The Writing Culture of Ancient Dadan

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 Studies in
Semitic Languages
and Linguistics

Editorial Board

Aaron D. Rubin (Pennsylvania State University)

Ahmad Al-Jallad (The Ohio State University)

volume 110

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The Writing Culture of
Ancient Dadan
A Description and Quantitative Analysis of
Linguistic Variation

By

Fokelien Kootstra

leiden | boston

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 This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the cc by-nc-nd 4.0 license,
which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
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Cover illustration: Inscriptions from the Jabal ʿIkmah area. Courtesy of ociana (accessed 16-06-2022);
part of the record for inscription U 027.1; record url: http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/pages/
OCIANA_0037676.html; image url: http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/images/fullsize/
im0026733.jpg.

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isbn 978-90-04-51262-7 (hardback)
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Copyright 2023 by Fokelien Kootstra. Published by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Hotei, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink,
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Contents

List of Figures, Maps and Tables ix

Sigla and Abbreviations xiii
Acknowledgements xvii

Introduction 1
1 Outline of the Present Work 3
2 The Corpus 4
3 A Holistic Approach to the Epigraphic Object 7
4 Scribal School and Variation 19

1 The Oasis of Dadan in Space and Time 31

1 The Dadanite and Liḥyanite Kingdoms 33
2 Philological Arguments 40
3 Minaean Presence at Dadan 41
4 Paleography 43
5 Dadan in Other Corpora 48
6 Archaeological Evidence 53
7 Summary of the Dating Evidence 55

2 Script and Manners of Inscribing 56

1 Glyphs and Their Variant Forms 57
2 Script Styles 62
3 Dadanitic Alphabetic Text 68
4 Summary: Varying Styles, Varying Forms 69

3 Genres and Compositional Formulae 70

1 Superscriptio 71
2 Narratio 73
3 Invocatio 83
4 Graffiti 87
5 Summary 89

4 Orthography and Phonology 91

1 Word Dividers 92
2 Matres lectionis 93
3 Triphthongs 102
4 Final Short Vowels 107

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vi contents

5 Diphthongs 108
6 Sound Changes 115

5 Verbal Morphology 125

1 Suffix Conjugation 125
2 Prefix Conjugation 132
3 Derived Stems 136
4 Participles 147

6 Nominal and Pronominal Morphology 150

1 Gender 150
2 Number 150
3 Noun Formation 159
4 Demonstrative Pronoun 163
5 Relative Pronoun 165
6 hmḏ 167
7 mh 167
8 mn 168
9 Personal Pronouns 169
10 Prepositions 172
11 Numerals 173
12 Adverbs 181
13 Particles 182
14 Conjunctions 184

7 A Quantitative Approach to Variation 187

1 Methodology: Statistics 187
2 The Data and Methodology 192

8 Analysis 203
1 Text Internal Variants 203
2 Register Indicators 210
3 Important Non-significant Co-occurrences 215
4 Discussion 221
5 Summary 234

Conclusions 236
1 Descriptive and Grammar Chapters 237
2 Chapters Analyzing Variation 238
3 Variation and Literacy 241

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contents vii

4 Future Directions 244

5 Summary 245

Glossary 247
Bibliography 305
Index of Inscriptions 317

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Figures, Maps and Tables

Figures

1 A dedicatory inscription in relief (ah 197). Photograph available on ociana,

http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/pages/OCIANA_0037784.html
(accessed 28-12-2021) 2
2 Possible royal lineage, as presented in Farès-Drappeau (2005) 36
3 Possible royal lineage, with maximum restrictions 38
4 Possible royal lineage, incorporating the Aramaic evidence that suggests that
lḏn ruled before the tlmy for whom 40 regnal years are attested in the
epigraphic record from Taymāʾ 39
5 A dedicatory inscription in relief on a prepared stone (al-Ḫuraybah 12).
Photograph available on ociana, http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus
/pages/OCIANA_0038730.html (accessed 29-12-2021) 62
6 An inscription in relief on rockface (U 001 ẓll). Photograph available on
ociana, http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/pages/OCIANA_0037641
.html (accessed 28-12-2021) 63
7 An inscription seemingly in preparation for a relief (JSLih 048). Photograph
available on ociana, http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/pages/OCIANA
_0033717.html (accessed 28-12-2021) 64
8 nṭr inscriptions in Iṯlib-style relief (ah 314). Original photograph available on
ociana, http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/pages/OCIANA_0033320
.html (accessed 28-12-2021) 65
9 Detail of ah 314 showing the individual points of impact created by pounding
the rock. Photograph available on ociana, http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana
/corpus/pages/OCIANA_0033320.html (accessed 28-12-2021) 65
10 A legal inscription incised in a block (al-Ḫuraybah 17). Photograph available on
ociana, http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/pages/OCIANA_0038733
.html (accessed 28-12-2021) 66
11 An inscription inscribed on a rock face (U 040 a ẓll). Photograph available on
ociana, http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/pages/OCIANA_0037667
.html (accessed 28-12-2021) 66
12 A dedicatory text chiseled on a rock face (ah 113). Photograph available on
ociana, http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/pages/OCIANA_0037775
.html (accessed 28-12-2021) 67
13 A ẓll inscription pounded on a rock face (U 116). Photograph available on
ociana, http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/pages/OCIANA_0037645
.html (accessed 28-12-2021) 68

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x figures, maps and tables

14 JSLih 081 (Jaussen and Savignac 1909–1912 pl. lxxxv). Photograph available on
ociana, http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/pages/OCIANA_0034222
.html (accessed 28-12-2021) 119
15 Tracing of the word ṯlt in JSLih 068. Original photographs available on ociana,
http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/pages/OCIANA_0034207.html
(accessed 28-12-2021) 180
16 Overview of correlations between variables. Significant relations are indicated
by a line, the thicker the line the higher the significance (see Table 28 for the
exact p values). 222
17 Overlap of variables with significant results excluding genre. The degree of
overlap does not represent the degree of significance 225

Maps

1 Showing the location of Dadan. Courtesy of Rohmer and Charloux (2015) 6

2 The approximate distribution of different types of inscriptions in the
landscape. Map adapted from Rohmer and Charloux (2015) 11
3 The main archaeological sites of Dadan, courtesy of Rohmer and Charloux
(2015). The map is adapted to show additional sites (Qubūr al-Jundi, Jabal Iṯlib,
Talʿat al-Ḥammād, and Wadi Muʿtadil). The grey areas represent sandstone
massifs. Jabal ʿIkmah corresponds to the area called al-ʿUḏayb in Stiehl (1971)
and Sima (1999) 34

Tables

1 Schematic overview of the development shown in Macdonald (2010, 12) 47

2 Script table of Dadanitic based on Macdonald (2008, 187) 57
3 ṭ and ẓ in ah 197 and JSLih 313 58
4 Variant forms of ẓ and ṭ based on the forms presented in Macdonald (2000,
34) 58
5 Glyphs read as ṭ in the nṭr inscriptions 59
6 The glyphs ẓ and ṭ in ẓll inscriptions 60
7 Comparing ambiguous ẓ/ṭ shapes from nṭr and ẓll inscriptions 61
8 The glyph ẓ in graffiti 61
9 Attested forms of the suffix conjugation 125
10 Attested suffix forms of geminate roots 131
11 Attested forms of the prefix conjugation 133
12 Overview of the forms of the derived stems 136

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figures, maps and tables xi

13 Overview of attested participle forms 147

14 Personal pronouns 170
15 Clitic pronouns 172
16 Contingency table demonstrating a comparison of the co-occurrence of the
variables of gender and hat wearing 188
17 Contingency table showing the expected frequencies of co-occurrence of
gender and hat wearing 189
18 Attested forms of the causatives 194
19 Attested forms of i-w causatives 195
20 Attested forms of the geminate causative 195
21 Attested spellings of √rḍy 196
22 Agreement types 197
23 Attested anomalous agreement 199
24 Distinguished script styles and no. of occurrences 200
25 Inscriptions that were excluded from the script style anlysis and no. of
occurrences 200
26 Distinguished genres and no. of occurrences 201
27 Inscriptions excluded from genre analysis 202
28 Overview of the correlations between the attested variables. The p value
indicates the chance that the null hypothesis is true as a value between o and 1.
The cut-off point for significance is .05: grey cells represent significant results,
na means the combination of features is not attested. 203
29 Contingency table comparing causative type and spelling of i-w causative 204
30 Contingency table comparing causative type and spelling of rḍy 205
31 Contingency table comparing causative type and genre of the inscription 206
32 Contingency table comparing the spelling of rḍy and i-w causatives 207
33 Contingency table comparing script style and spelling of rḍy 208
34 Contingency table comparing the spelling of rḍy and genre 209
35 Contingency table comparing script style and spelling of *ẓ 211
36 Contingency table comparing script style and agreement type 212
37 Contingency table comparing the genre and script style of inscriptions 213
38 Overview of the significant standardized residuals of genre and script
style 214
39 Contingency table comparing the genre of the inscription and the spelling of
*ẓ 215
40 Contingency table comparing genre and the spelling of i-w causative 216
41 Contingency table comparing agreement type and genre 217
42 Contingency table comparing causative type and spelling of geminate
causative 218
43 Contingency table comparing the spelling of geminate causatives and script
style 219

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xii figures, maps and tables

44 Contingency table comparing the spelling of geminate causatives and

rḍy 220
45 Contingency table comparing spelling of geminate causatives with agreement
type 221
46 Overview of correlations between the variables in cluster i 226
47 Relationship between script style and ẓll or dedicatory inscriptions in
standardized residuals 230
48 Relationship between spelling of *ẓ and ẓll or dedicatory inscriptions in
standardized residuals 230
49 Relationship between the spelling of rḍy and ẓll or dedicatory inscriptions in
standardized residuals 230
50 Relationship between causative type and ẓll or dedicatory inscriptions in
standardized residuals 231
51 Relationship between the i-w causative and ẓll or dedicatory inscriptions in
standardized residuals 231
52 Absolute number of attestations of inscriptions executed in the different script
styles 231
53 Relationship between agreement type and ẓll or dedicatory inscriptions in
standardized residuals 234
54 Overview of the grammatical variants with a positive significant
relationship 239

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Sigla and Abbreviations

Sigla

aaek Safaitic inscriptions in al-Manaser (2008)

ah Dadanitic inscriptions in Abū l-Ḥasan (1997)
ahud Dadanitic inscription in Minaic script published in Abū l-Ḥasan (2005)
al-Ḫuraybah Dadanitic inscriptions from al-Ḫuraybah published in al-Theeb (2013)
al-Mazroo and Nasīf 1992 Inscriptions published in al-Mazroo and Nasīf (1992)
Al-Saʿīd 1419/1999 Dadanitic inscriptions published in al-Saʿīd (1419/1999)
Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999 Dadanitic inscriptions published in al-Saʿīd (1420/1999)
Al-Saʿīd 2011 Dadanitic inscription published in al-Saʿīd (2011)
Al-Theeb 2013 Dadanitic inscriptions published in al-Theeb (2013)
Al-ʿUḏayb Dadanitic inscriptions from al-ʿUḏayb published in ociana
Al-ʿUlā Dadanitic inscriptions from al-ʿUlā published in ociana
Al-ʿUlā Museum Dadanitic inscriptions from the al-ʿUlā museum published in
ociana
Bogue Dadanitic inscriptions published by Van den Branden (1960)
BRenv. Inscriptions recorded by the Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programme in
1995 published in ociana
Bron-al-ʿUḏayb Dadanitic inscription published in Bron (1996) and later in Sima
(1999)
C Safaitic inscriptions published by G. Ryckmans in Corpus Inscriptionum
Semiticarum (1950–1951)
cal Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, http://cal.huc.edu/
cis ii Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum: ii, Inscriptiones Aramaicas Conti-
nens 1907
dasi Digital Archive for the Study of pre-Islamic Arabian Inscriptions, http://​
dasi.cnr.it/
El-Khouri Dadanitic inscription published by El-Khouri (2002–2007)
Esk. Inscriptions from the Taymāʾ area published in Eskoubi (1999)
Eut Dadanitic inscriptions in Jamme (1974)
Fa Inscriptions published in Fakhry (1952)
Graf Abū al-Ḍibāʿ Inscriptions published in Graf (1983)
Ǧabal Iṯlib Dadanitic inscriptions from the Ǧabal Iṯlib area published in ociana
Ǧabal al-Ḫuraymāt Dadanitic inscriptions from the Ǧabal al-Ḫuraymāt area pub-
lished in ociana
Ǧabal al-Zuhrah Dadanitic inscriptions from the Ǧabal al-Zuhrah area published in
ociana

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xiv sigla and abbreviations

halot Koehler et al. (1995)

hch Safaitic inscriptions published in Harding (1953)
he Inscriptions published by Harding in Parr, Harding, and Dayton (1971)
hu Inscriptions recorded by C. Huber and renumbered in Van den Branden
(1950)
Ir Ancient South Arabian inscriptions published in Iryāni (1990)
Is.R Inscriptions recorded by the Safaitic Epigraphic Survey Programme by
the Al-ʿĪsāwī well published in ociana
Ja Inscriptions from al-ʿUqlah published in Jamme (1963)
JaL Inscriptions published in Jamme (1968)
JSLih Inscriptions called Liḥyanite published in Jaussen and Savignac (1909–
1912)
JSMin Minaic inscriptions published in Jaussen and Savignac (1909–1912)
JSNab Inscriptions called Nabataean in Jaussen and Savignac (1909–1912)
JSTham Thamudic inscriptions published in Jaussen and Savignac (1909–1912)
kja Hismaic inscriptions published in King (1990)
krs Inscriptions recorded by G. King on the Basalt Desert Rescue Survey in
north-eastern Jordan in 1989 and published in ociana
Lane Arabic-English dictionary by Lane (1863)
Lisān Arabic dictionary
M Minaic inscriptions in Garbini and Capuzzi (1974) available in dasi
lp Safaitic inscriptions published in Littmann (1943)
Müller, D.H. 1889 Inscriptions published in Müller (1889)
Nasif 1988 Dadanitic inscriptions published in Nasif (1988)
ociana Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia, http://krcfm​
.orient.ox.ac.uk/fmi/webd/ociana
Ph Dadanitic inscriptions published in Van den Branden (1960)
Private collection Dadanitic inscriptions from a private collection published in
ociana
Qāniʾ 4 Ancient South Arabian inscriptions from ancient Qāniʾ published in
Ryckmans (1939)
Qaṣr al-Ṣāniʿ Dadanitic inscriptions from the Qaṣr al-Ṣāniʿ area published in ociana
Rabeler Dadanitic inscription published in Scagliarini (2002a)
res Répertoire d’épigraphie sémitique. (8 volumes). Paris: Imprimerie natio-
nale, 1900–1968.
Ryckmans Dadanitic inscriptions published in Scagliarini (1999)
rwq Safaitic inscriptions published in Al-Rousan (2004)
Sabaweb Online Sabaic dictionary, project of the dfg and Friedrich-Schiller-
Universität Jena, http://sabaweb.uni‑jena.de/Sabaweb/
ta The registration numbers of the inscriptions discovered during the

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sigla and abbreviations xv

Saudi-German excavations at Taymāʾ published in ociana and Mac-

donald (2020)
Tall al-Kaṯīb Dadanitic inscriptions published in Zahrānī (2007)
Teima Imperial Aramaic inscriptions from Taymāʾ and the surrounding area,
published in (Schwirderski 2006, 2:410–413)
Tdr Inscriptions published in Koenig (1971)
U Dadanitic inscriptions from al-ʿUḏayb published in Sima (1999)
Umm Daraǧ Dadanitic inscriptions from the Umm Daraǧ area published in ociana
W.Dad Dadanitic inscriptions published in Winnett and Reed (1970)
wh Safaitic inscriptions published in Winnett and Harding (1978)
WTay Taymanitic inscriptions published in Winnett and Reed (1970)

Abbreviations

din theonym
Gn genealogy
LeiCenSAA Leiden Center for the Study of Ancient Arabia
pn personal name
poss possessive
TrN tribal name
tn toponym

Glossing Abbreviations (Used in the Appendix)

1c. first-person common gender

3 third person
3c. third-person common gender
act. part. active participle
c C-stem verb
cs construct state
cd CD-stem verb
d D-stem verb
du. dual
f. feminine
g G-stem verb
m. masculine
pc prefix conjugation
pl. plural

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xvi sigla and abbreviations

pos part of speech

Q query
s. singular
sc suffix conjugation
st st-stem
t t-prefix stem
t-infix t-infix stem

Languages

ana Ancient North Arabian

Aram. Aramaic
CAr. Classical Arabic
cp Aram. Christian Palestinian Aramaic
Heb. Hebrew
Ḥaḍ. Ḥaḍramitic
jba Jewish Babylonian Aramaic
Min. Minaic
MMin. Marginal Minaic (the Minaic inscriptions found outside the Minaic
homeland)
Nab. Nabataean
nws North-West Semitic
OffAram. Official Aramaic
OldAram. Old Aramaic
Palm. Palmyrene
Sab. Sabaic
Saf. Safaitic
Syr. Syriac
Ug. Ugaritic

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Acknowledgements

The dissertation on which this work is based would not have looked the same
without the advice and input from my supervisors Petra Sijpesteijn and Ahmad
Al-Jallad. I am particularly indebted to Ahmad Al-Jallad, who was always there
to offer advice and support. I am very grateful to Petra Sijpesteijn for invit-
ing me to the bi-weekly reading group she hosted, even though I was slightly
out of place, working on a period so remote from the others. They helped me
approach my research from new angles.
I would like to thank Michael Macdonald whose critical thinking encour-
aged me to think twice about any statement I wrote and who first introduced
me to Arabian epigraphy.
This work would have been many pages shorter without my conversations
with Maarten Kossmann, who always knew the right time to ask the right ques-
tions.
I am greatly indebted to my officemate Marijn van Putten for always being
happy to share and discuss our work. In that light I would also like to thank
Benjamin Suchard, master of style, for his tireless reading of paper drafts and
conference abstracts related to the research for this book.
I have learned that, sometimes, deciphering inscriptions is best done as a
group effort. Therefore, I would like to thank everyone who has been involved
with the LeiCenSAA over the years, Johan Lundberg, Phillip Stokes, Chiara
Della Puppa, Hekmat Dirbas, Jouni Harjumäki, and anyone I may have forgot-
ten, for the inspiring reading sessions.
Of my friends I am especially thankful to Eli de Graaf and Ellen Hoogwa-
ter for always being there for me and understanding my occasional periods of
absence.
I would like to thank my family. My sister and brother have been especially
supportive in the final months before completing my PhD. My parents made
the perfect team, my dad always being keen on me doing well in life and my
mum reminding me to take good care of myself. My mother and her husband
deserve special mentioning for making their home a safe-haven when life got
particularly challenging in the final stretch of my PhD.
The research and Open Access publication of this work were financially sup-
ported by the nwo (nwo-pgw, Grant/Award Number: pgw-14-43). Significant
work on the revision and preparation for publication was carried out during
my stay at nyu, at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World as a visiting
research scholar.

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Introduction

In and around the oasis of ancient Dadan—modern-day al-ʿUlā—in northwest

Arabia, many rock surfaces can be found inscribed with texts written in the
local script, called Dadanitic. Dadanitic falls under the umbrella of Ancient
North Arabian (ana) scripts,1 a group that also includes Taymanitic, Dumatic,
Dispersed Oasis North Arabian (ona),2 Safaitic, Hismaic, and Thamudic3 (Mac-
donald 2000, 32–37). M.C.A. Macdonald distinguishes ona scripts, including
Dadanitic,4 from the scripts that were used by nomadic populations. The ana
scripts are part of the South Semitic script family and are attested from the
northern borders of Yemen to the southern Levant. They are usually nega-
tively defined as those scripts that are not Ancient South Arabian (asa). It has
been hypothesized that the ana scripts form one group, descending parallel
to asa from a putative proto-South Semitic script. However, a paleographic
connection between all ana scripts has yet to be demonstrated (Al-Jallad 2015,
10).
The corpus of Dadanitic inscriptions currently consists of about 2000 exam-
ples that are generally assumed to have been written between the sixth and first
centuries bce. While most are short graffiti, often not mentioning more than
a personal name, there are also hundreds of texts dedicated to the local deity,
Ḏūġābat. Although most of the known ana inscriptions are classified as graffiti,
Dadanitic stands out as it is the only ana variety in which we have clear attes-
tations of commissioned texts (Al-Jallad 2018b, 2; and see Macdonald 2010a, 7
on craftsmanship and the use of writing in ancient society).
The skillfully carved relief style in which the inscription in Figure 1 is exe-
cuted is, therefore, a typically Dadanitic feature within the ana corpus. Other
typical Dadanitic features of this inscription are its formulae and content. The
inscription commemorates the performance of several rituals for the main

1 See Macdonald (2000) for an excellent overview and nomenclature, and Al-Jallad (2018) for
a linguistically oriented overview.
2 M.C.A. Macdonald classifies Dispersed ona as all texts written in ona scripts used in seden-
tary environments that cannot be classified as Taymanitic, Dadanitic, or Dumaitic. This sub-
group includes texts from Mesopotamia that were formerly called ‘Chaldean’ (Macdonald
2000, 29).
3 Thamudic includes a number of different scripts that have not fully been identified (Macdon-
ald 2000, 32).
4 Besides Dadanitic, ona includes Taymanitic, Dumatic, and Dispersed ona (Macdonald 2000,
29).

© Fokelien Kootstra, 2023 | doi:10.1163/9789004512634_002

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2 introduction

deity of the oasis, Ḏūġābat (ḏġbt in the inscription). One of its most striking fea-
tures, in light of the present work, is its peculiar linguistic form: the inscription
contains two causative verbs, each exhibiting a different morphological form
(indicated in boldface in the transcription).

figure 1 A dedicatory inscription in relief (ah 197)

photograph available on ociana

ah 197 (5–7) ḥggw / h-nq / w hġnyw / b-bt-hm / l- ----//tn / l-ḫrg / w-ʾẓlw / b-h-
mṣd /ẓll / h-[nq] // l-ḏġbt
‘they performed the pilgrimage and dedicated (lit. made increase
wealth) at their temple for … tn for ḫrg and they performed the
ẓll of the [nq] for ḏġbt’

The linguistic variation attested in the Dadanitic inscriptions was already noted
in the earliest publications of these texts (e.g., D.H. Müller 1889, 13–14; Grimme
1937, 300). Despite this early recognition, the phenomenon has not yet received
any attention in its own right and no comprehensive explanation for the vari-
ation has been formulated to date. The grammar of the inscriptions continues
to be of interest, however, with several descriptions of the grammar of the
inscriptions published, usually accompanying an edition of texts. The most
recent descriptions of Dadanitic are those of A. Sima (1999) and S. Farès-
Drappeau (2005). However, while Sima’s (1999) description is very thorough,
it only focuses on the formal inscriptions from the al-ʿUḏayb area and does not
deal with inscriptions from other areas or with graffiti, and although Farès-
Drappeau’s (2005) work contains a grammatical sketch based on the whole

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introduction 3

corpus, she takes a very CAr.-oriented approach in her description.5 In this

work, I aim to remedy the situation by approaching the language of the inscrip-
tions on their own terms, offering both a more traditional description and a
quantitative analysis of their linguistic variation.
Through this analysis, we will not only gain a better understanding of the
linguistic variation in the Dadanitic inscriptions and its possible underlying
causes, it will also improve our understanding of the linguistic situation at the
oasis when these texts were composed. In addition, this study will shed light
on the oasis’s scribal culture and the perennial question of literacy. While Mac-
donald has extensively discussed the interaction between writing material and
variation in letter shapes (2015, 2010), this book will be the first study to sys-
tematically consider the interaction between writing practices and linguistic
form.

1 Outline of the Present Work

This work is divided into eight chapters, preceded by an introduction that

outlines the corpus and offers a methodological discussion on the use of epi-
graphic material to answer questions about its language and variation. Chap-
ter 1 will provide a more in-depth discussion of the historical context of the
Dadanitic inscriptions. It will focus on the dating of the corpus, with attention
given to the different methods and types of evidence that have been used to
try and establish a (relative) chronology of the Dadanitic inscriptions. Chap-
ters 2 through 6 contain a description and grammatical analysis of the corpus,
thereby helping to contextualize the variation discussed in Chapters 7 and 8
by giving an overview of the common and less common forms of the gram-
mar, but also of the formulaic parts and writing styles. Chapter 2 discusses the
script and different styles of inscribing used to carve the inscriptions. Chap-
ter 3 contains an overview of the different genres that can be distinguished and
the compositional formulae associated with them. Chapters 4 through 6 offer
a description of the grammar of the Dadanitic inscriptions; specifically, Chap-
ter 4 deals with the orthography and phonology of the inscriptions, Chapter 5
contains a description of its verbal morphology, and Chapter 6 addresses nom-
inal and pronominal morphology.

5 But see Al-Jallad (2018, 21–23), where he shows that Dadanitic is probably a sister language of
Arabic rather than a direct descendant of Proto-Arabic.

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4 introduction

Chapters 7 and 8 deal exclusively with the variation attested in the cor-
pus, building on the description in the chapters that precede them. They offer
a quantitative analysis of the variation in the corpus in an attempt to move
beyond impressionistic accounts of its distribution and possible causes. Given
the different methodological approach of Chapters 7 and 8 compared to the
preceding chapters, Chapter 7 will will start with a methodological introduc-
tion, discussing in detail the statistical methods used to determine the inter-
action between different variables and how each variable was chosen. The aim
of this analysis is to reveal patterns of co-occurrence between different varying
features, which could offer insights into the reasons behind these variations.
For this method, the number of co-occurrences of two features within one
inscription are added up and compared to the number of co-occurrences that
would be expected to occur if there was no relation between the two features
(i.e., if their distribution across the corpus was completely random and inde-
pendent of each other). The null-hypothesis is that there is no relationship
between the compared groups. The further the results of both calculations are
apart, the less likely it is that the null hypothesis is true. If the chance of the
given outcome occurring by chance is smaller than 5 %, the result is found to
be significant, meaning it is unlikely to have happened by chance if the null
hypothesis were true and there was no relationship between the two features.
Chapter 7 will begin with an explanation of the statistical method used for
the analysis, followed by a description of the variables included in the anal-
ysis. Chapter 8 will present the quantitative data, followed by a discussion in
which the numbers will be interpreted. The chapter ends with a short conclu-
sion summarizing the results.

2 The Corpus

As noted above, most Dadanitic inscriptions are found in and around the
ancient oasis of Dadan, modern-day al-ʿUlā.6 The first western traveler said
to have visited al-ʿUlā and Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ (the Nabataean site Ḥegrā, some
20km northeast of the oasis of al-ʿUlā), was C.M. Doughty, who published

6 Several Dadanitic inscriptions have been found further away from the oasis: four were found
about 85km north of al-ʿUlā in Jabal Thadrā (JaL 171; 174) and two in the area northeast of
Wādī Ramm, in southern Jordan (Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2015). A few Dadanitic inscriptions
have been found in the vicinity of the nearby oasis of Taymāʾ (Hayajneh 2016). Several inscrip-
tions in the Aramaic script mentioning the king of Liḥyān have also been found at Taymāʾ
(JSNab 334; 335; 337).

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introduction 5

an account of his travels in 1888. This work includes a description of both

places and sketches of their surroundings. He also copied some of the inscrip-
tions, which he thought to be Sabaic, or ‘Himyaric’ (Doughty 1888, 160). These
copies were published already in the volume Documents épigraphiques recueil-
lis dans le nord de l’Arabie (Doughty 1884), which provided the basis on which
J. Halévy offered a first attempt at their decipherment (Halévy 1884). Accord-
ing to D.H. Müller (1889, 15–21), the first decipherment of the script benefited
greatly from the resemblance it had to the already deciphered Sabaic script.
Shortly after these initial attempts, the first edition of Dadanitic texts was
D.H. Müller’s (1889) work on the inscriptions brought back from the region of
al-ʿUlā by J. Euting. Müller termed the inscriptions ‘Lihjanisch’ (1889, 4) after the
attestation of several kings that are called mlk lḥyn ‘king of Liḥyān’ in the corpus
(1889, 5). Müller’s work includes a script table with his reading of the attested
glyphs (1889, pl. x), and yet, despite these efforts, the reading of several letter
shapes was amended in later works (Grimme 1926, 1932; Winnett 1937). The
next step in the study of the Dadanitic inscriptions came when a large num-
ber of additional Dadanitic inscriptions became available after the publication
of those collected by A. Jaussen and M. Savignac (1909). This expansion of the
available corpus was of great importance to their further decipherment. Later,
major contributions to the corpus were made by R. Stiehl (1971) and H. Abū
ʾl-Ḥasan (1997, 2002).7
Another key moment in the study of the inscriptions came in the 1930s,
with a change in terminology. H. Grimme (1932, 754) was the first to propose
dividing the Dadanitic corpus into a Dadanite and Liḥyānite script type, using
the term Dadanite to refer to the inscriptions Jaussen and Savignac had ini-
tially termed ‘old Thamudic’ (for more on the paleographic distinction between
Dadanite and Liḥyānite see §4 in Chapter 1 below). These labels referred to the
two consecutive kingdoms that are mentioned in the inscriptions: the kingdom
of Dadan and the kingdom of Liḥyān. However, rather than following Grimme,
I have adopted the name ‘Dadanitic’ to refer to the complete corpus by its
geographical location. This usage is relatively recent and follows Macdonald
(2000, 33), who replaced former ‘Dadanite’ and ‘Liḥyānite’, arguing that, since
we cannot make a clear distinction between two different types of script (see
Chapter 1, §4), dividing the corpus into two would not accurately reflect its

7 For a more elaborate overview of the decipherment of the Dadanitic script see Farès-Drap-
peau (2005, 31–33) and (36–41) for a discussion of the history of scholarship on Dadanitic. For
an overview of contributions to the study of Dadanitic following Caskel’s (1954) edition see
Sima (1999, 3–4). All the inscriptions including available photographs and bibliography are
available on the ociana database http://krcfm.orient.ox.ac.uk/fmi/webd/ociana.

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6 introduction

map 1 Showing the location of Dadan

courtesy of rohmer and charloux (2015)

variation. Moreover, even if a distinction could be made, we cannot directly

attribute the change in script to a change in political power. Thus, connecting
any phase of the script to a specific regime risks blurring our understanding of
the history of the oasis (Macdonald 2000, 33).
Moving on to the current study, at the time the data for this study was
collected and annotated, the Dadanitic corpus consisted of 1969 inscriptions,
which are all brought together in the searchable online ociana database.8
The database was developed at the Khalili Research Center at the University of
Oxford under the supervision of M.C.A. Macdonald and J. Johns.9 It includes all

8 22-04-2018 http://krcfm.orient.ox.ac.uk/fmi/webd#ociana (now available at http://krcfm.orie

nt.ox.ac.uk/fmi/webd/ociana). See the Index of inscriptions for a full list of the inscriptions
included in the analysis of this work. Whenever other inscriptions are considered, they will
be noted separately.
9 For more information about the project and staff see http://krc2.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/index​
.php.

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introduction 7

currently published and even some unpublished Dadanitic inscriptions. Each

inscription has its own record containing available images, a transcription and
translation when possible, and a complete bibliography.
The images provided on the ociana website have formed the basis for my
analysis of the manners of inscribing, as outlined in Chapter 2. The reading
of all inscriptions relevant to the analysis of the grammar or orthography was
cross checked with the available photographs. Whenever the proposed reading
or interpretation of an inscription relevant for my analysis does not follow the
one given in ociana this will be mentioned in the discussion. In the glossary
all readings that deviate from the interpretation in ociana are marked with a
single asterisk when they are mine, otherwise they are followed by the refer-
ence to the publication in which they were proposed (see the glossary in the
Appendix).

3 A Holistic Approach to the Epigraphic Object

While the principal concern of this work is the language of the Dadanitic
inscriptions and the linguistic variation found within them, this cannot be
studied without taking into account the character of the Dadanitic texts. In
1998, Macdonald, following P.A. Février (1989), emphasized the importance of
studying the language and content of epigraphic material in the context of its
physical form, location, and cultural/historical setting. All these elements con-
tain information on the meaning and significance of a particular text and need
to be taken into account in order to even begin to understand the already frag-
mentary epigraphic record. This approach finds strong parallels in the so-called
New Philology or Material Philology, which was first promoted as such in a spe-
cial issue of Speculum in 1990 (Nichols 1990), but clearly built on scholarship
from previous decades, such as that of P. Zumthor (1972), D.F. McKenzie (1986)
and, more directly, B. Cerquiglini (1989). The main overlap with the approach
advocated by Macdonald (1998) is New Philology’s focus on the materiality of a
manuscript, how it was produced, how it was interacted with, and, importantly,
how both the text and the object relate to their historical context (Driscoll
2010).
Therefore, the study of the language of the Dadanitic texts begins with the
objects themselves. The features that make a text identifiable as Dadanitic
are its script and to some extent its language, its location, and the particular
genres and formulae associated with the Dadanitic writing culture. When con-
sidering the Dadanitic inscriptions as the product of local writing culture, for
example, one needs to reckon with the fact that official inscriptions, which

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8 introduction

are not graffiti, do not represent natural speech but a written code, some-
thing which is often overlooked in epigraphic studies.10 The formalization of
language for such purposes will have a standardizing effect that creates some
distance between the spoken and written registers.
This chapter will discuss the foundational elements to a holistic approach
to the epigraph, contextualizing the discussions surrounding script, genre, and
the language of the inscriptions. Such an approach to the epigraphic object
is the only way to move beyond simply describing its separate elements and
to work towards an explanation for the seeming inconsistencies found in the
inscriptions. Previous studies of the language of the inscriptions (e.g., Sima
1999; Farès-Drappeau 2005) have not been able to offer a comprehensive expla-
nation for the variation attested in the inscriptions partly because they did
not look beyond their transcribed text. Now that it has become clear that the
explanation is not purely linguistic, it is understandable that the linguistic
dimension alone does not contain the answers to the question of variation.
For this reason, following the brief overview of the key varying features of the
Dadanitic inscriptions, I will then turn to a discussion of the literary environ-
ment in which the inscriptions were produced, and the impact this has on how
we should approach variation attested in them in more detail, before finally
offering a consideration of graffiti and the spread of literacy.
To begin with the foundational elements, however, a brief overview of the
key varying features of the Dadanitic inscriptions will be given. When studying
variation in the Dadanitic corpus, there are three main elements of the inscrip-
tions in which most variation can be found. These are the script, specifically the
letter shapes and manner of inscribing; the genres of text that can be expressed
and the different levels of formality that seem to have been associated with
them; and finally, the language used to compose them. This section offers a
treatment of each of these key elements of variation, ending with a thorough
discussion of how to classify the language of the Dadanitic inscriptions and the
impact surrounding cultures and languages it was in contact with, had on it.

10 This has of course long been recognized for ancient languages such as Akkadian, written
in cuneiform script, or even in alphabetic writing traditions such as Nabataean, where
the difference between the written Aramaic and the substrate of Arabic, of which traces
can be found in the written language, is more immediately apparent. However, in asa and
ana epigraphy this plays a much less prominent role in the approach to their language,
probably partly due to the large number of graffiti found in scripts that fall under these
umbrella terms.

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introduction 9

3.1 Script
The Dadanitic corpus is primarily defined by its script, although the term is usu-
ally also employed to refer to the language of the Dadanitic inscriptions. The
two do not always have to go together, as ‘any script can, of course, be used to
express any language (more or less efficiently)’ (Macdonald 2000, 37). A great
example of this within the Dadanitic corpus is inscription ahud 1, which is
written in the asa script, which is associated with the Minaic inscriptions at
the oasis, but is typically Dadanitic in its language and content and is, there-
fore, considered part of the Dadanitic corpus.
The following section will focus on the relationship between different man-
ners of inscribing and the formality and genre of a text. The use of paleography
to establish a relative chronology of the texts will be dealt with in more detail as
part of the discussion on the dating of the inscriptions in Chapter 1. The script
itself and the attested variation in letter shapes will be treated in more detail
in Chapter 3.

3.1.1 Script Style and Socio-economic Status

Several different methods were used to inscribe the Dadanitic inscriptions,
which seem to represent different levels of formality, and probably cost, asso-
ciated with the execution of the inscription. While inscriptions in relief (as in
Figure 1) are the most distinguishable, Dadanitic inscriptions were also deeply
incised, chiseled, or pounded onto the rock (for a full discussion and exam-
ples of the different techniques see Chapter 2). The inscriptions using the first
of these methods were deeply incised into a rock face or stone objects, while
those executed in relief were made by skilled craftsmen who sometimes even
signed their work (e.g., JSLih 082 and al-Ḫuraybah 06). These texts were prob-
ably commissioned (Macdonald 2010, 7). In contrast, chiseled and pounded
inscriptions required less skill to produce. However, this does not mean that
all pounded inscriptions are graffiti, as many of the dedicatory ẓll inscriptions,
which have an official character and were firmly entrenched in the writing cul-
ture of the oasis, were pounded onto the rock. In short, there clearly is not a
one-to-one relationship between the purpose and content of a text and the
level of execution of the inscription. That said, it is possible to see a general
trend of using script registers that require less skill for graffiti while reserving
more skilled manners of inscribing for more official inscriptions (see Chapter 2
and Chapter 7), despite the lack of a direct relationship between register and
purpose.

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10 introduction

3.1.2 Graffiti vs. Commissioned Texts

How, then, do we distinguish between graffiti and more official texts? Graffiti
can generally be described as privately produced inscriptions or texts, made
on private initiative, left in a public space (Macdonald 2015, 8; Milnor 2014, 5).11
This definition clearly distinguishes graffiti from commissioned texts, which
were executed by a professional mason and their text probably drawn up by
a professional scribe.12 This in turn has implications for the expected level of
execution of the inscription, both in terms of its language and physical form.
In addition, the fact that graffiti are personal statements means that their
content and formulations are in principle not bound to the same restrictions as
the highly formulaic official inscriptions, even though they were clearly influ-
enced by the structure and formulae of the official inscriptions. Therefore,
graffiti often contain elements that do not occur in formal inscriptions, such
as unique phrases or formulations (e.g., JaL 016 a) or references to the act of
inscribing itself (e.g., ah 256). I will return to this point in Chapter 3, which
offers a complete overview of commonly used phrases and the content of the
inscriptions.
A final division between formal inscriptions and graffiti is supported by how
the inscriptions are spread across the landscape. As can be seen in Map 2, the
non-graffiti are clustered around a few specific places mostly close to the oasis
itself. In contrast, graffiti seem much less bound to specific places in the land-
scape.13

11 While K. Milnor uses this general description of graffiti, she also cautions that the category
‘graffiti’ should be evaluated in its cultural and historical context. As ideas of authorship
and public and private property change over time, so do graffiti, both in their appearance
and in what can be understood to make up the category in the first place (Milnor 2014, 4).
12 For a more elaborate discussion on the possible role of a scribal school at the oasis see the
discussion on scribal school and variation below in the Introduction.
13 The nṭr inscriptions are a notable exception. They are found almost exclusively at Jabal
Iṯlib, a rock outcrop to the northeast of the oasis, except for one that was found at Wādī
Muʿtadil. Given that the authors of the inscriptions seem to have acted as guards, it is not
surprising that their inscriptions all cluster in a favorable look-out place such as Jabal Iṯlib,
although recent discoveries of the Madāʾin Sālih archaeological project suggest they may
be associated with a funerary context (Nehmé et al. 2021, 14–19 and see Chapter 1, § 6).
They do not only stand out as a group due to the content and location of the inscriptions,
but they also all share the merger of ẓ and ṭ in the verb and 5 of the 19 nṭr inscriptions
share a particular style of engraving (see Chapter 2).

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 introduction 11

map 2 The approximate distribution of different types of inscriptions in the landscape

map adapted from rohmer and charloux (2015)

3.2 Genre
Another point of variation in the Dadanitic corpus is the genre of the text,
which is determined by its content and is closely associated with particular
formulae. This closely follows the definition of genre as outlined in D. Biber
and S. Conrad (2009, 2), who, when considering the genre of a text, take its
purpose and situational context into account. They also include the conven-
tional structures that are part of a specific variety of text in their analysis. In
this work, the conventional structures will be referred to as a text’s formulaic
parts. It should be noted, however, that in order to be able to say anything mean-
ingful about the interaction between genre and linguistic forms attested in it,

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12 introduction

linguistic variables cannot be used to determine the genre of a text. Whether

an inscription includes an h-causative or a ʾ-causative is not used to determine
whether it should be considered a graffito or a dedicatory inscription, for exam-
ple.14
While the general structure of the texts—starting with personal names, fol-
lowed by a dedication, and ending in a petition for protection from a deity—is
comparable to that found in other ana and Ancient South Arabian (asa) cor-
pora (Al-Jallad 2015, 201–221; Avanzini 2017, 97–98), the specific formulae, the
ẓll ritual, and the deity ḏġbt are unique to the Dadanitic inscriptions.15 The
main distinction in genre is that between graffiti and more formal inscriptions,
as mentioned above. Within the more formal inscriptions, several different
types can be distinguished within the Dadanitic corpus, such as dedicatory, ẓll,
building, and legal inscriptions. Each genre and associated formulae will be dis-
cussed in detail in Chapter 3.
Using the category of genre as one of the variables in the quantitative anal-
ysis in Chapter 8 mostly functions as a control category for the hypothesis
that the more complex carving techniques were reserved for more formal and
expensive inscriptions. If this hypothesis is correct, the formality of the inscrip-
tion might also have a relationship to the register of the language used in
it. In other words, if genre and the manner of inscribing always have a simi-
lar relationship to the linguistic variants occurring in the inscriptions, this is
likely owing to the same or a similar cause: most likely register.16 However, one
can also imagine that specific genres came with their own formulae, possibly
containing specific linguistic features as well. This is clearly demonstrated by

14 This is similar to the use of genre by I. Taavitsainen (2001, 140), who proposes to distin-
guish a linguistically based category, ‘text type’, from a non-linguistically based ‘genre’.
Even though the use of specific linguistic features seems to have been preferred in cer-
tain genres of inscriptions (see Chapter 7), there are no features that are exclusively used
with specific genres. Therefore, there is no clear difference between a linguistically moti-
vated ‘text type’ distinct from a content- and formula-based ‘genre’. Because of this, I will
not use the separate category ‘text type’ in my analysis of Dadanitic.
15 See Chapter 3 for a complete overview of all specific formulae used in the Dadanitic
inscriptions.
16 Here, register will be used to refer to the social hierarchy of the inscriptions. In register
studies and sociolinguistics the term is generally used to indicate ‘situational language use’
(Taavitsainen 2001, 141), in other words, how people’s language use changes depending on
the situation in which they use it, which can include different social dynamics, different
media (written or spoken language), etc. (Ferguson 1994, 16). Since the Dadanitic corpus
only reveals the language use in one specific medium, register will primarily relate to the
level of formality of the inscription.

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introduction 13

the nṭr inscriptions, for example. In Chapter 7, § 2.2 the relationship between
genre and register will be treated in more detail.

3.3 Language and Linguistic Variation

Finally, there is significant linguistic variation in the Dadanitic corpus. For
example, the verb ẓll ‘to perform the ẓll ceremony’17 has been attested in no
fewer than four variant forms, ʾẓll, hẓll, ʾẓl, and hẓl (Sima 1999, 93), which
all appear in identical contexts; numbers between 10 and 20 can either be
expressed by a ‘teen-and-digit’ or a ‘digit-teen’ system (Sima 1999, 118–120; but
cf. Macdonald 2008, 213); and both h(n)- and ʾ(l)-forms of the definite arti-
cle are attested (Farès-Drappeau 2005, 65). The language expressed in the
Dadanitic texts does not seem to be a homogeneous entity, raising the ques-
tion of whether it is even possible to talk about the Dadanitic language in the
first place.
Therefore, a description of the language of the Dadanitic inscriptions must
grapple with this variation. Some of the earliest scholars working on Dadanitic
show the variation in their grammatical sketches or editions of the inscrip-
tions, but do not attempt any explanation (e.g., D.H. Müller 1889, 13–14; Grimme
1937, 300). One of the reasons that even those scholars who believed Dadanitic
should be divided into several different phases based on paleography (see
Chapter 1) did not connect the linguistic variation to the variation in letter
shapes they found, is that the varying forms did not neatly line up with the pro-
posed paleographic divide. Grimme, for example, placed JSLih 063 (containing
ʾdq), JSLih 062 (containing hdq), and JSLih 049 (containing hwdq) in his later
Liḥyānite phase, based on their content and letter shapes (Grimme 1937, 300).
More recent discussions of Dadanitic seem to offer two main explanations
for the linguistic variation in the Dadanitic inscriptions. One is the develop-
ment of the language over time (Sima 1999), while the other focusses more

17 For reasons of space and brevity, I adopt here the neutral translation of (h/ʾ)ẓll as ‘to per-
form the ẓll ceremony’ offered in the ociana database. The interpretation of the ritual has
long been debated. Previous interpretations have suggested the ritual included the con-
struction of sunroofs for a religious ceremony (Stiehl 1971, 5–7), or the construction and
maintenance of a subterranean canal system (Van den Branden 1969; Sima 1999, 49–50).
Recently, a new interpretation of the form hẓl from the same root in Sabaic has been sug-
gested, which links it to the act of writing, rather than shade (see http://sabaweb.uni‑jen
a.de/SabaWeb/Suche/Suche/SearchResultDetail?idxLemma=5547&showAll=0, accessed
04-10-2021; I would like to thank Peter Stein for pointing me to this recent interpretation).
This meaning would fit well with the interpretation of the ẓll ritual as a reference to the
inscription itself as part of a ritual with a documentary element (see Kootstra 2022 for a
full discussion of this interpretation).

