of the ancient passive, the change of the aspirated dentals into sibilants, &c. In the manuscripts, especially those of later date, many letters are See also:

• CON

But we must not suppose that all the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Axum were pure Semites. The See also:

• IMMIGRATION (from Lat. in, into, and tnigrare, to depart)

Although Tigre and Tigrina are not free from foreign influences, yet at the core they are purely Semitic. This is not fundamentally the case with Amharic, a language of which the domain extends from the left See also:

• BANK

The strangest innovations occur in the personal pronouns. And certainly not more than half the vocabulary can without improbability be made to correspond with that of the other Semitic languages. In this, as also in the grammar, we must leave out of account all that is borrowed from Geez, which, as being the ecclesiastical tongue, exercises a great influence everywhere in Abyssinia. On the other hand, we must make See also:

• ALLOWANCE (from "allow,' derived through 0. Fr. alouer from the two Lat. origins adlaudare, to praise, and allocare, to assign a place; so that the English word combined the general idea of "assigning with approval")

The oldest documents which we possess are a few songs of the 15th and 16th centuries, which were not, however, written down till a later time, and are very difficult to interpret. There are also a few Geez-Amharic glossaries, which may be tolerably old. Since the 17th century various attempts have been made, sometimes by European missionaries, to write in Amharic, and in modern times this language has to a considerable extent been employed for literary purposes; nor is this to be ascribed exclusively to foreign influence. A literary language, fixed in a sufficient measure, has thus been formed. Books belonging to a somewhat earlier period contain tolerably clear proofs of dialectical differences. Scattered notices by travellers seem to indicate that in some districts the language diverges in a very much greater degree from the recognized type. The Abyssinian chronicles have for centuries been written in Geez, largely intermingled with Amharic elements. This " language of the chronicles," in itself a dreary See also:

• CHAOS

A few centuries ago, Harari was perhaps a dialect only slightly divergent from Amharic. To-day, Amharians and the inhabitants of Harar can no longer understand each other, especially as the latter have See also:

• DRAWN