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14 introduction

on synchronic linguistic variation (e.g., Farès-Drappeau 2005). For the for-

mer, A. Sima (1999, 117) suggests that the h-causatives were probably ‘on their
way out’, based on their low number of occurrences, implying a chronological
development. For the latter, which takes a different approach, Farès-Drappeau
proposes that the variation in the form of the definite article is due to syn-
chronic linguistic diversity at the oasis (2005, 65–66), but she does not offer
any explanation for the other points of variation.18 Macdonald also recognizes
multilingualism at the oasis and classifies several inscriptions as mixed Arabo-
Dadanitic texts (e.g., JSLih 071 and JSLih 276 in Macdonald 2000, 52–53), reflect-
ing substrate influence of Arabic within the Dadanitic inscriptions. The main
distinguishing feature in the inscriptions termed Arabo-Dadanitic by Macdon-
ald is the use of the definite article ʾl-, as opposed to the more common h-. This
is somewhat problematic, as the form of the definite article is not a reliable way
to classify a language as Arabic (Huehnergard 2017, 22–23; Al-Jallad 2018b, 6).

3.3.1 Classifying the Dadanitic Language

This leads to the question of how to determine what defines the language of an
inscription as Arabic or Dadanitic. To determine this, we need to establish a set
of diagnostic features, ideally morphological innovations, that set one language
or group of languages apart from others within the same larger language fam-
ily. Thus, it is only when languages share such diagnostic features that they can
be said to share a direct ancestor (Al-Jallad 2018b, 5; Huehnergard and Rubin
2011).
A commonly cited feature to relate different epigraphic languages to Arabic,
as mentioned above, is the form of the definite article. This is not unproblem-
atic, however. The use of the definite article seems to be an innovation from
Proto-Semitic, as it is absent in Akkadian and Classical Ethiopic. Many of the
Central Semitic languages have a definite article which is remarkably similar
in its syntax across languages, but it displays a wide range of forms and is
not found in all. This indicates that while it was not a Central Semitic inno-
vation, it is likely an innovation that spread areally (Huehnergard and Rubin
2011, 269). Similarly, in Arabic the definite article is not found in all varieties
(Al-Jallad 2018b, 12)19 and, therefore, it cannot be considered a feature of Proto-
Arabic, nor is it a reliable feature for linguistic classification. In his 2017 article,
J. Huehnergard listed 14 Proto-Arabic innovations. A. Al-Jallad (2018a) added

18 Farès-Drappeau also refers to Robin’s (2001) proposal that there might have been a north
Arabian koiné that developed from the trade contacts with the south of the Peninsula
(Farès-Drappeau 2005, 65–66) again referring to multilingualism in the region.
19 Hismaic and some Safaitic inscriptions lack the definite article (Al-Jallad 2018a, 322).

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another five features to this list. Of these 19 features, Dadanitic only shares
two with Proto-Arabic: the merger of s1 and s3 (Huehnergard 2017, 13; Al-Jallad
2018b, 6) and the use of the complementizer ʾn, as in ah 203 (Al-Jallad 2018a,
320).
Aside from these two features, Al-Jallad (2018b, 21–23) shows that there are
five Proto-Arabic innovations in which Dadanitic did not participate, or did
so only partially. First, several of the Dadanitic inscriptions retain the archaic
h-causative, demonstrating that the earliest stages of Dadanitic did not partic-
ipate in the Proto-Arabic innovation that led to the ʾ-causative (Al-Jallad 2018b,
21). Second, Dadanitic still uses the third-person singular pronoun anaphor-
ically and does not seem to have replaced it with a form derived from the
demonstrative base (Al-Jallad 2018b, 22). Third, Dadanitic did not level the -at
allomorph for the feminine ending (e.g., qrt /qarīt/ ‘village’ instead of *qryt
/qariyat/) (Al-Jallad 2018b, 22). Fourth, whenever dual forms are used, they
seem to have retained archaic complexity, using a -y ending in the pronouns
and -h /-ā/ on verbs (Al-Jallad 2018b, 22). Finally, Dadanitic seems to use the
preposition ʾdky instead of the typically Arabic ḥattā (Al-Jallad 2018b, 22–23).
For the other Proto-Arabic innovations we simply have no Dadanitic data
for comparison. For example, there are no clear attestations in the Dadanitic
corpus of feminine plural verbs in the suffix conjugation, making it impossible
to tell whether Dadanitic participated in the Proto-Arabic innovation of realiz-
ing these with the suffix -na (Huehnergard 2017, 13 also see Chapter 5, § 1.5 for
further discussion of the fem.pl. in Dadanitic). Other features are obscured by
the Dadanitic script, which does not display final short vowels, which makes
it impossible to tell for sure whether the Dadanitic subjunctive would have
been realized with a final -a (Al-Jallad 2018a, 319). Based on the features that
are shared between Dadanitic and Arabic, in combination with the lack of
participation in some of the Proto-Arabic innovations, Al-Jallad (2018, 21–24)
concludes that Dadanitic is most likely a sister language of Arabic and not a
direct descendant from Proto-Arabic.
To classify the language of a specific inscription in the Dadanitic script as
a form of Arabic, it needs to contain at least one of the innovative features of
Proto-Arabic that we do not otherwise find in the Dadanitic inscriptions. One
such text is JSLih 384, which was already classified as linguistically Arabic in
previous publications (Müller 1982, 32–33; Macdonald 2000, 50; Fiema et al.
2015, 409). The language of this inscription is considered a form of Old Arabic,20

20 Al-Jallad identifies the variety more specifically as Old Ḥigāzī, which he identifies based
on the use of the relative pronoun formed using a demonstrative form based on the use
of (h)alla+dem, such as CAr. ʾallaḏī (Al-Jallad 2015, 13–14; 2020).

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16 introduction

based on the usage of the feminine relative pronoun ʾlt (compare Car. ʾallatī).
This is the only inscription in Dadanitic script to use this form of the relative
pronoun. The common Dadanitic form of the relative pronoun was masculine
ḏ and feminine ḏt (see Chapter 6, §5.1). Thus, even though Dadanitic cannot
be classified as a form of Arabic as a whole, the presence of Old Arabic in the
Dadanitic corpus shows that Arabic substrate influence cannot be excluded as
a possible cause for some of the variation attested in the corpus, such as the
use of the definite article ʾ(l)- (Al-Jallad 2018b, 23–24).

3.3.2 Dadanitic in Its Multilingual Context

Dadanitic writing practice did not exist in a cultural and linguistic vacuum,
with interaction between the Dadanitic language and writing practice and its
surrounding written and spoken languages. As the Lingua Franca of the Near
East in this period, it is not surprising that the presence of Aramaic can be felt
in the Dadanitic cultural sphere. For example, in JSLih 384, the differences are
clear enough that we can say that the language of this text was Old Arabic, writ-
ten in Dadanitic script. Aside from the grammatical divergence it shows from
Dadanitic, however, the text also does not follow the common Dadanitic for-
mulae. Most Dadanitic inscriptions, whether they are graffiti or monumental
inscriptions, follow the general structure that is common to most ana vari-
eties: starting with the name or lineage of the author(s), followed by a verb
which agrees with the persons mentioned in the first element, and ending in
a blessing formula or a curse on whoever might damage the inscription (see
Chapter 4 for an in-depth discussion of compositional formulae). JSLih 384, on
the other hand, starts with the object of the verb (nfs¹ ‘funerary monument’),
followed by the person the funerary monument was made for, only then giving
the verb (bnh ‘she built’)21 and the name of the woman who set up the momu-
ment. Interestingly, this structure is the same as that of Aramaic dedicatory
inscriptions found at Taymāʾ (Stein 2013, 35; e.g., the inscription labeled Teima
2). This shows that the author of JSLih 384 not only broke with Dadanitic lin-
guistic conventions, but also with its formulaic conventions, likely drawing on
the Aramaic writing culture for the formulaic structure she used.
This is not the only example of contact between Dadanitic and Aramaic
written culture. There are several Aramaic inscriptions left at Taymāʾ dated
to Liḥyānite kings. While this does not mean that these kings knew Aramaic
themselves, as these texts were likely commissioned, it does show that they

21 The common form of the third-person feminine singular verb in the suffixing conjugation
would be bnt in Dadanitic. See Chapter 5, §1.2 for a full discussion of this verbal form.

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introduction 17

were aware of the presence of Aramaic and its prestige outside of Dadan. They
clearly felt that while Dadanitic was the preferred mode of expression for their
rituals and inscriptions at home, outside Dadan, Aramaic was much better
suited to their communicative goals.
Inside the Dadanitic inscriptions we can also find several lexical items that
probably came from Aramaic. These roughly fall into two categories: terms for
administrative personnel and architectural terms. Regarding the first, in one
inscription, we encounter the title fḥt ‘governor’. The originally Assyrian term
seems to have entered the region and, ultimately, Dadanitic through its usage
in Aramaic. Another term that might have entered Dadanitic through Aramaic
is nṭr ‘guard’ or ‘he guarded’(Abu al-Hasan 2002, 260 considers it to be of Ara-
maic origin). If this is indeed a loan from Aramaic, that would explain the shift
of *ẓ to ṭ in this word. However, this sound change can be found sporadically
in other lexical items in Dadanitic making it unclear whether this is an inter-
nal development or due to contact with a language that had already undergone
this sound change, such as Aramaic (see Chapter 4, § 6.3 for a full discussion of
this sound change in Dadanitic).
Turning to the second category, in the realm of architecture and dedicatory
objects the following lexical items seem to be of Aramaic origin: mgdl ‘tower’,
ʾrbʿw ‘sanctuary, square structure’, and mḥrw ‘incense burner’. The word mgdl
is firmly attested in North-West Semitic languages, such as Hebrew, Ugaritic,
and Aramaic. It also occurs as mijdal in Arabic, but this seems to be a loan as
the mifʿal pattern is mostly reserved for tools in Arabic and not used for places.
Given the prominence of Aramaic in the region in the period the Dadanitic
inscriptions were carved, this seems to be the most likely source language for
the word in Dadanitic. There is a single attestation of mgdl in a Minaic inscrip-
tion from Dadan (M 315), indicating that it probably entered Minaic in the cul-
tural context of the Minaean trading post at Dadan. The word ʾrbʿw is attested
in two building inscriptions (JSLih 059 and U 008) and can probably be con-
nected with Nabataean ʾrbʿn, referring to architectural structures in dedicatory
inscriptions, which L. Nehmé suggests comes from the root rbʿ ‘four’ (Nehmé
2003, 25 and see Chapter 4, §2.2 for a more in-depth discussion). Dadanitic
mḥrw finds a parallel in mḥrn in an Aramaic inscription on an incense altar
currently at the Taymāʾ Museum (tm.ia.017, Macdonald and Al-Najem 2021, 19,
also see Chapter 4, §§2.2 and 6.6 for a discussion of the phonological form of
ʾrbʿw and mḥrw).
In addition, al-Ḫuraybah 12 and JSLih 035 may contain the verb ʿbd with the
meaning ‘to do, to make’, which is generally considered an Aramaic isogloss
(Huehnergard 1995, 276). In both texts, the verb occurs in the phrase ʿbd l-
mrʾ-h. In ociana, the phrase is translated as ‘he made [this] for his lord’ in

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18 introduction

al-Ḫuraybah 12, following the Aramaic meaning of the root. In the record of
JSLih 035, on the other hand, ociana offers the translation ‘he served for his
lord’22 following the common Semitic meaning of the root.23 The most com-
monly attested verb to express ‘to make, to do’ in Dadanitic is fʿl (e.g., U 039;
ah 038; al-Ḫuraybah 06; Al-Saʿīd 2011.1 and .2). While this might be taken as an
argument that ʿbd more likely had the meaning ‘to serve’ in Dadanitic, it should
be noted that Al-Saʿīd 2011.1 and 2011.2 contain the parallel phrase pn fʿl l-dn
‘pn made (it) for dn’ (al-Said 2011). Moreover, an interpretation of ʿbd as ‘to
make’ would work well with the self-identification of the person preceding the
verb as h-ṣnʿ ‘the artisan’ in both al-Ḫuraybah 12 and JSLih 035, turning them
into signatures of the inscription. If this interpretation is correct, the duplica-
tion of the verb ‘to do, to make’ would further support the status of ʿbd with this
meaning as a borrowing.
Finally, some interaction with Minaic writing can also be observed in the
Dadanitic corpus. The Minaean presence at Dadan and the close cultural ties
between Minaeans and Dadanites will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 1,
§§3 and 6. The most common form of interactions between the two writing cul-
tures can be seen in the mixing of Minaic and Dadanitic lettershapes in graffiti
(e.g., JSLih 220). More intensive interaction between the two written languages
can be observed in ahud 1, an inscription in Minaic script, following Dadanitic
formulae and linguistic forms, and two Minaic inscriptions (JSMin 145 and
JSMin 166). The two Minaic inscriptions were written by the same author, who
identifies as the artisan of Wadd (the main deity of the Minaeans). The inscrip-
tions contain roughly the same content, giving the name and title of the author
and mentioning an offering he made. Both texts are written in Minaic script and
mostly follow Minaic linguistic conventions (such as the use of an s¹-causative),
but they also contain a nominal form of the Dadanitic ʾ-causative, and JSMin
145 also seems to contain the definite article ʾ-, attested in Dadanitic (Kootstra
2018a, 24). This all points to quite intense contact between both writing tradi-
tions, and at least some degree of bilingualism. Most of the cross-pollination
between both corpora seems to have been from Dadanitic to Minaic, which
would fit well with a situation where Dadanitic was the main and most presti-
gious written register at the oasis.

22 Note that Jaussen and Savignac also translated ʿbd as the verb ‘to do’, ‘like in the Nabataean
inscriptions’, in their publication of JSLih 035 (1909–1912, 363).
23 Based on the records in ociana, http://krcfm.orient.ox.ac.uk/fmi/webd/ociana (accessed
30-06-2021).

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introduction 19

Looking at the traces left by Arabic, Aramaic, and Minaic on the Dadanitic
inscriptions, it becomes apparent that we cannot see Dadanitic in a linguistic
vacuum and further highlights the problems surrounding attempts to distin-
guish ‘the’ Dadanitic language. Was the shift of *ẓ to ṭ an internal development,
or triggered by contact with Aramaic, or should we consider the nṭr forms as
a borrowing from Aramaic? What about the introduction of the ʾ-causative,
can we see that as evidence of the influence of an Arabic substrate or as a
diachronic development, as suggested by Sima (1999, 117)?
In light of this situation, the present study will depart from a usage-based
definition of the Dadanitic language and analyze the distribution of recurring
linguistic variation across the corpus and in relation to other features of the
inscriptions that define them as ‘Dadanitic’. This will allow for variation to be
incorporated in the description and analysis of the language of the inscriptions,
while simultaneously setting up some clearly defined boundaries as to what
can be considered Dadanitic. JSLih 384, for example, falls outside the scope of
Dadanitic proper; that is, while it belongs to the corpus because it was found at
Dadan and was written in the Dadanitic script, it breaks with both the formu-
laic and linguistic conventions of Dadanitic. Such exceptional inscriptions are
important in aiding our understanding of the Dadanitic corpus, and although
they mostly define the edges of the tradition rather than its inner workings,
they do offer a glimpse of the cultural context that is otherwise largely left
unwritten.

4 Scribal School and Variation

Now that we have established an inclusive working definition of Dadanitic that

can establish some boundaries to the corpus while also allowing for the pres-
ence of variation, we can turn to the evidence for the presence of a local scribal
culture, its influence on the production of the texts, and the analysis of the
variation attested in them. While the preceding paragraphs explored some of
the key characteristics of the Dadanitic inscriptions and the cultural environ-
ment in which they were produced—identifying those as script, genre, and
language—we still might ask how these features inform our understanding of
literacy at the oasis. Who was writing in Dadan and how were they taught to
write? Understanding the status of literacy at the oasis and how the inscrip-
tions were produced is crucial to our approach to the language used in them.
Even though there is little direct evidence available to answer such questions,
this section will bring together available information to sketch a picture of the
status and use of literacy and scribal culture in ancient Dadan.

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20 introduction

The development of the Dadanitic script (see Table 1 in Chapter 1, § 4.1) and
the contact through commerce with other literate societies from the south of
the peninsula, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Levant make it very likely that
writing on perishable materials was part of day-to-day life in Dadan. Therefore,
Dadan can probably be considered a literate society (Macdonald 2010, 14) in
the sense that it relied on reading and writing for the functioning of its govern-
ment and commerce (Macdonald 2005, 49).24 Even though no documents on
perishable materials have been found to date, contracts, letters, and adminis-
trative documents were probably drawn up regularly at the oasis.
This probable existence of different types of texts, ranging from private let-
ters to official legal documents, which would have been written for different
purposes (formal and informal), may also explain the point of contact between
the different forms of written language that led to the mixing of forms in the
inscriptions, similar to Macdonald’s (2015, 7) suggested process for the mixing
of letter shapes, which will be discussed in more depth below in the discussion
of paleography (Chapter 1, §4). That is, if people who were more used to writ-
ing private documents, like letters or private notes, attempted to carve a graffito
they might try to imitate the linguistic style associated with the monumental
inscriptions, comparable to trying to use the formal script for an inscription. As
we know from the Sabaic material, for example, the linguistic register used for
private letters is often a lot more progressive than that used for monumental
inscriptions (Stein 2011, 1048). The accidental combination of both registers in
the writings of those not used to writing on stone may explain how different
layers of historical forms ended up in the same register. It is interesting, how-
ever, if at some point different registers of both script and language existed,
how their mixing became widespread enough to become acceptable, even for
the more formal registers. To answer this question, it is helpful to turn to the
spread of literacy and how people were trained to read and write.

24 Macdonald uses this this term to distinguish it from societies such as those which pro-
duced the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions, which he termed non-literate societies. These
societies seem to have had high rates of individual literacy, as evidenced by the large
amounts of inscriptions left in these scripts, but they seemed to employ writing primarily
for purposes that were not related to the functioning of society, such as record keeping,
drawing up of contracts, etc. He proposes to use the term illiterate only for individuals
who could not read or write and not for societies as a whole. This distinction is a very use-
ful one related to the use of writing in oasis towns and by nomadic groups in pre-Islamic
Arabia. This does not mean that Macdonald would suggest a sharp divide between liter-
acy and illiteracy within literate societies. This divide has been challenged for decades in
literacy studies, as can be seen, for example, in E. Chamberlin’s analysis of hunting prac-
tices of hunter gatherers as reading practice (Chamberlin 2002). For an overview of the
development of the field of literacy studies see Street (2009).

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introduction 21

If the use of writing was indeed so widespread in ancient Dadan, this would
suggest that professional scribes were employed and trained at the oasis. Even
though it has been argued that learning to read and write an alphabetic writing
system is simple enough not to require any formal education (e.g., Jamieson-
Drake 1991, 9:154; but cf. Rollston 2010, 92),25 setting up formal documents—
such as letters, contracts, and deeds—would require expertise beyond ‘just’
knowing the letters.26 For example, based on comparisons with scribal educa-
tion in Mesopotamia and Egypt, K. van der Toorn (2007, 98) argues that Hebrew
scribes not only learned the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, but were also
trained to become familiar with the language use and terminology associated
with specific fields, such as notary documents and documents for litigation
(Van der Toorn 2007, 99–100). In addition, scribes were likely responsible for
bookkeeping, which would not only require them to know how to write but
also to know how to draw up a balance sheet and to perform some basic arith-
metic (Van der Toorn 2007, 100).
Besides skills in drawing up different kinds of documents, scribes would also
learn to prepare their writing materials. In the case of scribes in ancient Israel
these would include reed pen, papyrus or parchment, and a stylus (Rollston
2010, 112). Since we do not know what perishable materials were used for writ-
ing in Dadan, these materials were not necessarily the same, but anyone writing

25 The material attested at Ugarit clearly shows a discrepancy between the amount of teach-
ing materials and practice texts for Akkadian cuneiform as opposed to those in the
Ugaritic alphabetic cuneiform, with the Akkadian cuneiform material forming the vast
majority of that recovered. This seems to confirm that learning the alphabetic script took
less effort, which would open up the potential for the development of rudimentary lit-
eracy (Schniedewind 2013, 105). Also, among psycholinguists the issue of learnability of
writing in different types of writing systems is controversial. Sebba gives an overview of
psycholinguistic studies to show learnability is a complex issue and difficult to establish
with certainty. His overview suggests, however, that more phonemic writing systems seem
to favor quick learning for new learners, who will rely more on phonology, but are not nec-
essarily the most friendly for smooth reading for more ‘mature’ users, who will rely more
on lexicon (Sebba 2007, 18–23).
26 Viewing literacy as more than just the memorization of a script is central to the approach
of the New Literacy Studies which developed in the 1980s. This approach to literacy views
reading and writing as a set of social and cultural practices and presumes one would not
only need to learn the script but also how to use it in different social and cultural con-
texts (Sebba 2007, 13; and see Barton 2007, 22–28 for an overview of the development
of the field of literacy studies). In the Dadanitic context, the high level of formularity of
even graffiti indeed suggests that even rudimentary levels of literacy included learning
the basic formulaic structure of a graffito (or an inscription more generally), besides the
script.

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22 introduction

regularly would need some knowledge of how to produce some of these tools,
unless all writing materials were imported ready to use, which would have been
very costly.
In summary, even though the acquisition of basic reading and writing skills
may have been relatively easy for an alphabetic script such as Dadanitic, a
society in which writing was used for more than personal notes and lists
would still require some professionally trained scribes to produce the more
formal documents and prepare writing equipment. In this light, it may be use-
ful to think about just how many scribes an oasis like Dadan would need.
W.M. Schniedewind reminds us that ‘writing is fundamentally a luxury good’
(2013, 118) and that it needs a degree of economic and cultural support to thrive.
How many documents, then, would a society like Dadan’s need and how many
people could afford to commission a text? Given the relatively small reach of
the kingdoms of Dadan and Liḥyān, the demand for writing was probably not
massive and one family of scribes in which knowledge would be passed on from
father to son may have been sufficient to supply the oasis with the official writ-
ing it needed; clearly this cannot be compared to the bureaucratic apparatus
needed by the Babylonians or ancient Egyptians.27
Additional support for the presence of scribes at Dadan may be found in the
inscriptions themselves. Based on the attestation of the word h-s¹fr ‘the writer’
in Dadanitic, there seems to have been a distinct difference between the mason
who produced the objects of the inscription and the scribe who set up the text,
at least for some of the commissioned inscriptions. There are two inscriptions
that mention h-s¹fr ‘the writer’ of the inscription and their name at the end,
alongside ‘the artisan’ h-ṣnʿ who presumably cut the inscription (JSLih 082 and
ah 220).28 This slot in the formulae is usually reserved for mentioning the arti-
sans involved in the production of the inscription, who are always mentioned
separately from those who dedicated it, whose names are given at the start of
the text (see Chapter 3, §3.4). This supports the reading of h-s¹fr in this posi-
tion as a professional title. Furthermore, the fact that h-s¹fr and h-ṣnʿ are both
used in the same inscription tells us that the one who cut the inscription was
apparently a different person to the one who wrote the text—that is, unless we
assume that the fact that the writer is mentioned in only these two inscriptions
points to the unusual circumstances under which they were made. Since it is
quite common, however, not to mention the artisan who cut the inscription

27 See Van der Toorn (2007, 54–73) for an overview of scribal practices and training in
Mesopotamia and Egypt.
28 An often-used argument for the existence of a Hebrew scribal class is the use of the term
sōpēr (√S¹fr) to indicate someone’s profession (Van der Toorn 2007, 78–81).

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introduction 23

either, even in inscriptions executed in relief, it seems unlikely that anything

only mentioned sporadically was necessarily out of the ordinary.29
As for the training of individuals to read, write, and produce inscriptions,
there is only one abecedary attested in the Dadanitic script (JSLih 158). The
inscription contains several badly formed glyphs and repetitions of the same
sequence of letters, which led Macdonald to conclude that it probably repre-
sents a writing exercise (1986, 113). The presence of repeating glyphs and badly
formed letters in several other inscriptions on the same rock face led Macdon-
ald to suggest that it was used as a practice site (1986, 115). Since this is the only
such practice site known so far, it can tell us little about the organization of
schooling in the oasis, unfortunately. It is unclear whether this site was used
for the official training of masons, or by private persons.

4.1 Graffiti and the Spread of Literacy

While there seems to be some evidence for the existence of a scribal class at
Dadan, the presence of a large number of graffiti in and around the oasis30
suggests that literacy was much more widespread than a small cadre of pro-
fessional scribes. In the context of ancient Israel, Schniedewind points to the
growing number of graffiti and attestations of writing in an administrative con-
text, such those as found on seals, seal impressions, weights, and economic
texts in the period between the eighth and sixth centuries bce to argue for what
he calls ‘the democratization of writing’ (2013, 99–105). He links this spread of
the ability to write to a loss of a strictly controlled written standard; that is,
as writing was no longer confined to a small scribal elite, the ability to con-
trol the written standard diminished, as evidenced by the increase in incon-
sistencies in grammar and spelling in this period in Ancient Hebrew writing
(Schniedewind 2013, 100). In the Dadanitic situation there is currently no way
to tell whether there was a process of democratization or whether literacy was
relatively widespread within the community from the beginning of the pro-
duction of the inscriptions, as we cannot date the inscriptions relative to each
other. There are some interesting parallels, however, between the situation as
described by Schniedewind and what we see in the Dadanitic corpus; specifi-
cally, in the existence of large amounts of graffiti accompanied by a remarkable
amount of variation in grammar, letter shapes, and orthography.

29 The verbs s¹ṭr (JaL 061 f) and s¹fr (Ǧabal Iṯlib 08; JSLih 128), both meaning ‘to write’, are
mentioned in inscriptions as well, but do not seem connected to the professional produc-
tion of a text, so much as to the act of inscribing a graffito.
30 In fact, graffiti make up the bulk of the attested inscriptions: 1462 of 1871 inscriptions of
which the genre could clearly be identified are graffiti (see Chapter 7, § 2).

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24 introduction

While the presence of large amounts of graffiti in the area of Dadan suggests
that literacy probably spread beyond a small group of professional scribes, this
does not mean that everyone at the oasis could read and write, or that everyone
reached the same or a similar level of literacy. Here the concept of craftman’s
literacy seems helpful. W.V. Harris defines craftman’s literacy as ‘the condition
in which the majority … of skilled craftsmen are literate, while women and
unskilled laborers and peasants are mainly not’ (1989, 8). Within such a larger
group of literate individuals within society the majority may only have achieved
what Schniedewind defines as ‘signature literacy or craft literacy’, a level of lit-
eracy sufficient for practical purposes such as signing one’s name, writing lists
and receipts, and possibly the ability to read short letters (2013, 105). This level
of literacy is not comparable to that of a trained scribe but would be sufficient
to leave a short graffito.31
The amount of variation that began to occur in Ancient Hebrew writing
between the eighth and sixth centuries bce lead Schniedewind to conclude
that there was no strong Hebrew scribal institution present in Iron Age Judah
(Schniedewind 2013, 117). When compared to the Dadanitic situation, this may
lead us to conclude there was likewise no strong scribal tradition in Dadan
either, as we have plenty of variation in all layers of writing. However, this is
based on the supposition that the goal of any scribal tradition would be uni-
formity, which may not have been the case. Relatively widespread literacy can
help explain, however, how a certain amount of variation entered the written
norm in the first place and enabled it to develop and maintain some connec-
tion to the spoken language. The incorporation of more progressive linguistic
forms such as the ʾ-causative and the collapse of word final triphthongs which
we see reflected in the spelling of rḍ-h ‘may he please him’ (see Kootstra 2019
and discussed further in Chapter 4, §3.2) most likely followed these develop-
ments in the spoken language and eventually became the most common form
in writing as well. However, this does not mean that the written language was
simply a transcription of the spoken language, as we can see for example from
the occasional spelling of ṭ for *ẓ (e.g., in ah 009.1). The loss of *ẓ seems to have

31 In literacy studies the phenomenon of being able to perform certain literacy events, but
not others, is tied to the idea of literacy domains or literacies. A literacy ‘is a stable, coher-
ent, identifiable configuration of practices’ (Barton 2007, 38). In other words, filling out
your tax forms, reading a book to a child, and skimming the headlines of the newspaper
are all literacy events in the sense that you interact with written language, but they each
require different skills. One of the uses of approaching literacy through literacy domains
is to move away from viewing different uses of literacy on a scale from simple to complex,
but to see them as different uses of literacy.

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introduction 25

been a feature of at least some spoken register at the oasis, but it clearly was not
the most favored in the written language.
Even though the influence of literate individuals from outside the scribal
elite may have opened up the written tradition, allowing it to incorporate a
certain amount of variation and flexibility, this does not necessarily mean that
there was no scribal tradition present at all. An interesting point of comparison
to this may be the monumental Sabaic inscriptions from the south of the Penin-
sula, which can be divided into an Early, Middle, and Late period. Evidence
from Sabaic letters written on palm sticks, however, shows that the spoken lan-
guage changed at a more rapid pace. There we find, for example, that the glyph
ḍ is often used to represent *ẓ, while they were consistently kept apart in monu-
mental writing until the end of the tradition (Stein 2011, 1048). Thus, despite the
gradual implementation of linguistic changes in the monumental tradition, the
private documents on perishable material confirm that it was quite far removed
from the spoken language.
Besides the occasional use of ṭ for *ẓ in Dadanitic, there are several other
specific forms to be found in the corpus that suggest that the author of the
text was aiming for a written standard they had not quite mastered. For exam-
ple, in the inscription in which both an h-causative and a ʾ-causative occur
(Al-Saʿīd 1419/1999: 4–24, no. 1, side 1–2), the inscription in which two dedi-
cants agree with a dual verb but plural resumptive pronouns are used (U 019),
and the inscription which is completely in the singular except for the resump-
tive pronoun in the blessing formula in the dual (ah 120). Such inconsistencies
seem like hypercorrections, which suggests a certain distance between the spo-
ken and written registers of Dadanitic that the authors of the inscriptions were
quite aware of for these linguistic features.
Even though literacy seems to have been too widespread for a small scribal
class to have maintained complete control of the written standard, people were
clearly not simply transcribing their spoken language, and there was some form
of written standard present. From the likely use of writing for bureaucracy and
the possibility of employing a special scribe to set up an inscription (as evi-
denced by JSLih 082 and ah 220), it seems clear that there were trained scribes
present at the oasis. They would have been trained in the ‘proper’ use of the lan-
guage, including grammar and orthography. Their knowledge of the language
and the highly formulaic nature of the inscriptions in general would proba-
bly have been enough to establish a core scribal code, which likely included
knowledge of less common grammatical forms and phrases. At the same time,
there was probably also a group of people outside this cadre of professionally
trained scribes that knew how to read and write to some extent (as evidenced
by the large amount of graffiti present at the oasis). The common use of writing

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26 introduction

by such less highly trained individuals may explain how variation entered the
written record and possibly even pushed it to become more flexible and incor-
porate more progressive linguistic and paleographic forms, while the presence
of highly trained individuals ensured the continued presence and knowledge
of more archaic linguistic forms within the written code. Considering the lan-
guage of the inscriptions as a written and learned standard, which differed in
some ways from the spoken register, has methodological implications for the
approach of the description of the language of the inscriptions and how to deal
with the variation found within them. This will be discussed in more detail
below.

4.2 Expected Patterns of Variation in a Written Code

The historical context and evidence from the content and language of the
inscriptions make it likely that not only the physical production of the text on
stone was commissioned, but also the drawing up of the text itself could be
taken care of by a trained professional scribe. While there are two inscriptions
that mention both the scribe and the mason of the text, it is unclear whether
they represent the usual division of labor. Both having a trained scribal class
and the use of commonly known standard formulae would have a standard-
izing effect on the language.32 One of the expected effects of using standard-
ized language and formulae to write is that the language becomes resistant to
change and will likely develop at a slower rate than the spoken language, cre-
ating an environment in which the spoken and written registers can become
separated from each other to some degree.33
The assumption that the variation in the corpus is due to the archaic nature
of the language of the inscriptions implies that most of the inscriptions will
contain more archaic linguistic forms, with occasional interference from more
progressive linguistic forms from the spoken language. However, this is not the
general distribution of the linguistic variants in Dadanitic. There we see that
the linguistically more progressive forms are the most common, while most

32 Note that it seems that a writing culture with standard compositional formulae can also
develop without the existence of scribal schools, as it did in the Safaitic and Hismaic
inscriptions, for example (Al-Jallad 2015, 3).
33 We can see this, for example, in the variation attested in the Aramaic from the Achaeme-
nid period as described by Folmer (1995). A clear example can be found in the letters
belonging to the Yedaniah archive, where some scribes diverge more from the archaic
standard (for which Folmer used the Arsham letters on leather) than others (Folmer 1995,
693). The higher degree of formality of more archaic forms is further supported by varia-
tion in language use across different genres of text, with legal texts, for example, contain-
ing more archaic spelling than private letters (Folmer 1995, 696).

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introduction 27

of the variant ‘infiltrating’ forms are linguistically archaic.34 Since the oasis of
Dadan was an important trading hub, it was a multilingual place, as evidenced
by the presence of both Minaic and Aramaic writing at the oasis in addition to
the Dadanitic inscriptions. Given the multilingual nature of Dadanitic society,
this distribution of linguistic forms could indicate that the written standard
was based on a more linguistically progressive language than (one of the) spo-
ken language(s) at the oasis.35
If the variation in the Dadanitic corpus is indeed due to such a difference
between written and spoken language, the higher prestige forms should occur
relatively often in more expensive and higher register texts. Presumably, some-
one who could pay for a good mason to produce a beautiful inscription would
also want the language of the inscription to be sophisticated and would there-
fore employ an individual that could be trusted to produce a good text. Infil-
tration from the spoken language, in this case reflecting the more archaic lin-
guistic forms, is then expected to occur more often in informal inscriptions,
where the formality of the language is of less concern, or in more poorly made
inscriptions. However, upon closer inspection, the opposite seems to be the
case again. While the archaic forms are indeed the less common forms, they
are more closely associated with higher register inscriptions than with graf-
fiti.
Alternatively, variation may be due to diachronic change. Many of the lin-
guistic variants display a form that is linguistically more archaic and one that
is more developed. It is therefore also a logical possibility that the variation in
the corpus reflects diachronic change rather than synchronic variation. If this is
the case, we would expect to find that archaic linguistic forms cluster together,
possibly even to the exclusion of some of the more progressive forms, in case
one form ceased to be productive before another developed. It seems indeed
the case that certain archaic linguistic forms tend to occur together within
individual inscriptions. In addition to giving new insight into the mechanisms
underlying variation in the corpus, this may also cast new light on previous
proposals about the chronological development of the script.

34 For an overview of the absolute number of occurrences of variant forms see Chapter 7.
35 An example of a situation where the local language is more archaic than the high pres-
tige written language can be found in the Hermopolis letters, which display influence of
the more linguistically progressive Achaemenid imperial Aramaic. The distribution of the
varying forms is different, however, with the infiltrations of the high prestige form the
minority (Gzella 2011, 582–583).

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28 introduction

4.3 Methodological Concerns—Analyzing the Language of a Scribal

School
In this introduction, the question was posed whether it is even possible to speak
of the Dadanitic language, given the amount of linguistic variation attested in
the Dadanitic corpus. As just discussed, the variation indeed suggests that the
spoken languages of the authors of the inscriptions were not homogeneous,
probably due to both synchronic variation and diachronic change. However, it
seems possible to distill a written language from the bulk of the inscriptions.
The presence of trained scribes at the oasis means that a description of the lan-
guage of the inscriptions is really a description of the language of the writing
tradition.36
In this light, then, deviations from standard conventions form invaluable evi-
dence for the linguistic background of the person who composed the inscrip-
tion and the spoken language(s) at the oasis. The investigation of the language
of the Dadanitic inscriptions in Chapters 3 through 7 will therefore aim to
identify both the most commonly used forms in the writing tradition and the
less common varying forms, both in grammatical features and formulaic parts.
Whenever there are two variants of what has to be the same form (e.g., the h-
and ʾ-causatives) there is always one form that is clearly the most common, in
terms of number of attestations, and one that is the variant. These more com-
mon forms are the frame of reference for our understanding of the core of the
Dadanitic writing tradition and as such they can anchor the discussion of any
variant forms.
Forms that fall on the periphery of the writing tradition include unique
words, or forms that are used in uncommon or unique contexts, and personal
names. Since the writing formulae are part of the writing tradition of the oasis,
the spellings of the forms that fall within the common formulae were also
likely a part of the tradition. This is observable in the relative consistency of
the orthography in these inscriptions. This also makes it more likely that when
we do see repeating alternative forms in these formulaic environments, they
do not reflect random variation due to uncertainty about the existing spelling
conventions but represent phonologically or morphologically different forms.
Another issue that needs to be kept in mind—especially when describing
the orthography and phonology of Dadanitic, as discussed in Chapter 4—
is that we have no transcriptions of Dadanitic language in other scripts, like

36 See, e.g., Barton (2007, 33–50) for a practice approach to literacy and his introduction of
the metaphor of an ‘ecology of written language’.

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introduction 29

Greek, for example.37 This sets the Dadanitic corpus apart from corpora like
Nabataean and Safaitic. Consequently, a description of the phonology of Da-
danitic must rely solely on the orthography of the inscriptions to make infer-
ences about the phonology. The use of matres lectionis to write final long vow-
els, for example, has implications for the status of the (word final) triphthongs.
However, the interpretation of the value of the possible matres lectionis -y and
-w also depends on our understanding of the development of word final diph-
thongs and triphthongs. To avoid circularity, we therefore need additional evi-
dence; for instance, from the use of matres lectionis in environments where they
do not represent an etymological diphthong or triphthong (e.g., the use of -y
to represent the first-person possessive suffix /-ī/). Whenever such conclusive
forms are not attested in the corpus, the available evidence will be provided as
completely as possible, and the different possible explanations of the data will
be discussed.

4.3.1 Evidence from Personal Names

Personal names cannot tell us about the synchronic grammar of the language,
but they can shed light on the orthographic practice. As Macdonald has thor-
oughly discussed, names do not necessarily reflect the language of their bearer,
as they are often linguistically archaic and can ‘travel’ from language to lan-
guage (1999, 254–257). This also has implications for the use of personal names
to say anything about the phonology or orthography of a language. Even though
we can use names to say something about the phonology of the language of
their bearer,38 the fact that they are often borrowed from other languages still
needs to be taken into account.39 Someone mentioned in a Dadanitic inscrip-
tion with the name nṭr (JSLih 079), for example, does not necessarily tell us
that the language this person spoke had merged *ẓ and *ṭ, as it is also possible
that the name was taken from another language that had merged the two, like
Aramaic.
There are other examples, however, when the spelling of a name does reveal
something about the orthographic practices of the script used to write it. A
good example is the female name ʾmtktbh, in which the etymological ending

37 There may be two Minaic inscriptions at Dadan that include several borrowings or code-
switches to Dadanitic: JSMin 145 and JSMin 166 (Kootstra 2018b).
38 Even though the name Michael comes from Hebrew originally, its English pronunciation
can tell us, for example, that [i] came to be pronounced as [ɑɪ] in modern English.
39 Even though the Dutch equivalent of the name Michael ‘Michiel’ [miχil] is still used, it
is also not uncommon nowadays for Dutch males to be called Michael, with the English
spelling and pronunciation, for example.

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30 introduction

*-ay of the feminine elative is represented by -h. Since it cannot reflect an ety-
mological spelling or an archaic pronunciation here, the -h must represent a
final -ā (see Chapter 4, §2.1) and so it informs us on the use of matres lectionis
in Dadanitic.
Finally, it needs to be remembered that the vocalization of a name as we
find it in the epigraphic record is often far from clear (see Macdonald 1999, 271
for a discussion of how to interpret the consonantal skeleton of a name). This
makes the interpretation of glides in personal names highly problematic. For
example, when we find both zd and zyd, this does not necessarily indicate that
these forms show a difference in the spelling of the diphthong in the name
Zayd, as it could equally be the case that zd represents the name Zayd while
zyd represent the name Ziyād with the y representing a consonant. Whenever
relevant, examples from personal names will be used to illustrate points about
phonology and orthography. In most cases, however, for the reasons outlined
above, these examples will not provide any conclusive evidence on the matter
discussed, but merely additional support or a side note to possible variation.
Of course, there are many factors involved in variation. Having established
the methodological approach on which this study is based, it is first neces-
sary to offer some background information locating the Dadanitic inscriptions
in time and space, which I will do in Chapter 1. With this background scope
established, Chapters 2 through 6 of this work can then turn to the key work of
providing a complete picture of the written practice of ancient Dadan, includ-
ing both common variation and linguistic and formulaic outliers, in order to
be able to say something about the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of variation, which will be
treated in depth in Chapters 7 and 8.

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 chapter 1

The Oasis of Dadan in Space and Time

Dadan was situated on a strategic site on the incense trade route between the
south of the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, and the Levant to the north (Macdonald
1997, 335–336). Map 1 (p. 6) shows the location of the oasis in relation to some
of the other important sites in the region. The presence of a major Minaean
settlement at the site underscores its international importance.1
Besides being an important trading hub, agriculture also played an impor-
tant role in the economy of the oasis. Date palms (nḫl, e.g., Al-ʿUḏayb 071),
grain (ṯbrt. U 112; U 069), and other seasonal crops (dṯʾ, ah 107; ḫrf, U 059)
are commonly mentioned in the dedicatory inscriptions from the oasis. The
agricultural fields were likely fed though a subterranean canal system that was
found at the oasis (Nasif 1988).
While most of the Dadanitic inscriptions are found in and around the oasis,
the area can be divided into several different sites as identified in Map 3. Most of
the monumental inscriptions have been found close to the site of the ancient
settlement known as al-Ḫuraybah (spelled Khuraybah on Map 2 and Map 3),
but also a few kilometres further to the north at a site called Qubūr al-Jundī (in
the valley connecting al-Ḫuraybah to the site of Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ) and at Jabal Iṯlib.
Map 2 (p. 11) offers an overview of the distribution of the inscriptions across the
main sites.
Jabal Iṯlib is connected to the ancient town of Ḥegrā (modern Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ),
known as ‘the “southern capital” of the Nabataean kingdom’ (Rohmer and
Charloux 2015, 303). It seems that Jabal Iṯlib was mainly used as a look-out
spot, and most Dadanitic inscriptions found in this location are graffiti men-
tioning the guarding activities of the individuals posted there.2 Among the
monumental inscriptions, especially the location of the ẓll inscriptions stands
out, commemorating the performance of an enigmatic ritual called the ẓll for

1 See §3 for a more elaborate discussion of the interaction between the Dadanitic population
and the Minaeans and the implications for the dating of the inscriptions.
2 The structure on top of the outcrop where the inscriptions were found was initially inter-
preted as a look-out post, partly because of the topography of the site and partly based on
the contents of the Dadanitic inscriptions. Re-examiniation during the 2020 season of the
Madāʾin Sāliḥ archaeological project, however, revealed the structure to be a tomb, which
was dated to 471–366 Cal bc. It is currently unclear exactly how the inscriptions and the tomb
relate to each other, and if they were contemporaneous (Nehmé et al. 2021, 14–19).

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32 chapter 1

the main local deity ḏġbt.3 These inscriptions are only attested at two sites
near the ancient settlement: at al-ʿUḏayb or Jabal ʿIkmah (Stiehl 1971; Sima
1999) and at Umm Daraj (Nasif 1988; Abū l-Ḥasan 2002, 25–162). Their con-
centration at these two locations probably marks them as cultic sites. At Umm
Daraj, this is supported by the finding of cultic items such as incense burners
and statues (Abū l-Ḥasan 2005, 29). Dadanitic graffiti are found beyond these
environs, with some as far away as the vicinity of Taymāʾ (see Hayajneh 2016),
another oasis town about 150km to the North-East of al-ʿUlā as the crow flies
(see Map 1).4
The dating of the Dadanitic inscriptions is problematic. They are gener-
ally assumed to have been produced between the sixth and first centuries
bce. However, because the inscriptions themselves do not refer to any dat-
able historical events, their dating has mostly relied on epigraphic material
and outside references to Dadan. Recently, new finds at Taymāʾ of Aramaic
inscriptions mentioning kings of Liḥyān (Stein 2020), as well as analysis of the
material uncovered in the ongoing excavations at Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ and the site
of ancient Dadan (Rohmer and Charloux 2015), are starting to provide us with
increasingly secure dates for the period under discussion.5 Ongoing archaeo-
logical work in the area will likely continue to contribute greatly to our under-
standing of the chronology of ancient Dadan in the years to come, especially
the Dadan Archaeological Project of the Royal Commision for al-ʿUlā and the
cnrs under the supervision of Jérôme Rohmer and Abdulrahman Alsuhaibani,
which started in 2020. Below, an overview and discussion of the main argu-
ments concerning the dating of the inscriptions will be presented, starting with
the evidence present in the Dadanitic inscriptions themselves and in the con-
temporary Minaic inscriptions found at Dadan, followed by a discussion of the
use of paleography in dating the inscriptions. The discussion will then turn to
the attestations of Dadan and Lihyān in other corpora, and end with a presen-
tation of the latest insights from the ongoing archaeological work at the site
of ancient Dadan and its surroundings. It will become clear that none of the
traditional methods of dating the corpus has yielded absolute, or in some case
even reliable, results.

3 See note 17 in the Introduction on the interpretation of this ritual.

5 The article by Rohmer and Charloux (2015) includes a thorough discussion of the main epi-
graphic and historical sources used to date the Dadanitic corpus up to 2015.

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the oasis of dadan in space and time 33

1 The Dadanite and Liḥyanite Kingdoms

It is generally assumed that the Liḥyanite kingdom followed the Dadanite king-
dom and that the end of the Liḥyanite kingdom coincides with the end of the
production of Dadanitic inscriptions (e.g., Winnett and Reed, 1970, 116; Farès-
Drappeau, 2005, 117–122). The division of the period in which the Dadanitic
inscriptions were carved into two subsequent kingdoms is based on the men-
tioning of both kings of Dadan and kings of Liḥyān in the inscriptions. A change
in the ruling elite seems to be supported by the names of the kings found in
the inscriptions. In the Dadanitic inscriptions we find five names connected
to the title mlk ddn: kbrʾl as a personal name in JSLih 138 and as a patronymic
in two inscriptions recently published by al-Theeb (inscriptions 1 and 2 in al-
Theeb 2020, 23–24); mtʿʾl as a personal name in JSLih 138 and as a patronymic in
the two previousy mentioned inscriptions published by al-Theeb; ʿṣy in Al-Saʿīd
2011.1 and 2011.2; and, finally, ḏbbt and ḫḫnt (inscriptions 5 and 6 in al-Theeb
2020, 27–28). For the Liḥyanite kings, five names connected to the (at least)
eight individual kings are attested: hnʾs1 (e.g., ah 202; ah 222); s2hr (ah 053);
tlmy (e.g., ah 226); lḏn (e.g., JSLih 082); and gs2m (Rabeler 001).6 Based on the
Aramaic inscriptions from Taymāʾ we can add pṣgw s2hrw to this list (Teima 20),
who identifies himself as br [m]lky lḥyn ‘son of the kings of Liḥyān’ rather than
as a king himself (Stein 2020, 23). Another inscription has been found men-
tioning a man who does identify as king of Liḥyān and who was identified as
the son of the author of Teima 20 by Stein. Unfortunately, his personal name is
missing in the inscription and only the phrase ‘… son of pṣg, king of [Liḥyān]’ is
preserved. However, the two texts seem paleographically closely related, con-
firming the possibility that they were written by members of two consecutive
generations (Stein 2020, 23). Even with the addition of the name pṣg from the
Aramaic inscriptions from Taymāʾ, the royal house of Liḥyān seems to have
employed a restricted set of regnal names that was not used by the kings of
Dadan nor by the general public.7

6 For an overview of the kings’ names and a suggested lineage see Farès-Drappeau (2005, 126).
For a brief discussion of the Aramaic inscriptions mentioning a ‘king of Liḥyān’ see § 1.1.
7 The names hnʾs1 and tlmy are never mentioned outside the context of dating formulae or
royal lineage in the Dadanitic corpus; s²hr is mentioned once in a context that may not be a
royal lineage, but it appears in broken context at the end of a dedicatory inscription; some-
one named lḏn bn gs²m occurs once in what seems to be a graffito (ah 309). The use of the
names of kings of Dadan also seems to have been fairly restricted: kbrʾl only occurs once as a
royal name; mtʿʾl and ʿṣy occur once together in a broken monumental inscription (ah 214);
ʾṣy further occurs in another fragmentary inscription in relief (JSLih 323); while mtʿʾl seems
to have been more widespread and occurs in several other inscriptions in which it does not

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 34 chapter 1

map 3 The main archaeological sites of Dadan. The map is adapted to show additional sites (Qubūr
al-Jundi, Jabal Iṯlib, Talʿat al-Ḥammād, and Wadi Muʿtadil). The grey areas represent sandstone
massifs. Jabal ʿIkmah corresponds to the area called al-ʿUḏayb in Stiehl (1971) and Sima (1999)
courtesy of rohmer and charloux (2015)

1.1 Regnal Years and the Chronology of the Inscriptions

Several scholars have tried to use the royal lineage and the inscriptions dated to
regnal years to gain insight into the length of the period over which the inscrip-
tions were produced (Farès-Drappeau 2005, 123; Rohmer and Charloux 2015,

seem to be connected to a royal lineage (JSLih 186; JSLih 187; Nasif 1988: 98, pl. cl; Nasif 1988:
91, pl. cxxx/d).

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the oasis of dadan in space and time 35

299). J. Rohmer and G. Charloux conclude that there were at least 12 different
kings over 199 regnal years. They combine this with the fact that in the royal
chronicle of Nabonidus, who resided in Taymāʾ from 552 to 543 bce (Beaulieu
1989, 150), reference is made to a ‘king of Dadan’, suggesting that the kingdom
of Liḥyān did not yet exist at that time. Based on this, they establish 552 bce as
a terminus post quem for the beginning of the Liḥyānite kingdom and conclude
that it must have existed until at least 353 bce (Rohmer and Charloux 2015,
299–300). P. Stein pushes the beginning of the Liḥyanite presence at Taymāʾ
to the second half of the fifth century bce, to accommodate an intervening
Achaemenid presence at the oasis (Stein 2020, 21), which would push the ear-
liest end-date of the Liḥyanite kingdom to the middle of the third century bce.
Farès-Drappeau (2005, 126) has taken the information provided by the royal
lineages even further, using it to provide a line of succession of the different
kings. If it is indeed possible to establish such a family tree, this would provide
us with a relative dating of at least these inscriptions, which could be a valu-
able tool in understanding internal linguistic and paleographic developments
of the corpus. Unfortunately, the genealogies provided in the inscriptions are
never longer than two names (the name of the king and his father), and occa-
sionally do not even mention the name of the father (e.g., ah 063; Rabeler 001;
ah 222). Due to the short genealogies and the repetition of names across gener-
ations, there are a great many different options when attempting to reconstruct
a family tree, especially if we allow for the possibility that not every new king
represents a new generation, and that consecutive kings may have been broth-
ers.
The following reconstruction (Figure 2) rests on a number of assumptions.
First, it assumes that our list of kings is complete and that there are no gaps
in our attestation of rulers. Based on the Aramaic evidence from Taymāʾ, men-
tioned above, we now know this not to be true.8 Second, it assumes that the
inscriptions sought to clearly identify the kings, which implies that every men-
tion of the same name with the same patronym refers to the same person.
This is of course not a certainty with genealogies going back no further than
one generation. Moreover, optimal clarity was not something the authors of
the inscriptions were overly concerned with, as we can see from five inscrip-
tions that mention only the name of a king without his patronymic (ah 064
and ah 063 tlmy; Rabeler 001 gs2m; ah 202 and ah 222 hnʾs1). Assuming that

8 Note that the first king in this sequence s²hr bn hnʾs¹ (ah 013) occurs without the title mlk
lḥyn. However, it occurs in the dating formula at the end of the inscription, which is generally
based on the regnal years of the king mentioned.

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36 chapter 1

figure 2
Possible royal lineage, as presented in Farès-
Drappeau 2005

every king with the same name and patronymic is the same person has as an
advantage in that it reduces the possible number of outcomes and, additionally,
yields the most conservative time depth. Such a short chronology is not neces-
sarily closer to the true royal lineage of the Liḥyānite kings of course; based
just on the additional Aramaic evidence from Taymāʾ we know it was longer.
However, using the inscriptions to determine the minimum amount of time
the Liḥyānite kings ruled the oasis, as Rohmer and Charloux (2015, 299–300)
did, is the only conclusion they can provide reliable evidence for.
This can be supplemented by looking at the reigns reported in the inscrip-
tions. Most kings are mentioned in dating formulae, counting the years of the
reign of the king. It seems safe to say that if tlmy son of hnʾs1 reigned for at
least 42 years (al-Ḫuraybah 10), it is less likely that he was succeeded by his
brother lḏn son of hnʾs1 who reigned for at least 35 years (JSLih 082) and there-
fore they likely belong to different generations and their father is not the same
hnʾs1. When used in conjunction with accounting for the number of regnal

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the oasis of dadan in space and time 37

years, this most constrictive method yields the genealogy as presented in Farès-
Drappeau’s work (2005, 126), represented here in Figure 2.9
Without changing any of these underlying assumptions, however, it is also
possible that s2hr was the brother of lḏn (JSLih 082), as shown in Figure 3. If
this is correct, then we seem to enter a period of messy succession in which the
sons of each brother reigned for short periods of time: only year one is attested
of tlmy son of lḏn (Müller, D.H. 1889, 63–64 no. 8); only year seven of his brother
gs2m is attested (JSLih 085); and for their nephew hnʾs1 son of s2hr no specific
regnal year is mentioned (JSLih 053). Since this is already a difference of three
generations for s2hr son of hnʾs1, accepting one or the other would have serious
implications for the relative chronology of the inscriptions.
Supplementing the Dadanitic data with insights from the Aramaic inscrip-
tions from Taymāʾ that mention Liḥyanite kings shows, however, that the pro-
posed lineage in Figure 2 is at least incomplete. The addition of the son of pṣg
(ta 6233) was already mentioned above. Based on paleography and the fact that
his father did not overtly present himself as ‘king of Liḥyān’ but as ‘son of the
kings of Liḥyān’, Stein places them at the beginning of the list of Lihyanite kings
that are attested at Taymāʾ and keeps the possibility open that pṣg s2hr did not
have the same kind of power over Taymāʾ as his descendants did (2020, 23–25).
If the interpretation of his self identification as ‘son of the kings of Liḥyān’ is
correct,10 this could also suggest that there were at least two preceding genera-
tions of ‘kings of Liḥyān’ who are not attested in the Aramaic record at Tayma,
nor in the Dadanitic record known to us.11
Another important emendation to the lineage proposed by Farès-Drappeau,
as represented in Figure 2, concerns the position of lḏn. A king with this name
is attested in ta 964. Based on paleography and the inclusion of the later form
of the relative dy (< *ḏy) in ta 2382/1, which mentions tlmy (who can probably

9 Note that Farès-Drappeau does not make these choices underlying her reconstruction of
the royal genealogy explicit, nor does she discuss any alternative reconstructions (2005,
122–126).
10 Sima (1999, 55–56) interprets mlk as a personal name followed by z lḥyn ‘of the lineage of
Liḥyān’, based on the idea that it would be unlikely that a person would only name the
title of his ancestors instead of the name of their father, as is common in such genealo-
gies. While giving a title of multiple ancestors instead of a name is indeed unusual, there
are Dadanitic inscriptions in which names are given according to the scheme: pn pn bn
pn (e.g., U 120). Moreover, Stein concludes that the reading z lḥyn is not supported by the
photographs of the inscriptions (Stein 2020, 23 nt. 9).
11 It should be kept in mind, of course, that such a backwards projection of ancestral power
does not necessarily reflect the historical reality but could merely be an attempt to claim
longstanding legitimacy.

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figure 3 Possible royal lineage, with maximum restrictions

be identified with tlmy son of hnʾs1 from the Dadanitic inscriptions), Stein con-
cludes that lḏn must have preceded him, as ta 964 retains the more archaic z
reflex of *ḏ in zkyr and zʾ (Stein 2020, 25). Based on the identification of lḏn with
lḏn son of hnʾs1 (JSLih 082) and the tlmy from the Aramaic inscriptions (ta 2550;
2382; 4916; 4915) with tlmy son of hnʾs1 (JSLih 045, 077; Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 3–
14, no. 1 (lacking bn); al-Ḫuraybah 10), Stein suggests that they were brothers
and that the older lḏn held the throne before his brother succeeded him (2020,
24–26). Since the 35th regnal year of lḏn bn hnʾs1 is recorded (JSLih 082), as is
the 42nd regnal year of tlmy bn hnʾs1, this would necessitate a substantial age
gap between the two, which is not impossible and might suggest that lḏn bn
hnʾs1 did not have any suitable heirs of his own. Another option, based on the
Dadanitic record, would be to insert three intermediate kings in between (the
brothers tlmy and gs²m, sons of lḏn, followed by hnʾs1 son of tlmy), as in Figure 4.
In summary, the number of possible orderings of the kings shown above
makes it clear that it is impossible to draw any reliable conclusions about the
relative chronology of the inscriptions based on the royal lineages. In fact, they
are unreliable even for determining the overall duration of the Liḥyānite king-
dom. Of most kings we only have one inscription mentioning a specific year of
their reign, making it very possible that tlmy son of lḏn ruled far longer than
the one year that has been recorded in the inscriptions.
On top of this, not all kings may be represented in the epigraphic record
as we know it today. Combining the Aramaic record from Taymāʾ with the
Dadanitic record suggests that we need to add several generations preceding

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the oasis of dadan in space and time 39

figure 4
Possible royal lineage, incorporating the
Aramaic evidence that suggests that lḏn
ruled before the tlmy for whom 40 reg-
nal years are attested in the epigraphic
record from Taymāʾ

s²hr bn hnʾs¹ to accommodate the son of pṣg (ta 6233) and the claim of pṣg s²hr
(Teima 20) that he is the son of the kings of Liḥyān. Following Stein’s list of
royal names, the later end of the lineage can also probably be extended by at
least two generations to incorporate ms¹ʿwdw and s²hr mentioned in the latest
Aramaic inscriptions (tm.Tar.004 and ta 1743; Stein 2020, 27).
The Aramaic inscriptions do shed some new light on the general dating
of the reign of the Liḥanite kings, partly because the paleographic dating of
these inscriptions from Taymāʾ is much more secure than that of the Dadanitic
inscriptions, as there are several inscriptions that can be more securely dated
relative to each other. Based on a recently discovered Aramaic inscription that
can be dated to the time of Nabonidus’ presence at the oasis12 (552–543 bce)
and a better understanding of the apparently smooth transition of Aramaic to

12 The inscription was discovered by Macdonald during the Taymāʾ Hinterland Survey and is
still awaiting publication. It was written by a government official of king Nabonidus (Stein
2020, n. 6).

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40 chapter 1

Nabataean writing at Taymāʾ, Stein suggests, on the basis of a combination of

paleographic grounds and known regnal years, that the Aramaic inscriptions
mentioning the kings of Liḥyān from Taymāʾ were likely made between the
sixth or fifth and the second or first centuries bce (Stein 2020, 27–28). This
would push back the fourth century bce date suggested by Farès-Drappeau
(2005, 123) by at least a century.

2 Philological Arguments

Using philological arguments to date the inscriptions, F.V. Winnett refers to

the title fḥt ddn, used in JSLih 349, which he translates as ‘governor of Dadan’
(Winnett and Reed 1970, 115–116). Based on when this, originally Assyrian, word
was thought to have been introduced into western Arabia he proposes dat-
ing the text to the Persian period of the sixth to fourth century bce (Winnett
1937, 51; Winnett and Reed 1970, 115–116).13 D.F. Graf, however, showed that the
first occurrence of the Aramaic title pḥt, which is probably the source of the
Dadanitic term, is much earlier, in the Adon-Papyrus from Egypt, dated to the
early Neo-Babylonian period (604/603bce) (Graf 1990, 140; and most recently
Rohmer forthcoming).
In a similar way, W. Caskel (1954) uses the formula ‘Es werde seiner im Guten
gedacht!’ ḏbẖ (JSLih 082; Müller, D.H. 1889: 63–64, no. 8). He believes these three
letters are an abbreviation of the phrase ḏukir bi-ẖayr in which he sees a paral-
lel to the Nabataean formula dkyr b-ṭb (Caskel, 1954, 76),14 which is first attested
in inscriptions from the first century bce (Caskel, 1954, 36). However, this argu-
ment is built upon several assumptions that are difficult to verify. The formula
does not occur in a written-out form in the corpus, none of the other frequently
used formula in the Dadanitic corpus are abbreviated like this, and one would
have to assume that the Nabataean formula was not adopted directly but in
translation. Moreover, the archaeological record from both Dadan and Ḥegrā
(Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ) does not show any clear and unquestionable evidence for direct
contact between the Nabataeans and the Liḥyānite kingdom (Rohmer and
Charloux 2015, 309), although this cannot prove that none existed, of course.

13 Caskel (1954, 102) acknowledges Winnett’s arguments but dates the text to the second cen-
tury bce, based on his dating of the Dadanite period. He argues that the term could have
lingered in the region after the Persian period.
14 Note that this formula is also found in other forms of Aramaic, such as Palmyrene. For
an overview of its use and variations with bibliography see Hoftijzer and Jongeling (1995,
324–329).

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the oasis of dadan in space and time 41

3 Minaean Presence at Dadan

Another historical anchor for the inscriptions may be found in the presence
of Minaic inscriptions at Dadan. Minaic inscriptions mentioning the title kbr
ddn, found at Dadan, were initially taken as proof the Minaeans took political
control of the oasis (Winnett 1939, 6). In his 1970 publication with W.L. Reed,
however, Winnett pointed out that this was likely not the case, as kabīr is also
used in other Minaean settings in which they did not exercise political control
(Winnett and Reed 1970, 117).15 Instead, Winnett assumed that the Minaeans
and Dadanites were contemporaneous. This is supported by an inscription in
the Dadanitic language and script, in which a priest of Wadd, the main deity of
the Minaeans, presents ḏġbt, the main deity of the Dadanitic inscriptions, with
a young boy (JSLih 049).
Even though it is difficult to establish exact dates for the beginning and
ending of the Minaean kingdom, it is roughly estimated that Minaean kings
ruled in the north of modern-day Yemen between the sixth and the first cen-
turies bce.16 Nevertheless, one of the most recent studies on the chronology of
the Minaean kingdom, by J. Schiettecatte and M. Arbach (2020), which relies
on the attested royal names in the Minaic inscriptions, suggests that Minaean
kings appeared on the political stage of South Arabia as early as the eighth cen-
tury bce. References to known historical events in the Minaic inscriptions are
scarce, however, which has made it challenging to tie any relative chronology
of the Minaic inscriptions to absolute dates.
One Minaic inscription that has featured prominently in the search for dat-
able events is res 3022; in particular, the mention of a conflict (mrd) between
mḏy and Egypt has been the focus of many studies attempting to date the
inscription and the events it describes. The event has commonly been linked to
the invasion of Egypt by Artaxerxes ii Ochos in 343 bc (Winnett and Reed 1970,
119; and more recently in Garbini 2006, 291). A. Lemaire, however, points out
that the inscription talks about a mrd and not a ḍr: the word ḍr is commonly
used to refer to a war, whereas mrd usually means ‘revolt’. This led Lemaire to
date the inscription to the period between 482 and 345 bce, during which there
were several Egyptian revolts against Persia (first proposed in Lemaire 1996,

15 Norris (2018, 78) discusses an ana inscription from Dūma which he reads l ṯwb h-kbr ‘by
ṯwb the kabīr’. If his interpretation is correct, this is the first discovery of the mention of a
kabīr in northern Arabia outside of Dadan (Norris 2018, n. 20).
16 See, for example, Winnett (1939) for a general discussion of the chronology of the Minaean
kingdom. See Robin and De Maigret (2009) for a discussion of early archaeological evi-
dence of the Minaean kingdom.

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42 chapter 1

46; and repeated by the same author in 2010, 381–383). He further adds that
the inscription most likely refers to one of the two major revolts, either that of
Inaros (between 463 and 461 bce) or that of Amyrtaeus (405 bce), giving slight
preference to the latter date (Lemaire 2010, 383).
More recently, A. Multhoff convincingly ties the events in res 3022 to those
described in a Sabaic inscription bl-Nashq? = Demirjian 1, which also men-
tions Liḥyān (Multhoff 2019). She based the link between the texts on idiomatic
and lexical parallels (Multhoff 2019, 244–246), and parallels between the events
described in both texts (246–250). This allowed her to date both to the period of
‘tensions at the fringes of the Achaemenid Empire around 400 bce’ (252), con-
firming earlier proposals for the date of bl-Nashq? = Demirjian 1 put forward by
Stein (2017) and S.L. Sørensen and K. Geus (2019). Such an interpretation also
supports a connection to the 405/404bce revolt in Egypt (Multhoff 2019, 251;
Lemaire 2010, 383).17 This would place the reign of the Minaean king Abīyadaʿ
Yaṯāʿ, mentioned in res 3022, at the end of the fifth century bce (Schiettecatte
and Arbach 2020, 249), making it an important anchor for the dating of the
Minaean royal lineage in this period.
A set of Minaic inscriptions that directly hint at relations between the
Minaens and Dadanites have been found at the Temple of Ruṣāfim, just outside
the ramparts of Qarnāw (al-Said 2009, 93). These include the names of women
from outside Maʿīn, marrying a Minaean man.18 Both Dadan and Liḥyān are
mentioned in these examples: Dadan as a toponym and Liḥyān as an anthro-
ponym (Farès-Drappeau 2005, 119).19 The dating of the texts is still disputed,
since the inscriptions themselves are undated, and do not explicitly men-
tion historical events (e.g., Lemaire 1996, 35–48; Bron 1998, 3:102–103; Rohmer
and Charloux 2015, 302). Most attempts to gain some insight into this issue
have been based on paleography. This led J. Pirenne (1956, 212) to assume that

17 But cf. Multhoff (2019, n. 69) on Lemaire’s identification of the mḏy as the Medes. She
argues that the use of the otherwise unattested word mrd likely suggests that the Minaeans
viewed this ‘revolt’ as an internal Egyptian affair. According to her, such an interpretation
suggests no large powers such as the Chaldeans or the Medes were necessarily involved.
18 I would like to thank one of the reviewers for pointing me to this article on this genre of
inscriptions that published several new ones of the same type.
19 A ‘free woman from Liḥyān’ Maʿīn 93 side B line 46 and women from Dadan (Maʿīn 93
West side lines 31; 36;9/10; 16; 42/43; North side line 8; Maʿīn 94 line 4; Maʿīn 95 line 15/16;
Maʿīn 98 line 5/6) occur in the texts. Note that most of the publications that refer to these
inscriptions refer to them as one list, often called ‘the Hierodules list’, while in fact they are
many short entries most of which occur on one block of stone and are spread out across
the four faces of the block. Additionally, several other fragments were found in the vicin-
ity of the main block—these may have belonged to similar blocks that are now destroyed
(al-Said 2009, 96).

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the oasis of dadan in space and time 43

the inscriptions were gradually compiled sometime between 320 and 150 bce
(Lemaire 1996, 39–40). Lemaire, however, came to a different conclusion based
on the place names mentioned in the inscriptions. Based on the absence of any
mention of Edom and the Nabataeans, as opposed to the explicit mentioning
of Sidon and the presence of the Qedarites, he concludes that the inscrip-
tions were probably produced before the fourth century bce (Lemaire 1996,
44). Since it seems likely that the inscriptions were indeed added over a longer
period, it is not clear whether we can take them all as representative of the
international relations of the Minaeans at one specific point in time. Based on
the more recent research on the chronology of the kingdom of Maʿīn and its
presence at Dadan (e.g., Rohmer and Charloux 2015; Schiettecatte and Arbach
2020), a date before the fourth century bce seems too early, at least for a more
permanent Minaean presence in Dadan.
Final proposed datings worth noting came from A.F.L. Beeston, who pro-
posed that the Minaean presence at Dadan probably lasted from about the
fourth century bce (1979, 8) until a little before the decline of the kingdom in
the south, which can probably be placed in the first century bce (Robin 1998,
184–185; Arbach 2003, §24–25).20 In contrast, Schiettecatte and Arbach date
the first Minaic inscriptions at Dadan that are dated to the reign of a Minaean
king and local official (kbr) to the third and second centuries bce (their groups
6 and 7). They show, based on the inscriptions, that in this period there was
an official and institutionalized Minaean presence at the oasis (Schiettecatte
and Arbach 2020, 263) and that there were no signs of decline of the kingdom
throughout the third century bce (265). They date the decline of the Minaean
presence in Dadan to around the second and first centuries bce (Schiettecatte
and Arbach 2020, 268).

4 Paleography

Another way in which the Dadanitic inscriptions have been used to estab-
lish at least a relative chronology of the inscriptions is through paleography.
Dadanitic exhibits variation in its letter shapes, which has motivated schol-

20 Arbach argues for the entry of Arabian tribes from the north in the beginning of the sec-
ond century bce, based on changes in the epigraphic record, where different deities start
to be mentioned (hlfn and ḏs1mwy), the political titles change, and some linguistic changes
can be observed (Arbach 2003, §24). He argues that the arrival of the Roman army in the
Jawf at the end of the first century bce truly meant the end of the Minaic realm (Arbach
2003, §25).

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44 chapter 1

ars to use this method for dating the inscriptions (Grimme 1932; Winnett 1937;
Caskel 1954; Farès-Drappeau 2005). This approach to Dadanitic paleography
has been present in the field since the earliest treatment of the inscriptions
and has been the most commonly accepted approach to the corpus since it
was first proposed (Grimme 1932). More recently, Macdonald (2015) has per-
suasively argued, however, that the use of paleography to arrive at a relative
chronology of inscriptions is untenable without the presence of firmly dated
inscriptions to anchor the development of the letter shapes.
All theories concerning a script-based order of the inscriptions distinguish
a ‘Dadanite’ followed by a ‘Liḥyānite’ period, although there are several theo-
ries as to the exact number of stages of development of the script that can be
distinguished, and the dates attributed to these stages. This division was first
proposed by Grimme (1932) and is based on the ‘altertümliche, an das Minäis-
che erinnernde Formung’ of the glyphs of an inscription mentioning mlk ddn
‘king of Dadan’ and the direction of writing21 of a part of the corpus display-
ing the same type of ‘archaic’ letter-forms on the one hand, as opposed to the
‘more developed’ letter-forms of the inscriptions mentioning the tribal name
lḥyn (755) on the other. Grimme extensively discusses the reading of what he
called ‘Dadanite’g , which he distinguished from the ‘Liḥyānite’g (1932, 754–
755). It was assumed that the letters with a square base developed to become
more triangular, until some even became disconnected (see Table 1 on p. 47 for
an example). At the same time, letters with a basic circular form were said to
change into diamond shapes. Also, the mim underwent a particularly signifi-
cant change from two small triangles on top of each other towards a crescent
shape .22
While Grimme (1932) focused mainly on the script and its stages of devel-
opment, Winnett (1937) and Caskel (1954) discussed the dating of the periods
in further detail. Winnett proposed what is known as the ‘long chronology’ of
the inscriptions, placing the Dadanite period between the sixth and fourth cen-
turies bce and the Liḥyānite period between the fourth and second centuries
bce (1937, 49–51). Caskel proposed the less accepted ‘short chronology’, which
places the Dadanite inscriptions between 160 and 115 bce and the Liḥyānite
phase between 115 bce and 150 ce (1954, 35–37).

21 According to Grimme it is typical of the earlier Dadanite inscriptions that they could not
only be written from right to left (as were the Lihyanite inscriptions), but also from left to
right (Grimme 1932, 755).
22 For a complete overview of letter shapes and their subdivision into Dadanite and Lihyan-
ite forms see Caskel (1954, 33–34) and most recently Farès-Drappeau (2005, 109–111).

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the oasis of dadan in space and time 45

Caskel’s ‘short chronology’ of the Dadanitic texts is largely based on the

development of the script in which he distinguishes three script phases: Dadan-
ite, early Liḥyānite, and late Liḥyānite. Based on the more pronounced differ-
ences he found between the Dadanite and early Liḥyānite scripts he concludes
that early Liḥyānite should be considered a completely new script, in which he
saw evidence for a regime change at the oasis. Since the differences between
early Liḥyānite and late Liḥyānite are less pronounced, he assumed that this
points to a mere ‘disturbance’ in the power structure at the oasis (Caskel 1954,
35).23 Caskel believed the Dadanitic script first developed as a symbol of inde-
pendence after the collapse of the Minaean kingdom and Minaean control of
the oasis ended (1954, 36; but see §3 on the relationship between the Minaeans
and Dadanitic people). Farès-Drappeau (2005, 113–124) discusses the paleogra-
phy of the inscriptions at some length in her work on Dadanitic, which offers an
overview of the main theories on the dating of the stages of different phases of
script.24 Her own paleographic analysis largely follows the proposal by Winnett
(Farès-Drappeau 2005, 116–125).
As Macdonald (2015, 17–18) very carefully discussed, however, it is prob-
lematic to use paleography to date inscriptions in corpora like our Dadanitic
example. The most fundamental problem in using this methodology to date the
Dadanitic inscriptions is that none is securely dated; neither in absolute terms
nor relative to each other. Even the chronological division of the script into
two phases, Dadanite and Liḥyānite, seems untenable. First, no distinction can
be made between a Dadanite and a Liḥyānite script: so-called Dadanite letter-
shapes occur in Liḥyānite inscriptions and vice versa.25 There are no inherent
reasons to believe that a change in political power went hand in hand with
a change in script as Caskel concluded (1954, 35), even if one would assume
that there are different ‘stages’ of the Dadanitic script. One can imagine a sce-
nario in which a foreign group conquers a region and brings their own, new
script with them, but it is much harder to imagine why the new rulers of Dadan
would choose to only slightly alter the existing script when they came to power.
As there is no logical reason or proof that script phase and regime should be
equated, doing so only risks blurring our understanding of the relation between
the texts and variation in script (Macdonald, 2000, 33).

23 He identifies a brief Nabataean presence at the oasis as this disturbance (Caskel 1954, 35),
see §4.
24 See Macdonald (2010a; and 2018) for the latest treatment of the Dadanitic paleography.
25 E.g., JSLih 071, in which several different forms of the alif and s1 occur. See Macdonald
(2010, 12–14) for an explanation of the developments of the letter forms and examples.

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46 chapter 1

Second, the fact that different forms of the same letter are often found in
the same inscription, shows that these developments must have happened in
parallel to each other (Macdonald 2010, 14), instead of one set of letter shapes
replacing the other. This makes it problematic to use paleography to draw any
firm conclusions about the relative chronology of the Dadanitic texts, althoug
it may be possible to distinguish a general trend going from old letter forms to
inscriptions in a ‘middle’ variety with mixed letter forms and, finally, to inscrip-
tions with mostly late letter forms (Macdonald 2000, 33). The fact that old letter
forms continued to be used after the development of the late letter forms makes
it impossible, however, to conclude with any certainty that a single inscription
with old letter shapes must be older than one containing later shapes. Until
we know more about how the old and late forms are distributed across the
corpus, we need to bear in mind that motivations of prestige may have been
involved in the choice of letter shape, similar to the use of archaic linguistic
forms (see Chapter 8 for the analysis of variation in linguistic features across
the corpus).

4.1 The Writing Surface and Development of the Script

The development of the variation in letter shapes was likely the result of writ-
ing on soft materials, as argued by Macdonald (2010, 12). He clearly shows how,
for example, the alif develops from a square form with two small lines com-
ing out the top, through a triangle shape with two lines on top, eventually to
two inverted chevrons above each other (see Table 1; Macdonald 2010, 13–14
and fig. 3).26 These kinds of developments usually only occur when writing in
pen and ink, or similar materials such as paint or charcoal, to facilitate speedy
writing (Macdonald 2015, 7). There are even some examples of ligatures in the
Dadanitic inscriptions, another hallmark of writing in pen and ink or simi-
lar material (Macdonald 2010, 14). Macdonald also suggests that the fact that
almost all Dadanitic inscriptions are written from right to left could indicate
that the Dadanitic script had been used to write on soft materials for some time
before it was used to carve inscriptions in stone (Macdonald 2010, 13–14 and
fig. 3), since unidirectional writing, as opposed to boustrophedon, is only ben-
eficial to someone writing with pen or possibly a blade (Macdonald 2010, 12).

26 Note that the chronology of the development is the same as that used for the paleo-
graphic chronology of the inscriptions by earlier scholars (e.g., Grimme 1932; Caskel 1954).
However, Macdonald (2015) shows that this is connected to a different medium than the
inscriptions on stone and, therefore, cannot be used to date the inscriptions relative to
each other.

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the oasis of dadan in space and time 47

table 1 Schematic overview of the

development of the letter
alif shown in Macdonald
(2010, 12)

Interaction between different uses of writing may explain how the variant
forms all ended up in the inscriptions carved in stone. Macdonald’s (2015) dis-
tinction between the purpose of a text and the register of its script27 is very
helpful in understanding how scripts used on different materials could come
to interact. He distinguishes texts that were meant for private use—like per-
sonal or business letters, aides-memoires, and business accounts—from those
meant for public use—like inscriptions on gravestones, inscriptions announc-
ing a law, and published books (Macdonald 2015, 3). Macdonald distinguishes a
formal register, generally used for inscriptions in stone (including graffiti) and
public documents on soft materials, and an informal register, used mostly for
writing texts on soft materials, for example with pen and ink, or those cut into
wax or wood with a stylus or a blade (2015, 4).
Features from writing on soft materials are likely to be transferred to writ-
ing in stone by someone who is more used to writing on the former and tries
to transfer their reading knowledge of the formal script to writing on stone;
for example, when leaving a graffito (Macdonald 2015, 7). In Dadanitic, how-
ever, we sometimes see different forms of the same letter co-occurring even in
inscriptions executed in relief (e.g., ah 23528). This shows that the mixing of
script registers was not only due to imperfect writing knowledge of the formal
register—we can assume that a trained stone mason would be highly familiar
with the formal register—but that mixing forms from the informal and formal
registers of the script had apparently become perfectly acceptable in official
inscriptions as well (Macdonald 2010, 14). Thus, while interference from the
informal register may explain the point of contact between the two registers, it
does not explain all the mixing of letter forms attested in Dadanitic.

27 Note that the ‘script register’ that Macdonald distinguishes is different from the ‘regis-
ter of the inscriptions’ I will distinguish in the quantitative analysis of the variation in
Chapter 7. While both have to do with the perceived formality of a text, Macdonald’s dis-
tinction focusses on the writing material and tools used for inscribing. In contrast, the
registers distinguished in Chapter 7 do not relate to the tools or techniques used to make
an inscription, but focus on its content and purpose.
28 In line 1 the legs of the alif are not touching at the base, but in the next line they form a
closed triangle.

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48 chapter 1

4.2 Scribal Schools and Paleography

The need for firmly dated inscriptions and uniformity of writing material is
not the only prerequisite for the establishment of a reliable chronology of
the development of letter shapes Macdonald identifies in his article. He also
stresses the importance of the presence of an established writing tradition
‘in which a tradition of writing in a particular way has been passed on from
one generation to the next’ (Macdonald 2015, 17). The existence of a scribal
school for tracing the developments of the scripts ensures the establishment
of a stable environment, promoting consistency and stability in letter forms
and writing materials in the production of writing. When trying to establish
a relative dating of letter shapes, a stable tradition of writing is necessary to
ensure that when we compare variation in the letters shapes it produced, it is
in fact due to development of the script and not to a number of other uncon-
trolled varying features whose outcome is difficult to predict. Such variables
can be due to the individual scribe, like their mood or personal taste, or their
level of learning; they can be due to differing local traditions; or they can even
be attributed to minor variations in the writing material available (Macdonald
2015, 23).
The likely presence of a writing tradition at Dadan (see the introduction,
above) sets this corpus apart from other ana corpora in which writing skills
seem to have been passed on in a more informal manner (Macdonald 2010, 15;
Al-Jallad 2015, 2–10). This gives us the opportunity to approach Dadanitic letter
shapes as a coherent whole showing internal development. This has enabled
Macdonald, for example, to divide the general letter shapes into different devel-
opmental stages (2000, 33). The likely use of different writing materials within
the oasis and the use of different surfaces to produce inscriptions, ranging from
prepared slabs to rough rock face, and the lack of securely datable inscriptions,
make it unlikely, however, that we will ever be able to establish a compar-
ative dating of the Dadanitic inscriptions based solely on their letter forms.
This study will be an important step, however, towards understanding the writ-
ing culture that produced the inscriptions, laying the groundwork for future
inquiries into Dadanitic paleography.

5 Dadan in Other Corpora

Besides epigraphic evidence from the two contemporary corpora of Minaic and
Dadanitic inscriptions found at the oasis of ancient Dadan itself, the Liḥyān-
ite kingdom and the placename Dadan are also mentioned in sources from
outside the oasis. We have already encountered the mentioning of Liḥyānite

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the oasis of dadan in space and time 49

kings in Aramaic inscriptions from Taymāʾ, but the oasis is also mentioned in
inscriptions from Taymāʾ in the local Taymanitic script. Beside these, Dadan
is also mentioned in the Bible, and in Sabaic and Safaitic inscriptions. Such
literary and inscriptional evidence can give us important clues regarding the
role of Dadan and the kingdom of Liḥyān in relation to the outside world, and
when other corpora are more securely dated such references can add impor-
tant anchors for dating the Dadanitic corpus. Unfortunately, it is often unclear
from the non-Dadanitic sources whether they are contemporary to the pro-
duction of the Dadanitic inscriptions. Moreover, most of the other epigraphic
corpora, such as Safaitic and to a lesser extend Taymanitic and Sabaic, cannot
be securely dated themselves either. Below, evidence from Aramaic and Tay-
manitic inscriptions will be discussed, followed by references to Dadan in the
Bible. The discussion will end with the evidence from the Sabaic and Safaitic
epigraphic record, which probably postdate the production of the Dadanitic
inscriptions, but which mention the Liḥyānites, or Liḥyānite territory.

5.1 Aramaic Inscriptions

Three Aramaic inscriptions found close to Taymāʾ have been used to date the
end of the Liḥyānite kingdom (JSNab 334, 335, 337). The author of these inscrip-
tions calls himself ‘king of Liḥyān’ (Winnett and Reed 1970, 120). Based on
paleographic considerations, several datings of the inscriptions have been pro-
posed. Jaussen and Savignac (1914–1922, 221) consider the script an evolution
of the Aramaic script, which eventually resulted in the Hebrew square script
and the Nabataean script. They very cautiously propose dating it to the second
century bce.
Caskel, on the other hand, saw parallels with the Palmyrene script and pro-
posed dating them to the first century bce (1954, 42 and note 125). Some
take the inscriptions as evidence that the Lihyānites were overthrown by the
Nabataeans, who then came to occupy the oasis. (e.g., Caskel 1954, 42). When
Winnett put forward the hypothesis that the author of the inscriptions was
probably not a Nabataean king but more likely an adventurer from the ‘Naba-
taean cultural zone north of Dadan’ acting on his own behalf (Winnett and
Reed, 1970, 120),29 he based this on the evidence available to him at the time,

29 Charloux and Rohmer caution that, since this person is only attested in Aramaic inscrip-
tions from outside Dadan we cannot conclude he ruled in Dadan in the same way as the
kings that are mentioned in the Dadanitic inscriptions (2015, n. 6). Given the more com-
plete list of Aramaic inscriptions from Taymāʾ bearing the names of Liḥyānite kings that
was recently published by Stein (2020) and the attestation of names in them that are also
well-known from the Dadanitic record (such as hnʾs¹ and tlmy) it seems very likely that

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50 chapter 1

which only included these three graffiti. Since then, however, an official inscrip-
tion in the Taymāʾ Aramaic script, mentioning a Liḥyānite king with the same
name (Masʿūdū) has been discovered (tm.TAr.004, published in Macdonald
and Al-Najem 2021) confirming the official status of his title. In addition, Mac-
donald (forthcoming) has since identified the script as a local variety of Ara-
maic, ‘Taymāʾ Aramaic’, which developed at the oasis in the last third of the
first millennium bce, showing that these inscriptions cannot be attributed to
Nabataean influence at Dadan (Rohmer and Charloux 2015, 301).
An actual Nabataean inscription attested in Dadan, is a grave inscription,
dated to the first year of Aretas iv (cis ii, 1, 332), which corresponds to the year
nine bce (Caskel 1954, 35). Caskel interprets this inscription as an indication of
a brief Nabataean presence at the oasis, which marks the ‘disturbance’ between
the early and late Liḥyānite period. According to Caskel, this ‘political distur-
bance’ explains the slight shift in the letter shapes used in each period (1954,
36).30 However, as will be discussed in more detail below, there does not seem
to be any definite archaeological evidence showing direct contact between the
Nabataeans and the Liḥyānite kingdom, suggesting the Liḥyānite kingdom may
already have collapsed by the time the Nabataeans established their presence
in the area (Rohmer and Charloux 2015, 309).
New evidence suggests, however, that the production of Dadanitic inscrip-
tions may have continued into the first century bce and overlapped with some
type of Nabataean presence at the oasis. Specifically, a recently published Ara-
maic/Dadanitic bilingual inscription, whose photo was published by al-Theeb
(Nehmé, and Alsuhaibani 2019, 79), is dated to ywmt ḥrṯt mlk nbṭw ‘the days
of Aretas, king of the Nabataeans’. The caption specifies that the inscription
was found in the Dadanitic Sanctuary (al-Ḫuraybah). The Aramaic inscription
is executed in relief and takes up most of the surface of the block, while the
Dadanitic one is also carved in relief, but with much smaller and more irregular
letter shapes, seemingly squeezed below the Aramaic. Although the Dadanitic
inscription is damaged, it seems to be a translation of the Aramaic text. If the
Dadanitic inscription is at least secondary to the Aramaic one mentioning the
Nabataean king, this would suggest that Dadanitic was still written at least in
the mid-second century bce, when Aretas i ruled. Unfortunately, it does not
tell us much about the power relations between the Nabataeans and the local
population at Dadan when the inscription was made. The person who com-

at least some of the mlk lḥyn mentioned in the Dadanitic inscriptions overlap with those
found in the Aramaic inscriptions from Taymāʾ (see § 1).
30 See §4 for a more elaborate discussion on the attempts to use paleography to establish a
relative chronology of the inscriptions.

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the oasis of dadan in space and time 51

missioned the Aramaic text might have been visiting the oasis, and Dadanitic
might have continued to be written in certain contexts after the Liḥyānite kings
lost power.

5.2 Taymanitic Inscriptions

Dadan is also mentioned several times in the Taymanitic inscriptions, another
ana corpus. The Taymanitic inscriptions are found in the nearby oasis of
Taymāʾ. It is assumed that at least part of the Taymanitic corpus was written
around the second half of the sixth century bce, based on several inscriptions
found around Taymāʾ, which mention nbnd mlk bbl (Esk. 169 and Esk. 177) or
only mlk bbl (Esk. 025), identified as ‘Nabonidus king of Babylon’, who resided
at Taymāʾ for ten years in the middle of the sixth century bce.
The Taymanitic inscriptions also mention a ‘war of Dadan’ ḍr ddn (e.g., WTay
20). This can at least tell us that Dadan was inhabited at the time these Tay-
manitic inscriptions were produced. From the attestation of the Liḥyānite kings
in the Aramaic inscriptions from Taymāʾ that post-date Nabonidus’ stay at the
oasis, and the mention of a mlk ddn during his stay at Taymāʾ, it is probably
safe to conclude that the Taymanitic inscriptions likely pre-date the Dadanitic
inscriptions produced during Liḥyānite rule, although we cannot rule out that
Dadanite and Liḥyānite self-identification did not always line up with their
neighbors’ view or identification of them.

5.3 Dadan in the Bible

Not all clues to the dating of the Dadanitic inscriptions come from epigraphic
data, as there are also several Biblical references to Dadan. For instance, Dadan
is mentioned in the Biblical genealogies in Genesis and Chronicles,31 in which
it is represented as a sibling of Sheba. This is generally assumed to refer to close
relations between the two—either commercial (Macdonald 1997, 337–338) or
tribal (Winnett and Reed 1970, 113). In another example, a century or more after
the inscription by Yariris (eighth c. bce), Ezekiel’s prophecy mentions Dadan as
part of a network of trading relations,32 probably as middlemen for the trade in
goods, possibly from Egypt, and as producers of saddle cloths (Macdonald, 1997,
342). In addition, there are several other references to the place name.33 Based
on these references Winnett assumes that the oasis flourished in the sixth cen-
tury bce (Winnett and Reed 1970, 113–114 and note 6).

31 Gen. 10:6, 7; 25:3 and Chron. 1:9.

32 Ez. 25:13; 27:15, 20; 38:13.
33 Jer: 25:23, 49:8.

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52 chapter 1

5.4 Sabaic Inscription Jabal Riyām 2006–2017

Even after the end of Liḥyanite control over Dadan, and the likely demise of
the written tradition in the local script, there are some mentions of lḥyn in
the epigraphic sources. A Sabaic inscription, first published by Schiettecatte
and Arbach (2016), mentions ʾrḍ lḥyn ‘the land of Liḥyān’ as a travel destina-
tion on a diplomatic mission, probably a part of ʾrḍ s²ʾmt ‘land of the north’
(178–179). This text can be dated to the first to third century ad based on paleo-
graphic considerations (Schiettecatte and Arbach 2016, 177). The considerable
time gap between Liḥyānite control over ancient Dadan and the production of
this inscription, however, makes it unclear how the lḥyn mentioned in this text
relates to the Liḥyān that we find in the Dadanitic inscriptions. Schiettecatte
and Arbach (2016) tentatively suggest three possible locations for the ‘land of
Liḥyān’ mentioned in the text. The first suggestion is that the area around the
oasis of al-ʿUlā, ancient Dadan, simply continued to be referred to by its old
name, in which case the term should merely be seen as a toponym for the area
‘squeezed between Ghassān and Nabaṭ’ rather than the location of a diplomatic
meeting (Schiettecatte and Arbach 2016, 183). This seems unlikely, as adding
such a location would do little to clarify the itinerary since the Nabaṭ and Ghas-
sān are also featured in the list. The second option they suggest is to locate
the land of Liḥyān between al-ʿUlā and Mecca (183–184), which is where the
Islamic genealogical and historical sources (written down in the eighth/ninth
centuries ce) place them as a branch of the Huḏayl, in the sixth century ce.
Muslim tradition does not seem to have preserved any accounts of their his-
tory beyond their name, unfortunately (Drewes and Levi Della Vida 1986),34
making it unclear how the Liḥyānite tribe remembered in the eighth and ninth
centuries ce relates to the land of Liḥyān mentioned in this text about 500 years
prior, and to the Liḥyānite kingdom of Dadan about a millennium before the
Islamic sources that have come down to us. Their third suggestion is based on
the mention of lḥyn in several Safaitic inscriptions, which will be discussed in
more detail below, and places the land of Liḥyān further north on the desert
fringes between northern Arabia and southern Syria. They find support for the
argument inside the text itself, noting that ‘[t]his scenario would be consistent
with the hypothesis that the author of Riyām 2006–2017 listed the territories he
visited in chronological order’, but they generally dismiss the possibility due to
lack of evidence (184). Wherever exactly the land of Liḥyān was located at this
time, the inscription forms an important testament to the continued survival

34 http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573‑3912_islam_COM_0583 (accessed online, 16-11-2022).

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the oasis of dadan in space and time 53

of at least the tribal name Liḥyān well past the time the Liḥyānites lost control
over ancient Dadan and apparently ceased to produce Dadanitic inscriptions.

5.5 Safaitic Inscriptions

The Safaitic inscriptions that mention the Liḥyānites (BRenv.B 1; BRenv.A 2)
come from Wādī Shām in southern Syria. The inscriptions mention a sud-
den attack by the ʾl lḥyn ‘the family/tribe of Liḥyān’ on the ‘settlements/set-
tled areas’35 (Macdonald, Al-Muʾazzin, and Nehmé 1996, 458). There are other
Safaitic inscriptions that mention lḥyn in a dating formula (wh 641.1; krs 2287;
krs 2327; krs 234236), but in those contexts it may have been a personal
name.37 Unfortunately, these texts are of little help with the exact dating of
the Dadanitic inscriptions.
The Safaitic inscriptions are generally assumed to have been written roughly
between the first century bce and the fourth century ce, but this dating is
uncertain, and their production might have started centuries before this and
continued long after (Al-Jallad 2015, 17–18). They may have been contemporary
to the namesakes of the ʾrḍ lḥyn mentioned in the Sabaic inscription, discussed
above (Jabal Riyām 2006–2017), but neither the Safaitic inscriptions nor the
Sabaic one gives enough information to be sure. Even if they were contempo-
rary, the fact that both are a reference to outsiders, means that we could not be
sure both sources imagined them in the same way.

6 Archaeological Evidence

As shown in the discussion above, the epigraphic data and historical sources
have not produced any secure or precise dating so far. Therefore, the King Saud
excavation at the site of ancient Dadan (modern al-Ḫuraybah) and the results
of the joint Saudi-French excavations of the residential area and necropolis at
ancient Ḥegrā (modern Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ) carried out over recent decades have
been crucial in finding new evidence for our understanding of the history of

35 The word ʾs¹kn is left untranslated in Macdonald, Al-Muʾazzin, and Nehmé (1996, 458) and
the ociana database. The translation ‘settlement/settled areas’ is based on Al-Jallad (2015,
341).
36 Note that all three inscriptions with the krs siglum seem to refer to the same event, s¹nt
ws¹q ʿbdrb{ʾ}l lḥyn ‘the year ʿbdrbʾl confronted lḥyn’ (ociana, accessed 22-04-2018).
37 lḥyn is more commonly found as a personal name in the Safaitic inscriptions. Compare
for example (krs 185) l-lḥyn bn s¹ny bn s¹lm bn s¹ʿd ‘by lḥyn son of s¹ny son of s¹lm son of
s¹ʿd’ (ociana, accessed 22-04-2018).

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54 chapter 1

the area (al-Said and al-Ghazzi 2013; Al-Theeb 2013; Nehmé, al-Talhi, and Vil-
leneuve 2010; Nehmé 2011). This understanding will surely be expanded further
in the years to come, as a result of the abovementioned Dadan Archaeological
Project of the Royal Commision for al-ʿUlā and the CNRS, which started in 2020.
Based on a synthesis of the results of past excavations, Rohmer and Charloux
suggest that there was a disruption in the history of Dadan in the third century
bce (2015, 313). In this period the site of tall al-Kaṯīb (al-Zahrani 2007) and the
rural area of Ḫīf al-Zahrah (Bawden 1979), which were connected to the oasis
of Dadan, seem to have been abandoned (Rohmer and Charloux 2015, 311). It
is unclear if a similar period of abandonment occurred at the same time at al-
Ḫuraybah. However, the very low number of coins found at the site, especially
compared to the high number of coins struck between the late third and late
first centuries bce found at the site of ancient Ḥegrā led Rohmer and Charloux
to suggest that the site entered a phase of decline in this period, and that it no
longer played a major role in the region by this time (Rohmer and Charloux
2015, 310–311).
Very little evidence for Dadanitic presence has been found at the site of
ancient Ḥegrā. The only material pointing to Dadanitic presence at the site
is some Dadanitic painted ware, found in the first layer of occupation dated
between the sixth and fourth centuries bce. The inscriptions at Jabal Iṯlib seem
to point to a military presence rather than occupation of the site (Rohmer and
Charloux 2015, 309), although new evidence suggests the Dadanitic nṭr ‘guard-
ing’ inscriptions found at the site may be connected to funerary structures on
the outcrop (Nehmé et al. 2021, 14–19). Based on the very low number of coins
found at al-Ḫuraybah in contrast to the fairly high number found at Ḥegrā,38
they tentatively suggest that the heyday of ancient Dadan must have preceded
the spread of coins in the Arabian Peninsula in the third/early second century
bce. They even suggest, based on the absence of clear evidence for a Nabataean
presence at Ḥegrā until the second half of the first century bce, that Nabataean
control of Ḥegrā may have been preceded by another tribal entity (Rohmer and
Charloux 2015, 312).

38 Since the publication by Rohmer and Charloux, Th. Bauzou (2016) has published an
overview and chronology of the imitations of Athenian owl tetradrachms found at Ḥegrā.
He concluded that these coins were of local production and suggested calling them ‘the
owls of Ḥegrā.

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the oasis of dadan in space and time 55

7 Summary of the Dating Evidence

Combining these different strands of evidence, the Aramaic inscriptions from

Taymāʾ provide the widest time frame and suggest Liḥyanite influence at the
oasis between the sixth/fifth centuries and the second/first centuries bce
(Stein 2020, 27–29). If this is correct, this means that the actual production
of Dadanitic inscriptions at Dadan likely started even earlier, during the reign
of the kings of Dadan. A continued use of the Dadanitic script until at least
the second century bce seems confirmed by the bilingual Aramaic/Dadanitic
inscription mentioning ‘the days of Aretas, king of the Nabataeans’ (photo-
graph published in Nehmé and Alsuhaibani 2019). Even though the variation
in letter shapes in the Dadanitic corpus makes it interesting for paleographic
study, the lack of secure dates for any of the inscriptions, even relative to each
other, currently prohibits reliable use of paleography to date the inscriptions,
unfortunately. The archaeological evidence provides some additional insight
and suggests that the oasis flourished around the fourth or third centuries bce,
after which it entered a phase of decline (Rohmer and Charloux 2015). The most
recent reassessment of the chronology of the Minaean kings places the heyday
of the Minaean presence at the oasis in the third to second centuries bce and
suggests it continued until the second or first centuries bce (Schiettecatte and
Arbach 2020, 263–268).

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 chapter 2

Script and Manners of Inscribing

The first of the key elements of Dadanitic inscriptions that were outlined in the
Introduction is that of script itself, including the various manners of inscribing.
In this chapter I will, therefore, focus on this aspect of the corpus. Starting with
a brief introduction to the origins of the Dadanitic script and how it functions,
the chapter continues with a discussion of the variation in letter shapes within
the corpus, focusing on the form of ṭ and ẓ, as this is a point where my read-
ing varies most from previous interpretations of the texts. This section will also
include a general overview of the glyphs and a script table. In § 2 the differ-
ent manners of inscribing will be introduced, which will later be an important
variable in the analysis of variation conducted in Chapters 7 and 8. The chap-
ter ends with a brief discussion of an alphabetic text in Dadanitic script, and
its relation to the local writing culture.
Dadanitic is a South Semitic script. As noted in the Introduction, other mem-
bers of the South Semitic script family are the Ancient South Arabian script, the
other scripts termed Ancient North Arabian, and the Ethiopic syllabary. While
they clearly belong to the same script family, the exact relationship between
the different South Semitic scripts remains unclear (Macdonald 2008, 185; Al-
Jallad 2015, 26). Dadanitic is a consonantal script, which only indicates long
word-final vowels with matres lectiones (Drewes 1985, 167; but cf. Macdonald
2008, 186), a point I will return to in Chapter 4. It is one of the few ana vari-
eties to make consistent use of word dividers (Macdonald 2008, 186). There
are a number of glyphs that occur in several variant forms. As discussed in the
Introduction, I will follow Macdonald’s proposal to consider the inscriptions
from Dadan in the local script as one corpus (2000, 33), since he has convinc-
ingly shown that these variant forms were in use at the oasis in parallel with
each other (see Macdonald 2010, 13–14; and 2015, 17–27 on the use of paleogra-
phy).1

1 For a complete discussion on the use of paleography in the dating of the Dadanitic script see
Chapter 1.

© Fokelien Kootstra, 2023 | doi:10.1163/9789004512634_004

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script and manners of inscribing 57

table 2 Script table of Dadanitic based on Macdonald (2008, 187)

Transcription Dadanitic glyph Transcription Dadanitic glyph

ʾ m
ʿ n
b q
d r
ḏ s1
ḍ s2
f ṣ
g t
ġ ṯ
h ṭ
ḫ w
ḥ y
k z
l ẓ

1 Glyphs and Their Variant Forms

Dadanitic preserved 28 of the 29 Proto-Semitic consonants, which are all repre-

sented by separate glyphs, only merging s1 and s3, as shown in Table 2.2,3 There
has been some debate about the existence of a separate glyph ẓ, which was orig-
inally read as ṭ (e.g., Grimme 1932, 753; Drewes 1985, 166; Abū l-Ḥasan 2002, 36),
until Stiehl (1971, 5–7) argued, mostly based on etymological grounds, that the
second glyph in the verb h/ʾẓll should be read as ẓ rather than ṭ.4 Sima (1999,
96) finds further support for the existence of a separate glyph ẓ in the letter
shapes themselves. This is particularly evident in the inscriptions ah 197 and

2 See the introduction to Chapter 4 for a more elaborate discussion on the interaction between
the merging of the glyphs and their phonological representation.
3 An earlier script table by Macdonald (2000, 34) subdivides the letter shapes into Early
and Late Dadanitic. However, since it is currently unclear how the different script types of
Dadanitic should be subdivided, and whether a clear-cut division is even possible, I have
adopted Macdonald’s later (2008) script table which no longer makes such a distinction.
4 Her reading of the glyph was taken over by Van den Branden (1969), Müller (1982, 22),
Scagliarini (1996), and Sima (1999) and has become the most generally accepted reading
today. For a discussion on the history of the reading of ẓ in the Dadanitic inscriptions see
Sima (1999, 96).

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58 chapter 2

table 3 ṭ and ẓ in ah 197 and JSLih 313

ẓ ṭ

ah 197
JSLih 313

table 4 Variant forms of ẓ and ṭ based on the forms

presented in Macdonald (2000, 34)

ẓ Early Dadanitic ṭ Late Dadanitic ṭ

JSLih 313, which contain both glyphs (Table 35). Sima does caution that the ẓ
is the glyph that occurs in most variant forms in the corpus, even though it is
the rarest (Sima 1999, 96). In fact, however, it seems that ṭ is the form with most
attested variation.
As shown in Table 4, the second form of both the ẓ and the ṭ termed ‘Early
Dadanitic’ by Macdonald (2000, 34) are quite similar and often difficult to
distinguish, as the sharpness of angles in letter shapes often varies per hand.
Whenever there is ambiguity, the formula of a given inscription is usually
taken to be leading in transcription. Compare, for example, the letter shapes
in Table 5,6 which are all found in nṭr inscriptions (see Chapter 3 for more on
different genres and compositional formulae) and are all transcribed as ṭ in the
ociana database.7

5 The glyphs in the table are tracings based on the photo of ah 197 and the photo of the squeeze
of JSLih 313 available on ociana. The grey scale in the tracing of the ṭ from JSLih 313 indicates
the degree of certainty of the reading, black lines being clearly visible, up to the lightest grey
horizontal line across the top.
6 The examples of ẓ and ṭ on either extreme of the table are taken from the script table in Mac-
donald (2000, 34).
7 http://krcfm.orient.ox.ac.uk/fmi/webd#ociana (accessed 25-04-2018); now available at http://​
krcfm.orient.ox.ac.uk/fmi/webd/ociana.

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script and manners of inscribing 59

table 5 Glyphs read as ṭ in the nṭr inscriptions

Prototypical Prototypical
ẓ form: ṭ form:

ah 328; ah ah 313; ah 336; ah 337; JSLih 007 ah 312; ah ah 331; ah

332 ah 323; ah 325; ah 338; (b); JaL 314; ah 318; 344
ah 343;a ah 347b 158 ac ah 315
; ; ;d ; ; ; ; e ;

a The letter shape in this inscription is very similar in shape to ah 325: like a hooked Dadanitic
l with a small leg coming out the left.
b The letter shape in this inscription is very similar to ah 338, with a curved leg coming out the
horizontal shaft.
c There is only a copy available of both inscriptions. The images of both letters are cropped
from the copies of the inscriptions available in ociana. JSLih 007 from Jaussen and Savignac
(1909–1912, pl. xx); JaL 158 a from Jamme (1974, pl. 3).
d The photograph available of this inscription is quite pixelated, making it impossible to tell
whether the grey areas are intended or just damage. If there is indeed a line coming out to
the left of the vertical shaft at the bottom, this glyph is closer to the example from ah 323.
e This is a tracing of the Iṯlib relief-style letter in ah 312; the ṭ in ah 314 and ah 318 is very similar
in shape.

While the glyphs in columns four and five are clearly identifiable as ṭ, the
glyphs in the second and third columns closely resemble the more ambigu-
ously ṭ or ẓ variant. What they all have in common, however, is that they have
the lower small leg added to the left of the main vertical shaft. Especially in
the more curved forms of the ẓ/ṭ, it is easy to see how simply extending the
curved back a little further would result in the more rake-like shape found in
the examples in columns four and five of Table 5. It seems, therefore, that the
glyphs interpreted as ṭ in ah 328 and ah 332, both with the leg extending from
the right of the main vertical shaft, should probably be read as ẓ instead (Koot-
stra 2018b, 186–187).
For the reading of ẓ or ṭ in the ẓll inscriptions, ociana seems to have taken
a similarly context-based approach. In it, two inscriptions are identified that
very clearly contain the rake-shaped form as ṭ (ah 009.1; U 048) but others, with
similar letter shapes, are transcribed as ẓ following the most common form of
the formula. Similar to the overview of the nṭr inscriptions in Table 5, it seems
that the letter shapes are best represented on a scale ranging from unambigu-
ously ẓ in the left-most column of Table 6, through ambiguous forms in the
second and third columns, to unambiguous forms of ṭ in columns four and
five.

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 60 chapter 2

table 6 The glyphs ẓ and ṭ in ẓll inscriptions

ẓ in ẓll ṭ in ẓll but less certain ṭ in ẓll inscriptions Identified

as ṭ in ẓll
by ociana

ah 064; ah 010; ah 070;b Both in ah 015; ah 109; ah 163; Al- ah 009.1;

ah 165; ah ah 001; ah 006; ah √ẓll in ʿUḏayb 001; U 037.1; U 038; U 048
235; U 069; ah 100; 075; ah 125; ah 084; ah 032; ah 087.1; ah 138;c ah
Al-ʿUḏayb Al-ʿUḏayb U 028 ah 074; 142;d Al-ʿUḏayb 008; Al-ʿUḏayb
080 044a U 125 009;e Al-ʿUḏayb 088;f U 017.1
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

a The top of the ẓ in Al-ʿUḏayb 044 is damaged, indicated by the grey area in the tracing.
b There is no photograph available of this inscription in ociana, this ṭ is taken from Abū l-Ḥasan’s copy
(1997, 468, pl. 10).
c There is no picture available of ah 138, the letter shape in the table is taken from Abū l-Ḥasan’s copy (1997,
pl. 16).
d The writing is not very clear in the photograph, but the three teeth coming out of the main body of the
letter seem clearly visible.
e The letter is written across a break in the rock (the horizontal line running through the tracing), but the
bottom curving back towards the writing direction is clear.
f The bottom of the letter is not very clear on the photograph as indicated in grey. It blends in with the
previous letter.

I have chosen to interpret all forms in which the vertical shaft curves towards
the writing direction as ṭ. Comparing the glyphs interpreted as ṭ in the nṭr
inscriptions in the second and third columns in Table 5, to those in the sec-
ond column in Table 6, it seems that the direction in which the main shaft
is leaning may also be taken as distinctive (see Table 7 for comparison). In
addition to the different direction of the slant of the letter, the glyphs inter-
preted as ẓ also seem to have a slight concave curve as opposed to the more
general convex curve of the ẓ/ṭ glyph. It must be admitted, however, that the
distinction is minimal, and some ambiguity remains. In truly ambiguous cases
the formula of the inscription still plays a role in the interpretation of the
glyph.
While the reading suggested in Table 6 favors the ṭ reading compared to
the interpretation suggested by Macdonald (2000, 34), when we look at the
distribution of ẓ/ṭ in the ẓll inscriptions using this stricter criterion for the inter-

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script and manners of inscribing 61

table 7 Comparing ambiguous ẓ/ṭ shapes from nṭr and ẓll inscriptions

ṭ in nṭr ẓ in ẓll

ah 313; ah 336; ah 337; ah 323; ah 325; ah 338; ah ah 010; ah 001; ah 100

343; ah 347
; ; ; ; ; ; ;

table 8 The glyph ẓ in graffiti

U 106 Umm Daraǧ 06 U 078

pretation of ẓ, the majority of ẓll inscriptions can still be interpreted as written

with ẓ (179 with ẓ vs. 25 with ṭ).8 Table 8 includes a small sample of ẓ in graffiti
to show that a clearly distinguished ẓ is not a feature unique to monumental
inscriptions.
Finally, beyond the variation just outlined, there is also more general vari-
ation of typical letter shapes. Descriptions of the variant letter shapes gen-
erally distinguish two main types. First, square, converging, triangular, and
disconnected forms for glyphs with the basic shape . Second, round and
diamond-based forms for letters containing circular shapes such as and
.9

8 In the case of the nṭr inscriptions, it may be argued that the glyphs in the first column
of Table 7 (and second column in Table 5) could also be read as ẓ. Since the nṭr inscrip-
tions form their own subgroup in the quantitative analysis in Chapters 7 and 8, this does
not have strong implications for the analysis of the distribution of ẓ in relation to other
features.
9 See Macdonald (2018) for the most recent discussion of variation in the Dadanitic let-
ter shapes. Farès-Drappeau also treats the Dadanitic letter shapes extensively in her work
(2005, 56–57 and 109–111), but cf. Macdonald (2015, 17–27; 2018) on using this variation for
a paleographic and chronological interpretation.

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62 chapter 2

2 Script Styles

Even though we cannot use the development of the letter shapes to make
any reliable claims about the chronology of the inscriptions (Macdonald 2015,
17–18),10 we can distinguish different manners of inscribing, some of which
would have required more skill than others. I would suggest distinguishing
four different manners of inscribing in the Dadanitic corpus, as noted in the
introduction. This differentiates between inscriptions made in relief, deeply
incised inscriptions, and those that were chiseled, or pounded. In the follow-
ing I will outline each of these methods with explanatory examples from the
corpus.

2.1 Inscriptions in Relief

One of the unique features of Dadanitic within the corpus of ana inscriptions
is the occurrence of inscriptions carved in relief (Macdonald 2008, 186). This
technique was used to carve inscriptions on prepared slabs of stone, as in Fig-
ure 5, as well as on rock face, as in Figure 6. These inscriptions make regular use
of word dividers (Macdonald 2008, 186) and are generally written from right to
left (Macdonald 2010, 12).11 Most examples carved using this technique are ẓll
inscriptions and other dedicatory inscriptions.

figure 5 A dedicatory inscription in relief on a prepared stone (al-Ḫuraybah 12)

photograph available on ociana

10 See Chapter 1, §4 for a discussion of the use of paleography to create a relative chronology
of the inscriptions.
11 Macdonald argues convincingly that unidirectional writing most likely developed as a
result of writing on soft materials, which suggests the Dadanitic script was not only used
to carve inscriptions on rock (2015, 13).

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script and manners of inscribing 63

al-Ḫuraybah 12
ddn / hṯbt / mṯb / w hwḍʾt / ʾḍm / l-ḏġbt / mrʾ//-h / f rḍy / w s¹ʿd /
ʿm-hbny / bn / ʾws¹ / h- ṣnʿ / ʿbd / l-mrʾ-h / f rḍy-h
‘Dadan dedicated the throne and offered the wheat(?) to ḏġbt her
lord so may he favor and aid her people, bny son of ʾws1 the mason
made (it) for his lord so may he favor him’

figure 6 A ẓll inscription in relief on rockface (U 001)

photograph available on ociana

U 001 yhnʾ / w ġs¹m / bn//{y} / ʾmtbʿs¹mn / ʾg//w / [h-]ẓll / l ḏġbt // [b-]

[k]hl / f rḍ -hm / w ʾḫr----
‘yhnʾ and ġs¹m {the (two) sons of} ʾmtbʿs¹mn dedicated the ẓll to
ḏġbt at {khl} so may he favor them and [their] {descendants} …’12

When creating an inscription in relief, the mason cuts away the negative space
around the letters rather than carving the letter itself into the rock. Lines are
separated from each other by a horizontal line in relief. There are two (possi-
bly three) inscriptions which might shed some light on the process of creating
these inscriptions. JSLih 048 and 057 seem to show thin incisions outlining
the letter shapes, possibly in preparation for the carving of the relief (see Fig-
ure 7).

12 See note 17 in the Introduction and Kootstra (2022) for a more recent and specific inter-
pretation of the ẓll ritual.

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64 chapter 2

figure 7
An inscription seemingly in preparation for
a relief (JSLih 048)
photograph available on ociana

JSLih 048 [----] // ---- zdḏġ[bt] ---- // ----n/rfd / ḥ----// ---- ʾfkl / h---- // ----bh /
w mr---- // ---- {b}{n} / {m}{r}{l}---- // [----]th
‘… zdḏġbt … rfd … priest {of} …’

2.2 Jabal Iṯlib Relief

A separate style of relief seems to be found at Jabal Iṯlib and is associated
with the inscriptions mentioning nṭr ‘he guarded’13 and several inscriptions
mentioning only personal names on the same rock face.14 Only a handful of
inscriptions are attested in this style, and they seem to occur together at the
same location. In this style the space cut away around the letters is bigger than
in the standard relief style and the lines of writing are not separated by horizon-

13 For a discussion of the writing of *nẓr as nṭr see (Kootstra 2018b). Also, as previously men-
tioned, new evidence suggests the Dadanitic nṭr ‘guarding’ inscriptions found at the site
may be connected to funerary structures on the outcrop (Nehmé et al. 2021, 14–19).
14 The inscriptions carved in this style are: ah 312; ah 313; ah 314; ah 315; ah 318; ah 317;
ah 319; ah 321; ah 324.

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script and manners of inscribing 65

tal lines in relief, but only by cut away space. The area that is cut away consists
of little dents showing the impact of the individual strokes the author used to
pound the rock.

figure 8
nṭr inscriptions in Iṯlib-style relief (ah 314)
original photograph available on
ociana

figure 9
Detail of ah 314 showing the individual points of
impact created by pounding the rock
photograph available on ociana

ah 312 ndb bn s¹lw // nṭr ddn

‘ndb son of s¹lw guarded Dadan’

2.3 Deeply Incised Inscriptions

The second manner consists of deeply incised inscriptions. This form is typi-
cally found on objects, such as incense burners (Private collection 2), but can
also be seen in dedicatory inscriptions, legal inscriptions, as in Figure 10 (al-
Ḫuraybah 17; JSLih 077), and even graffiti on rock face, as in Figure 11 (e.g., JSLih
288).
The Dadanitic inscriptions carved in relief or deeply incised into the rock
with a sharp tool may be compared to, for example, the Sabaic inscriptions,
which were executed with a level of skill that suggests that people commis-
sioned them and that they were made by a professional mason (Macdonald
2010, 7). Some of these masons even signed their name at the end of their work.
For example, al-Ḫuraybah 12, shown in Figure 5, is a beautifully executed relief,
commemorating the city of Dadan making dedications to ḏġbt, in which the
mason signed his name in the last line of the inscription.

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66 chapter 2

figure 10 A legal inscription incised in a block (al-Ḫuraybah 17)

photograph available on ociana

al-Ḫuraybah 17
[----]//f / mm---- // ---- l-ddn / l-ʾbd / ---- / /----rs¹ / mn / s¹rqt / ʾym-
--- // ----{m}n / s¹rq / f-ʾn / yṣbr / b-mh / s¹r[q]---- // ----{d}n / thḍ-h
/ kll-h / f ḥṯm ---- // ---- hs¹rqt / yṭb / h-s¹rq / ʾw / y ---- // ----bh
‘… to/for Dadan forever … from theft days … who stole(?) and if
he is caught with what he {stole} … if all of it broke (the stolen
things) then beat him(?) … the theft/stolen goods acquit the thief
or …’

figure 11 An inscription deeply incised on a rock face (U 040 a ẓll inscription)

photograph available on ociana

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script and manners of inscribing 67

U 040 qnlt / bn / ʿbdddh // w bn-h / ms¹k / ʾgw // h-ẓll / l-ḏġbt // f rḍ-h / w

ʾṯb-h
‘qnlt son of ʿbdddh and his son ms¹k dedicated the ẓll to ḏġbt so
may he favor him and aid him and reward him’

2.4 Chiseled Inscriptions

Chiseled inscriptions are also cut into the rock and can be distinguished from
incised ones by the width of the base of the grooves. Chiseled inscriptions were
not carved into the rock with a sharp tool but with a wider one, giving the lines
a flat, wider base. This technique was used in graffiti as well as in dedicatory
(see Figure 12) and funerary inscriptions.

figure 12
A dedicatory text chiseled
on a rock face (ah 113)
photograph available
on ociana

ah 113 b{ḫ}l / bn / ʿbd//ḫrg /ʾgw b-k//hl / l-ḏġbt // f rḍ-h / w ʾḫrt-h

‘b{ḫ}l son of ʿbdḫrg dedicated at khl to ḏġbt so may he favor him
and his posterity’

2.5 Pounded
The fourth manner of inscribing, where the text is pounded onto the rock, is rel-
atively easy to produce. For these inscriptions, the inscriber simply hammered
out the outline of the letters with another stone. In most pounded inscriptions,
the separate impacts of the stone on the rock are still visible in the lines of
the letters. This technique was used to carve both ẓll inscriptions (e.g., U 116)
and short graffiti containing mostly personal names (e.g., ah 065.1), sometimes
accompanied by a short statement about the writing of the inscription (e.g.,
Nasif 1988: 52, pl. xlvii).

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68 chapter 2

figure 13 A ẓll inscription pounded on a rock face (U 116)

photograph available on ociana

U 116 ʿbdʾtbl // hẓll / l-ḏġ//bt / f rḍy-h

‘ʿbdʾtbl performed the ẓll for ḏġbt so may he favor him’

As a final note on the varying manners of inscribing, it is worth noting that

both U 001 (Figure 6) and U 116 (Figure 13) are written on rock faces, commem-
orating the same ritual, using similar formulae. However, while the first was
executed in relief, the second was pounded onto the rock. Even though inscrip-
tions in relief are generally longer than some of the attested graffiti, which
often only contain personal names, it seems to have been perfectly acceptable
to use any of the above-mentioned methods to produce any genre of inscrip-
tion.

3 Dadanitic Alphabetic Text

So far, one Dadanitic inscription has been found containing an abecedary

(JSLih 158). The abecedary is far from complete (the longest line only repre-
senting 11 letters). The repetition of the letters seems to indicate that this was
a writing exercise. The first four letters of the first line follow the hlḥm-letter
order. Macdonald (1986, 113) suggests that the first three letters of line 2 repre-
sent the same letters as letters 3 through 6 in line 1, but in reverse order. He also
suggests that the first letter of line 3 should be read as ‘another failed attempt
to master the correct shape of the h-sign’ (113). Another interesting point high-
lighted by Macdonald (1986, 114) is that many of the other inscriptions on the
same rock face as JSLih 158 contain badly formed letters (e.g., JSLih 144; 160;
156; 161) and odd repetitions in letters within the same text (JSLih 155). He notes
that even though aberrant letter forms and deviation from the standard formu-

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script and manners of inscribing 69

lae occur throughout the Dadanitic corpus, their concentration is particularly

high on this rock face, which might suggest that this was a practice site (Mac-
donald 1986, 115).15

4 Summary: Varying Styles, Varying Forms

This chapter introduced the Dadanitic script in all its variation, displaying vary-
ing letter shapes and manners of execution. Although the variation in letter
shapes was already mentioned in relation to our understanding of the devel-
opment of the Dadanitic script in the Introduction and Chapter 1, § 4, here the
focus was on the specific variation in the representation of ẓ and ṭ, showing
that distinguishing them based on form is not always unambiguous. The chap-
ter continued with a discussion of the different manners of inscribing that I
distinguish in this work: inscriptions executed in relief, deeply incised, chis-
eled, and pounded inscriptions. These will be used as variables in the statistical
analysis in Chapters 7 and 8. The chapter ended with a brief discussion of the
one attested Dadanitic abecedary, which was already mentioned in the Intro-
duction in relation to its significance for our understanding of the workings of
scribal practice and education at Dadan. The discussion in the present chapter
focused more on the content of the inscription and what this short text can tell
us about the established letter-order used at the oasis.
15 Macdonald notes that the Minaic abecedary found in al-ʿUlā also seems to be surrounded
by several other exercise texts (Macdonald 1986, 115).

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 chapter 3

Genres and Compositional Formulae

Having established the first of the key elements of Dadanitic inscriptions in

Chapter 2, I will now turn to the second, that of genre and compositional for-
mulae. In general, we can say that asa and ana inscriptions contain the same
basic formulaic parts. That is, they start with the subject of the text, indicated
by a genealogy, followed by ‘the principal verb that characterizes the typology
of the text’ (Avanzini 2017, 98) with possible elaborations, and end in an invo-
cation or a curse on any person who would damage the inscription (Al-Jallad
2015, 201–221; Avanzini 2017, 97–98).
In his work on the Dadanitic inscriptions from al-ʿUḏayb, Sima (1999, 49)
extensively discusses the use of formulae, recognizing the same basic three-
part division, whose elements he termed superscriptio, narratio, and invoca-
tio, following E.A. Knauf (1980). The superscriptio contains the names of the
authors or dedicants of the inscription. In the case of the al-ʿUḏayb inscriptions,
the narratio often contains a dedicatory verb. This section can be elaborated
by adding to whom the dedication is being made, what is being dedicated,
and on behalf of what the dedication is being made. The invocatio contains
a plea for favor or sometimes a curse on any person who might damage the
inscription. In the following, this basic three-part structure will guide my anal-
ysis, in which the most common compositional formulae will be presented. In
this way, it is similar to Al-Jallad’s presentation of the Safaitic data (2015, 201–
220).
This understanding of the formulae is extended when we also consider the
inscriptions’ content, as the Dadanitic corpus comprises several different tex-
tual genres besides graffiti: dedicatory, construction, funerary, and legal and or
narrative. While the first three genres are also clearly represented in the com-
positional formulae, the ‘legal and or narrative’ texts are not easily described
in these terms, mostly because there are too few examples and some inscrip-
tions that fall into this category currently represent unique texts (e.g., JSLih 064;
JSLih 072; JSLih 077). I would term inscriptions like JSLih 072 ‘legal or narrative’
since it seems to narrate a victory of sorts of the group mentioned in the inscrip-
tion. It is unclear, however, whether this declaration may have had further legal
consequences; for example, relating to borders or land rights. Given their lack
of recognizable formulaicity, based on the currently available evidence, these
texts will not receive further detailed discussion here, but they will be treated
as ‘non-graffiti’ in the analysis in Chapters 7 and 8.

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genres and compositional formulae 71

In the following, I will address the three main formulaic parts of the inscrip-
tions, following Knauf’s (1980) tripartite division of the texts. Beginning with
a description of the basic elements that can be found in the superscriptio,1
I will then turn to the narratio and discuss the formulaic parts that can be
found in the different genres of inscriptions: dedicatory, building, and funer-
ary inscriptions. This will be followed by a discussion of the third, and final,
part of the inscriptions: the invocatio, which will include a description of the
basic elements as well as several less-common elaborations, such as a date and
signature. The chapter will conclude with a discussion of the common types of
Dadanitic graffiti and their formulaic parts.

1 Superscriptio

Starting with the first formulaic part, we can see that almost all inscriptions
start with a personal name,2 which can be followed by the name of the father,
connected with bn ‘son of’. Unlike most other ana varieties, Dadanitic inscrip-
tions usually lack an introductory particle.3 The genealogies are generally very
short: only about 120 persons are mentioned with their patronym and fewer
than 20 with a third generation.4 This is an extremely low number in a corpus
of nearly 2000 inscriptions, many of which mention several individuals.5
Turning next to family lineage, we can see that this is usually indicated
with the relative ḏ followed by the name of the family (Sima 1999, 84). It
commonly occurs, however, that two names follow each other directly, not
separated by bn or ḏ. This happens most often following the patronymic, but

1 A thorough analysis of the content of the first element of the inscriptions from al-ʿUḏayb can
be found in Sima (1999, 52–90).
2 But compare for example, inscriptions that do not contain more than a single letter (e.g.,
JaL 008 o; 084 a; 124) or those that start with a verb (e.g., JSLih 147) or with a statement (e.g.,
JaL 106 a).
3 However, compare, for example, JaL 145 m; ah 265; JaL 008 e.
4 This calculation includes strings of names that are not separated by bn, in which each name
was taken to represent a generation and not as several names for the same person.
5 Note that the repetition of individuals mentioned in the inscriptions is extremely low. Based
on the names in the genealogies that are tagged as such in the ociana database, only 3.8 % of
the names repeat. This is based on 1003 two-name genealogies that repeat more than once,
excluding the kings that are mentioned in the dating formula in some of the inscriptions.
This calculation does not take into account the chance recurrence of personal names, which
would only further lower the number of individuals mentioned more than once. This suggests
leaving an inscription was a once-in-a-lifetime action and not part of an annual or recurring
ritual.

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72 chapter 3

there are also inscriptions where a name directly follows a personal name (e.g.,
ah 131; U 096). Sima interprets the directly following name as a family name,
the equivalent of a name following ḏ (Sima 1999, 84). Farès-Drappeau, on the
other hand, interprets these as indicating the name of the direct family, as
opposed to the lineage or clan which, she argues, would be indicated by ḏ
(2005, 97–98). Since this practice seems to occur especially frequently follow-
ing the patronymic and generally with names that are also attested as personal
names, I have chosen to interpret these strings of names as part of the geneal-
ogy.
In some inscriptions with multiple individuals mentioned in the superscrip-
tio, their family relations are specified. This is usually done by using a con-
junction w- followed by a lexical item indicating the family connection with
a possessive suffix and the name of the relation. In the list of family relations
mentioned in the superscriptio below, the number of attestations of each form
is indicated in parentheses, in the first column.

w X-h pn

Family relations mentioned in the superscriptio:

ʾb (2) ‘father’ U 044; Al-ʿUḏayb 065

ʾḫ (2) ‘brother’ JSLih 079 (ʾḫw); U 064
ʾḫt (1) ‘sister’ ah 204
ʾm (4) ‘mother’ ah 217; ah 081; ah 197; ah 011.3
ʾṯt (4) ‘wife’ U 115; U 023; Al-ʿUḏayb 064; Umm
Daraǧ 04
bʿl (1) ‘husband’ ah 199
bn (5) ‘son’ U 037; U 040; U 029; U 023; JSLih
049
bnt (2) ‘daughter’ JSLih 282; ah 081
ḫtn (1) ‘male relative by marriage’ U 075

A person can be further identified by mentioning a title or occupation, follow-

ing their name or their father’s name (Sima 1999, 88–90). Occupations men-
tioned in the superscriptio:6

6 Sima also mentions qs¹m ‘oracle priest’ as a title (1999, 89). However, hqs¹m also clearly occurs
as a personal name in several inscriptions (ah 300; ah 303; Nasif 1988: 96, pl. cxlvi). There-
fore, interpreting it as priest in U 100 seems highly uncertain.

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genres and compositional formulae 73

ʾfkl (5) ‘priest’ Al-ʿUḏayb 079; JaL 010 a; Al-Saʿīd

1420/1999: 15–26, no. 2; JSLih
048; Tall al-Kaṯīb, no. 1
ʾfkl h-ktby (1) ‘priest of h-ktby’ JSLih 055
ʾfkl lt (1) ‘priest of lt’ JSLih 277
ʾfkl wd (1) ‘priest of wd’ JSLih 049
frs¹(2) ‘horseman’ ah 136; ah 137
kbr h-dʿt (1) ‘kabir of the council(?)’ JSLih 072
mlk (1) ‘king’ ah 145
mlk ddn (1) ‘king of Dadan’ Al-Saʿīd 2011.1
mlkt lḥyn7 (1) ‘queen of Liḥyān’ JSLih 053
qnt-poss (3) ‘his/their female servant’ ah 303; JSLih 282; JSLih 302
qnh h-mlk (1) ‘female servant of the king’ ah 304
s¹lḥ ḏġbt (24) ‘priest of ḏġbt’ e.g., JSLih 061; U 023; Al-ʿUḏayb
042
s¹lḥt ḏġbt (7) ‘priestess of ḏġbt’ e.g., U 022; ah 006; Al-ʿUḏayb
129
s¹lḥt wd (1) ‘priestess of wd’ ah 199

2 Narratio

Within the next formulaic part, the narratio, we find the main verb of the
text that signals its genre or, as A. Avanzini calls it, the ‘typology’ of the text
(2017, 98). In the following, I will distinguish dedicatory, building, and funer-
ary inscriptions. Within the dedicatory inscriptions, ẓll-inscriptions, pilgrimage
inscriptions, and ‘other’ dedicatory texts will be recognized as separate gen-
res, partly based on the verbs used in each type of inscription, but also on the
different elaborations that are possible with each type. Building inscriptions
can semantically either be dedicatory or funerary inscriptions, depending on
the type of construction they commemorate. They are grouped together based
on the principle that the main verb is leading in reconstructing the text type.
The final genre—funerary texts—is distinguished from the inscriptions com-
memorating the building of a funerary structure in their use of unique formulae
that do not occur outside funerary contexts. The separation between building

7 This reading is problematic, as the name mentioned before it contains bn and seems to belong
to a man.

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74 chapter 3

inscriptions commemorating the construction of funerary structures and the

genre of funerary inscriptions is, therefore, based on the compositional formu-
lae of the two text types and not their content.

2.1 Dedicatory
The bulk of the Dadanitic dedicatory inscriptions commemorate a local rit-
ual called the ẓll, which was performed on behalf of the local deity ḏġbt. This
type of inscription is overwhelmingly found in two locations at the oasis: at
al-ʿUḏayb and at a rock formation called Umm Darağ (see Map 2 showing the
distribution of the different types of inscriptions across the landscape). The
formulae of the inscriptions from the first of these sites, al-ʿUḏayb, have been
thoroughly discussed by Sima (1999, 49–113), who considered all dedicatory
inscriptions from this area to be of the same type, regardless of the object that
was being dedicated.
However, while it is true that all dedicatory inscriptions follow the same for-
mulaic template, I have chosen to split the dedicatory inscriptions into their
main semantic types: ẓll inscriptions, ḥgg or pilgrimage inscriptions, and gen-
eral dedications. This subdivision seems justified by the fact that there are
several dedicatory verbs that seem to only have been used in combination with
the ẓll inscriptions, while other verbs could be used with both ẓll and general
dedications. Moreover, some phrases, like the toponym khl to indicate where
the ritual was performed and the elaboration to indicate on behalf of whom
or what the dedication was being made are almost exclusively used with ẓll
inscriptions. These formal differences between the ẓll ritual and other dedica-
tions already justify differentiating between the two, which seems to be cor-
roborated by the different relation the two text types have with several of the
linguistic variables, discussed in Chapters 7 and 8. Moreover, as I have recently
proposed, the ẓll ritual seems to have had a documentary dimension to do
with the registration and acquisition of land rights, which further supports
the idea that it is somewhat separate from other dedicatory texts (Kootstra
2022).
In his discussion of the dedicatory inscriptions from al-Uḏayb Sima divides
the formula into three parts: the verb, the object, and the extension (1999, 90–
105). I will follow a similar structure below.

2.1.1 ẓll Inscriptions

The most expansive form of the formula contains the following elements:

Gn [verb][object] l-ḏġbt b-loc bʿd/ʿly [property] b-[toponym] f-invocatio

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genres and compositional formulae 75

The Verbs
Most frequently the performance of the ẓll ritual is indicated by a causative verb
of the same root.8 Since the focus of this chapter is the formulae of the inscrip-
tions, the variation in ẓ/ṭ spelling for *ẓ is left out of the discussion here. For a
complete overview of all ẓll inscriptions written with ṭ see Chapter 2, § 1. Note
that ʾfy ‘to fulfill, accomplish’ is only attested in combination with the ẓll ritual.
The verbs ʾdq, ʾgw, and fʿl are also attested with other types of dedications.

Gn [verb] h-ẓll l-ḏġbt

Verbs used for the dedication of the ẓll:

ʾẓll (116) ‘to perform the ẓll’ e.g., U 019; U 058; ah 003
ʾẓl (37) ‘to perform the ẓll’ e.g., ah 072; ah 080; U 006
hẓll (10) ‘to perform the ẓll’ e.g., U 041; U 116; ah 011
ʾfy (9) ‘to fulfill’ e.g., U 005; U 031; ah 015
ʾdq (1) ‘to offer’ ah 087
ʾgw (35) ‘to dedicate’ e.g., U 038; ah 202; Al-ʿUḏayb 138
fʿl (1) ‘to do, to make’ ah 088
nḏr ‘to vow’ U 010

The Objects
The most commonly used phrase uses the verb and object of the same root
ʾẓll h-ẓll. There are also many inscriptions in which no object of dedication is
specified. This phrase can be elaborated by mentioning the deity to whom the
dedication is being made (almost always ḏġbt9 in the case of the ẓll inscrip-
tions) with a preposition l-. In some cases, the location where the dedication
was made is also mentioned. Note that while verb h-ẓll l-ḏġbt b-loc is the most
common order attested, any of the elaborations can be left out and they occur
in different orders.10 Although Sima considers the dedication to ḏġbt and the

8 For a discussion of the different forms of the verb see Chapter 5.

9 There is one inscription in which a ẓll seems to be dedicated to qm and another deity
whose name is lost (ah 100).
10 This variation may be compared to that found in the composition of some of the Aramaic
magic bowl texts. Even in duplicate texts with the same content, made for the same family,
these texts tend to contain minor variations. This led Levene to conclude that the scribes
were likely writing from memory and not copying their texts from a notebook or even the
first bowl of the set they produced (2003, 26).

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location of the action11 part of the elaborations, since these two phrases seem
closely connected with the action itself and the object can occur after both
of these elaborations, I would consider them part of the same section of the
inscription.

U 056 ʾẓllt l-//ḏġbt b-{k}hl

‘she performed the ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt at khl’

U 058 ʾẓll / h-ẓll // {b-}khl / l-ḏġ//bt

‘he performed the ẓll ceremony at khl for ḏġbt’

U 050 ʾẓll / l-ḏġbt / ṯl//ṯt / ʾẓlt

‘he performed for ḏġbt three ẓll ceremonies’

Different ways of specifying the ẓll:

h-ẓll ‘the ẓll ceremony’ e.g., U 049; U 054; ah 062; ah 244

ẓll h-nq (9) ‘the ẓll of the nq’ e.g., ah 001; ah 225; U 037; U 119
h-ẓll ḏh (11) ‘this ẓll ceremony’ e.g., U 005; U 033; U 038; Al-ʿUḏayb
041; ah 061
ẓll (5) ‘a ẓll ceremony’ ah 100; ah 015; ah 079; ah 091; Al-
ʿUḏayb 138
ʾ-ẓll (2) ‘the ẓll’ U 043; ah 138
h-ẓlln (1) ‘the two ẓll ceremonies’ U 034
ṯlṯt ʾẓlt (2) ‘three ẓll ceremonies’ U 032; U 050

Locations
In the first narrative part of the inscriptions several different locations are
mentioned, seemingly indicating where the ceremony was performed (e.g.,
M.C. Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2014, 20–22 for khl; and see Beeston 1974, 172 more
generally on mentioning the location of the performed ceremony). Locations
in the ẓll inscriptions:

11 Sima translates b-khl as ‘nach Vermögen’ (1999, 98; following Stiehl 1971, 8), but this does
not work syntactically. Interpreting it as a location is even more likely when we consider
the parallel of b-mṣd ‘at the sanctuary’, which did not occur in Sima’s corpus. Moreover,
M.C. Hidalgo-Chacón Díez (2014, 20–22) has clearly shown that all attestations of khl
occur at al-ʿUḏayb, which led her to suggest that it was the ancient name for this site,
following the hypothesis of Beeston (1974, 172).

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genres and compositional formulae 77

khl (72) ‘toponym’ e.g., ah 100; U 002; U 071; ah 119

mṣd (6) ‘sanctuary12’ ah 202; ah 244; Nasif 1988: 99,
pl. clviii; ah 197; ah 199; Private
collection 1
bṯr (1) ‘toponym’ U 079 bis

nḏr
Some of the ẓll inscriptions mention that the ẓll was completed ‘according to
what was vowed’ (hmḏ nḏr), possibly referring to a longer lasting commitment
tied to the ritual (Kootstra 2022) or a previous promise of the fulfillment of the
ẓll itself. Different hmḏ nḏr phrases:

Gn [verb][object] l-ḏġbt b-[location] hmḏ nḏr (X) invocatio

(ah 023; ah 204; ah 244; ah 013; Private collection 1)

Gn [verb] [object] nḏr (l-ḏġbt) elaboration invocatio

(U 003; U 021; U 007)

Elaboration
Following the description of the ritual, the dedication can be elaborated by
mentioning what seem to be the intended benefactors of the final invocatio.
This part of the inscription is preceded by a preposition usually followed by
property or crops, which can be followed by what seems to be a location. In
some cases, the property slot can be replaced by a person for whose benefit the
dedication was made.13 This section can be extended by adding different crops
or other property following the conjunction w-.

12 Translation following Lundberg (2015, 136). Abū l-Ḥasan (2002, 36–37) translates h-mṣd
as ‘the high red mountain’, which he interprets as a reference to the red stone of Ǧabal
Umm Daraǧ where almost all inscriptions mentioning mṣd are found, except for JSLih
085 which was found at al-Ḫuraybah. Note that JSLih 085 was found at the entry to the
ancient sanctuary (notes section in ociana record, accessed 07-03-2018). Abū l-Ḥasan’s
indentification of h-mṣd with the location of Ǧabal Umm Daraǧ is probably correct, based
on the distribution of the texts containing this word. However, based on the word’s ety-
mology, discussed in Lundberg (2015, 136), and its occurrence in relation to the sanctuary
in al-Ḫuraybah, a translation as ‘sanctuary’ is more accurate, with the important side note
that in most cases the sanctuary at Ǧabal Umm Daraǧ was meant.
13 There is one inscription in which bʿd is followed by a verbal clause (ah 065) bʿd ʾgw b-ṯr
‘on behalf of what he dedicated at ṯr’.

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78 chapter 3

bʿd/ʿl(y) [Property]-[poss] (w-[Property]-[poss]) b-[Location]

Property mentioned in the dedication:

nḫl (39) ‘palm trees’ e.g., U 038

ʾnḫl (2) ‘palm trees (pl.)’ Al-ʿUḏayb 071; 073
dṯʾ (32) ‘crops of the season of the e.g., Al-ʿUḏayb 132; JSLih 077
later rains’
ḏṯʾ (1) ‘crops of the season of the ah 107
later rains’
ʾdṯʾ (2) ‘crops of the season of the Al-ʿUḏayb 071; 073
later rains (pl.)’
ml (24) ‘property’ e.g., Ryckmans 3.30; ah 141
ml kn l-h (1) ‘the property that was his’ ah 120
ḏ-kn l-h (21) ‘that which was his’ e.g., U 050; U 108; ah 069; ah 075
ḏ-l-h (3) ‘that which is his’ U 092; U 080; ah 010
m-kn l-h (3) ‘what was his’ U 044; U 059; ah 125
ṯbrt (12) ‘grain’ e.g., U 112; U 069; ah 084
nʿm (4) ‘livestock or property’ U 094; ah 074; ah 076; ah 008.1
s²ym (3) ‘field?’ U 118; ah 100; ah 138
ḫrf (2) ‘crops of the season of the U 041; U 059
first rains’
gdw l-h (1) ‘the property that was U 070
given to her’
ʿrḍ (1) ‘valley’ U 046
h-drt (1) ‘enclosed area’ U 003
mrbḍ (1) ‘meadow’ ah 073

There are two inscriptions in which the crops are specified after the location
is mentioned. In these cases, the partitive mn ‘of, from’ is used (Lundberg 2015,
133).

U 059 ʿly / m-kn / l-h / b-ḏ//ṯʿʿl / mn / dṯʾ / w ḫrf

‘on behalf of what was his at ḏṯʿʿl of the crops of the season of the
later rains and the crops of the season of the first rains’

ah 077 b//ʿd / ḏ-kn / l-h // b-bdr / mn / nḫl{-h}

‘on behalf of that which was his at bdr of his palm trees’

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genres and compositional formulae 79

Persons mentioned in the dedication:

-h (1) ‘him(self)’ U 102 bis

ʾb-h (1) ‘his father’ U 034
nfs¹-h (1) ‘himself’ U 021

The toponyms occurring in the Dadanitic corpus have already been thoroughly
discussed by M.C. Hidalgo-Chacon Dièz (2014). For this reason, I am only
including the list of attested forms and their number of occurrences. Toponyms
specifying the location of property mentioned in the dedication:

bṯr (1) U 079 bis

bdr (38) e.g., ah 010; ah 061; U 064
blḥ (2) U 071; U 72
bnʾl (9) e.g., ah 012; ah 141; U 038
byr (1) U 108
tqmm (12) e.g., ah 096; U 025; U 068
ṯr (8) e.g., ah 065; ah 157; U 117
ḏʾdn (2) ah 066; U 126
ḏʾḏn (1) U 013
ḏṯʿʿl (5) e.g., ah 072; U 059; U 091
ḏʿmn (20) e.g., ah 062; U 028; U 066
ms²hl (1) U 026
mh{m/g}t (1) U 089
h-mḏhb (1) U 075

2.1.2 Pilgrimage: ḥgg Inscriptions

A special kind of dedicatory inscription refers to the ḥgt ‘pilgrimage’. When-
ever the activity is expressed by the verb ḥgg, it mostly occurs in the plural,
with nine attestations as opposed to two singular forms. There are four attes-
tations of the noun (ah 206; ah 219; ah 226; ah 239), but these all occur in
damaged inscriptions. It is interesting to note that it occurs once as a noun in
ḥgt b-khl ‘pilgrimage at khl’ (ah 206), once in broken context as … mṣd ḥgt ‘…
sanctuary, pilgrimage’ (ah 226), and once in construct with mṣd as ḥgt h-mṣd
‘the pilgrimage of the sanctuary’ (ah 219).
Many of the inscriptions mentioning the verb ḥgg are damaged, making it
difficult to distill an exact formula. Based on what is visible, there seems to
have been many ways to add information. The following discussion, therefore,
focuses on distilling the most basic form of the formula to which more could
be added. Generally, in most cases the verb is followed by the name of a deity

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80 chapter 3

for which the pilgrimage was made, preceded by the preposition l-. There are
two inscriptions in which the preposition is missing, which seems to confirm
that ḥgg is a verb of motion. Many of the inscriptions mention the location of
the ritual, which follows the name of the deity for which the pilgrimage was
performed.

Gn ḥggw (l-)din b-loc invocatio

Deities mentioned with ḥgg:

ḫrg ah 217; ah 197

ḏġbt U 063; ah 198; Rabeler 001; Al-ʿUḏayb 075 (without preposition);
Umm Daraǧ 22

Locations mentioned with ḥgg:

khl (toponym) U 063; Al-ʿUḏayb 075

h-mṣd ‘the sanctuary’ ah 217; ah 221; ah 198
bt-hm ‘their temple’ ah 197

Elaboration
There are two ḥgg inscriptions with the elaboration ʿl-hm ‘on behalf of them’
(ah 206; ah 233).

2.1.3 Other Dedicatory Texts

Other dedicatory texts generally take the same form as the ẓll inscriptions,
excluding the elaboration and usually without mentioning the location of the
dedication itself.

Gn verb [object] l-din f-invocatio

Attested dedicatory verbs:

ʾdq (6) e.g., ah 222; JSLih 061; JSLih 063

ʾfqw (1) JSLih 054
ʾgw (35) e.g., ah 134; ah 201; ah 140
ʾgy (1) JSLih 177
ʾqd (1) ah 222
ʾrqw (1) ah 204
ʾṣdq (1) JSLih 008

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genres and compositional formulae 81

fʿl (8) e.g., Al-Saʿīd 2011.1; Nasif 1988: 86, pl. cxvi/e; al-Ḫuraybah 06
hdq (2) Al-Saʿīd 1419/1999: 4–24, no. 1, side 1–2; JSLih 062
hġnyw (1) ah 197
wqd (1) al-Ḫuraybah 08
hṯb (1) al-Ḫuraybah 12
hwdq (4) al-Ḫuraybah 13; ah 288; al-Ḫuraybah 14; JSLih 049
hwḍʾ (1) al-Ḫuraybah 12
qrb (3) JSLih 041; ah 209; al-Ḫuraybah 09

Attested deities in the general dedicatory texts:

ḏġbt (15) e.g., ah 222; JSLih 041; al-Ḫuraybah 12

hn-ʾktb (1) JSLih 062
ḫrg (2) ah 222; ah 197
lh (1) JSLih 061
ṭḥln (2) Al-Saʿīd 2011.1; Al-Saʿīd 2011.2

Elaboration
Elaborations attested with general dedicatory inscriptions:

bnt-h ‘his daughter’ JSLih 073

ml-h ‘his property’ ah 140

2.2 Building
Remaining within the narratio, we can identify a second genre of inscriptions
related to building or construction. Within this category there are two subtypes:
dedicatory ones that mention the building of an object for divine favor; and
ones mentioning funerary structures. Most building inscriptions use the verb
bny ‘he built’ (nine attestations), while there is one inscription that uses the
verb fʿl ‘he made’ to refer to the construction of a temple.14

2.2.1 Funerary Structures

The formula of inscriptions mentioning the construction of funerary structures
can be summarized as below, with an overview of the attested funerary struc-
tures in the texts listed.

Gn bny [funerary structure]

14 Most examples containing fʿl are more general dedicatory inscriptions.

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82 chapter 3

JSLih 078 bny / b//rʾ / h-mṯbr /ʿ//l-h / hʾ

‘he built the facade of the grave chamber and it is his’

Funerary structures mentioned:

mṯbr ‘grave chamber’ JSLih 078

kfr ‘tomb’ JSLih 045

2.2.2 Dedicatory Building Inscriptions

Dedicatory building inscriptions generally follow the following formula, in
which the specification of the object and the deity seem to have been optional
(the deity is left out in U 008, while the object is not specified in ah 200).

Gn bny [obj] [l-ding] invocatio

Müller, D.H. 1889: 63–64, no. 8/ 1–3

bnyw / bt / h-ṣn---- // l-ḏġbt / f rḍ-hmy / w s¹ʿd-hmy / w ʾḫrt//-hmy
‘they built the … for ḏġbt so may he favor them both and aid them
and their posterity’

Structures mentioned in building inscriptions:

bt ‘temple’ Müller, D.H. 1889: 63–64, no. 8;

JaL 006
bnyn ‘building’ Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 15–26, no. 2
ʾrbʿw ‘sanctuary’ U 008

The inscription using fʿl follows the same basic formula as the dedicatory bny
inscriptions.

ah 247 fʿl / h-bt / w h-//ʾlhn / f s¹ʿd // ----

‘he made the temple and the sanctuary(?) so aid …’

2.3 Funerary
There is another type of funerary inscription that is different from the funer-
ary subtype of the building inscriptions based on its formulaic structure. These
inscriptions contain ʾḫḏ ‘he took’ as the main verb in their narratio. This verb is
used to refer to taking possession of funerary structures (e.g., qbr in JSLih 079
and mqbr in JSLih 306), but also of sections of cliff (JSLih 065; JSLih 066), an
overview of the objects following ʾḫḏ in funerary inscriptions can be found in

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genres and compositional formulae 83

the list below. The inscriptions that mention taking possession of a cliff were
probably meant to reserve a section of the cliff face for the future construction
of a tomb.15 The inscriptions minimally consist of a name and the verb, which
is usually followed by an object (JSLih 230 and JSLih 289 only contain a name
and the verb), specified with a demonstrative.

Gn ʾḫḏ ([object] (ḏh))

Objects following ʾḫḏ:

hl-btt ‘this section (of cliff)?’ JaL 021 f

h-mqbr ḏh ‘this burial place’ JSLih 306
h-mṯbrn ‘the grave chambers’ JSLih 045
h-qbr ‘the grave’ JSLih 257
h-qbr ḏh ‘this grave’ JSLih 079
ʾ-ṣfḥt ‘the section of cliff’ JSLih 065
h-ṣfḥt ḏt ‘this section of cliff’ JSLih 066

3 Invocatio

The third formulaic part to be considered is the invocatio, which is usually the
last part of the inscription, sometimes followed by a dating formula (e.g., U 008;
Müller, D.H. 1889: 63–64, no. 8; JSLih 072). It is typically introduced with the
conjunction f-. Both blessing and curse formulae exist (Sima 1999, 111); these
will be considered separately below.

3.1 Blessing
Blessing formulae occur at the end of almost every dedicatory inscription, and
sometimes also in graffiti (e.g., JSLih 084; W.Dad 16). The blessing formula mini-
mally consists of the form rḍ-h ‘may he favor him’, which is commonly followed
by w-ʾḫrt-h ‘and his posterity’. The longer phrase f-rḍ-h w-s¹ʿd-h w-ʾḫrt-h ‘so may
he favor him and aid him and his posterity’ occurs frequently; it is sometimes
amended with the verb ʾṯb-h ‘may he reward him’. While rḍ (256 occurrences)
is clearly the most common form, and ʾṯb does not occur very frequently (36
occurrences), these basic elements were seemingly freely combined in differ-
ent orders.

15 Compare the use of the verb ʾḥd in Nabataean texts from Ḥegrā outlining and claiming
the position of a future tomb (Nehmé 2015, 1:105).

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84 chapter 3

f-[verbs] w-ʾḫrt-h

Verbs attested in the invocatio:

rḍ-h or rḍy-h ‘may he favor him’

s¹ʿd-h ‘may he aid him’
ʾṯb-h ‘may he reward him’

There are a few examples of unique blessing formulae, such as the following:

U 040.1 ʾẓll h-ẓll // hny / hn-ʾ//ḫrt

‘he performed the ẓll ceremony may he benefit the posterity’

JaL 016 a f-ysmʿ l-h ʾl // w-ylmʿ-h

‘so may ʾĒl listen to him and make him splendorous(?)’

3.2 Curse
Curses occur both in dedicatory inscriptions (e.g., ah 222; ah 230; ah 236) and
in what seem to be graffiti (e.g., ah 210; ah 289; JSLih 276). In the dedicatory
inscriptions they always occur in the invocatio slot at the end of the inscription,
usually following a blessing formula (e.g., ah 288). In graffiti, curses generally
occur in the same position in the inscription, or they may occur by themselves
(ah 289). Graffiti and their formulaic parts will be discussed in more detail in
§ 4.

ah 288 w hwdq / l-h / h-mḥry ----// {l-}ḥgr / f rḍyt-h / w ʾḫrt-h ---- // ʿrr /
ḏġbt / w hʾ / ʾḫrt ---- // ʿrr-h
‘… and he dedicated to him the incense burner … to ḥgr so may
she favor him and his posterity … may ḏġbt dishonor and this
posterity … [who] mistreats it’

ah 210 ʾs¹k / bn / htm / ḥ//ṭṭ / tqṭ / ʿr[r] {ḏ}ġ{b}//t / ṭʿn / ʿrr ----
‘pn son of pn pn inscribed; may ḏġbt by smiting(?) the one who
mistreats …’

ah 289 f-mn yʿrr-h // yʿr-h nʿm // ḏġbt // w ṭḥln

‘so may the one who mistreats it be stripped of property, ḏġbt and
ṭḥln’

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genres and compositional formulae 85

3.3 Date
In some inscriptions, a date is included at the end, usually following the invo-
catio when they occur in dedicatory inscriptions. Such inscriptions are dated
to the year of the reign of a king, in addition to which a period referred to as
rʾy can be mentioned, which seems to have indicated a specific time of the
year, possibly the rising or setting of an asterism.16 The dating formulae are
found within several kinds of dedicatory inscriptions: ẓll inscriptions (ah 244*;
ah 013; ah 216; ah 235; Private collection 1; ah 202); ḥgg types (ah 206; ah 221*;
ah 219*; Rabeler 001*; ah 239*; ahud 1); and other dedicatory forms (e.g.;
ah 204; ah 222). They are found in building inscriptions (U 008*; Müller, D.H.
1889: 63–64, no. 8*), there are also attestations of dated graffiti (Nasif 1988: 96,
pl. cxliv*; Nasif 1988: 96, pl. cxlv*; JSLih 349*; JSLih 181), and what might be
legal inscriptions (JSLih 072*; JSLih 068*; JSLih 070; JSLih 077).17

s1nt X pn bn pn mlk Lḥyn

‘year X pn son of pn king of Liḥyān’ (e.g., ah 064)

s1nt X b-rʾy Y pn bn pn mlk Lḥyn

‘year X during the rʾy of Y; pn son of pn king of Liḥyān’ (e.g., ah 239;
ah 244)

U 008 bnyw / hn-ʾrb//ʿw / f rḍ-hm / s¹nt / ʿ{s²}//r / w s¹bʿ / b-rʾy / s¹lḥn

‘they built the sanctuary so may he favor them year seventeen
during the rising of the asterism S¹lḥn’

ah 219 ----bt / ḥgt / h-mṣd / f rḍ-h /{w} s¹//ʿd-h / b-rʾy / hrf / s¹nt / ḫms¹ /
ntn
‘… [performed] the pilgrimage of the sanctuary so may he favor
him and aid him during the rising of the asterism hrf year five of
ntn’

ah 013 ʾ//ẓlt / h-ẓll // l-ḏġbt / b-k//hl / hmḏ / nḏrt // f r{ḍ}{-h} / w{s¹}ʿd-h

// w {ʾ}{ḫ}rt-h / s¹nt / ḫms¹ // s²{h}r / {b}n / hnʾs¹
‘she performed the ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt at khl according to what
she vowed so may he favor her and aid her and her posterity year
five of s²{h}r son of hnʾs¹’

16 See Kootstra (2020) for a full discussion of this dating formula and its interpretation.
17 The sigla indicated with an asterisk are those that include the more elaborate dating for-
mula, including the time of year.

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86 chapter 3

ah 204 ʾrqww / h----//bt / hm-ḏ / nḏr / ḏġ[b][t]---- [ f ]//rḍ-hm / w s¹ʿd-hm

/ ----// s¹nt / ʿs²rn / w ʾr[b][ʿ]---- // bn hnʾs¹ mlk lḥy[n]
‘they sent up the … according to what was vowed [to] ḏġbt … so
may he favor them and aid them … year twenty-four … son of hnʾs¹
king of Liḥyān’

ah 222 ʾqd h-m---- l-ḫrg // s¹nt s¹t hnʾs¹ // mlk lḥyn

‘he dedicated the … to ḫrg year six of hnʾs¹ king of Liḥyān’

Nasif 1988: 96, pl. cxliv

ms¹kh / ys²bk // tqṭ / s¹nt / ʾḥdy // b-rʾy / ḏʾbs¹mwy
‘ms¹kh ys²bk inscribed year one during the rʾy of the asterism
ḏʾbs¹mwy’

JSLih 072 ʾḫḏw / h-mkn // w h-mqʿd / ḏh / kll-h / mn /mʿ//n / h-gbl / hnʾʿly

/ ʿdky // mʿ{n} / h-gbl / hnʾs¹{ f }l f//rḍ-//hm / s¹nt / ḫms¹ / b-rʾy //
ʿbdn / hnʾs¹
‘they took the place and this seat, all of it, from the assembly place
of the upper border until the sanctuary of the lower border18 so
may he favor them, year five during the rʾy of the asterism ʿbdn
[during the reign of] hnʾs¹’

3.4 Signature
A final element comes in the form of a signature, with some texts signed at the
end of the inscription by the artisan who made them. This confirms that at least
some of the inscriptions were commissioned (Macdonald 2010, 7). The most
common way of mentioning the artisan is by giving their name and title fol-
lowing the invocatio (and, where it is included, the date). There are also several
inscriptions in which the person mentioned in the genealogy, in the superscip-
tio of the text, gives their title as ‘the artisan’ (e.g., JSLih 074; 075; JaL 003; JSLih
035).

f-invocatio (date) pn bn pn [title] (w-pn bn pn [title])

In two inscriptions the signature is elaborated by the phrase ʿbd l-mrʾ-h ‘he
made [it] for his lord’ (al-Ḫuraybah 12; JSLih 035).19

18 Translation following Lundberg (2015, 135).

19 In ociana, the phrase is translated as ‘he made [this] for his lord’ in al-Ḫuraybah 12
and as ‘he served for his lord’ in the record of JSLih 035. Based on the records in the

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genres and compositional formulae 87

f-invocatio pn bn pn [title] ʿbd l-mrʾ-h f-invocatio

Occupations mentioned in the signature:

s¹fr (2) ‘writer’ JSLih 082; ah 220

ṣnʿ (11) ‘artisan’ e.g., al-Ḫuraybah 12; JSLih 075;
JSLih 082
ṣwġ (2) ‘smith’ al-Ḫuraybah 04; 05
ṣyġ (1) ‘smith’ al-Ḫuraybah 14

4 Graffiti

Besides the content-based genres, that rely on the main verb in the narratio
for their identification, a distinction can be made between graffiti and more
formal inscriptions. I will now briefly consider the different types and related
compositional formulae of the inscriptions that can be categorized as graffiti.
In doing so, I follow Macdonald’s definition of graffiti as ‘personal statements,
carved, written or painted on a surface in a public space’ (2015, 8), as discussed
in the section on script as one of the key factors of a Dadanitic inscription in
the Introduction. While most of these inscriptions consist of only one, or more,
personal names or a genealogy, they still seem highly formulaic and within this
group several compositional formulae can be distinguished as well.20
Taking an inscription’s purpose as leading in defining it as a graffito means
that, for example, a ẓll-inscription will never be considered as a graffito. Even
ones that are executed with a seemingly low level of skill, indicating that they
were probably the work of the individual dedicating the inscription instead of
a professional mason, cannot be considered graffiti. They were part of a public
ritual and can therefore not be considered a personal statement.

ociana database, http://krcfm.orient.ox.ac.uk/fmi/webd/ociana (accessed 30-06-2021).

See the section on the language of the inscriptions in the Introduction for a discussion
of the phrase and its interpretation.
20 The high formularity of graffiti seems to be typical of ana and asa corpora and is very dif-
ferent from the graffiti we find, for example, in Pompeii, which include quotations from
literary works (Milnor 2014, 4–5). The phallic drawings and accompanying texts (Bagnall
2011, 11–13), and the texts about love, sports, and games (Bagnall 2011, 16) found in the
basement of the Smyrna basilica, probably dating to between the later first and the late
second century ce (Bagnall 2011, 8) look much more personal and free in their self expres-
sion.

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88 chapter 3

In other cases, the distinction seems less clear.21 Take for example JaL 016 a,
which is a unique inscription, but has religious content.

JaL 016 a f-ys¹mʿ l-h ʾl // w-ylmʿ-h

‘so may ʾĒl listen to him and make him splendorous’

This inscription is reminiscent of the invocatio at the end of dedicatory inscrip-

tions (Sima 1999, 113). While it is likely a religious formula the author of the
inscription knew from a different context, it does not seem to have been part
of the Dadanitic epigraphic culture, and therefore the choice to represent the
statement like this on rock seems to have been personal, meaning the inscrip-
tion would therefore fall into the category of graffiti.22
In general, graffiti are much shorter than the other inscriptions considered
above. Many consist of only a name or genealogy, some even of just a single
letter (e.g., JaL 008 o; 084 a; 124). Others contain brief statements.

JSLih 139 ʿyḏmnt / bn s¹lm / rʿy

‘ʿyḏmnt son of s¹lm pastured (the livestock)’

More frequently recurring themes within the graffiti can be divided into three
categories. There are inscriptions mentioning the activity of writing and thus
claiming authorship, inscriptions with the verb wdd ‘to love’, and those men-
tioning nṭr ‘he guarded’. I will briefly consider each below.

4.1 Writing and Claiming Authorship

There are several graffiti that seem to commemorate the writing of the inscrip-
tion itself. Only the inscriptions using the verb tqṭ seem to form a coherent
formulaic group, however.

Gn tqṭ

This basic formula is sometimes elaborated with, for example, an invocatio

(W.Dad 16), a curse (ah 210), a date (JSLih 349), or a dedication (JSLih 182).

21 For a more in-depth analysis of the meaning of the ẓll, see note 17 in the Introduction and
Kootstra (2022).
22 Note that this inscription is only known from A. Jamme’s copy, so it cannot be confirmed
that there is no text before this phrase. Even if it did function as a blessing at the end of a
longer inscription, however, this particular phrase is unique in the Dadanitic corpus and
clearly not part of the standard repertoire of epigraphic expressions.

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genres and compositional formulae 89

JSLih 182 {ʿ}bdhny // tqṭ // ʿly // qrt

‘{ʿ}bdhny inscribed on behalf of qrt’

Attested verbs of writing and inscribing:

ḫṭ (1) JSLih 181

ḫṭṭ (1) Nasif 1988: 92, pl. cxxxii
ktb (1) JSLih 279
mṯl (1) JSLih 339
qṭ (1) JaL 152
s¹fr (2) Ǧabal Iṯlib 08; JSLih 128
tqṭ (85) e.g., JaL 169 af; JSLih 339; W.Dad 16

4.2 wdd
The verb wdd ‘to love’ occurs 14 times (e.g., JaL 147 c; Ph 395 v; Nasif 1988: 94,
pl. cxl/c), and once as wd (JaL 116).23

pn wdd pn

4.3 nṭr
The nṭr inscriptions are almost all found at Jabal Iṯlib in Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ or Ḥegrā.
They commemorate the guarding activities that were carried out at this loca-
tion.24 Several were executed in a unique style (see Chapter 2, § 2.1 for a discus-
sion of the Jabal Iṯlib relief).

pn bn pn nṭr ddn / pn

5 Summary

Above, I have outlined the main genres and their related compositional formu-
lae, as attested in the Dadanitic corpus. Using Avanzini’s (2017, 98) notion that

23 The verb wdd ‘to love’ is also part of one of the common Hismaic formulae. In Hismaic, the
verb is usually positioned at the beginning of the inscription, however. Also, the Hismaic
inscriptions seem to be dealing more explicitly with romantic or erotic love, often men-
tioning that the loved person is a young woman ġlmt and adding references to intercourse
nk (e.g., kja 105; kja 23).
24 See Chapter 1, §6 for the possibility that these inscriptions are connected to a funereary
context, based on the recent discoveries of the Madāʾin Sālih archaeological project
(Nehmé et al. 2021, 14–19).

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90 chapter 3

the main verb in the narratio of an inscription is often indicative of its genre,
or typology, I distinguished three types of more formal inscriptions: dedica-
tory, building, and funerary inscriptions. For each, the common compositional
formulae were presented, with notes on how some can be combined to form
more, or less, elaborate inscriptions. The chapter concluded with a brief dis-
cussion on the formulaicity of graffiti and how this compares to their more
formal counterparts, followed, again, by an overview of some of the most com-
mon compositional formulae in this genre of inscriptions. Given the high level
of formulaicity in the Dadanitic inscriptions, understanding how the formulae
relate to each other and knowing their constituent parts is key to their reading
and decipherment; thus, the various genres, as outlined above, will feature as
variables in the analysis of variation in Chapters 7 and 8.

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 chapter 4

Orthography and Phonology

As already mentioned in Chapter 2, the Dadanitic script is made up of 28 glyphs,

each representing a separate phoneme, except for s1, which came to repre-
sent both *s1 and *s3. Their merger probably not only reflects the merging of
the signs in the script, but also the phonological situation. Since there are no
transcriptions of Dadanitic language into other scripts, which represent short
vowels or with a substantially different phoneme inventory,1 it is difficult to tell
for sure how each glyph was pronounced, and whether some glyphs merged in
script but not in pronunciation. However, based on the shapes of the letters,
Macdonald (2000) has argued that the earliest form of the ana script proba-
bly did not have a sign for the interdental ḏ. He shows that the ḏ sign used in
Dadanitic looks like an adaptation of the z sign, while other scripts have found
other solutions to deal with this ‘missing’ glyph, creating a variety of signs rep-
resenting ḏ in the various ana scripts (Macdonald 2000, 43).

ḏ
z

If it was possible to fill gaps in the phonology of the language the script was
used to represent by creating new glyphs, like the ḏ, it would seem unlikely this
would not have happened for other ‘missing’ phonemes too. It is, therefore, pos-
sible that the Dadanitic alphabet developed using a language with a different
phoneme inventory than Dadanitic, but we have no attestations of such use of
the script. Moreover, based on comparative evidence it is not unlikely to find a
language that only merged /s1/ and /s3/; compare Arabic for example. The fact
that most glyphs were consistently kept apart suggests that they also remained
separate phonemes in the spoken language of the oasis. An exception to this is
*ẓ, which is occasionally written with ṭ (see §6.3).
Following the considerations outlined in the methodological discussion in
the Introduction, this chapter will provide an outline of the orthographic con-
ventions and their implications for the vocalization of the inscriptions. This
will then be followed by a discussion of the observable sound changes and
problematic consonants.

1 Such inscriptions are available, for example, of Safaitic in Greek script (e.g., Al-Jallad and al-
Manaser 2016, 58–59).

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92 chapter 4

1 Word Dividers

There are several ana scripts that use word dividers,2 but only monumental
Dadanitic uses them consistently (Macdonald 2008, 186). They are also ‘com-
monly, though not consistently’ employed in Dadanitic graffiti (Macdonald
2008, 186). Within the 1969 Dadanitic inscriptions in the ociana database at
the time of writing, 975 contain word dividers.3 These include longer dedicatory
inscriptions on rock face (e.g., U 102bis; U 063; U 056), graffiti solely containing
personal names (e.g., U 114; JSLih 268; U 078), inscriptions on prepared surfaces,
such as blocks and columns (e.g., ah 202; ah 209; ah 215), and inscriptions in
relief (ah 204; ah 218; JSLih 052).
Word dividers are usually employed to separate every lexeme in the inscrip-
tion, even in genitive constructions.4

U 050 s¹my / bn / tlġl // ʾẓll / l-ḏġbt

‘s¹my son of tlġl performed the ẓll for ḏġbt’

While certain proclitic elements can be attached to the following word.

U 108 brd / s¹lm // ḏġbt / ʾẓ//ll / l-ḏġbt // b-khl / bʿd // ḏ-kn / l-h / b-y//r /
f-rḍ-h [/] w ʾ//ṯb-h5
‘Brd s¹lmḏġbt performed the ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt at khl on behalf
of that which was his at yr so may he favor him and reward him.’

At the end of lines, word dividers are used somewhat irregularly. They are gen-
erally not written in that position, but the end of the line does not automatically
indicate the end of a word; it is possible to end a line in the middle of a word
and continue it on the next. ah 001 shows how ʾẓllw is written across two lines,
while the personal name gffh and the noun h-nq end exactly at the end of the

2 Taymanitic and Dumaitic (of which only three inscriptions are attested) also make use of
word dividers (Macdonald 2008, 186). They also occasionally occur in Thamudic C, on which
see Stokes (2016, 35).
3 ociana (accessed 18-10-2017).
4 Compare Taymanitic, in which there is never a word divider between b ‘son of’ and the fol-
lowing personal name in genealogies (Kootstra 2016, 71).
5 Note that even though the word dividers are used as expected in most of this text, the word
divider between f-rḍ-h w-ʾṯb-h was omitted in this inscription. The inscription was pounded
onto a rock face in not very regularly formed letters and does not seem to be the work of a
professional mason.

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orthography and phonology 93

line in U 037, U 120 is an example of a word divider employed at the end of a

line to separate the last word of the line from the first in the next.

ah 001 bn[w]d / w whbʾm / w ʿ//wd / w lbʾn / bnw // s¹ʿdʾl / ḏ-yfʿn / ʾẓ//llw /

ẓll / h-nq / l-//ḏġbt / f-rḍ-hm
‘bn[w]d and whbʾm and ʿwd and lbʾn sons of s1ʿd of the tribe of yfʿn
performed the ẓll ceremony of the nq for ḏġbt so please them’

U 037 ʾrs² / bn // zdlh / w //bn-h / gffh // ʾfyw / h-nq // l-ḏġbt

‘ʾrs² son of zdlh and his son gffh fulfilled the nq for ḏġbt’

U 120 ʿbdʿbdh / // bn / bḥmh // l-ḏġbt

‘ʿbdʿbdh son of bḥmh, for ḏġbt’

There are some examples where the word divider was clearly placed in the
wrong position.

U 018 f r/ḍ//y-h / w s¹ʿd-h / w ʾḫ//rt-h /

‘So may he favor him and aid him and his posterity’

2 Matres lectionis

Scholars have identified three matres lectiones employed in Dadanitic: -h, -w,
and -y (Drewes 1985, 167–168, followed by Farès-Drappeau 2005, 62–63). Even
though there seems to be clear evidence for the use of -h for -ā and -w for -ū, the
evidence for the use of -y for -ī or -ē in Dadanitic is less clear cut (Macdonald
2008, 186).

2.1 Final -h
Evidence for the use of -h as a mater lectionis for -ā comes from the dual verb in
the sc (see Chapter 5, §1.3 and Drewes 1985, 168; Farès-Drappeau 2005, 62); one
example of the dual -h on a noun in the nominative case (see Chapter 6, § 2.2);
and the difference between the spelling of relative mh in proclitic or indepen-
dent position (Drewes 1985, 168). There are also several personal names attested
in which -h seems to represent -ā (Drewes 1985, 168).6

6 If the interpretation of lwh as /liwā/ ‘sandy depression’ in Graf Abū al-Ḍibāʿ 1 is correct, this
would be another example of the mater -h. Note, however, that the expected reflex of *liway
would be lwy in Dadanitic see §2.3.

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94 chapter 4

2.1.1 On Verbs
The representation of -ā with -h is attested on what seem to be dual verbs in
the sc (Drewes 1985, 168).

U 019 rhẓ / bn / tḥmh / w //ʾmtʿzh / s¹lḥt // ḏġbt / ʾẓlh / h-ẓl//l / l-ḏġbt /

b-khl / bʿd / ml-hm / b-bdr / f rḍ-hm // w ʾḫrt-hm
‘rhẓ son of tḥmh and ʾmtʿzh, priestess of ḏġbt performed (du.) the
ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt at khl on behalf of their (pl.) property at bdr
so may he favor them (pl.) and their (pl.) posterity’

Since there are clearly two dedicants, it seems that ʾẓl-h represents a dual verb
here, with -h representing -ā. The suffixed personal pronouns in the inscription
are all plural -hm, which seems to be a mistake (see Chapter 7, § 2). A dual verb
seems to fit the inscription better than assuming that ʾẓl-h represents a femi-
nine singular verb with a sporadic -at > -ah shift (see Overleat, Macdonald, and
Stein 2016, n. 23; also Chapter 5, §1.2), as this would have to account for both
disagreement between the verb and its subject, and rest on the assumption that
the sporadic sound change -at to -ah operated in the language of this inscrip-
tion.7 There is one inscription attested with full dual agreement throughout the
text (ah 199).

ah 199 s¹mwh / bnt / s¹mr / s¹lḥt / w//d / w zyd / bʿl-h / ḏ- yfʿn / ʾ//ẓllh /
l-ḏġbt / h-ẓll / b-h-mṣ//d / f rḍ-hmy / w s¹ʿd-hmy w
‘s¹mwh daughter of s¹mr priestess of Wadd and zyd her husband
of the lineage of yfʿn performed the ẓll for ḏġbt at the sanctuary
so may he favor them (both) and aid them (both) and …’

Despite the variation in the use of the dual in the rest of the corpus, the inter-
pretation of ah 199 is fairly certain.

2.1.2 Nominative Dual

Even though the ending -y was generally leveled for all forms of the dual (see
Chapter 6, §2.2), there is one inscription that seems to use a nominative form
of the dual bnh /banā/.

7 See Al-Jallad’s commentary in ociana on U 026 and compare bnh in JSLih 384, which seems
to represent a third-person feminine singular verb in the sc: */banat/ > /banah/ (Overlaet,
Macdonald, and Stein 2016, n. 23). It has also been argued that it represents a third-person
masculine singular verb in the sc /banā/ in which the final triphthong /aya/ has collapsed to
/ā/ (Macdonald 2000, 50).

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orthography and phonology 95

Nasif 1988: 99, pl. clviii

ḏ / ms¹yh / w bd / bnh / tmʾl // ʾẓlw / h-ẓll / l-ḏġbt
‘ḏ ms¹yh and bd two sons of tmʾl, they performed the ẓll ceremony’

2.1.3 Relative mh
There are two examples of a relative mh. The final -h may represent the etymo-
logical consonant in this form (compare Ugaritic mh [Tropper 2000, 239], CAr.
mahmā8).

JSLih 077 wdyw / nfs¹ / mr / bn / ḥwt / m{h}9 // ʾḫḏ / ʿl-hmy / ḫrg /

‘They placed the funerary monument of mr son of ḥwt according
to {what} he took upon them by lawsuit.’

JSLih 064 bʿls¹mn / ʾḥrm / h-qrt / mn / mh / trq-h / mrʾt / l-bhny / hn-ʾfklt

‘bʿls¹mn protected the village from what [spell] the woman of the
palm tree, the priestess cast on it’

Note that both examples of mh with the -h represented occur in word final posi-
tion. In JSLih 064 this is clear from the word divider following mh; in JSLih 077,
mh occurs at the end of the line and is not followed by a word divider. However,
as mentioned in the previous section, it is not unusual for word dividers to be
left out at line breaks in Dadanitic.
In word internal position, however, relative m(h) is consistently attested
without the -h (Drewes 1985, 168).10

U 059 ʿly / m-kn / l-h

‘on behalf of that which was his’

ah 125 ʿl-m-kn / l-h

‘on behalf of that which was his’

8 And possibly Hebrew må (< *mah) (Suchard 2019, 80).

9 The tip of the -h is missing, so only a triangle is visible, but it is difficult to see how this
could have represented anything but h.
10 It is unlikely that these examples should be read as the noun mkn /makān/ ‘place’. Posses-
sion is generally indicated with an enclitic pronoun on a noun (**mkn-h ‘his place’) and
would not be expected to be expressed with a preposition (I would like to thank Ahmad
Al-Jallad for this insight). Moreover, when we compare this phrase to some variant forms,
it seems that the dedications were being made on behalf of property in general and when
a specific place was mentioned the local toponym was used. Compare bʿd // ḏ-kn / l-h / b-
y//r ‘on behalf of what was his at yr’ (U 108) and b//ʿd / ml / kn / [l-]//h / b-bdr ‘on behalf
of property that was his at bdr’ (ah 120).

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96 chapter 4

U 044 bʿd / m//kn / l-hm / b-bdr

‘on behalf of that which was theirs at bdr’

The position of the word dividers in U 059 and ah 125 clearly shows that m(h)
is considered to form an orthographic unit with the following verb kn in this
expression. This may indicate that the consonantal -h was lost in proclitic posi-
tion in this phrase. It could also be taken as additional evidence that -h was
purely a mater lectionis in the independent form /mā/, which would not be rep-
resented word internally /mākān(a) lah(u)/ (Drewes 1985, 168). Compare CAr.,
which shows the opposite distribution, in which the h continued to be repre-
sented in word internal position mahmā while it was lost in the independent
form mā, due to the loss of -h in word final position. If this interpretation is cor-
rect, this suggests that in Dadanitic the consonantal -h was lost in all forms of
m(h) and only remained orthographically represented as a mater lectionis in the
independent form of mh. The latter interpretation would have as an additional
benefit that it can help us understand the environment in which the mater lec-
tionis -h for -ā# developed. If original -ah# shifted to -ā in Dadanitic after the
orthography had been fixed, then all -h#’s came to represent -ā in pronuncia-
tion, which could then spread as an orthographic device to other environments,
such as the dual verbal endings.

2.1.4 Evidence from Personal Names

There are several personal names in which -h clearly represents -ā; ʾmtʿzh
(U 019; Drewes 1985, 168) and ʾmtktbh (ah 078).11 The theophoric elements
of the first two names come from feminine elatives: */ʿuzzay/ and */kutbay/
respectively. The only way in which -h could have replaced -y in the orthography
is if the final diphthongs collapsed to a long vowel -ā or -ē, which became ortho-
graphically represented by -h in Dadanitic. The language internal evidence for
the use of -h for -ā supports an interpretation -ā rather than -ē in these personal
names.

2.2 Final -w
The clearest example of the use of -w as a mater lectionis for -ū comes from
the third person masculine plural verbs in the suffix conjugation (Drewes 1985,
170). To give a complete overview of the data, final-w verbs and relevant nouns
and personal names with -w will also be discussed.

11 And possibly ʾls¹mh, although the exact interpretation of the name is uncertain, it could
come from √S1my: ‘ʾĒl has named’.

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orthography and phonology 97

2.2.1 Verbs
3mp sc
Final -w was used to represent -ū on third-person masculine plural verbs in the
suffix conjugation.

bnyw12 ‘they built’ Müller, D.H. 1889: 63–64, no. 8

ʾgww13 ‘they dedicated’ U 088
fʿlw ‘they made’ al-Ḫuraybah 11
{ġ}rs1w ‘they planted’ U 023
ḥggw14 ‘they made the pilgrimage’ ah 197
hġnyw ‘they dedicated (lit. make ah 197
rich)’
hwdqw ‘they dedicated’ JSLih 049
qrbw15 ‘they offered’ al-Ḫuraybah 09
ʾẓlw ‘they performed the ẓll’ e.g., ah 235

The consistent representation of final weak consonants in the 3mp sc verbs,

as opposed to the 3fs sc verbs, in which the third root consonant y is almost
never represented,16 suggests a different phonological environment in each.
This probably confirms the vocalic nature of the 3mp suffix /-ū/ and suggests
that while /ayū/ and /awū/ was maintained, /ayat/# collapsed to /ayt/, /ēt/, /āt/,
or /at/.

bny (e.g., ah 208; ah 234; JaL 006) but bnt (Al-ʿUḏayb 043)
ʾfy (e.g., U 004; U 031; U 035) but ʾft (ah 051; U 005)

Alternatively, it could be argued that the glide is there secondarily in the plu-
ral forms to fill the hiatus: if the final triphthongs had collapsed and -y came
to represent -ē or -ā, the glide may have been reintroduced or preserved in the
3mp sc to fill the hiatus between the vocalic end of the verbal stem and the
vocalic verbal suffix. If the glide is secondary in this position the consistent use
of the etymologically correct one is probably based on analogy with the 3ms
sc.

12 bnyw as a plural verb is also attested in U 008; ah 200; Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 26–36, no. 3.
13 ʾgww is also attested in ah 243; Nasif 1988: 99, pl. clvii; Al-ʿUḏayb 001.
14 ḥggw also occurs in ah 217; ah 221; ah 231; ah 233; Rabeler 001; U 063; Al-ʿUḏayb 075; Umm
Daraǧ 22.
15 Also in ah 209.
16 There is one attestation of rḍyt (ah 288), see §2.3.

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98 chapter 4

iii-w Verbs
It seems that in iii-w verbs, the reflex of the final glide is represented ortho-
graphically in the 3 ms sc.17

U 038 ḏbn / ʿmr / bn / mrd // ʾgw / h-ẓll / ḏh / l-ḏġbt

‘ḏbn ʿmr son of mrd dedicated this ẓll to ḏġbt’

Based on the present evidence it is difficult to say whether the final triphthong
obtained or whether it collapsed and -w came to represent /-ō/ or /-ū/. Given
the development of the final-y verbs, however (see § 2.3), it seems likely that the
final triphthongs of final-w verbs also collapsed during the history of Dadanitic.
Note that the final-w is never represented in any of the attested feminine forms
of this verb ʾgt (U 126; ah 006; 079; Al-ʿUḏayb 129; 008). There are no attestations
of iii-w verbs with enclitic personal pronouns.18

2.2.2 Substantives
Final -w is also found on the bound plural of bn ‘son’;19 and on the nouns mḥrw
and ʾrbʿw.

bnw ah 001; ah 197; JSLih 079; U 064

ah 209 qrbw / h-mḥrw

‘they dedicated the incense burner’

U 008 bnyw / hn-ʾrb//ʿw / f rḍ-hm

‘they built the sanctuary20 so may he favor them’

Both mḥrw and ʾrbʿw have been interpreted as plural forms (Hidalgo-Chacón
Díez 2017, 60; Sima 1999, 97). The nominal plural suffix in unbound position is
-n, however (see Chapter 6 on nominal morphology), which makes this inter-

17 The verb ʾgw ‘he dedicated’ occurs 26 times in the Dadanitic corpus.
18 Transcription into another script with a better understood orthography could offer
another source of more conclusive evidence for this.
19 There is also a plural of brother ʾḫw attested once (JSLih 079); however, in this case the w
seems to represent a glide, /ʾaḫawā/, since the w is not in word final position due to the
enclitic pronoun ʾẖw-hm ‘their brothers’ (but see Drewes 1985, 170). So far there is only
evidence for the use of matres lectionis in word final position.
20 U 008 ʾrbʿw ‘sanctuary’ is translated as singular in ociana. In Sabaic it occurs as ‘quarter’
or ‘fraction’ (of a tribe) both translated as a plural (Ir 19; Ir 22; Ja 650) and a singular (Ir 49)
(accessed through dasi).

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orthography and phonology 99

pretation unlikely. I would suggest that the w in mḥrw is part of the root21 (see
the Appendix for further discussion). Sima (1999, 97) links ʾrbʿw to the word
rabīʿ ‘qanāt channel open to the sky’ following A.A. Nasif (1988, 274). However,
it may be better to compare it to Nabataean ʾrbʿn, which Nehmé suggests is
derived from the root rbʿ ‘four’ and which she interprets as ‘square building’
(2003, 25). In the Nabataean context, these buildings were also the object of
dedications mentioned in inscriptions. The -w seems to be part of the noun for-
mation, possibly related to that of the numeral in the Arabic form of Wednes-
day yawm al-ʾarbiʿāʾ, which Lane reports to be the only singular word of this
measure (except ʾarmidāʾ) (Lane, 1020a), but compare, for example, plural for-
mations like CAr. ṣaḍīq ~ ʾaṣdiqāʾ ‘friend’. This -āʾ suffix may have come from
*ʾarbaʿāw or -āy (compare CAr. *samāy > samāʾ).

2.2.3 Personal Names

There are two examples of personal names with a suffixed -w. Their vocaliza-
tion is currently unclear. They look very similar to names bearing wawation, as
is common in Nabataean names (Cantineau 1930, 48).22 Since we have no evi-
dence for this use of the -w in Dadanitic outside of these two names, it could
suggest that they are an orthographic calque, and their orthography was bor-
rowed along with the name.

ʿbdw JaL 061 d

ḥdrw JSLih 349
zḥyw Al-ʿUḏayb 124

2.3 Final -y
The evidence for the use of -y as a mater lectionis for -ī is not as certain as for
-h and -w for -ā and -ū respectively. Most examples of final -y seem to repre-
sent either diphthongs or triphthongs, at least etymologically.23 Word final -y
is attested in the 3ms form of the sc of iii-weak verbs, on bound dual forms
(see Chapter 6, §2.2), as the gentilic suffix (Farès-Drappeau 2005, 62), and on
several personal names (Drewes 1985, 169–170). Below, only those forms that
require further discussion will be treated more extensively.

21 On the variant mḥry see §6.6.

22 For a more recent analysis of the function of the otiose w at the end of personal names
see Al-Jallad (2022).
23 But see Drewes (1985, 170), who interprets forms like bny ‘he built’ as evidence for the use
of -y for -ē and Farès-Drappeau (2005, 62), who suggests a vocalization /banī/ for bny.

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100 chapter 4

2.3.1 Verbs
In the 3ms and 3mp forms of the sc of iii-y verbs the y is always orthographi-
cally represented.

bny e.g., Al-Saʿīd 1420/2000: 15–26, no. 2; JSLih 045

bnyw ah 200; U 008; Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 26–36, no. 3

Word internally, there seems to be variation. Compare rḍy-h (e.g., ah 213) and
rḍ-h (e.g., U 038). This difference could be interpreted as a difference in mor-
phological form: rḍy-h representing the optative use of the sc /raḍḍaya-hu/
‘may he favor him’ and rḍ-h the imperative /raḍḍī-hu/ ‘favor him’.24
Alternatively, we might interpret rḍ-h not as an imperative, but as a devel-
oped phonological form of the sc. While rḍy-h shows us that the triphthong was
still intact when this spelling was introduced /raḍḍaya-hu/. The form rḍ-h could
suggest the pronunciation /raḍḍē-h/. For this form to develop the final triph-
thong had to have collapsed, possibly after an initial loss of final short vowels.
This would leave us with a form /raḍḍē/ for the 3ms of the sc, in which case the
etymological -y would come to represent /ē/. This would be represented with
a mater lectionis word finally, but not in word internal position (see Kootstra
2019 for an in-depth discussion of this development).
The eventual collapse of the triphthongs is further supported by the attesta-
tion of both 3fs sc rḍt-h25 and rḍyt-h. These forms can only represent variant
spellings of the same morphological form and since they are based on the same
root, the difference in spelling cannot be explained as a difference in vowel
quality (Kootstra 2019, 188 and see §3.2 of this chapter).

JSLih 036/2 ---- {ʿ}zy / f rḍt-h / {h}----

‘… ʿzy so may she favor him/her …’

ah 288/4 f rḍyt-h / w ʾḫrt-h ----

‘so may she favor him/her and his/her posterity …’

This suggests that we are witnessing a historical development in the corpus,

where the rḍyt and rḍy-h forms represent older forms or archaic spellings, rep-

24 I would like to thank Ahmad Al-Jallad for suggesting this interpretation of the difference
between rḍ and rḍy to me.
25 The form rḍt is also attested in Tall al-Kaṯīb, no. 1, but the context seems to be slightly
different than in other inscriptions (there is no enclitic pronoun on rḍt). In combination
with the fragmentary nature of the inscription it is unclear how this should be interpreted
and whether the form really represents a verb here.

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orthography and phonology 101

resenting a period in which the (final) triphthong had not collapsed yet, while
the rḍt and rḍ-h spellings represent the form after the collapse of the triph-
thong. This means that all other attestations of iii-y feminine verbs (e.g., ʾft in
U 005 and ah 015) are only attested in the more progressive spelling. Since the
rḍ-h forms seem to have been the norm (224 attestations, with only 30 attes-
tations with plene spelling), and ʾft only occurs twice, it is not surprising that
these two attestations represent the most commonly attested form without the
preservation of the y.
The fact that there is no variation attested in the spelling of word final triph-
thongs suggests that at the time the triphthongs collapsed, word final -y came
to be used as a mater lectionis for -ē. Given the high frequency of rḍ-h spellings,
most of the final -y’s on 3ms sc verbs were probably intended to represent
-ē (e.g., bny and ʾfy as /banē/ and /ʾōfē/), as Drewes already suggested (1985,
170). However, since over 10% of the attested forms of √rḍy preserve the plene
spelling of the final root consonant, it is not unlikely that some of the word
final -y’s in other verbs were intended to represent a triphthong at the time of
writing. The consistency in the writing of the etymologically correct root con-
sonant in the verb26 suggests that the collapse of /awa/ and /aya/ had different
outcomes, probably /awa/ > /ū/ or /ō/ and /aya/ > /ī/ or /ē/.

2.3.2 Gentilic Suffix -y

The gentilic suffix cannot be directly compared to word final diphthongs, as it
etymologically terminates in a consonant. Compare CAr. -iyy or Aram. -āy.27
In the Safaitic inscriptions the -y of the gentilic ending is always represented,
clearly signaling its consonantal value in the purely consonantal Safaitic script
(Al-Jallad 2015, 73).
In Dadanitic, Farès-Drappeau mentions the name of the asterism ʾbs¹mwy,28
in which the -y should probably be interpeted as the gentilic suffix */ʾab
samawiyy/, as evidence for the use of -y as a mater lectionis for -ī (2005, 62).
This interpretation depends on whether the sound change -iyy > -ī had taken
place, as in the modern dialects of Arabic.

2.3.3 Personal Names

There are several divine names based on a feminine elative pattern fuʿlay.

h-ktby ‘divine name’ JSLih 055

26 Except for one attestation of ʾgy for ʾgw (JSLih 177), see § 6.6.
27 Suchard reconstructs *-īy- for Hebrew (2019, 242).
28 Farès-Drappeau interprets this form as a personal name (2005, 62).

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102 chapter 4

hnʾhʿzy ‘theophoric name’ (occurs ah 197

in an inscription with
rḍy-h)
zdʿzy ‘theophoric name’ (occurs ah 096
in an inscription with rḍ-h)

While these forms etymologically end in a diphthong, it may have collapsed in

these forms to -ē, as suggested by Drewes (1985, 170), in which case -y would
represent a final long vowel.29 Note that ah 197 contains the form rḍy-h, which
suggests that the mater lectionis -y for -ē had not yet developed, or that the
author of the inscription chose to use an archaic form of the orthography, while
ah 096 contains the form rḍ-h, strongly suggesting the pronunciation /ʿuzzē/
for the theophoric element of the personal name (see the discussion of rḍy
above).

3 Triphthongs

The glide of the (etymological) final triphthong is always represented in 3mp

sc verbs and 3ms sc verbs without an enclitic personal pronoun of final weak
roots (see §2.3). They are never represented in the medial weak verbs and rarely
in the third person feminine singular suffix conjugation.30

3.1 /awa/
3.1.1 iii-w Verbs
The final -w of iii-w verbs is always represented in the 3ms form of the sc (for
a complete discussion of the possible vocalization of this form see § 2.2).31

JSLih 138 w ṯrw / nʿm / b-h / nʿrgd

‘and may nʿrgd enrich him with livestock’32

29 Greek transcriptions of Arabic material from the Greek and Byzantine period from South-
ern Syria, Southern Jordan, and Israel show that in this area word final -ay collapsed to a
non-ā vowel, probably close to [æ] (Al-Jallad 2017a, 154–155). Of course, this material is
much later and from a different area than the Dadanitic examples and is therefore not
directly comparable.
30 The only attested exception is rḍyt in ah 288 (see §2.3).
31 Drewes (1985, 167–173) assumes that the diphthongs had been monophthongized, as
they were not represented in word internal position (cf. Macdonald 2000, n. 164). For a
more extensive discussion on the interplay between orthography and phonology see the
methodlogical discussion in the Introduction.
32 I would like to thank Ahmad Al-Jallad for suggesting this translation to me.

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orthography and phonology 103

ah 109 ʿbdʿs¹ // bn / ʾn{/}b // ʾgw / h-ẓll

‘ʿbdʿs¹ son of ʾnb dedicated the ẓll’

It is not clear whether the -w represents a vowel or a consonant in the examples

above. However, the w clearly represents a consonant before the plural ending
in the examples below (for a discussion of the origin of this glide see § 2.3).

U 088 ʿyḏ{h} / {b}nt qn{/}h w b{n}-h / l//s¹h / ʾgww / h-ẓll / [l-][ḏ]ġ//bt

‘ʿyḏ{h} daughter of qnh and her son ls¹h dedicated the ẓll {for
ḏġbt}’

ah 204 ----ʿ----ʾl / bn / zdl{h} ---- // ʾḫt-h / ʾrqww / h----

‘… ʿ … ʾl son of zdl{h} … his daughter sent up (dedicated?) the …’

3.1.2 ii-w Verbs

In the one attested ii-w verb, kn ‘he was’, the medial glide is never represented,
suggesting the presence of a medial long vowel /kāna/ or /kōna/.33

U 108 {b}rd / s¹lm//ḏġbt / ʾẓ//ll / l-ḏġbt // b-khl / bʿd // ḏ-kn / l-h / b-y//r
‘brd s¹lmḏġbt performed the ẓll for ḏġbt at khl on behalf of that
which was his at yr’

3.1.3 Personal Names

The name hnʾmnwt (JSLih 264; JSLih 319) probably preserves the old conso-
nantal value of the -w- /hāniʾ-manawat/, especially when we compare it to the
spelling tmnt (JSLih 256), which probably comes from a language in which
the triphthong had collapsed /manōt/ or /manāt/.34 The -w- here could reflect
either /awa/ or a long vowel. However, outside of personal names there are
no examples where word internal long vowels are represented with a glide,
and there is no reason to assume separate orthographic rules for personal

33 Compare the Safaitic inscriptions in which both spellings with and without a medial glide
are attested; e.g., bt and byt ‘he spent the night’ and mt and myt ‘he died’. The presence of
y instead of etymological w in myt could suggest the sound changes áwi/u > ā and awí/ú
> i (Al-Jallad 2015, 120). This interpretation depends on when the triphthong in medial
weak verbs collapsed. See Huehnergard (2005, n. 75), who considers the triphthong to
have collapsed at the Proto-Semitic stage but see Suchard (2016) for a reconstruction of
Proto-Hebrew with the triphthong maintained.
34 For a discussion of different spellings of mnwt in the epigraphic record see Al-Jallad (2017b,
n. 6). For more on the deity Manāt and the spelling of her name see Healey (2001, 132–
136).

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104 chapter 4

names. The following names do contain word internal w, but due to the uncer-
tainty surrounding their vocalization no reliable conclusions can be drawn
from them.

drwt JSLih 131

dwg JaL 045 c
fkwy JSLih 177
flwy U 049; JaL 134

3.2 /aya/
3.2.1 Verbs
iii-y Verbs
The final -y in iii-y verbs is consistently represented in 3ms sc verbs without
enclitic pronouns (for a discussion of the vocalization see § 2.3).

Al-Saʿīd 1420/2000: 15–26, no. 2

nfyh / bn / ʿm / ʾfkl / hlh // bny / h-bnyn / ḏh / l-ʾlh
‘nfyh son of ʿm priest of hlh built this building for ʾlh’

U 040.1 ʾrs² / ʾy{ḏ} // ʾẓll h-ẓll // hny / hn-ʾ//ḫrt

‘ʾrs² [son of] ʾy{ḏ} performed the ẓll ritual, may he (the deity)
benefit the posterity’

U 031 ʿbdhgbr / b//n / ḥblʾl / ʾfy // h-ẓll / l-ḏġbt / b-khl

‘ʿbdhgbr son of ḥblʾl fulfilled the ẓll for ḏġbt at khl’

As with the iii-w verbs, the third root consonant remains represented before
the plural ending -ū clearly indicating that word internally the y has a conso-
nantal value here. See the discussion in §2.3 for the possibility that glide here
may simply be filling the hiatus.

ah 197 zdʾl / w bnwd / w ʾlh----//ʿ / ḏ- ḫ{ṣ}br / w ʾm-hm / ṯbrh / bn[t] ---- // -

---ms¹ / w {n}ḫʿ / w ʾws¹ / w zd{l}[h] ---- [s¹]//{ʿ}dʾl / w hnʾhʿzy / bnw
/ zd----// nwd / ḥggw / h-nq / w hġnyw / b-bt-hm
‘zdʾl and bnwd and ʾlh … ʿ … of the lineage of ḫ{ṣ}br and their
mother ṯbrh daughter of … ms¹ and {n}ḫʿ and ʾws¹ and zd{l}[h] …
[s¹]{ʿ}dʾl and hnʾhʿzy sons of zd … nwd they made the pilgrimage
of the nq and offered at their temple’35

35 ociana translated ḥggw h-nq as ‘they made the pilgrimage to the top of the moun-
tain’ and bt-hm with ‘their house’. All other attestations of bt in Dadanitic seem to mean

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orthography and phonology 105

JSLih 077 whblh / bn / zdqny / w lmy / bn // nfyh / wdyw / nfs¹ / mr / bn / ḥwt

/ m{h} // ʾḫḏ / ʿl-hmy / ḫrg
‘whblh son of zdqny and lmy son of nfyh set up the nfs1 of mr son
of ḥwt according to that which he took upon them by lawsuit’

The final weak root consonant also remains represented in some cases before
enclitic personal pronouns.36

ah 203 ---- f-rḍy-h ---- w-ʾẖrt-h

‘… and so may he favor him … and his posterity’

U 116 ʿbdʾtbl // hẓll / l-ḏġ//bt / f rḍy-h

‘ʿbdʾtbl performed the ẓll for ḏġbt and so may he favor him’

Note that the more common variant of this formula does not write the final -y;
there are 224 attestations of rḍ-h(m) and 29 of rḍy-h(m). For a complete discus-
sion of the interpretation of the variation between these forms and its impact
on our understanding of the matres lectionis see § 2.3.

ah 001 ---- ʾẓ//llw / ẓll / h-nq / l-//ḏġbt / f rḍ-hm

‘… they performed the ẓll ceremony of the nq for ḏġbt and so may
he favor them’

JSLih 062 hdqt / h-//ṣlmn // l-hnʾkt//b / f rḍ-h / w //{ʾ}{ḫ}rt-h

‘she dedicated the statuette to hn-ʾktb and so may he favor her
and her {posterity}’

ii-y Verbs
There may be two examples of the verb byt ‘to spend the night’ (ah 291; Graf
Abū al-Ḍibāʿ 1). Both these examples are attested in short graffiti. If byt is a
verb in these inscriptions, it likely represents a D-stem /bayyata/ since it is
a denominal verb. In this case the medial y does not represent a triphthong
/aya/.

‘temple’, however, without any unambiguous meaning of house, or family. There are two
attestations, however, that confirm that it refers to a structure: ʾrs² bn ʿmr fʿl h-bt ‘ʾrs²
son of ʿmr made the temple’ (ah 247) and bny h-bt ḏġbt ‘he built the temple of ḏġbt’
(JaL 006).
36 See §6.7 for a further discussion on the third root consonant of rḍy (< *rḍw).

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106 chapter 4

ah 291 nʿm // ʿklʾ // w byt

‘nʿm ʿklʾ and he spent the night’
or
‘nʿm ʿklʾ and byt’

Graf Abū al-Ḍibāʿ 1

----ʾgr / w {h}{n}ʾl // byt / b-lwh / ḍlḍ
‘… ʾgr and hnʾl spent the night (sing.) at [the] sandy depression
lwh ḍlḍ’
or
‘… ʾgr and {h}{n}ʾl byt are at [the] sandy depression ḍlḍ’37

In Graf Abū al-Ḍibāʿ 1 it is problematic to read byt as a verb, as it seems to fol-

low at least two personal names and we would expect a plural form bytw. In
fact, each inscription may better be interpreted by reading byt as a personal
name instead of as a verb.38 Although it is part of the basic formula of Safaitic
inscriptions to begin the verbal phrase following the genealogy at the beginning
of an inscription with the conjunction w-, this is not part of the common struc-
ture of the Dadanitic inscriptions where the verb usually follows the personal
names directly. There are several examples in the Dadanitic inscriptions, how-
ever, where multiple persons are mentioned at the beginning of an inscription,
separated by the conjunction w-.

JSLih 121 yʿd / bn ṣqw // w ʾbs¹lm / bn ṭly

‘yʿd son of ṣqw and ʾbs¹lm son of ṭly’39

3.2.2 Personal Names

There is only one attestation of a personal name that may contain a triphthong
with the glide y. Note that this is not the only possible vocalization.

rʿn qny (ah 345)

37 I would like to thank Ahmad Al-Jallad for suggesting this translation of lwh to me.
38 byt is not attested as a personal name in other Dadanitic inscriptions, but clearly occurs
as such in two Safaitic inscriptions (aaek 74 and rwq 45).
39 Note that the w at the beginning of the second line is placed a little away from both lines
and is written at a height more or less between both lines. The tracing of the inscrip-
tion is available on the ociana website, http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/pages/​
OCIANA_0034920.html (accessed 03-11-2017).

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orthography and phonology 107

4 Final Short Vowels

There is no direct evidence to determine whether word-final short vowels were

present in Dadanitic. The spelling of rḍy-h clearly shows that there was a vowel
present between the y and the enclitic -h, since there is no other evidence that
word internal diphthongs were represented (see § 5). It is not unlikely, there-
fore, that the final short vowel obtained on 3ms verbs in the sc /raḍḍaya/, but
the short vowel may also only have been lost in word final position while it
obtained before the enclitic pronoun. The consistent spelling of the final weak
root consonants also supports the presence of final triphthongs at the time the
orthography was established (that is, before they collapsed and -y came to rep-
resent -ē).40

4.1 Personal Names

In the personal names there are several examples of word boundary spellings.
For these to occur there cannot have been a word final short vowel on the first
element of the name.

tmnt /taym manāt/ U 063 and ah 303; JSLih 256

nʿmnt /naʿm manāt/ JSLih 238

If the interpretation of the following name is correct it may represent another

example of word boundary spelling, but since both attestations represent fe-
male names, it might also represent /tamlik/.41

tmlk /taym malk/ ah 064; Al-ʿUḏayb 088

There is one example of the assimilation of l to a following sibilant.

ʾmtbʿs¹mn /ʾamat baʿl samīn/ U 053

There is one example of the assimilation of the voiced dento-alveolar stop to a

following sibilant.

ʿbs²m{n/s¹} /ʿabd šams/ ah 259

40 There are no examples of word boundary spellings in the text of the inscriptions. However,
the use of word dividers means that scribes were aware of word boundaries. Therefore,
the absence of word boundary spellings in the language of the inscriptions cannot tell us
much about the phonological reality of these forms.
41 I would like to thank Ahmad Al-Jallad for pointing out this alternative reading to me.

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108 chapter 4

5 Diphthongs

It is common for ana scripts not to represent diphthongs orthographically.

However, this lack of representation does not necessarily mean they had col-
lapsed phonologically. In Safaitic, for example, this is clearly demonstrated by
the Safaitic/Greek bilingual texts. In an inscription from Jordan, for instance,
a man writing his name as ġṯ in Safaitic wrote it as Γαυτος in Greek, clearly
showing that the diphthong was pronounced but simply not represented in
the Safaitic script (Al-Jallad and al-Manaser 2016, 58–59). Unfortunately, we do
not have such transcribed texts of Dadanitic.42

5.1 w
There are several i-w verbs with the initial w- represented in the h-causative
form.

hwdq ah 288; al-Ḫuraybah 13; al-Ḫuraybah 14

hwdqw43 JSLih 049
hwḍʾt al-Ḫuraybah 12

However, there are also attestations of i-w verbs in the causative form without
the diphthong represented:

hdq Al-Saʿīd 1419/1999: 4–24, no. 1, side 1–2

hdqt JSLih 062

42 A possible exception to this might be two Minaic inscriptions from Dadan (JSMin 145 and
JSMin 166), both written by the same author. If my interpretation is correct, these may
contain the Dadanitic verb ʾdq ‘to dedicate’ written as ʾwdq. Note that so far, in Dadanitic,
no ʾ-causatives are attested with the first weak root letter represented, suggesting the first
syllable contained either a vowel or a diphthong. Minaic, however, does represent word
internal diphthongs. It may therefore be very tentatively suggested that the spelling of
this word in the Minaic script shows that the Dadanitic form was /ʾawdaqa/ (Kootstra
2018a). Alternatively, this could be the first attestation of a ʾ-causative form of a CD-
stem.
43 There are four attestations with w represented in h- causative form; two without the w rep-
resented in the h-causative form (Al-Saʿīd 1419/1999: 4–24, no. 1, side 1–2; JSLih 062). There
are six attestations without the w represented in ʾ-causative form. There are no attestations
of **ʾwdq in ociana (accessed 07-07-2021), but there are two Dadanitic inscriptions that
were exhibited as part of the 2018 exhibition at the Sharjah Archeology Museum (aue)
that contain a ʾwdq form (Page, Hussein, and Al-Hadhram 2018). I would like to thank
Jérôme Norris for bringing these inscriptions to my attention.

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orthography and phonology 109

Our understanding of this variation depends on whether we want to inter-

pret this as orthographic or grammatical variation. Note that both forms seem
to be used with a similar meaning: to indicate the dedication of an object.44
If we want to explain this as a change in writing conventions, the forms
with the w represented would be the more innovative, based on the innova-
tion of the representation of word internal diphthongs. Based on the spelling
of nouns which certainly contain an (etymological) diphthong, there is no evi-
dence to suggest that at some point word internal diphthongs started to be
represented. Compare, for example, the consistent spelling of bt ‘temple’ (e.g.,
JaL 006; JSLih 042), ym ‘day’ (Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 3–14, no. 1),45 and qnt ‘female
servant’ (ah 186; 303; JSLih 282; 302). There are two possible attestations of the
spelling ḏġybt for the theonym ḏġbt (in ah 207 and ah 229), but both readings
cannot be confirmed from the available images of the inscriptions (see § 5.2 for
a more elaborate discussion of this form).
Another option is to consider the two as different stem formations: the forms
with the w represented as CD-stems /hawaCCaCa/; and the forms without the
w represented as C-stems /(h/ʾ)awCaCa/ (see also Chapter 5, § 3.3). While ini-
tially both stems were productive, over time the CD-stem was lost. Such a
development would not be surprising given the strong overlap in meaning of
the two stem formations. This scenario seems to be supported by the distribu-
tion of w-spellings across the different causative types present in the ociana
database.46 There we find that both CD and C-stems occur with the h-causative,
with a higher number of the rare CD-stems (4), than the more common C-stem
(1) in the relatively rare h-causative. There are no attestations of CD stems in
ʾ-causative forms, even though ʾ-causatives are much more common than h-
causatives (214 ʾ-causatives; 13 h-causatives). For example, the root wdq occurs
both with and without the w represented in the h-causative, but only as ʾdq47 in
the ʾ-causative (see examples above); the verb ʾfy48 never occurs with the initial
w, but is only attested in ʾ-causative form.

44 Note that hwdq and hdq are mostly used in combination with h-ṣlm as the dedicated
object, except for two hwdq forms which dedicate h-mṯlt. There is one hwqd with h-ṣlm (al-
Ḫuraybah 13) and two hdq with h-ṣlm (JSLih 062 and Al-Saʿīd 1419/1999: 4–24, no. 1, side
1–2). The dedicated object is lost in two of the three ʾdq inscriptions, in Private collection
2, the dedicated object is an incense burner h-mgmrt.
45 Also possibly s¹ṭ (U 063; Al-ʿUḏayb 075) if it should be interpreted as a noun from the root
S¹wṭ (M. Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2016), but its interpretation is very uncertain.
46 http://krcfm.orient.ox.ac.uk/fmi/webd/ociana (accessed 07-07-2021).
47 ʾdq occurs six times (e.g., ah 087; JSLih 061); ʾdqw occurs once (al-Ḫuraybah 09).
48 Forms of this verb occur nine times: ah 015; U 005; ah 087.1 (unp.); Private collection 1;
U 004; U 031; U 035; U 026; U 037.

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110 chapter 4

U 035 brqh / s¹//lḥ / ḏġbt // ʾfy / h-ẓll // l-ḏġbt

‘brqh priest of ḏġbt fulfilled the ẓll for ḏġbt’

U 037 ʾrs² / bn // zdlh / w //bn-h / gffh // ʾfyw/[ẓ][l][l] h-nq // l-ḏġbt

‘ʾrs² son of zdlh and his son gffh fulfilled the [ẓll] of the nq for
ḏġbt’

Note however, that ʾwdq forms are attested in two Dadanitic inscriptions that
were included in the exhibition at the Sharjah Archeology Museum entitled
The Echo of Caravans: Pre-Islamic Civilization Sites in Saudi Arabia (Page, Hus-
sein, and Al-Hadhram 2018).49 This still means that the two least common fea-
tures (h-causatives and i-w causatives with the w represented) co-occur most
commonly in these verbs. If this is to be understood as purely orthographic
variation it seems puzzling that a more innovative spelling of the diphthong
is always found in combination with the more archaic form of the causative
verb in these cases. This could suggest that at the time the CD-stem was still
productive, the ʾ-causative form was not yet very common in written language
(see Chapter 7 for a more complete discussion of the correlation between dif-
ferent variable features).
Unfortunately, the hwdq forms never co-occur with another verbal or nom-
inal form with an (etymological) diphthong in the same inscription. There are
two inscriptions that contain relevant personal names.

JSLih 049/ 1–9

ʿbdwd // ʾfkl / w//d / w bn-h // s¹lm / w z//dwd / hw//dqw / h-ġ//lm
/ s¹lm / h-//[m]ṯlt / l-//ḏġbt
‘ʿbdwd priest of Wadd and his son s¹lm and zdwd dedicated the
boy s¹lm, {the substitute} to ḏġbt’

al-Ḫuraybah 13
zd // bn /ʾ//ws¹ʾ//{l} / ḏ- y//hḍf//m / hw//dq / h-//{ṣ}lm
‘zd son of ʾws¹ʾ{l} of the lineage of yhḍfm dedicated the statue’

Both inscriptions contain forms of zd without the (etymological) diphthong

represented, which seems to support the interpretation of the w in hwdq as a
consonant. Note, however, that in al-Ḫuraybah 13 the name ʾws¹ʾ{l} also occurs.
In this spelling the name should probably be interpreted as representing the

49 I would like to thank Jérôme Norris for bringing these inscriptions to my attention.

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orthography and phonology 111

diminuitive form /ʾuways/, but it cannot be completely ruled out that /aw/ was
represented with w here.
It remains unclear what the seemingly inconsistent spelling of diphthongs
in the personal names in contrast to what seems to be consistent lack of rep-
resentation of diphthongs in nouns means. It could be interpreted as evidence
for the collapse of diphthongs in Dadanitic, after which they went unwritten. In
the case of ʾws¹ʾl, this could be interpreted as an archaic or borrowed form with
the diphthong still intact phonologically and therefore represented in writing.
It is problematic, however, to imagine how the author of the inscription knew
how to represent the diphthong if there had never been an environment in
Dadanitic in which such a spelling could develop, unless we assume an ad hoc
innovation to represent a foreign sound, or a possible borrowing of the orthog-
raphy of the name from another writing tradition.50
If we assume the existence of a CD-stem verb, it could also be argued that
this explains the alternation of geminate roots with and without all root conso-
nants represented (C-stem /ʾaẓalla/ and CD-stem /ʾaẓallala/ and /haẓallala/; see
Chapter 5, §3.3). Note that if these should be interpreted as CD-stems, there are
attestations of CD-stems of the ʾ-causative in the geminate roots, which seems
to contradict the distribution we see in the i-w verbs. Given the high frequency
of the verb ʾẓll and its centrality to the cultural practice at the oasis, it is possible
that the archaic CD-stem continued to be productive in this environment after
it fell out of use in other less common verbs. If we do assume it is an archaic
form, it is striking, however, that the ʾ-causative form became the norm and not
the h-causative (for a complete discussion on the distribution of these linguis-
tic variables across the corpus see Chapters 7 and 8).

ah 080 ḍnʾl / bn // ʿbdh / ʾẓl // bʿd / ml-h / b-//bdr / l-ḏġbt // f rḍ-h / w ʾṯb-h
‘ḍnʾl son of ʿbdh performed the ẓll on behalf of his property at bdr
for ḏġbt so may he favor him and reward him’

ah 067 [n]fy / bn / ʿbdh / ẓny / [m]nʿ/[ḏ]rʾl // ʾẓll / h-ẓll / l-ḏġbt

‘{nfy} son of ʿbdh ẓny mnʿ ḏrʾl performed the ẓll ceremony for
ḏġbt’

U 116 ʿbdʾtbl // hẓll / l-ḏġ//bt / f rḍy-h

‘ʿbdʾtbl performed the ẓll for ḏġbt so may he favor him’

50 Note that Taymanitic sporadically represents word internal diphthongs (Kootstra 2016,
70).

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112 chapter 4

Given the differences in distribution of the hwdq and ʾẓll forms, it seems
more likely that they are two unrelated developments. In this case the alterna-
tion between ʾẓl and ʾẓll could be interpreted as a form with metathesis /ʾaẓalla/
as opposed to a form that was treated like a strong verb /ʾaẓlala/, in which case
the latter should probably be interpreted as the more archaic.

5.1.1 w-Diphthongs in Personal Names

Despite the absence of clear examples of the representation of word internal
diphthongs in nouns just outlined, it is not uncommon to find them repre-
sented in personal names, especially in names containing the element ʾws¹.
However, these forms are more commonly attested without the glide rep-
resented.51 The difference in spelling of diphthongs between the content of
the inscriptions and the personal names may be explained as a difference in
phonology, showing that diphthongs had collapsed in the language but not
in all personal names. If this is the case, the pn s with diphthongs preserved
caused some confusion as to how to represent the diphthong, comparable to
the inconsistency in writing diphthongs we see in Taymanitic. Note that the
vocalization of most names is uncertain, and different vocalizations may be
suggested: ʾws¹ could, for example, be a diminutive /ʾuways/ or a verbal form
in ʾws¹ʾl /ʾawas/. The only forms in which the diphthong can be fairly certainly
assumed are the qws1 names.

yṯbqws1 Al-Saʿīd 1419/1999: 28–30, no. 5

qws¹br JSLih 334
qws¹mlk JSLih 331
ʾws¹ ah 197
rʿnʾws¹ JaL 157 b
ʾws¹ʾl al-Ḫuraybah 13
hʾws¹t JSLih 344
ʿwd ah 001
ġwṭ JaL 012 b
ġwṯ Jal 157 ab

51 hnʾs¹ (e.g., ah 202; ah 222; JSLih 053); ʾmtʾ s¹ (ah 094); ʾs¹ (e.g., JaL 111 f; JSLih 071; ah 201);
ʾs¹mnt (JSLih 250; ah 062); mltq s¹ (JSLih 083); qs¹ (ah 271); ʿbdqs¹ (JSLih 363).

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orthography and phonology 113

5.2 y
5.2.1 ʿly
The variation in spelling of ʿly (and ʿl) seems to indicate that only word final
(and possibly stressed) diphthongs were orthographically represented. Apart
from three ʿl forms that are followed by a relative (ah 070; ah 125; U 073) and
one that is followed by a word divider and damage (Nasif 1988: 99, pl. clvii),
the six other attestations have an enclitic personal pronoun attached to them,52
while there are no occurrences of ʿly53 with a following enclitic pronoun, as
already noted by Lundberg (2015, 125).

ah 070 ʾẓll//t / ʿl / ḏ-k[n]/ l-h // b-bdr

‘she performed the ẓll on behalf of that which belonged to her at
bdr’

JSLih 073 hmḏ nḏ//rt ʿl-h / ʾm-h

‘in accordance with what her mother vowed on her behalf’

The spelling of ʿly seems to suggest that word internally the diphthong /ay/ is
left unrepresented. This is supported by the spelling of, for example bt /bayt/
‘temple’.

e.g., JaL 006 ----[b]ny / h-bt / ḏġbt // ----[s¹][ʿ]{d} / w ʾḫrt

‘… he built the temple for ḏġbt … aid him and posterity’

There are two examples of byt.

Graf Abū al-Ḍibāʿ 1

ʾgr / w-hnʾl // byt / b-lwh / ḍlḍ
‘ʾgr and hnʾl spent the night at [the] sandy depression ḍlḍ’54

ah 291 nʿm // ʿklʾ // w byt

‘nʿm ʿklʾ and he spent the night’

The above translations follow that proposed in ociana.55 However, byt may
better be understood as a personal name in each inscription (see § 3.2 for a dis-
cussion of these inscriptions and the interpretation of byt).

52 ah 206; ah 233; ah 237; JSLih 073; JSLih 077; JSLih 078.

53 ʿly is attested 23 times (e.g., ah 069; JSLih 063; U 125).
54 I would like to thank Ahmad Al-Jallad for suggesting this translation of lwh to me.
55 Accessed 18-10-2017.

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114 chapter 4

There are several other forms with word internal y represented. Unfortu-
nately, the exact interpretation of these forms remains uncertain, making it
problematic to draw any firm conclusions on their vocalization.

s²ym ‘field?’ ah 100; ah 138; U 118

hqymh ‘the official?’ Müller, D.H. 1889: 63–64, no. 8/ 1–2;
JSLih 054
nyt ‘?’ (dedicated object) JSLih 312

5.2.2 y-Diphthongs in Personal Names

The theonym ḏġbt may be attested as ḏġybt in two inscriptions. The pho-
tographs available of both inscriptions are of very low resolution, unfortu-
nately, making it difficult to confirm the presence of the y. In both inscriptions
it is clear, however, that there is either a gap between the ġ and the b (ah 207)
or an extra letter (ah 229). Despite the issues with the reading, it seems clear
that the name of ḏġbt was intended in each inscription.56

ḏġ{y}bt ah 207
ḏ{ġ}{y}b{t} ah 229

There are several personal names with etymological y represented word inter-
nally and word finally (see the lḥy /luḥay/ names). Given the uncertainty sur-
rounding the vocalization of personal names, not all y’s may represent a diph-
thong.

zyd ah 199, 252; JSLih 249 vs Zd ah 009, 164; al-Ḫuraybah 05

zydḫrg JaL 161 b
tym e.g., ah 272; ah 313; al-Ḫuraybah 05
qynh U 046; JSLih 128; Al-ʿUḏayb 073
qys¹r Nasif 1988: 58, pl. lvii/e
ʾykdn JaL 010 b
ʾylḥ JSLih 206
ʿḏyl JaL 145 r
lḥylh JaL 102 b
krblḥy JaL 062 c
lḥy ah 209
tlmy e.g., ah 245

56 If these (very uncertain) readings are correct, this confirms that the name of the deity
comes from the root √ġyb /ḏu ġaybat/.

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orthography and phonology 115

6 Sound Changes

6.1 n-Assimilation
The consonant n generally seems to assimilate to any directly following con-
sonant. There are two examples of bt ‘daughter’ instead of the common form
bnt (JaL 008 c; JaL 168 f). Both inscriptions are short graffiti. These two exam-
ples are far outnumbered by the occurrences of bnt, however (70 attestations;
e.g., U 048; JSLih 076; ah 222). There are several other (possible) examples of
assimilation of n to a following consonant, while there are no clear examples in
which n does not assimilate apart from the noun bnt. ʾṯt ‘wife’ (< *ʾnṯt) is always
written without the n (JSLih 067; U 023; U 115).
If ʾgy comes from ngw, as has been suggested by Drewes (1985, 172) and taken
over by Sima (1999, 93),57 this verb forms another example of n-assimilation
in Dadanitic. However, it might also be a causative form of the root gwy ‘to
come’.58

6.2 Dissimilation of ṯ
There is one attestation of the form ṯlt ‘three’ (JSLih 068; see Chapter 6, § 11.4)
from the root ṯlṯ, in which the second ṯ dissimilated. Slightly more common
is the original form ṯlṯ, however.59

6.3 ẓ>ṭ
There are several examples in which etymological *ẓ is written with ṭ in
Dadanitic. There are 25 examples of ṭll instead of *ẓll. ociana identified the
two examples below; for the other 23 attestations see Chapter 2, § 1.

ah 009.1 bs²klbt---- [ʾ]ṭll // h-ṭll ---- b-khl // l-ḏġbt / bʿd / ḏ-kn // b-bdr / f rḍ[-
h] / w [ʾ]ḫ[r]t-h
‘bs²klbt … perfomed the ṭll ceremony … at khl for ḏġbt on behalf
of that which is at bdr so may he favor him and his posterity’

57 Drewes (1985, 172) does not offer an explicit translation. Sima (1999, 93) compares the verb
to CAr. ‘to save oneself, to become free’ and takes the causative stem to mean ‘to clear (the
subterranean water canal)’ in the Dadanitic texts. Macdonald (2014, 154) proposed con-
necting the verb ngy in Safaitic with Sabaic ngw ‘to announce’ but does not propose any
connection to the Dadanitic ʾgy.
58 I would like to thank Ahmad Al-Jallad for suggesting this to me.
59 ṯlṯ is attested four times (JSLih 071; ah 239; ah 197; Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 26–36, no. 3), ṯlṯt is
attested twice (U 050; U 032).

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116 chapter 4

U 048 ʾmtlh / bnt // wʾl / ʾṭlt // l-ḏġbt / bʿ//d / ml-h / b-tqmm // f rḍ-h / w
s¹ʿd-h
‘ʾmtlh daughter of wʾl performed the ṭll for ḏġbt on behalf of her
property at tqmm so may he favor her and aid her’

Since ʾẓll h-ẓll ‘he performed the ẓll ceremony’ is one of the most frequently
occurring formulae in the Dadanitic inscriptions, these variant spellings are
striking. There are fewer than 250 ẓll inscriptions in total. Therefore, 25 devi-
ating spellings is a relatively high amount of variation, suggesting this sound
change was quite common in the language of the authors of the inscriptions.60
There is also variation in the spelling of *nẓr.61

ah 313 tm / bn zbdt // nṭr / mtʿʾl / w ddn

‘tm son of zbdt guarded mtʿʾl and Dadan’

ah 332 {g}ʿr nẓr ddn

‘{g}ʿr guarded Dadan’

Since most of these inscriptions refer to guarding Dadan, nṭr may reflect Ara-
maic influence at the Dadanitic court (Abu al-Hasan 2002, 260), rather than
a local sound change. Aramaic became a prestigious language at Taymāʾ after
Nabonidus brought it with him as the language of his court during his stay
at the oasis from 552 to 543 bce62 (Macdonald 2010, 18). It seems that Ara-
maic did not enjoy the same status at Dadan as it did at Taymāʾ,63 although in
recent excavations one long Aramaic inscription was discovered at the site of
ancient Dadan,64 as well as a bilingual Aramaic-Dadanitic dedicatory inscrip-
tion for the Nabataean deity Ḏūšarā discovered at al-Khuraybah (Nehmé and
Alsuhaibani 2019, 79).

60 For a more elaborate discussion of the implications of the variation in ṭ and ẓ in the ẓll
inscriptions see Kootstra (2018b); although there only the two ṭ spellings in the ẓll inscrip-
tions that were identified by ociana were taken into account.
61 The form nẓr is attested 3 times, nṭr 17 times, both in what seems to be the same formula.
62 For a more detailed discussion of Nabonidus’ stay at Taymāʾ see Beaulieu (1989), D’Agos-
tino (1994), and Lambert (1972).
63 Note that the rulers of Dadan left their inscriptions in Dadanitic at Dadan, but close
to Taymāʾ inscriptions in Aramaic have been found of someone calling himself ‘king of
Liḥyān’ (JSNab 334, 335, 337), further suggesting a difference in status between the two
languages at each oasis.
64 The inscription is being prepared for publication by S. Theeb.

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orthography and phonology 117

On top of that, there are several personal names with etymological ẓ that
are represented with ṭ.65 This includes: nṭr (JSLih 079) < *nẓr ‘to guard’; ṭnʾ
(JaL 064 f) < *ẓnn(?) ‘thought, belief’; ṭrbn (JaL 029 d) < *ẓrbn(?). While we can-
not draw any conclusions about the language of a person based on the name
they bear (Macdonald 1999, 254–257), the complete absence of names spelled
with ṭ for ẓ would have made it doubtful that such a sound change occurred in
the language (or part of it) of Dadan.

6.4 ḏ>z
In most inscriptions ḏ and z are consistently kept apart in Dadanitic. It has
been suggested that there are two examples of ḏ realized as z in the rela-
tive/demonstrative *ḏ (Hayajneh 2016, 162 and 165). Both Dadanitic inscrip-
tions were found in the vicinity of Taymāʾ.66

Esk. 074 mznz // t{/}qṭ

‘mzn, who incised / wrote (the inscription)’67

Esk. 253 s¹ʾln / s¹yt z

‘s¹ʾln placed this (inscription)’68

The reading of both z’s as *ḏ of the relative and demonstrative is slightly prob-
lematic, however. First of all, the demonstrative in Dadanitic is ḏh, not ḏ (e.g.,
U 038; JSLih 079), which means that just assuming the loss of interdentals in
Esk. 253 is not enough to arrive at this form. In addition, we must assume
the author of the inscription used a different form of the demonstrative all
together. The main context, in which the relative form ḏ is attested in the
Dadanitic inscriptions, is to indicate kinship (e.g., ah 197; see Chapter 6, § 5).
While the verb tqṭ is quite common in the Dadanitic inscriptions (84 attesta-
tions in ociana69), the inscriptions containing it usually follow the formula

65 In addition, ḥṭ could be from the root √ḥẓ ‘to be in favor with so.’, but the name could also
come from the root √ḥṭṭ ‘to place, to put’ (Lane 1863, 592a). The names ḥṭ and ḥṭṭ are
attested in Safaitic as well (e.g., C654; krs 2889). The name ṭby (JaL 022 c, JaL 063 f) could
come from *ẓby ‘gazelle’, but may also be related to Aram./Heb. Ṭūbiyā, modern Tobias (I
would like to thank Ahmad Al-Jallad for suggesting this to me).
66 Note that in Taymanitic, z and ḏ did merge (Kootstra 2016, 75).
67 Translation by Hayajneh (2016, 162).
68 Translation by Hayajneh (2016, 165).
69 Accessed 19-10-2017.

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118 chapter 4

‘pn tqṭ’ or, less frequently, ‘tqṭ pn’ (e.g., JaL 159 a; JaL 061 k). There are no other
attestations in which the dedicant of the inscription is referenced with a rela-
tive pronoun.
Finally, there is a word divider in the middle of what would be the verb
tqṭ, which H. Hayajneh assumes was a writing error (2016, 162). While there
are other examples of word dividers that are clearly in the wrong place (e.g.,
U 018; see §1), it should be noted that the form qṭ ‘to cut, inscribe’ occurs once
in JaL 152. Interpreting the verb as qṭ would leave us with an unattested personal
name mznzt, but the common formula pn (t)qṭ.
There is one inscription in which the form zkr appears, likely from the root
*ḏkr. The beginning and ending of all lines of the inscription are damaged,
however, making it difficult to determine the exact meaning of the form.

JSLih 053 [----] // ----[h]nʾs¹ / bn / s²hr ---- // ---- [m]lk{t} / lḥyn / ʾṣ{ f }---- //
---- gbl / s²mt / zkr / n---- // ----l / w rtm / w brlh / {w}---- // [----]

6.4.1 ḏ > z in Personal Names

The sound change ḏ > z is clearly attested in one personal name in the cor-
pus.

ʾlzkr JaL 033 s

6.5 Merging of ṯ and s1

Based on the last word of JSLih 081, Winnett proposed a possible merger of s1
and ṯ in this inscription, reading ṯrqh as CAr. saraqah ‘thieve or theft’ (Winnett
and Reed 1970, 124).

JSLih 081 l-ntnbʿl // bn / wny / hn-//qbr / ḏh / {ḥ}{m} // ʿly / ymn // w ʿly /

s²m[l] // mn / ṯrqr
‘this grave belongs to ntnbʿl son of wny {ḥm} from the south and
from the north from ṯrqr(?)’

There are several issues with this interpretation, however. First, it seems un-
likely that the last letter of this word was h, if we compare it to the shape of the
h in lines 2 and 3 of the same inscription. The original interpretation of Jaussen
and Savignac (1909–1914, 452), who read ṯrqr, seems to fit the photograph, rep-
resented in Figure 14, better.
In addition, it seems that Dadanitic did not undergo the -at > -ah shift
(see §6.9 below), meaning we would need to presume another sound change,
unique to this inscription, to arrive at the proposed interpretation of saraqah.

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orthography and phonology 119

figure 14
JSLih 081 (Jaussen and Savignac 1909–1912 pl. lxxxv)
photograph available on ociana

Unfortunately, the form ṯrqr does not yield anything meaningful at present and
is taken as a personal name or theonym in the ociana database.70

6.6 Interchange of w and y

There seems to be some degree of alternation between w and y, mostly attested
in iii-weak roots in Dadanitic. Such alternation is attested in other Semitic lan-
guages as well. Compare, for example, the tendency in the Sabaic inscriptions
from south of the central region to change w > y in iii-weak roots (Stein 2003,
3:33–34) and the sound change w > y / V_(a)# effectively merging w and y in ii-
and iii-weak verbs in Safaitic, with only some attestations of the preservation
of w in this environment, which seems to point to dialectal variation (Al-Jallad
2015, 50).

6.6.1 iii-Weak Roots

The verb ʾgy occurs once (JSLih 177), with the exact same meaning as the more
frequent ʾgw ‘to dedicate’ (which occurs 28 times; e.g., U 049; ah 202; ah 201),
presumably from the root ngw (see §6.1). This confusion may indicate that
in the language of the author of the inscription the collapse of /awa/ and /aya/
had the same result, possibly /ā/. Nevertheless, this does not seem to have been
the case for the majority of the Dadanitic inscriptions (see § 2.3).
In addition, there are attestations of both mḥrw (al-Ḫuraybah 06; ah 209)
and mḥry (ah 288), probably meaning ‘incense burner’,71 from the root ḥrw or
ḥrr.

70 In ociana mn ṯrqr is translated as ‘by ṯrqr’ (accessed 24-10-2017).

71 See Hidalgo-Chacón Díez for a discussion of the word mḥr [sic], which she translates as
‘mḥr rituals (incense offerings)’, interpreting mḥrw as a plural form from the root mḥr
(2017, 60).

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120 chapter 4

√ngw ‘to dedicate, to offer’

ʾgy JSLih 177
ʾgw e.g., U 049; ah 202; ah 201

√ḥrw ‘incense burner’

mḥry ah 288
mḥrw al-Ḫuraybah 06; ah 209

6.6.2 ii-Weak Roots

The word ṣwġ ‘smith’ is attested twice with the etymological w and once with a
y.

al-Ḫuraybah 04
ʿlḫrs² // h-ṣwġ
‘ʿlḫrs² the smith’

al-Ḫuraybah 05
s¹ḫm / bn / t//m / h-ṣnʿ / ʿbd//zd / h-ṣwġ
‘s¹ḫm son of tm the artisan, ʿbdzd the smith’

al-Ḫuraybah 14
----// h-ṣyġ / h//wdq / h-m//ṯlt / l-ḏ//ġbt
‘… the smith dedicated the substitute to ḏġbt’

In addition, there is the personal name nyr,72 probably from the root nwr. This
was not necessarily representative of the phonology of the Dadanitic language,
or that spoken by its bearer (Macdonald 1999, 254–257).

√nwr ‘light’
nyr JaL 033 o

6.7 -iwa > -iya

In Dadanitic we consistently see rḍy from the etymological root *rḍw. Since
the form that occurs in Dadanitic is transitive and was, therefore, most likely
a D-stem verb, the form rḍy does not represent the sound change *-iwa to
-iya directly. However, for a form rḍy to arise in the D-stem there must have

72 This name only occurs once in Dadanitic, but is also attested in Safaitic (eight times, e.g.,
lp 424; wh 188).

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orthography and phonology 121

been other forms around to extend this sound change from or to reinter-
pret the root as rḍy. Compare, for example, the sound change -iwa > -iya
which took place in Arabic. This would have affected the intransitive form
of the verb raḍiwa (> raḍiya) from where it could have spread to the derived
stems.
The more archaic form rḍw does occur in pn s, which indicates that these
names were taken from a language which did not undergo this sound change,
or, if they were taken from Dadanitic stock they represent an archaic spelling
and possibly pronunciation.

rḍw ah 176
rḍwl U 117; Nasif 1988: 56, pl. lvi(b)/d
rḍws²ʿn JaL 043 a
rḍwt Nasif 1988: 97, pl. cxlix/a
rʿnrḍw JaL 026 b

6.8 Assimilation of w > y

The realization of the plural of ym ‘day’ as ʾym indicates that the w assimilated
to the preceding y in front of ā /ʾayyām/ < */ʾaywām/ (compare, e.g., Safaitic;
Al-Jallad 2015, 51).

ṯlt / ʾym ‘three days’ JSLih 068

s¹bʿ / ʾym ‘seven days’ ah 244
ʿs²r / ʾym ‘ten days’ JSLih 070

6.9 -at > -ah

Even though there are sporadic examples in which -at# shifted to -ah# (e.g.,
JSLih 384), this rule does not seem to have been productive in Dadanitic. There
are examples of -t in construct.

JSLih 177 ʾgy ʿs2rt mnhh

‘he dedicated ten minah’73

JSLih 072 ʾbʾlf / b[n] ḥyw kbr hdʿt s2ʿt hnṣ

‘ʾbʾlf son of ḥyw kabīr of the council of the party of hnṣ’

73 The translation and reading of mnhh were suggested by Ahmad Al-Jallad, during one of
the reading sessions with the Leiden Center for the Study of Ancient Arabia (LeiCen-
SAA).

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122 chapter 4

ah 219 ḥgt h-mṣd

‘the feast/pilgrimage of the temple’

But -t is also attested in independent forms. For example, the second line of
ah 186 seems to only say h-qnt.

U 038 ----mʿ hn-ʾfklt b-bnʾl

‘… with(?) the priestess at bnʾl’

U 063 f rḍ-hm // w rb-hm / zdlh w // qnt / tʾl

‘so may he favor them and their lord zdlh and female servant74 tʾl’

There are only a few final -h’s, most of which can be explained in other ways
than as representing the feminine ending.

Müller, D.H. 1889: 63–64, no. 8

----// h-qymh / mgdl / ḏġbt

Since the line before h-qymh is broken it is impossible to tell whether it is even
a noun from just this inscription. It could, for example, be a dual h-causative:
‘they (two) erected the tower75 of ḏġbt’, although this would need further expla-
nation as to why the medial weak root consonant was preserved in this form
and not in kn ‘he was’ (see §3.1).
Other occurrences of similar forms in what seem to be comparable phrases
seem to confirm that qymh should be read as a noun here, but also provide
further evidence that the -h does not represent the feminine ending. Two new
inscriptions that were found in the 2020 mountain survey of the Dadan Archae-
ological Project in the Jabal Khuraybah area contain the phrases qymy nʿm ḏġbt
and qymy mgdl ḏġbt. To this, we can add the attestation of qymh nʿm ḏġbt in
JSLih 054. Taken together, this suggests that we have two different administra-
tive positions qym(h/y) nʿm ḏġbt and qym(h/y) mgdl ḏġbt in which qym(h/y)
stands in construct with the following noun, making it unlikely that the femi-
nine ending would be realized here as -h, as this environment is generally not
treated as word-final. Even though the two published inscriptions are too dam-

74 qnt may also be interpreted as a personal name here.

75 The translation of mgdl as ‘tower’ was first suggested by Johan Lundberg during a reading
session at the LeiCenSAA.

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orthography and phonology 123

aged to ascertain the exact grammatical form and function of the noun, in the
inscriptions from the mountain survey both forms ending in -y might be inter-
preted as a bound plural form. The forms in Müller, D.H. 1889: 63–64, no. 8 and
JSLih 054 might then be understood as dual forms (see Chapter 6, § 2.2).

ah 304 mdʾl qnh h-mlk

‘mdʾl his servant, (of) the king’

Assuming -ah here in construct position is problematic. The form qnh is at-
tested in two other Dadanitic inscriptions as a personal name (U 075; U 088).
Therefore, this inscription may have to be read ‘mdʾl qnh the king’. Even though
this name is not attested as a royal name in any other inscriptions, since it is a
graffito, the author may have been joking or bragging.

6.9.1 Personal Names

nfyh e.g., JSLih 077

zkyh U 118
ʿydhmnt al-Mazroo and Nasīf 1992: 4, no. 3
ʿyḏhl U 102

6.10 Feminine Endings -t and -at

The realization of qrt ‘village’ suggests that the sufixes -t and -at had not all
been levelled to -at in Dadanitic (as opposed to CAr.). The spelling qrt suggest
a pronunciation /qarīt/ rather than /qariyat/ (Al-Jallad 2015, n. 15), in which
we would expect the glide to be represented in the script. It could be argued
that this writing is due to the collapse of the triphthong instead (see § 3). It is
unclear whether /iya/ behaved differently than /aya/ in Dadanitic.

6.11 Loss of Intervocalic ʾ

There is no clear evidence from the language of the inscriptions for the loss of
intervocalic ʾ. The form h-ẓlt in U 013 may be interpreted as a broken plural ʾẓlt
with loss of the glottal stop, but other interpretations are also possible, such as
a singulative, or simply a writing error76 (see Chapter 6, § 2.1).

76 The form may also represent an alternative plural form /ẓallāt/ (I would like to thank
Ahmad Al-Jallad for pointing out this interpretation to me) but given the high frequency
and formulaic context in which the word occurs, it seems unlikely that several plural forms
were in use for it.

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124 chapter 4

U 013/2–4 ʾẓlt // h-ẓlt / b-khl / l-ḏġ//bt

‘she performed the ẓll ceremony/ceremonies at khl for ḏġbt’

6.11.1 Personal Names

There are a few examples of the loss of the glottal stop in personal names.

ʿbds1 JSLih 359

hnyl Al-ʿUḏayb 074

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 chapter 5

Verbal Morphology

1 Suffix Conjugation

The suffix conjugation uses suffixes to mark the verb for person, gender, and
number. The paradigm is not fully attested in the inscriptions.

table 9 Attested forms of the suffix conjugation

Singular Dual Plural

3m CCC CCC-h (ah 199; U 019; U 026) CCC-w

3f CCC-t (JSLih 036; ah 088; U 056) na na
2 na na na
1 na – na

1.1 3ms
Verbs in the 3ms are not marked with a suffix (see also Farès-Drappeau 2005,
69).

JSLih 066 ʾbnh / ʾḫḏ // h-ṣfḥt ḏh

‘ʾbnh took (possession of) this (section of) cliff’

Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 15–26, no. 2

nfyh / bn / ʿm / ʾfkl / hl{h} // bny / h-bnyn / ḏh / l-ʾlh // ʾlh / hrmʿt
‘nfyh son of ʿm priest of {hlh} built this building for ʾlh of hrmʿt’

Private collection 1
ʾfy h-ẓll hmḏ nḏr ʾb-h l-ḏġbt
‘he fulfilled the ẓll according to what his father had vowed to ḏġbt’

1.2 3fs
The 3fs takes a suffix -t (see also Farès-Drappeau 2005, 69).

U 056 ʾmtbʿs¹mn bnt // ----ḥyt ʾẓllt l-//ḏġbt

‘ʾmtbʿs¹mn daughter of … ḥyt performed the ẓll for ḏġbt’

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126 chapter 5

ah 013 s¹gl / bnt // s²mr / s¹lḥt // ḏġbt /ʾ//ẓlt / h-ẓll // l-ḏġbt / b-k//hl / hmḏ
/ nḏrt
‘s¹gl daughter of s²mr priestess of ḏġbt performed the ẓll cere-
mony for ḏġbt according to what she vowed’

1.2.1 Variation
There seem to be two examples of a feminine singular form in the suffixing
conjugation with a suffix -h: JSLih 384 and U 026.

JSLih 384 nfs¹ / ʿbds¹mn / bn // zdḫrg / ʾlt / bnh // s¹lmh / bnt /{ʾ}s¹ // ʾrs²n /
‘the funerary monument of ʿbds¹mn son of zdḫrg which s¹lmh
daughter of ʾs¹ ʾrs²n built’

U 026/ 1–2 ʾbʿl / ḏl / ʾfyh / h-ẓll // l-ḏġbt/

‘the lords of ḏl fulfilled the ẓll for ḏġbt’

The inscription JSLih 384 contains several grammatical features that place it
apart from the other Dadanitic inscriptions. It contains a feminine relative ʾlt
(compare CAr. ʾallatī; see Chapter 6, §5.1), and an across-the-board -at > -ah
shift (Overlaet, Macdonald, and Stein 2016, n. 23). Even though we often find
this sound change reflected in personal names—compare, for example, s1lmh
(e.g., JaL 119 b), s1lmt (e.g., JaL 060 c); zdh (e.g., JSLih 184), zdt (e.g., JSLih 014)—
it does not seem to have been a part of the grammar of the inscriptions (see
Chapter 4, §6.9).
In U 026, however, apart from the spelling of the verbal suffix, there are no
such clearly diverging features. Note that the name of the deity ḏġbt is spelled
regularly, with the final -t. Even though the dual was also formed with a suffix -h
(see §1.3), interpreting ʾfyh as a dual verb is problematic with the clearly plural
subject ʾbʿl. The dual was used with some variation in Dadanitic (see Chapter 7),
but the variation always leans towards neutralization of dual concord, instead
of an extension of its use to plural environments. One can imagine, however,
that once the category of dual only remains in the written language, that it may
be used in such environments as a hypercorrection. Interpreting ʾfyh as a femi-
nine singular form, however, does not require the assumption of a grammatical
mistake on the part of the author of the inscription, if we assume that the bro-
ken plural form was treated as grammatically feminine (compare to CAr.; see
Fischer 2001, §111c).

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verbal morphology 127

1.3 Dual
The dual was marked with a suffix -h (Stiehl 1971, 18). There is only one example
of full dual agreement in which both the verb and the suffixed pronouns are in
the dual form.1

ah 199 s¹mwh / bnt / s¹mr / s¹lḥt / w//d / w zyd / bʿl-h / ḏ-yfʿn / ʾ//ẓllh /
l-ḏġbt / h-ẓll / b-h-mṣ//d / f rḍ-hmy / w s¹ʿd-hmy w
‘s¹mwh daughter of s¹mr priestess of Wadd and zyd her husband
of the lineage of yfʿn performed the ẓll for ḏġbt at the sanctuary
so may he favor them (both) and aid them (both) and …’

Most inscriptions with a dual subject have no grammatical dual marking and
the subject agrees with plural forms throughout the inscription. When the dual
is grammatically marked, the most common type of agreement is only found
on the personal pronouns, with a plural form of the verb (see § 1.4, Chapter 7,
§ 2, and Chapter 6, §2).2
There is one inscription with a dual verb, but with plural enclitic personal
pronouns.3

U 019 rhẓ / bn / tḥmh / w//ʾmtʿzh / s¹lḥt // ḏġbt / ʾẓlh / h-ẓl//l / l-ḏġbt /

b-kh//l / bʿd / ml-hm / b-//bdr / f rḍ-hm // w ʾḫrt-hm
‘rhẓ son of tḥmh and ʾmtʿzh priestess of ḏġbt performed the ẓll cer-
emony for ḏġbt at khl on behalf of their property at bdr so may he
aid them and their posterity’

Since the usual pattern of partial dual agreement in Dadanitic preserves the
category of the dual on the pronouns, while it is lost on the verbs, it seems that
the author of U 019 made a mistake and this should be considered an exam-

1 It is interesting to note that this inscription with its archaic dual verb and which was executed
in relief seems to have been commissioned by Minaeans. The first person mentioned in the
inscription identifies herself as a priestess of Wadd, the main deity of the Minaeans at Dadan,
and both persons are identified as belonging to the lineage of yfʿn, one of the most commonly
attested Minaean family names at Dadan.
2 See Sima (1999, 117) for an overview table of the attested variation in dual agreement at al-
ʿUḏayb.
3 Macdonald (2008, 217) compares variation in dual agreement to the situation in modern Ara-
bic dialects where the dual is often only preserved on nouns and otherwise agrees with the
plural. Compare, for example, the modern Arabic dialects: e.g., Syrian Arabic (Cowell 1964,
420), and Biblical Hebrew (Joüon and Muraoka 2009, 514–517). There is one example of this
in Dadanitic: ah 200.

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128 chapter 5

ple of ‘anomalous agreement’ (see Chapter 7). The mistake can possibly be
explained as a hypercorrection, where the author tried to use an archaic form
that was part of a written register which was no longer productive in the spoken
language.

1.4 3mp
The masculine plural verb in the sc is formed by adding a suffix -w to the stem
(see also Farès-Drappeau 2005, 69).

U 055 ʾmrtʿt / bnt / s¹ʿdlh // w b{n}-h / s¹ʿdʾl / w s²rd / ʾẓlw // l-ḏġbt /

‘ʾmrtʿt daughter of s¹ʿdlh and her sons s¹ʿdʾl and s²rd performed
the ẓll for ḏġbt’

There are several attestations of a plural verb agreeing with a dual subject (see
Chapter 7 for more on variation in agreement).

ah 032 yḏn w ḏmd / bnt / zd//ggḥn / ʾẓlw / ẓl[l] h-nq // b-khl

‘yḏn and ḏmd daughter of zdggḥn performed the ẓll ceremony of
the nq at khl’

U 064 s²rd / w ʾḫ-h / ʿbd//s¹mh / bnw / ʿyḏ//ḥrn / ʾẓlw / h-ẓll / l-ḏġbt

‘s²rd and his brother ʿbd s¹mh sons of ʿyḏḥrn performed the ẓll
ceremony for ḏġbt’

U 029 ʿyḏ / bn / zhlḥ / w bn-h // ʾmḥh / ʾ{ẓ}lw / h-{ẓ}//ll / l-ḏġbt

‘ʿyḏ son of zhlḥ and his son ʾmḥh performed the ẓll ceremony for
ḏġbt’

U 075 qnh / bnt / ʾqḥwnh // w {ḫ}tn-h / ʿbb / ʾẓllw[/] l-ḏġ//[b][t][/] bʿd /

dṯʾ-h / b-hm//ḏhb / f rḍ-hm / w ʾṯb-//hm
‘qnh daughter of ʾqḥwnh and her relative (in-law) ʿbb performed
the ẓll for ḏġbt on behalf of their spring crops at hmḏhb so may
he favor them them and reward them’

1.5 3fp
There are no clear attestations of inscriptions with a plural feminine subject.
The only example may be ah 081, where at least most of the dedicants are
clearly women. The first person does not clearly indicate their genealogy with
bn or bnt, and while ʿyḏh is mostly attested as a female name in Dadanitic (six
times), it also occurs twice after bn, which is usually followed by a patronym

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verbal morphology 129

(Al-ʿUḏayb 083; U 021). Moreover, the inscription is damaged, making it uncer-

tain what the gender of the bearer of some of the damaged names is. If they are
all women, however, this inscription seems to suggest that there was no gender
distinction in the plural verb.

ah 081 ʿyḏh / w ʾmth{n}ʾktb / bnt / qn//y / w ʾm-hm / s²nʾh / w bʿlhzd / nm-

---//h / w bn[t]-h / ʾmtyṯʿn / ʾẓlw / b-kh//l / ẓll / h-nq / l-ḏġbt /
‘ʿyḏh and ʾmth{n}ʾktb daughter of qny and their mother s²nʾh and
bʿlhzd nm … //h and her [daughter] ʾmtyṯʿn performed the ẓll of
the nq at khl for ḏġbt’

The form ḥggn in JSLih 006 is interpreted as a feminine plural form /ḥaggagna/
in ociana.4 While it is often difficult to tell whether a name is masculine or
feminine in the Dadanitic inscriptions, it seems unlikely that ʿbdddt was a fem-
inine name based on the initial masculine form ʿabd ‘servant’ of the compound
name. Therefore, I would suggest interpreting ḥggn here as a nominal mascu-
line plural, forming an existential sentence with the authors mentioned at the
start of the inscription.

JSLih 006 ʿmrtm / w-ḥrm w-nn // w-ḏrh / w-gzʾt // w-ʾnʿm / w-ʿbd//ddt / ḥggn
// f-s¹mʿ / l-h{m}
‘ʿmrtm and ḥrm and nn and ḏrh and gzʾt and nʿm and ʿbdddt are
pilgrims/are performing a pilrimage so may he (a deity) hear
them’

1.6 Weak Verbs

1.6.1 iii-Weak Verbs
The final root consonant of final weak verbs is consistently represented in
Dadanitic in the 3ms in word final position and in the 3mp sc, but it is lost
in 3fs sc verbs:

bny ‘he built’ e.g., ah 208; JaL 006; JSLih 045; Al-
Saʿīd 1420/2000: 15–26, no. 2
bnyw ‘they built’ Müller D.H. 1889: 63–64, no. 8; Al-
Saʿīd 1420/1999: 26–36, no. 3; U 008;
ah 200

4 http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/pages/OCIANA_0036361.html (accessed 24-03-

2021).

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130 chapter 5

wdyw ‘they placed’ JSLih 077

ʾfyw ‘they fulfilled’ U 037
bnt ‘she built’ Al-ʿUḏayb 043
ʾft ‘she offered’ U 005

This applies equally to final -y and final -w verbs. Compare: 3ms ʾgw (e.g., ah 065;
ah 157; U 032), but 3fs ʾgt (ah 006; ah 079; U 126). For more on the implications
this has for the vocalization of these forms, see Chapter 4, § 3.
Beside two inscriptions in which the feminine form of rḍy is rḍt as expected,
there is one example of rḍyt. For a discussion of the phonological variation of
these forms see Kootstra (2019) and Chapter 4, § 3.2 in the present work.

Tall al-Kaṯīb, no. 1/ 2

---- f rḍt / w ʾḫr[t]----
‘… so may she favor [him] and [his] posterity …’

JSLih 036/ 2 ---- {ʿ}zy / f rḍt-h / {h}----

‘… {ʿzy} so may she favor him …’

ah 288 … {l-}ḥgr / f rḍyt-h / w ʾḫrt-h

‘… {to} ḥrg so may she favor him and his posterity’

Geminate Roots
Geminate roots have identical second and third root consonants. Most of the
attested geminate verbs have all three root consonants represented; for exam-
ple, ʿrr ‘he dishonored, mistreated (the inscription)’ (e.g., JaL 161 a; JSTham
251.3), ḥggw ‘they made the pilgrimage’ (e.g., Rabeler 001), and ḫṭṭ ‘he cut, he
carved’ (Nasif 1988: 92, pl. cxxxii). Based on their spelling and syntactical
properties it is difficult to determine whether this means that geminate verbs
behaved like strong verbs, or that these verbs should be interpreted as D-stem
verbs. Note that CAr. ʿarrara-hu ‘to disgrace or dishonor someone’ is a D-stem
verb. The root √ḫṭṭ is attested both as ḫṭṭ (Nasif 1988: 92, pl. cxxxii) and as ḫṭ
(JSLih 181).

ah 198 [h]nʾktb / bn // tms²ms¹ / ḥyw // ḥgg / l-ḏġb//t

‘[h]nʾktb son of tms²ms¹ ḥyw made a pilgrimage to/for ḏġbt’

Nasif 1988: 92, pl. cxxxii

wmr ḫṭṭ ʿdm ʿdm
‘wmr inscribed ʿdm ʿdm’

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verbal morphology 131

table 10 Attested suffix forms of geminate roots

Singular Dual Plural

3m CCC /CaCaCa/ na CCC-w /CaCaCū/

3f na na
2 na
1 na

There are four attestations of ḥgt, most in damaged context, but they seem to
represent nominal forms rather than the 3fs verb.

ah 206 ----/ ḥgt / {b}-khl / ʿl-hm

‘… (she performed?) a pilgrimage at khl on behalf of them’

ah 226 ---- ḏ ndm / ḥ{g}//----[b-][h-]mṣd / ḥgt / ----

‘… of the family of ndm dedicate … [at the] temple a (she per-
formed?) a pilgrimage …’

Since the root √ḥgg seems to appear earlier in ah 226, in the position where
one would expect a verb of dedication or ritual performance (see Chapter 3),
the second ḥgt should probably be interpreted as a nominal form, indicating
the object of dedication.
In ah 239 it is unclear whether ḥgt is a noun or a verb, since the broken con-
text makes it impossible to rely on its formulaic context to aid interpretation.

ah 239 ----ẓd / ḥgt /l//----{ḥ}y / ʾqd / h-rʿ

‘… zd (she performed a?) pilgrimage … {ḥ} y the dedication of
the livestock’

ah 219 ----d / b{n} / z---- nyq ---- // ----bt / ḥgt / h-mṣd

‘… d son of z … nyq … bt the pilgrimage of the temple’

If ḥgt represents a 3fs in one of these inscriptions, it seems that it under-

went metathesis of the third syllable /ḥaggat/. It is unclear, however, why this
metathesis would only occur in the 3fs verb, although a CvCC(-at) template for
the noun is very common in Semitic languages.
In the 3mp all three root consonants are represented consistently ḥggw
/ḥagagū/ (U 063; ah 217; ah 221; ah 231; ah 233; Rabeler 001; ah 197; Al-ʿUḏayb
075; Umm Daraǧ 22).

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132 chapter 5

ah 217 wʾl / w s²nʾh ----//{ʾ}ktb / w ʾm-h ----//bd / ḥggw / h---- / /l-ḫrg /

‘wʾl and w2nʾh … {ʾ}ktb and his mother … bd performed the pil-
grimage (pl.) the … to ḫrg’

1.7 Functions of the Suffix Conjugation

1.7.1 Past Events
The sc is most commonly used to refer to events in the past.

JSLih 066 ʾbnh / ʾḫḏ // h-ṣfḥt ḏh

‘ʾbnh took (possession of) this section of cliff’

Al-Saʿīd 2011. 1
ʿṣy / mlk ddn / fʿl // l-ṭḥln
‘ʿṣy king of Dadan made (it) for ṭḥln’

1.7.2 Optative
The perfect can be used to indicate an optative meaning. This function is mostly
attested in the prayer formula at the end of the inscriptions, rḍy-h(m) /raḍ-
ḍayahu(m)/ (e.g., ah 203; ah 209; JSLih 083) and rḍ-h (e.g., U 058; ah 176;
ah 100), which probably represents a later development of the sc /raḍḍē-h(u)/
(see Kootstra 2019 for a full discussion of the development of this form, and
Chapter 4, §3.2 above).

ah 004 ws²ḥ / bn / wdd // ḏ-ḏmr / ʾẓl-//l / h-ẓll / l / l-//ḏġbt / f //rḍy-h / w

s¹ʿ//d-h / w ʾḫrt[-h]
‘ws²ḥ son of wdd of the family of ḏmr performed the ẓll ceremony
for ḏġbt so may he favor him and aid him and his posterity’

2 Prefix Conjugation

Verbs in the prefixing conjugation are marked for person, number, and gender
by adding a prefix to the stem of the verb. Only the 3ms form with a prefix y- is
securely attested. There may be an attestation of a t-prefix to indicate the 3fs
(ah 031), but this t-prefix may better be interpreted as part of the derived stem
(see §3.4).
There seem to be various modal forms of the prefix conjugation. There is one
example of an apocopate (or jussive) form. Most verbs in the prefixing conju-
gation are attested following a form of the complementizer ʾn.

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verbal morphology 133

table 11 Attested forms of the

prefix conjugation

Singular Dual Plural

3m y-CCC na na
3f t-CCC (?) na
2 na
1 na

The inscriptions JSLih 040 and JaL 002 b also seem to contain 3ms pc verbs, but
both inscriptions are heavily damaged and un-formulaic, making them difficult
to interpret.

JSLih 040 ----{t}---- // ----ʾw---- // ----mn / s²rm / w---- // ----ḥ / ḏkh / yqʿd ----
// ---- n / wdy / {n}fs¹ / h-ʾl---- // ----m / f lh / yʿd / w ʾn---- / /----dy /
ḏh / f ʾnh / y---- //----hnʾmn / ḫlqt ---- // ---- / hmqtl ---- // ---- d ----5

JaL 002 b [----]// ----s¹ / yṭʿ / hm// ----{w}ys¹tfy6 / h//----w tṣbḥ7 // ----ʾn / l-hns¹
// ----bt / w bt / // ----mʿn / bm// ----mlk / w //----hnʾʿy

2.1 Functions of the Prefix Conjugation

From the spelling of the prefixing forms of the geminate root ʿrr (indicative
yʿr vs. jussive yʿrr, see §2.3 below) and final weak root rqy (jussive trq see § 2.3
below), is it clear that Dadanitic distinguished a short and a long form of the
prefix conjugation, following the Central Semitic innovation of the long form
(Huehnergard 2005, 164–165).
However, due to the fragmentary and un-formulaic nature of the inscrip-
tions containing prefixing verbs not all of them can be interpreted. In most
cases the difference between indicative and jussive/subjunctive forms must be
interpreted based on syntax, given the lack of representation of short vowels
in the Dadanitic script.

5 Farès-Drappeau gives the two verbs yqʿd and yʿd from this inscription as the only examples
of the pc (Farès-Drappeau 2005, 70).
6 This is probably an st-stem of the verb ʾfy, see §3.5.
7 Since this verb would not agree with the ys1tfy form earlier in the inscription, this is probably
a t-stem verb; also, see §3.4.

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134 chapter 5

2.2 Subjunctive
If the interpretation of JaL 016 a is correct,8 it shows the use of the subjunctive
in a volitive meaning,9 similar to its most common function in Arabic, which is
also attested in Safaitic (Al-Jallad 2015, 109).

JaL 016 a f-ys¹mʿ l-h ʾl // w-ylmʿ-h

‘So may ʾĒl listen to him and make him splendorous(?).’

There is one inscription in which a complementizer ʾn is followed by a prefix-

ing verb. Even though reflexes of this particle are found in other languages (e.g.,
Ugaritic hn; Hebrew hen, hinneh; Akkadian a(n)numma; Arabic ʾan [Tropper
2000, 749]) only Arabic uses it as a subordinator in this way (Al-Jallad 2015, 12).
Since this usage with a following verb in the subjunctive seems to be an Arabic
innovation, it seems plausible that the Dadanitic construction shares the same
syntax and also used a subjunctive verb here, even though this is not evident
from the orthography.

ah 203 [----] // hm ----[ḏ]//ġbt / ʾ{n} / yk{n} // l-h / {w}ld / f rḍy[-h]---- //

w ʾḫrt-h {ḏ}----
‘… [ḏ]ġbt that there may be a son to him so may he favor him and
his posterity …’10

There is one clear example11 of the particle ʾn followed by a subjunctive intro-

ducing a conditional clause.

al-Ḫuraybah 17
mn / s¹rqt / ʾym---- // ----{m}n / s¹rq / f-ʾn / yṣbr / b-mh / s¹r[q]----
// ----{d}n / thḍ-h / kll-h / f ḥṯm---- // ----hs¹rqt / yṭb / h-s¹rq / ʾw /
y----// ----bh

8 This inscription was translated by Jamme as ‘that one may be obedient to the god and
give him brilliancy’ (Jamme 1974, 22; followed by Al-Qudra 1993, 58). ociana (accessed
17-11-2016) seems to interpret the inscription as solely containing personal names.
9 Following the translation by Sima (1999, 113).
10 The stone looks like it was prepared and cut into a block. While rḍy[-h] looks like it was
squeezed onto the surface to fit the block, and the h might be lost under the damage of
the edge of the stone, there seems to be an empty space following ykn in the line before
it, suggesting that it is complete.
11 Ğabal al-Ḫuraymāt 01 also seems to contain a particle ʾn, but the inscription is too frag-
mentary to give a reliable interpretation ks¹ṭ // w ṭbʿ/{ṯ} // mny / {q}d / w grs¹ / rḥw // fʾn /
s¹{b}w / b-{k}l{s¹}th----.

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verbal morphology 135

‘who stole(?) and if he is caught with what he {stole} … … if all

of it broke (the stolen things) then beat him(?) … the theft/stolen
goods acquit the thief or …’12

Even though the inscription is damaged and does not conform to the common
formulae we find in other Dadanitic inscriptions, making it difficult to inter-
pret, the combination of ʾn + pc verb seems clear.
The prefix conjugation is also attested following the presentative ʾny.

U 026 ʾbʿl / ḏl / ʾfyh / h-ẓll // l-ḏġbt / ⟨ f ⟩13rḍ-hm / w s¹//ʿd-hm / w ʿqb-hm

[/] ʾny // ys¹rg [/]ʾb-hm / w {m}ʿn-h[m] // w {m}fr-h{m} / b-ms²hl
‘The lords of ḏl fulfilled the ẓll-ceremony for ḏġbt ⟨so⟩ may he
favor them and aid them and their successors, that their pasture
may be beautified and [their] {abode} and {their} {cultivated
land} in ms²hl.’14

2.3 Jussive
Even though final short vowels are not represented in the Dadanitic orthogra-
phy, the spelling of the geminate root ʿrr reveals a difference between a jussive
or apocopate and the indicative. In ah 289 we find a jussive form where, in the
absence of a final vowel, the two identical root consonants are kept apart by a
short vowel yʿrr /yuʿrir/ and an indicative yʿr /yuʿarru/.15

ah 289 f-mn yʿrr-h / yʿr-h nʿm

‘and may whoever mistreats it, be stripped of property’16

12 I would like to thank Ahmad Al-Jallad for suggesting to interpret this as a conditional
clause.
13 The letters f and b are clearly distinguishable in this inscription, the b having square cor-
ners while the f is rounded at the top. While reading the complementizer f here makes
more sense in the formula, the inscription clearly contains a b here. In this regard it also
seems worth pointing out that the very frequent ʾḫrt-h(m) in the same phrase is replaced
by ʿqb-hm in this inscription. The substitution of this word in the formula by ʿqb is unique
here, suggesting that the author of the inscription used the formula in a quite flexible
manner.
14 Ahmad Al-Jallad proposed interpreting the particle ʾny as a complementizer comparable
to Ugaritic hny, Hebrew hinneh, and Arabic ʾinna. This is discussed in the commentary
section of the record of this inscription in the ociana database (accessed 17-11-2016).
15 I would like to thank Ahmad Al-Jallad for first suggesting the reading and interpretation
of the verbal forms as jussive and indicative to me.
16 This inscription is written in boustrophedon (cf. Macdonald 2010, 12). The line of writing
starts on the left and curves around to continue from right to left above the first line. In

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136 chapter 5

There seems to be one example of a feminine verb in the jussive with a prefix
t-.

JSLih 064 bʿls¹mn / ʾḥrm / h-qrt // mn / mh / trq-h / mrʾt // l-bhny / hn-ʾfklt //

ḏ
‘bʿls¹mn protected the village from what [spell] the woman of the
palm tree, the priestess cast on it ḏ’

The verb trq is interpreted as jussive of the root rqy ‘to protect, to cast a pro-
tective spell’. Had it been an indicative verb, we would expect the y to have
retained its consonantal value, /tarqayu/, which would have been represented
in the orthography. Since the y is absent in the inscription it seems the form
represents the jussive form /tarqa/ followed by a suffixed object pronoun.

2.3.1 Functions of the Jussive

In the available examples in which the jussive is distinguishable from the
indicative, the jussive seems to have had a modal function, to express the irre-
alis (ah 289), and could be used to refer to past events (JSLih 064).17

3 Derived Stems

Like other Semitic languages, Dadanitic can derive verbal stems from the basic
CvCvCv pattern by means of vowel apophony, gemination, and the addition of
prefixes and infixes. Table 12 gives an overview of the derived stems attested in
Dadanitic. The third column gives comparative evidence and suggested vocal-
izations.

table 12 Overview of the forms of the

derived stems

G-stem CCC CAr. faʿala

D-stem CCC CAr. faʿʿala

between the first and second line there is a word divider that runs almost parallel to the
first line, giving the inscription the appearance of curving around.
17 There may be one example of a jussive following the prohibitive ʾl (JSLih 127) ʾrs¹ʿd / ʿbd //
fmn / ʾl / yḏlmh. The interpretation of this very short inscription is unclear, however. It is
translated in ociana as only containing personal names, with ʾl yḏlmh as a tribal affilia-
tion (accessed 28-11-2017). There are no other attestations in ociana of a personal name
or tribal name yḏlmh.

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verbal morphology 137

table 12 Overview of the forms of the

derived stems (cont.)

C-stem ʾCCC CAr. ʾafʿala

hCCC e.g., Heb. hiphʿil
CD-stem ʾCCC /ʾafaʿʿala/
hCCC /hafaʿʿala/
T prefix-stem tCCC e.g., EAr. itfaʿal
T infix-stem CtCCC CAr. ʾiftaʿala
ST-stem s¹tCCC CAr. ʾistafʿala

3.1 D-stem
G-stem verbs and D-stem verbs are generally orthographically indistinguish-
able, certainly in verbs derived from strong roots. Based on its transitive mean-
ing, qrb ‘to offer, to dedicate’ (JSLih 041; ah 209; al-Ḫuraybah 09) should prob-
ably also be interpreted as a D-stem verb.

3.1.1 Weak Roots

ii-w/y
There are two possible attestations of the verb byt ‘to spend the night’.

ah 291 nʿm // ʿklʾ // w byt

‘nʿm ʿklʾ and he spent the night’
or
‘nʿm ʿklʾ and byt’

Graf Abū al-Ḍibāʿ 1

----ʾgr / w {h}{n}ʾl // byt / b-lwh / ḍlḍ
‘… ʾgr and hnʾl spent the night (sing.) at [the] sandy depression
Ḍlḍ’
or
‘… ʾgr and {h}{n}ʾl byt are at [the] sandy depression Ḍlḍ’

If byt represents a verb in these inscriptions it should probably be interpreted as

a denominal verb in the D-stem /bayyata/. This reading seems to be supported
by the consistent spelling of kn ‘it was’ without the medial glide represented
(see Chapter 4, §3).

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138 chapter 5

iii-w/y
Based on the syntax of the verb rḍy ‘to favor (someone)’ it should be inter-
preted as a D-stem verb. While the G-stem of the verb is intransitive, almost
all its attestations in Dadanitic have an enclitic pronominal object.18 The plene
spelled /raḍḍaya/ and the defectively spelled /raḍḍī/ or /raḍḍē/ should proba-
bly both be interpreted as 3ms sc (see Kootstra 2019, 188 and Chapter 4, § 3 in
the present work for a discussion of these forms).

ii=iii
It is unclear whether all the verbs from geminate roots with all root consonants
represented should be interpreted as G-stem (e.g., /ḥagaga/) or as D-stem verbs
(e.g., /ḥaggaga/; see §1.6). The attestation of both ḫṭ (JSLih 181) and ḫṭṭ (Nasif
1988: 92, pl. cxxxii) seems to suggest that they represent different stem forma-
tions of the same root. However, each form occurs only once in a short graffito,
which makes it difficult to determine whether they truly represent different
stem formations or a different treatment of geminate roots in the G-stem. It is
equally unclear whether the root ʿrr should be interpreted as a G-stem or D-
stem verb.

3.2 Causative
The main function of the C-stem is to form causative verbs from intransitive
roots. In the Dadanitic corpus it is mainly found in dedicatory verbs. Two forms
of the causative can be found in Dadanitic: a ʾ-causative and a formally archaic
h-causative.19 Previous assertions that the variation in letter shapes in the cor-
pus implied a diachronic dimension to the corpus (e.g., Caskel 1954, 21–34;
Winnett and Reed 1970, 119; but cf. Macdonald 2015, 17–18), coupled with the
development of the causative forms in other Semitic languages, led to the obvi-
ous suggestion that diachronic change is responsible for the variation in the
causative forms attested in Dadanitic (Sima 1999, 117).
However, there are two inscriptions in which both causative forms co-occur
(U 079 bis; ah 197). For comparison: there are 30 inscriptions in which two
causative forms of the same type occur.20 This shows that at least for some

18 Except for Tall al-Kaṯīb, no. 1/ 2 ---- f rḍt / w ʾḫr[t]----, but the damaged context makes it
difficult to interpret this form.
19 Compare, for example, Aram. in which h > ʾ in the causative prefix in the attested material
(Gzella 2015, 34).
20 ah 072; ah 080; Nasif 1988: 99, pl. clviii; U 044; U 092; ah 065; ah 070; ah 071; ah 101;
ah 141; U 020; U 021; U 024; U 025; U 059; U 070; U 075; U 093; U 108; ah 006; ah 109; ah 138;
ah 239; Al-ʿUḏayb 009; JSLih 077; U 032; U 038; U 040; U 115; al-Ḫuraybah 12.

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verbal morphology 139

time during the period in which the inscriptions were produced, both forms
were known at the oasis. Therefore, we cannot rule out that the usage of one
or the other was a choice made by the author instead of simply representing
different stages in the language. Two such examples can be found in U079 bis
and ah 197.

U 079bis w----t / bld ʾ---- // ----l / hẓll / h-ẓ//ll // b-bṯ//r / bʿd / n{ḫ}l-h w //
dṯʾ-h / b- ḏʿmn // l-ḏġbt f rḍ-//hm // w ʾṯb-hm
‘… he performed the ẓll ceremony at bṯr on behalf of his palm
trees and his crops of the season of the later rains at ḏʿmn for ḏġbt
so may he favor them and reward them’

ah 197 ḥggw / h-nq / w hġnyw / b-bt-hm / l- ----// tn / l-ḫrg / w ʾẓlw / b-h-

mṣd / ẓll / h-[nq] // l-ḏġbt
‘they performed the pilgrimage and dedicated (lit. made increase
wealth?) at their temple for … tn for ḫrg and they performed the
ẓll of the [nq] for ḏġbt’

Note that in U 079 bis the author starts with singular suffix pronouns and ends
the inscription with plural suffix pronouns, which may suggest that he modeled
the dedicatory part of the inscription (containing the h-causative) on a differ-
ent example than the blessing formula (containing the ʾ-causative). In ah 197
it is interesting to note that the more common verb ʾẓll is written in the most
common ʾ-causative form, while the thus-far unique verb hġny is written in the
h-form. This might suggest that while the written conventions dictated the ʾẓll
form, the spoken language of the author maintained a more archaic form of
the causative (see Chapters 7 and 8 for a discussion of the distribution and
possible causes of this variation).21 In general, the ʾ-causative is the most com-
monly attested form of the two in Dadanitic (234 attestations as opposed to 17
h-causatives).22

3.2.1 Prefix Conjugation

There are no attestations of a verb in either form of the causative in the pre-
fix conjugation. There is one attestation, however, of the personal name yhḏkr
(JSLih 125) which looks like a 3ms prefix conjugation with the h-prefix still rep-

21 The occurrence of both h- and ʾ-causatives in the corpus has already been observed by
previous scholars (e.g., Farès-Drappeau 2005, 68–69; Sima 1999, 93).
22 Based on the data in the ociana database as of February 2016.

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140 chapter 5

resented. Unfortunately, since it is a personal name, it cannot tell us about the

form of the imperfect of the C-stem in the language of the inscriptions (see
Macdonald 1999, 254–257).

3.2.2 Suffix Conjugation

In the suffix conjugation the causative receives the same suffixes as the G-stem.
There are only attestations of causative verbs in the suffix conjugation.

U 101 ks²d / bn ----// ngʾ / ʾẓl / l-ḏġbt // f rḍ-h / w s¹ʿd-h

‘ks²d son of … ngʾ performed the ẓll for ḏġbt so may he favor him
and aid him’

U 112 ʾdʿh / bnt / ḥrm / ḏġbt // ʾẓlt / h-ẓll / l-ḏġbt

‘ʾdʿh daughter of ḥrm ḏġbt performed the ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt’

ah 032 yḏn w ḏmd / bnt / zd//ggḥn / ʾẓlw / ẓl[l] h-nq // b-khl

‘yḏn and ḏmd daughter of zdggḥn performed the ẓll ceremony of
the nq at khl’

3.2.3 Weak Roots

i-w/y
The first glide of i-w/y verbs does not seem to be represented in the causative,
which points to a vocalic pattern /(h/ʾ)vCCvCv/. The diphthong in the first syl-
lable would not be represented in Dadanitic orthography (see Chapter 4, § 5).
i-w verbs that are attested are: ʾfy ‘to fulfill, accomplish’ from √wfy, hṯb ‘to ded-
icate’ from √wṯb, ʾdq and hdq ‘to offer’ from √wdq (but see hwdq in § 3.3) and
possibly ʾqd ‘to dedicate’ from √wqd, and, finally there is one attestation of the
verb ʾṯʿ ‘he protected’ from √yṯʿ.

U 035 brqh / s¹//lḥ / ḏġbt // ʾfy / h-ẓll // l-ḏġbt

‘brqh son of ḏġbt fulfilled the ẓll ceremony to ḏġbt’

al-Ḫuraybah 12
ddn / hṯbt / mṯb
‘Dedan offered the throne’

ah 087 ʿbdh / bn // mrr / ʾd{q} /h//{ẓ}{l}l / l-ḏġ//{b}{t} / f rḍ-h

‘ʿbdh son of mrr offered the ẓll ceremony to ḏġbt so may he favor
him’

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verbal morphology 141

JSLih 062 {s²}----[b]//nt / qs¹m // hdqt / h//ṣlmn // l-hnʾkt//b / f rḍ-h / w

//{ʾ}{ḫ}rt-h
‘… {daughter of} qs¹m offered the two statues to hnʾktb so may he
favor her and her posterity’

ah 222 ---- ḏ ʾlhrbt ʾdq---- s¹---- // l-ḏġbt ʾmt-{h}my ʿyḏh // b{n}t ʾmthnʿṯt ----
h----t // ym ʾqd h-m---- // l-ḫrg
‘… of the lineage f ʾlhrbt offered … to ḏġbt their maidservant ʿyḏh
daughter of ʾmthnʾṯt … day he dedicated the … to ḫrg’

i-n
The first root letter n assimilates to the following consonant in the C-stem (see
Chapter 4, §6.1). It is unclear whether this resulted in the doubling of the sec-
ond root consonant. i-n verbs that are attested in the C-stem are, possibly, ʾfq
‘to offer’23 from nfq and ʾgy, and ʾgw (see Chapter 4, § 6.6 on the interchange
of w and y) ‘to dedicate’ from ngw.

JSLih 054 ---- // ʾfqw / f rḍ-hm

‘… they offered so may he favor them’

JSLih 177 hnmnt / s²grh / ʾgy / ʿs²rt / mnh{h}24

‘hnmnt s²grh dedicated ten minah’25

U 038 ḏbn / ʿmr / bn / mrd // ʾgw / h-ẓll / ḏh / l-ḏġbt

‘ḏbn ʿmr son of mrd dedicated this ẓll ceremony to ḏġbt’

ii-w/y
The second consonant of the ii-weak verbs is not represented in the causative
verb. This suggests it was realized as a vowel. The quantity of the vowel is
unclear from the orthography. There is only one common ii-weak verb ʾṯb ‘to
reward, recompense’. Compare Sab. yṯwbn ‘reward, recompense (a worshipper
by a deity)’ (Beeston et al. 1982, 151).

23 Attested once in broken context.

24 ociana (accessed 29-11-2016) reads the last letter of mnh{h} as an l. The reading is uncer-
tain, however, and could also represent another h, read here as representing -ā /minahā/
plural of minah (monetary unit).
25 This translation was made during a reading session at the LeiCenSAA and was first sug-
gested by Ahmad Al-Jallad.

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142 chapter 5

U 059 f rḍ-h / w ʾṯb-h

‘so may he favor him and reward him’26

iii-w/y
iii-weak verbs in the C-stem behave in a similar way as iii-weak verbs in the
G-stem. The final glide is always represented in the 3ms and 3mp forms, but
never in the 3fs form (see Chapter 4, §3 for the implications on vocalization).
The final-weak verbs attested in the C-stem are: ʾfy ‘to fulfill, accomplish’ from
√wfy (see §3.2), ʾgy and ʾgw from √ngw, and ʾrqw ‘to dedicate, to send up’ from
√rqw.

U 031 ʿbdhgbr / b//n / ḥblʾl / ʾfy // h-ẓll / l-ḏġbt / b-khl

‘ʿbdhgbr son of ḥblʾl fulfilled the ẓll for ḏġbt at khl’

U 005 ḥmyh / bnt // nẓrh / ʾft / h-ẓ//ll / ḏh / l-ḏġbt

‘ḥmyh daughter of nẓrh fulfilled this ẓll for ḏġbt’

ah 204 ----ʿ----ʾl / bn / zdl{h} ---- // ʾḫt-h / ʾrqww / h---- // bt / hmḏ / nḏr

‘… ʿ … ʾl son of zdl{h} … his sister they offered … {temple} accord-
ing to what they vowed’

Overview of the attested iii-weak causative forms:

ʾfy ‘he fulfilled’ U 035; U 004; U 031; ah 087.1; Pri-

vate collection 1
ʾgy ‘he dedicated’ JSLih 177
ʾgw ‘he dedicated’ e.g., U 038; U 049; ah 135; ah 157;
ah 202; ah 201
ʾft ‘she offered’ U 023; U 005; ah 051
ʾgt ‘she dedicated’ U 126; ah 006; ah 079; Al-ʿUḏayb
129; Al-ʿUḏayb 008
ʾfyh ‘they (du.) fulfilled’ U 026
ʾfyw ‘they fulfilled’ U 037
ʾgww ‘they dedicated’ ah 243; Nasif 1988: 99, pl. clvii;
U 088; Al-ʿUḏayb 001
ʾrqww ‘they offered’ ah 204

26 Translation following ociana (accessed 29-11-2016).

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verbal morphology 143

ii=iii
There seem to be two different ways of spelling the causative forms of gem-
inate roots: with all three root letters represented or with only the first two
orthographically represented. This could be due to variation in treatment of
geminate roots: ʾẓll for /ʾaẓalala/ and ʾẓl for a metathesized form /ʾaẓalla/. Alter-
natively, it may be understood as two different stem formations: a CD-stem ʾẓll
/ʾaẓallala/ and a C-stem ʾẓl /ʾaẓalla/. Note that there are no attestations of hẓl
forms (see §3.3 for the hẓll forms) which may confirm a historical component
to the development of the spelling of the geminate roots. Since there are only
eight attestations of h-causative forms of the root ẓll, however, this distribu-
tion may just be due to accident of survival. Overview of attested geminate root
causative forms:

ʾẓl ‘he performed the ẓll’ e.g., ah 080; ah 072; U 125; U 101;
U 076
ʾẓll ‘he performed the ẓll’ e.g., U 050; U 054; U 058; U 060;
U 079; U 102 bis
ʾẓlt ‘she performed the ẓll’ e.g., ah 091; ah 090; ah 064;
ah 062; U 112; U 094
ʾẓllt ‘she performed the ẓll’ U 056; U 070; U 068; ah 012;
ah 094; ah 101; ah 163; Al-ʿUḏayb
061
ʾẓlh ‘they (du.) performed the U 019
ẓll’
ʾẓlw ‘they performed the ẓll’ e.g., ah 032; ah 235; Bron-al-ʿUḏayb
1; Nasif 1988: 99, pl. clviii; U 064;
U 055; U 044; U 029
ʾẓllw ‘they performed the ẓll’ ah 244; U 069; U 047; U 027; U 023;
U 075; U 119; Al-ʿUḏayb 064; Al-
ʿUḏayb 065

Both spellings generally occur in the same context with no apparent difference
in meaning, as in U 101 and U 117.

U 101 ks²d / bn ----// ngʾ / ʾẓl / l-ḏġbt // f rḍ-h / w s¹ʿd-h

‘ks²d son of … ngʾ performed the ẓll for ḏġbt so may he favor him
and aid him’

U 117 rḍwl / bn / ʿbdh / ʾẓll // l-ḏġbt

‘rḍwl son of ʿbdh performed the ẓll for ḏġbt’

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144 chapter 5

There is one inscription in which several ẓll ceremonies seem to be dedi-

cated, in which a CD-stem is used, and another in which a suffix -n on the noun
ẓll could also be interpreted as a plural (see Chapter 6, § 2.2). This may indicate
a slight nuance in the meaning of the two stems, with the doubled form having
a more plural or durative meaning. Of course, since there are only two possible
examples of this usage of the CD-stem (which is the most common form of this
root), this may just be a coincidence.

U 050 s¹my / bn / tlġl // ʾẓll / l-ḏġbt / ṯl//ṯt / ʾẓlt

‘s¹my son of tlġl performed for ḏġbt three ẓll ceremonies’

U 034 ʿyḏ / bn / ḥr / b-khl // ʾẓll / ẓlln27

‘ʿyḏ son of ḥr at khl he performed ẓll ceremonies’

Moreover, there is another inscription in which a woman dedicates hẓlt but

uses a plain C-stem. It is unclear whether hẓlt is another plural form, a singula-
tive, or interference from the verb and simply a writing error.28

U 013 ʾmtrfʿ / bnt // rbḥ / ʾẓlt // h-ẓlt

‘ʾmtrfʿ daughter of rbḥ performed the ẓll ceremony/ceremonies?’

The distribution of the variation in spelling of the geminate roots in the causa-
tive form across the corpus is different from that of the spelling of i-w verbs in
the same stem formation, however, making it unlikely that both are due to the
same development of the C and CD-stems (see Chapter 4, § 5.1 for a more elab-
orate discussion). Therefore, it seems more likely that the variation in spelling
of the geminate roots represent is due to metathesis (see Chapter 7, § 2 for the
number of occurrences and their distribution across the corpus).

ah 080 ḍnʾl / bn // ʿbdh / ʾẓl // bʿd / ml-h / b-//bdr / l-ḏġbt // f rḍ-h / w ʾṯb-h
‘ḍnʾl son of ʿbdh performed the ẓll on behalf of his property at bdr
for ḏġbt so may he favor him and reward him’

ah 091 ʾmtṣd / bnt / bs¹rh // s¹lḥ / ḏġbt / ʾẓl//t / ẓll

‘ʾmtṣd daughter of bs¹rh priestess of ḏġbt performed a ẓll cere-
mony’

27 ociana reads h-ẓlln, but after consulting the photograph, I do not think there is a definite
article preceding ẓlln (accessed 30-11-2016).
28 For the inscriptions with ʾẓll as the object of dedication, see Chapter 6, § 2.3.

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verbal morphology 145

ah 081 ʿyḏh / w ʾmth{n}ʾktb / bnt / qn//y/ w ʾm-hm / s²nʾh / w bʿlhzd / nm-

---//h / w bn[t]-h / ʾmtyṯʿn / ʾẓlw / b-kh//l / ẓll / h-nq
‘ʿyḏh and ʾmth{n}ʾktb daughter of qny and their mother s²nʾh and
bʿlhzd nm … h and his {daughter} ʾmtyṯʿn performed, at khl, the
ẓll ceremony of the nq’

3.3 CD-stem
3.3.1 i-w Verbs
The form of some of the i-w verbs in the h-causative seems to point to the exis-
tence of a CD-stem /haCaCCaCa/, as can be seen from the examples below.29
Overview of the C and CD-stem forms of the root √wdq:

hwdq ‘he offered’ ah 288; al-Ḫuraybah 13; al-

Ḫuraybah 14
hdq ‘he offered’ Al-Saʿīd 1419/1999: 4–24, no. 1, side
1–2

Since word internal diphthongs do not seem to be represented in Dadanitic

orthography, the forms with the w-represented could be interpreted as CD-
stems in which the w would have its consonantal value /hawaddaqa/ (see Chap-
ter 4, §5). Overview of the attested CD-stem verbs with i-weak roots:

hwḍʾt ‘he offered, fulfilled an al-Ḫuraybah 12

obligation’
hwdq ‘he offered’ ah 288; al-Ḫuraybah 13
hwdqw ‘they offered’ JSLih 049

3.4 t-stem
There seem to be two examples of a t-stem verb (JaL 017 e; ah 031). While the
form in JaL 017 e is formally quite clearly a t-stem, it is not entirely clear what the
inscription means, because of its non-formulaic character. Due to the Dadanitic
orthography it is impossible to tell whether it is a t-stem /taslamat/ or tD-stem
/tasallamat/.

JaL 017 e ʿbds²hr // ʾkr w // dly / s¹nt // ts¹lmt ʾs²//hdn / f rḍ -h // hʾl w s¹//ʿd
-h

29 I would like to thank Ahmad Al-Jallad for suggesting this vocalization.

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146 chapter 5

ah 031 ---- ts1lm mʾt f-rḍ-h

3.4.1 t-infix Stem

Inscription ah 207 seems to contain a t-infix stem s1tṭr from Sabaic s1ṭr ‘to write,
to inscribe’.30 The lack of an initial ʾ suggests that there was no initial vowel
/s1taṭara/.

ah 207 ----l / b---- // ḏ----s¹tṭr / b-mṣd----s¹mʿ // ---- / ḏġ … bt31

‘… l b … ḏ … wrote at the temple … s¹mʿ …{ḏġbt}’

Weak roots
Macdonald (2008, 203–204) has suggested that tqṭ ‘to inscribe’ is a t-infix
stem from a i-weak root nqṭ or wqṭ. Since the n assimilates to following con-
sonants, this form could represent either a t-prefix or a t-infix stem **/ntaqṭa/
> /(t)taqaṭa/ or **/tanqaṭa/ > /ta(q)qaṭa/. It is unclear how a cluster wtV- would
be resolved in Dadanitic, but in a t-prefixing verb the diphthong would not be
represented.

ah 256 ns²r / bn / tm // tqṭ

‘ns²r son of tm inscribed’

Another option would be to interpret tqṭ as a t-prefixing verb of the geminate

root qṭṭ ‘to cut’32 /taqaṭṭa/ (compare, e.g., CAr. qaṭṭa-hu ‘he cut it’ [Lane]).33
This reading seems to be supported by the occurrence of the form qṭ ‘to cut’
(JaL 152) and tqṭṭ (ah 260). However, their similar surface form does not nec-
essarily mean that they are derived from the same root.

3.4.2 t-prefix Stem

The t-prefix stem is possibly attested in the verb tqṭ from qṭṭ /taqaṭṭa/ (Win-
nett and Reed 1970, 129; and see §3.4, above).

30 The same form of the verb also occurs in two Minaic inscriptions from Dadan (JSMin 145;
JSMin 166) and in a Ḥaḍramitic one (Qāniʾ 4), dasi (accessed 22-02-2018).
31 There is a space on the rock between the ġ and b in ḏġbt. Due to the quality of the pho-
tograph, however, it is impossible to determine what letter, if any, occupies this space. In
the ociana database a { y} is read in this position (accessed 11-30-2016).
32 This has previously been suggested by Winnet (Winnett and Reed 1970, 129).
33 tqṭ is translated as a nominal form ‘the signature’ in ociana. In ah 302, however, it seems
to be a verb, possibly indicating that mk was the one who wrote the much longer inscrip-
tion above it (ah 300): ‘mk inscribed’.

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verbal morphology 147

3.4.3 t-D Stem

The interpretation of tqṭ having a root qṭṭ could be supported by the attesta-
tion of the form tqṭṭ in one inscription (ah 260), if the interpretation of this
form in its broken context is correct.

ah 260 s²rd t{q}ṭ⟨⟨ṭ⟩⟩ m----ḏ----

‘s²rd wrote …’

The double representation of the ṭ seems to point to a t-D formation /taqaṭṭaṭa/.

Alternatively, it may be a more archaic form of the t-prefix stem in which the
geminate roots had not yet metathesized /taqaṭaṭa/ (see § 3.3).

3.5 st-stem
If the interpretation of Al-Saʿīd 1419/1999: 3–14, no. 1 is correct, there is one attes-
tation of a St-stem verb.

Al-Saʿīd 1419/1999: 3–14, no. 1

----m / ym / s¹tḥbl / ʾqd / h-rʿ / f-rḍ-hm / w //----
‘… [the] day he pledged the dedication of the livestock so may he
favor them and …’

4 Participles

A participle is an adjective derived from a verb. They can generally be used to

indicate the doing, or the doer of a verb. So far only the 3ms and 3mp forms of
the active participle are attested. To my knowledge there are no attestations of
passive participles in Dadanitic.

table 13 Overview of attested participle forms

Singular Plural

Masculine CCC CCCn (JSLih 006)

4.1 Singular
The following examples can be interpreted as participles based on their syn-
tactic context or semantics.

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148 chapter 5

U 003 ʾtm / bn / nfy / ʿ//bd / ʾẓll / h-ẓl//l / nḏr / bʿd / h-dr//t

‘ʾtm son of nfy ʿbd performed the ẓll ceremony vowed on behalf of
the field’

ah 220/ 6–7 {h-}//s¹fr / w [d]ḥlh / h-ṣnʿ

‘{the} scribe and dḫlh the artisan’

JaL 161 a ʿrr // ḏġbt / ʿr//r / h-s¹fr / ḏh

‘and may ḏġbt dishonor the one who mistreats this inscription’

ah 210 ʿr[r] {ḏ}ġ{b}// t / ṭʿn / ʿrr ----

‘may ḏġbt dishonor by smiting(?) the one who mistreats …’

JSLih 317 may also contain an active participle, but its interpretation is less cer-
tain.

JSLih 317 ---- / bn /ʾ//ḏhn / mṯbr / ʾrf

‘… son of ʾḏhn a fenced field/grave’

4.2 Plural
There seems to be only one example of a plural form of the active participle.

JSLih 006 ʿmrtm / w-ḥrm w-nn // w-ḏrh / w-gzʾt // w-ʾnʿm / w-ʿbd//ddt / ḥggn
// f s¹mʿ / l-h{m}
‘ʿmrtm and ḥrm and nn and ḏrh and gzʾt and ʾnʿm and ʿbdddt are
pilgrims/are performing a pilgrimage so may he (the deity) lis-
ten to them’

In this example, ḥggn has plural referents and it seems to form a nominal
phrase with the personal names ‘they are pilgrims’ or ‘they are performing a
pilgrimage’. The plural verbal ending is -w, making it unlikely that ḥggn repre-
sents a verb here (see §1.4 for plural verbs, and §1.2 for the interpretation of the
form as a 3fs verb).

4.3 Functions of the Active Participle

4.3.1 Adverbial use of the Active Participle
There are several inscriptions in which an active participle forms the head of a
relative clause (Sima 1999, 99).34

34 Sima (1999, 99) interprets nḏr here as an adverb ‘als weihegabe’, following H. Wehr in Stiehl
(1971, 565).

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verbal morphology 149

U 003 bd / ʾẓll / h-ẓl//l / nḏr / bʿd / h-dr//t/

‘bd performed the ẓll ceremony (which was) vowed on behalf of
the fields’

U 007 ----wh / hḏm //----h / ʾẓll / h-ẓll / n//ḏr / l-ḏġbt

‘… wh hḏm … h performed the ẓll ceremony (which was) vowed
to ḏġbt’

U 021 ʿf / bn / ʿ{y}ḏh / ʾ//ẓll / h-ẓll / nḏr // bʿd / d{ṯ}ʾ-h / w nfs¹//-h

‘ʿf son of ʿ{y}ḏh performed the ẓll ceremony (which was) vowed
on behalf of his crops of the season of the later rains and himself’

If the reading of ṭʿn in ah 210 is correct this shows the use of the active partici-
ple to modify the main verb.

ah 210 ʿr[r] {ḏ}ġ{b}// t / ṭʿn / ʿrr ----

‘may ḏġbt dishonor by smiting(?) the one who mistreats …’

4.3.2 Adjectival Use of the Active Participle

If the interpretation of JSLih 317 is correct, it seems the active participle can be
used as an adjective.

JSLih 317 ---- / bn /ʾ//ḏhn / mṯbr / ʾrf

‘… son of ʾḏhn a fenced field’

4.3.3 ‘Doer of X’
As mentioned above, the active participle can be used to indicate the ‘doing’ or
‘doer’ of a verb.

JaL 161 a f / ʿrr // ḏġbt ʿ /r//r / h-s¹fr / ḏh

‘and may ḏġbt dishonor the one who mistreats (lit. mistreater) of
this inscription’

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 chapter 6

Nominal and Pronominal Morphology

1 Gender

Similar to other Semitic languages, Dadanitic distinguishes masculine and fem-

inine gender. Masculine nouns are generally unmarked. Feminine nouns can be
marked with a suffix -t. This can mark biological gender: compare ʾfklt ‘priest-
ess’ (U 038; JSLih 064) and ʾfkl ‘priest’ (e.g., JSLih 049; JaL 010 a); ʾḫt ‘sister’ (JSLih
077) and ʾḫ ‘brother’ (JSLih 077; U 064); ʾṯt ‘wife’ (Al-ʿUḏayb 064; JSLih 067;
U 023; U 115); qnt ‘female servant’ (ah 303; JSLih 282; JSLih 302). Many nouns
are only morphologically feminine.

JSLih 049 hw//dqw / h-ġ//lm / s¹lm / h-//[m]ṯlt / l-//ḏġbt

‘they dedicated the boy s1lm (as) the substitute to ḏġbt’

U 069 ʾẓllw /h-ẓll / b-khl // bʿd / ṯbrt-hmy

‘they performed the ẓll ceremony on behalf of their (du.) grain’

There are also nouns that are semantically feminine without the suffix -t; for
example, ʾm ‘mother’ (e.g., ah 217; JSLih 073; ah 197).
The reflex of the feminine suffix is generally -t in all environments. Unlike in
CAr., there does not seem to be a pausal form -h. Additionally, Dadanitic does
not seem to have levelled the -at allomorph to all environments, unlike Ara-
bic (Huehnergard 2017, 20). If the form qrt (e.g., ah 300 and JSLih 064) should
indeed be interpreted as ‘village’ from the root qry, it must have had the suffix -t
/qarīt/, since the -at suffix would have yielded a form /qariyat/ similar to Arabic,
in which case the glide would have most likely been represented in Dadanitic
(Al-Jallad 2018, 22; also see Chapter 4, §6.9).

2 Number

There are two basic forms of plural formation in Dadanitic. Nouns can be
made plural either by the addition of a suffix, traditionally called sound plu-
rals, or by pattern replacement, called broken plurals.1 Similar to CAr., pattern

1 Even though broken plurals seem to be a shared retention between the languages that are
sometimes grouped together as ‘South Semitic’ (Huehnergard and Rubin 2011, 263), their pro-
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nominal and pronominal morphology 151

replacement may include prefixes, infixes, and suffixes. Forms combining a plu-
ral suffix with pattern replacement may not be distinguishable from the sound
plurals, while some broken plurals, formed using only changes in internal vocal-
ization, may not be formally distinguishable from singular forms.
There is evidence for both plural and dual nouns in Dadanitic (Macdonald
2008, 194). However, most of the dual forms are orthographically indistinguish-
able from sound plural forms. Therefore, the following section is organized
based on the attested forms, rather than their function. First, the unambigu-
ously plural forms with pattern replacement will be discussed, followed by the
more ambiguous dual and plural suffixes. For each suffix, the different possible
interpretations and their contexts will be given and discussed.
There is a distinction between bound and unbound dual (Macdonald 2008,
194)2 and probably also plural forms. When a noun stands in construct with
a following noun, or is followed by an enclitic pronoun, the dual suffix is -y,
whereas unbound nouns receive a dual suffix -n (see § 2.2). Compare CAr. al-
kitābāni ‘the two books’ and kitābā ṭ-ṭālibi ‘the two books of the student’.

2.1 Pattern Replacement

The following plural patterns have been attested in Dadanitic:

ʾCCC
ʾbʿl lords U 026
ʾnḫl3 palm trees / palm groves Al-ʿUḏayb 071; Al-ʿUḏayb 073
ʾdṯʾ crops of the season of the Al-ʿUḏayb 071; Al-ʿUḏayb 073
later rains
ʾṣlm statues JSLih 063
ʾnʿm livestock JSLih 177

ductivity in these languages can likely be explained as a contact phenomenon. Dadanitic fits
nicely into this contact area between Arabic and South Arabian influences, most notably in
the form of the Minaic trading colony at Dadan and, more generally, its place on the incense
trading route.
2 Macdonald (2008, 194) noted the distinction between -n in unbound and -y in bound forms.
He was reluctant to see this as a general rule due to the limited number of attestations
at the time. I have found 19 examples of duals, ten of which are in unbound position and
have a suffix -n (ah 217; 216; 287; 197; JSLih 044; 045; 061; 082; Graf 1983 no. 2); nine are
in bound position and have a suffix -y (ah 200; 226; 241; 288; JSLih 072; 075; 077; 272;
JaL 001).
3 Note that the two examples of this plural form in the Dadanitic corpus are attested in two
inscriptions that were written on a rock face right next to each other.

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152 chapter 6

ʾCC(C)t
ʾẓlt ẓll ceremonies U 050; U 032
CCCt4
bnt daughters ah 032; ah 081
CChC
mnhh minah (coins)? JSLih 177
CC(C)w (in construct)
bnw sons of ah 001; JSLih 079; U 064; ah 197
ʾḫw-h his brothers JSLih 079

2.2 Suffixes
2.2.1 Bound Forms
-y
There are several bound forms with a suffix -y. While these are generally inter-
preted as dual forms, they could also be oblique plural forms (compare CAr.
genitive unbound muslimīna ~ bound muslimī ‘the muslims of …’). In some
cases, a dual interpretation can be based on context (e.g., ah 200), but this is
not always the case (e.g., JSLih 077).

ah 200 mrʾlh / w tmlh // bny / mṭr / bnyw // l-ḏġbt

‘mrʾlh and tmlh sons (du.) of mṭr built for ḏġbt’

JSLih 077 wl / ḥmm / b-bt-h ṣ{l}m / wl / s¹lmn // b-ḥq[w]y / kfr / ḥmm

‘and verily he offered at his temple a statue and he has offered
peace offerings (?) on the walls of (a?) cave/tomb’5

Note that there is quite some variation in Dadanitic regarding the use of the
dual, and there is one inscription (JSLih 079) in which a plural form of ‘sons’
bnw follows two personal names (see Chapter 8 for an overview of the distri-
bution of variation).

JSLih 079 mrrh / w ḥṭrh / bnw // nṭr / ʾḫḏw / h-qb//r / ḏh

‘mrrh and ḥṭrh sons of nṭr took possession of this tomb’

4 If the interpretation of s¹lʿt as ‘coins’ is correct (translation ociana; JSLih177; al-Ḫuraybah 09;
JaL 001 [uncertain, broken context]), this would be another example of a -t plural.
5 Lundberg proposed interpreting this section as a chiastic structure during one of the reading
sessions at the LeiCenSAA.

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nominal and pronominal morphology 153

Case
It seems that the oblique ending -y was levelled for all cases in most inscrip-
tions (see §2.4). In ah 200 bny stands in construct with the following personal
name, but it is the subject of the verb bnyw ‘they built’.6

ah 200 mrʾlh / w tmlh // bny / mṭr / bnyw // l-ḏġbt

‘mrʾlh and tmlh (the) two sons of mṭr built (pl.) for ḏġbt’

The same suffix is used on nouns that are in the genitive case, as expected, for
example following a preposition.

JSLih 077 wl / ḥmm / b-bt-h ṣ{l}m / wl / s¹lmn // b-ḥq[w]y / kfr / ḥmm7

‘and verily he offered at his temple a statue and he has offered
peace offerings (?) on the walls of (a?) cave/tomb’8

JSLih 075 ʿqrb / bn / mrʾlh / h-ṣ//nʿ / ḏ-ġlḫ / ʾṯʿ / ʾ//bʾlf / b-ḥqwy / k//fr
‘ʿqrb son of mrʾlhn the artisan of the lineage of ġlḫ protected ʾbʾlf
on (two?) walls of the cave/tomb’

There are no examples of dual nouns or plural nouns in the accusative case.

-h
There is one example of what seems to be a dual in the nominative case with a
suffix -h /-ā/, which suggests that at least in the grammar of this inscription, the
difference between the nominative and oblique dual endings was maintained.

Nasif 1988: 99, pl. clviii

ḏ / ms¹yh / w bd / bnh / tmʾl // ʾẓlw / h-ẓll9
‘ḏ ms¹yh and bd two sons of tmʾl, they performed the ẓll ceremony’

6 Macdonald compares this to the situation that can also be found in the early Arabic papyri
and in the modern dialects where the dual suffix on nouns is always -ēn regardless of its gram-
matical case (Macdonald 2008, 194).
7 Note the opposition between independent s¹lmn and ḥqwy in construct with the following
noun.
8 Lundberg proposed interpreting this section as a chiastic structure during one of the reading
sessions at the LeiCenSAA.
9 The function of the ḏ at the beginning of the inscription is not entirely clear. There are several
other inscriptions that start with such an isolated ḏ. There are about 13: (e.g., ah 147; ah 142;
JSLih 284), and 3 that only consist of the letter ḏ with no other text following (JaL 014 b; JaL 124;
JaL 142). Some of these inscriptions (ah 147; JSLih 297; 284) both start and end with an iso-

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154 chapter 6

-w
The difference between bound and unbound duals suggests that we might find
a similar pattern in the plural. There are not many examples of sound plurals,
however, and only one clear example of a plural noun in construct position
with a vocalic plural suffix (Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2017, 66).

JSLih 079 mrrh / w ḥṭrh / bnw // nṭr / ʾḫḏw / h-qb//r / ḏh / hm / w ʾḫw-hmʾ10

‘mrrh and ḥṭrh sons (pl.) of nṭr took possession of this grave, they
and their brothers’

We do not have any examples of bn in unbound position to contrast the form

with, making it difficult to make any generalizations based on only this exam-
ple.

-t
There are two possible examples of a feminine -t suffix, probably /-āt/ in the
word bnt ‘daughters’ /banāt/. While this form is orthographically indistinguish-
able from its singular counterpart, the plural meaning is suggested by its con-
text, although an interpretation in which only the patronym of one of the two
persons mentioned at the beginning of the inscription is given is not impossi-
ble in ah 032.

ah 032 yḏn w ḏwd / bnt / zd // gmḥn / ʾẓlw / ẓl[l] h-nq // b-khl

‘yḏn and ḏwd daughters of zd gmḥn performed the ẓll of the nq
at khl’

ah 081 ʿyḏh / w ʾmth{n}ʾktb / bnt / qn//y / w ʾm-hm / s²nʾh / w bʿlhzd / nm-

---//h / w bn[t]-h / ʾmtyṯʿn / ʾẓlw / b-kh//l / ẓll / h-nq / l-ḏġbt
‘ʿyḏh and ʾmth{n}ʾktb daughters of qny and their mother s²nʾh and
bʿlhzd nm … //h and his daughter ʾmtyṯʿn performed the ẓll of the
nq at khl for ḏġbt’

lated ḏ, which suggests that they had a non-linguistic function. Macdonald suggests they
may be apotropaic signs, possibly a reference to the deity Ḏūġābat (Macdonald 2008, 200;
and see Abu ʾl-Ḥasan 1999, 199 for a similar interpretation of inscriptions with an isoloatid
ḏ at the end). If the ḏ does have a grammatical function here, bnh would be expected to
have the genitive case instead of the nominative.
10 ʾḫw-hm should probably be interpreted as a broken plural /ʾaḫawā/, see Chapter 4, § 2.2.

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nominal and pronominal morphology 155

2.2.2 Unbound Forms

-n
While it is clear, in some cases, whether a suffix -n represents a dual or a plu-
ral suffix, there are other instances in which the distinction is ambiguous. If
the only difference between dual and plural outside of construct chains were
the vowel (e.g., pl. /ūn/ vs. du. /ān/), this would not have been represented in
Dadanitic orthography. For example, in ah 197, ymn is clearly a dual, both from
form and context, since the plural ʾym (e.g., JSLih 068) is also attested. More-
over, the number of days mentioned in the dating formula is always specific.

ah 197 s¹nt / ʿs²r / wṯlṯ / 13 / ymn / ḫlf / ṭʿn / ḏ//----l{ʿ}{b} / [t]lmy / bn /

[l]ḏ{n} / ml{k} / {l}{ḥ}yn
‘year thirteen 13 two days after the ṭʿn of … lʿb tlmy son of lḏn king
of Liḥyān’

JSLih 068 ṯlt / ʾym / qbl // rʾy / s¹lḥn

‘three days before the rʾy of s1lḥn’

Other examples are less clear. In U 034 ẓlln should most likely be interpreted
as a dual, since we have attestations of a broken plural form ʾẓlt (U 050; U 032),
but this does not obviously follow from the context in this case. The same goes
for ṣlmn: since the broken plural form ʾṣlm (JSLih 063) is also attested (once),
ṣlmn is probably a dual. However, it may also be interpreted as a diminutive
form ‘the small statue, or statuette’.

U 034 ʾẓll / h-ẓlln

‘he performed the (two) ẓll ceremonies’

JSLih 061 ʾdq / l-l//h / {h}-ṣlmn

‘he dedicated to Lh the two statues’

The form mṯbrn in JSLih 045 is also ambiguous. The block with the text was
re-used and not found in its original context, and therefore there is no archae-
ological context that could inform us further about the structure mentioned in
the inscription (ociana record).11

11 http://krc.orient.ox.ac.uk/ociana/corpus/pages/OCIANA_0037791.html, now available at

http://krcfm.orient.ox.ac.uk/fmi/webd/ociana (accessed 10-03-2017).

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156 chapter 6

JSLih 045 bny / h-//kfr / l-h / w l-wrṯ-h / h-kfr / ḏh / kll-h // w ʾḫḏ / h-mṯbrn
‘he built the tomb for him and his descendants, all of this tomb,
and he took possession of the (two?) grave-chambers’

2.3 State
2.3.1 Definite Article
A definite article marks substantives as definite. Dadanitic has a definite article
hn- in which the -n- generally assimilates to the following consonants, except
before gutterals, ʾ and ʿ.12

ah 032 yḏn w ḏmd / bnt / zd//ggḥn / ʾẓlw / ẓl[l] h-nq // b-khl

‘yḏn and ḏmd daughter of zdggḥn performed the ẓll of the nq at
khl’

U 058 ʿyḏ / bn / ydʿ // ʾẓll / h-ẓll // {b-}khl

‘ʿyḏ/bn/ydʿ performed the ẓll at khl’

JSLih 054 h-mqdr / w hn-ʿnk /----

‘the cultic structure and the ʿnk …’

Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 26–36, no. 3 (line 3)

----/ h-mqdr / hn-ʾkbr
‘… the biggest cultic structure’

Al-Saʿīd 1420/2000: 3–14, no. 1

wasm zdḏġbt // hn-ʾfkl
‘zdḏġbt the priest’

Variation of the Definite Article

There is one example in which the definite article does not assimilate to a fol-
lowing q (Sima 1999, 118; Farès-Drappeau 2005, 65; Macdonald 2008, 208–209).
Note, however, that in this inscription, the definite article is followed by a line
break, which may have influenced its lack of assimilation.13 It is also possible
that the end of the line is missing and hn- was followed by something other
than qbr (Macdonald 2000, n. 94). In Safaitic there are examples in which the

12 See also Sima (1999, 118), Farès-Drappeau (2005, 65), and Macdonald (2008, 208–209) who
all comment on the variation between h- and hn- forms in Dadanitic.
13 I would like to thank Ahmad Al-Jallad for sharing this possible interpretation with me.

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nominal and pronominal morphology 157

unassimilated definite article occurs before ḥ (hn-ḥwly ‘the Ḥwlite’ lp 87).14 In

Dadanitic there are no clear examples of any nouns with an initial ḥ preceded
by the definite article.

JSLih 081 l-ntnbʿl // bn / wny / hn-//qbr / ḏh

‘this grave belongs to ntnbʿl’

Generally, the definite article does assimilate to a following q:

JSLih 312 s²kr / bn // ḫs²s² / h-qbr // ḏh/

‘this grave belongs to s²kr son of ḫs²s²’

JSLih 064 h-qrt

‘the village’

There are several attestations of other forms of the definite article. There might
be an attestation of a hl- definite article. Note that hl- seems to have a stronger
demonstrative force in this inscription than the definite article in other inscrip-
tions.

JaL 021 f fʾln bn ʾl ʾḫḏ hl-btt

‘fʾln son of ʾl took this section (of the rock?)’

There are several attestations of what seems to be an assimilated ʾl- definite

article (D.H. Müller 1889: 14; Farès-Drappeau 2005, 65).

JSLih 276 f ʿrr / ḏġbt / ʿrr / ʾ-s¹fr / ḏh

‘so may ḏġbt dishonor the one who mistreats this inscription’

ah 119 ʾẓlt ʾ-ẓll ḏh

‘she performed this ẓll ceremony’

Compare also:

ah 074 ʿm / bnt / bs² ʾẓlt ʾ-ẓll

‘ʿm daughter of bs² performed the ẓll cermony’

14 For a discussion of the hn-article in Safaitic see Al-Jallad (2015, 76).

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158 chapter 6

ah 138 ʾgw ʾ-ẓll l-ḏġbt

‘he performed the ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt’15

JSLih 065 ḥṯl / bn / dmn // ʾḫḏ / ʾ-ṣfḥt16

‘ḥṯl son of dmn took possession of the rockface’

U 115 ʾgw//w / ʾ-ẓll / l-ḏġbt17

‘they dedicated the ẓll ceremony to ḏġbt’

At the time of writing, only one attestation of the unassimilated ʾl- article, pre-
ceding a ʾ, has been identified.

Ǧabal al-Ḫuraymāt 04
ʾl-ʾs¹d
‘the lion’

Personal Names
Several different forms of the definite article can be found in the Dadanitic
onomasticon. These most likely reflect the usage of the definite article of their
source language.

JaL 052 c hlḥyt possibly a hl- definite article

ah 197 hnʾh-ʿzy assimilated definite article before guttural. It is
JSLih 344 h-ʾws¹t unclear whether it represents /ʾaws¹at/ or /ʾuways¹at/

2.4 Case
At the time of writing, there may be one attestation of differentiation in the
dual between the nominative -h (Nasif 1988: 99, pl. clviii) and oblique case -y
(compare ah 200 and JSLih 077), but this seems to be an exception. Generally,
the ending -y is levelled for all bound forms of the dual (see § 2.2).

15 The form ʾẓll in ah 074 and 138 is often interpreted as a broken plural (Sima 1999, 40 and
46), but when compared to the other examples of ʾẓll and the standard formula, in which
the ẓll ceremony that is mentioned as a nominal form is always definite, this should prob-
ably also be read as a form with an assimilated ʾ(l)- definite article. A clear example of a
broken plural form of ẓll is attested in U 050 and U 032 ṯlṯ ʾẓlt ‘three ẓll ceremonies’ (see
§2.1).
16 Compare JSLih 066 h-ṣfḥt ḏh ‘he took this (section of) cliff’.
17 In the transcription in ociana there is no word divider following the last w of the plural
verb ʾgww, but it is visible in the photograph.

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nominal and pronominal morphology 159

2.4.1 Indefinite Accusative

Since Dadanitic represented -ā with a mater lectionis -h (see Chapter 4, § 2.1),
a pausal indefinite accusative -ā would be visible in the orthography. Unfortu-
nately, the environment in which such a form would be expected is rare in the
inscriptions. JSLih 077 might be such an example, but only if we interpret the h
as the enclitic pronoun and not as the definite article. If ṣlm is indeed an indefi-
nite noun, it seems that Dadanitic did not have a pausal indefinite accusative -ā.

JSLih 077 ḥmm / b-bt-h ṣ{l}m

‘he dedicated {a statue} at his temple’

3 Noun Formation

3.1 Prefix m-
3.1.1 Nouns of Place
The prefix m- can be used to form nouns of place as in other Semitic languages.
The maCCaC pattern can be augmented with a suffix -t, which seems to be lex-
ically determined.

3.1.2 Instrumental Nouns

There seems to be one example of the use of m- to form an instrumental noun:
mgmrt ‘incense burner’ (Private collection 2). Compare, CAr. mijmarah ‘a ves-
sel for fumigation, a vessel in which live coals are put with incense’ (Lane, 454
ab).

i-Weak Roots
The first radical of initial w- and y- roots is not represented orthographically. It
is unclear whether the first syllable contained a diphthong or a vowel, as both
would not be represented in this position in the Dadanitic script (see Chapter 4,
§ 5).

ii-Weak Roots
The second radical of middle weak verbs is not represented orthographically
and was probably realized as a long vowel maCv̄C.

iii-Weak Roots
The final radical of final weak roots is represented. It is not clear, however,
whether the final glide represents a consonant or a vowel (see Chapter 4, §§ 2.2
and 2.3). Noun formation:

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160 chapter 6

maCCvC
mqbr tomb, burial place √qbr ‘to bury’ JSLih 306
mqʿd seat, throne √qʿd ‘to sit down’ JSLih 072; JaL 161
mrbḍ meadow √rbḍ ‘to grant grazing ah 073
rights’
mqdr cultic structure √qdr ‘He (God) dis- JSLih 045; Al-Saʿīd
tributed, divided; 1420/1999: 26–36,
appointed (as though no. 3
by measure)’

ma(C)CvC (i-weak)
mmʾ oath √wmʾ ‘to swear’ JSLih 070
(Aram.)
mṯb sitting place, √wṯb ‘to sit, to sit al-Ḫuraybah 12;
throne down’ JSLih 055

maCv̄C (ii-weak)
mkn place √kwn ‘to be’ JSLih 072

maCCvC (iii-weak)
mḥrw incense burner √ḥrw ‘to burn (with al-Ḫuraybah 06;
anger)’ ah 209
mḥry ah 288

maCCvCt
mgmrt incense burner √gmr CAr. jamrah Private collection 2
‘live or burning coal’

3.2 Elative
The masculine form of the elative is formed with the ʾvCCvC pattern.18

h-mqdr / hn-ʾkbr ‘the biggest’ √kbr ‘to be or Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999:

become big’ 26–36, no. 3: 2
h-gbl / hn-ʾʿly ‘the upper border’ √ʿly ‘to be or JSLih 072: 6
become high’

18 In addition to these examples there is one inscription containing the form hn-ʾlmʿ ‘the
brightest’ (Qaṣr al-Ṣāniʿ 6) pn hn- ʾlmʿ // pn hn-ʾlmʿ. It is unclear, however, whether this
should be interpreted as a title or a personal name.

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nominal and pronominal morphology 161

h-gbl hn-ʾs¹fl ‘the lower border’ √ s¹fl ‘to be or JSLih 072: 7

become low’

3.2.1 Theophoric Names

This pattern is also attested in the theophoric name hn-ʾktb, which is attested
once in reference to a deity in JSLih 037. However, it most commonly occurs as
the theophoric element in personal names, as in the examples below.

JSLih 037 ----{t}----// h-mḥ // r w l-//{h}n-ʾktb / f //rḍy-hmy // ----

‘… the incense burner to {hn-ʾktb} so may he favor them both …’

zdhnʾktb JSLih 078; JSLih 358

grmhnʾktb JSLih 290
ʾmthnʾktb ah 078; ah 081

The feminine form of the element CvCCy is only attested in the female form of
the theonym h-ktby.19

JSLih 055 ----y wkl / h{ġ}s¹n / ʾfkl / h-ktby

‘… wkl hġs¹n priest of h-ktby’

3.3 Suffix -n
The usage of a suffix -n for nominal derivation seems to be lexically determined.
Nouns with -n:

bnyn ‘building’ √bny ‘to build’ Al-Saʿīd 1420/2000: 15–26,

no. 2
s¹lmn ‘security(?)’ √s¹lm ‘to be or become safe’ JSLih 073; 077

19 Farès-Drappeau views h-ktby and hn-ʾktb as variant orthographic representations of the

same form. She considers h-ktby to be a masculine form in parallel to the form kwtbʾ,
attested in Nabataean ‘even though al-kutbā is a feminine deity in Syriac literature’ (Farès-
Drappeau 1999, 203–204).

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162 chapter 6

3.4 Suffix -t
The suffix -t can be used to form abstract nouns and singulatives20 and to form
verbal nouns. In some examples its usage seems lexically determined. Indepen-
dent lexical items:

mṯlt ‘substitute’ JSLih 049; al-Ḫuraybah 14

s²ʿt ‘party, group’ ah 227; JSLih 072; JaL 161 a; ah 198

Abstract nouns:

ʾḫrt ‘posterity’ e.g., U 058; ah 100

brʾt ‘health?’ JSLih 057
brḥt ‘honor?’ JSLih 041
s¹rqt ‘theft, stolen goods’ al-Ḫuraybah 17
s²hdt ‘witness?’ JSLih 052

Singulative:

qds¹t ‘sacred offering’ JSLih 063

Verbal noun:

ḥgt ‘pilgrimage’ ah 206; ah 226; ah 239; ah 219

3.5 Gentilic Suffix -y

Gentilic adjectives can be formed by adding a suffix -y. There are no attestations
of feminine forms.21

ah 334 zd h-ḫmrny
‘zd the ḫrmn-ite’

ah 325 ms¹kt h-ṯm // dy nṭr

‘ms¹kt the Thamudite guarded’

20 U 013 ʾẓlt hẓlt may be interpreted as a singulative ‘she performed the (one) ẓll ceremony’,
but other interpretations are also possible. It could be dittography or may have been
intended as a broken plural ʾẓlt, with omission of the ʾ (see Chapter 4, § 6.11).
21 See Chapter 4, §2.3 for a discussion on the relevance of gentilic -y for the possible inter-
pretation of -y as a mater lectionis for -ī.

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nominal and pronominal morphology 163

4 Demonstrative Pronoun

Dadanitic has a ḏ-based demonstrative; masculine ḏh and feminine ḏt. The

demonstrative always occurs post nominally.

4.1 Masculine

U 038 h-ẓll / ḏh
‘this ẓll ceremony’

ah 213 h-s1fr / ḏh
‘this inscription’

JSLih 072 h-mqʿd / ḏh

‘the seat/throne’

Note that the inscriptions with a ʾ- definite article use the same demonstrative.

JSLih 276 f ʿrr / ḏġbt / ʿrr /ʾ-sfr / ḏh

‘so may Ḏġbt dishonor the one who mistreats this inscription’

ah 119 ʾẓlt ʾ-ẓll ḏh

‘she performed this ẓll ceremony’

4.1.1 Variation
Farès-Drappeau (2005, 66) notes that ḏ can also function as a demonstrative,
based on JSLih 071 hl-mfl ḏ// (which she read as hl-gbl ḏ; Farès-Drappeau 2005,
162) and JSLih 306 ʾḫḏ h-mqbr ḏ ‘he took this tomb’ (Farès-Drappeau 2005, 183).
The reading of JSLih 071 is quite uncertain, as the ḏ is the last letter of the line,
and it is unclear on the photograph of the squeeze whether anything followed.
JSLih 306 is indeed clearly missing the h on the demonstrative. This seems to
be our only clear example, however, and only a copy is available of the inscrip-
tion.22
There are two inscriptions that might contain a demonstrative with a deic-
tic particle h- prefixed, similar to the possible dual/plural form attested in JSLih
082 (see §4.3 below). Both inscriptions seem to be incomplete, however, mak-

22 In addition to this she also posits the use of the ‘Aramaic demonstrative d’ (Farès-Drap-
peau 2005, 66) in Müller, D.H. 1889: 69, no. 17. While the photograph is not very clear and
the inscription seems somewhat damaged, the first two visible letters in the photograph
seem to read hḏ and clearly not dʾ.

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164 chapter 6

ing it difficult to say anything about the agreement of these forms (whether
they are singular or plural, masculine or feminine).

JSLih 083 gs²ms¹ ---- // mn / hḏh ----// ʾb-hm / ḫrḥḏġbt

‘gs²ms¹ … {from those} … their father ḫrḥḏġbt’

The word might be incomplete, since the end of this line and the one before it
are both missing, making it impossible to tell what it would refer to.

Müller, D.H. 1889: 69, no. 17

{h}{ḏ} // l-ḏ//ġbt / f //rḍy-h // w ----// [----]
‘{this} for ḏġbt may he favor him and …’

Grimme (1937, 303) mentions that it is difficult to tell whether the top of the
inscription is complete. This is also suggested by Müller’s translation, which
starts with dots (D.H. Müller 1889, 69); however, none of the previous editors
seem to take the possibility that this may influence the interpretation seriously.
On the photograph, however, there seems to be more inscribed above the first
fully visible line. This makes the reading of what is now taken as the first line
of the inscription even more uncertain, since it is impossible to tell whether it
is a continuation of a word in the line above it.
If these forms should be interpreted as demonstrative pronouns, it seems
that demonstratives could be modified by a deictic particle h-when they were
use predicatively.23

4.2 Feminine

JSLih 066 h-ṣfḥt ḏt

‘this cliff’

JSLih 313 h-ṭrt ḏt

‘this mountain’

4.3 Plural Demonstrative

There is one inscription in which a demonstrative may refer back to a dual
noun (Winnett and Reed 1970, 125; Jamme 1974, 108–109). It is unclear, however,
whether ṣlmn should be interpreted as a dual or a diminutive form.

23 Compare CAr. ms/mp hāḏa/hāʾulāʾi; fs/fp hāḏihī/hāʾulāʾi, which uses a suppletive stem
to form the plural, but consistently forms its demonstratives with a prefix h-.

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nominal and pronominal morphology 165

JSLih 082 h-{ṣ}lmn / hḏh//[n]

‘these two statues / this statuette’

Farès-Drappeau refuses to identify this form, based on the argument that the
inscription is too damaged to verify the reading (2005, 66). While she is correct
that the reading of the n on the second line cannot be verified from the photo-
graph and can barely be confirmed from the copy, from the shape of the rock it
seems that there was no space for more than one letter before the word divider
and the following word on the second line. This makes it fairly certain that this
form should be interpreted as a demonstrative and not as the beginning of a
longer phrase or word that is now lost.
If this reading is correct, this would be an example of the attributive use of
the demonstrative with the deictic h- prefix.

5 Relative Pronoun

The relative pronoun distinguishes masculine ḏ and feminine ḏt. When the
masculine form is used as a relative, it is prefixed to the noun it modifies. The
most common usage of the relative pronoun is to indicate lineage affiliation.
There are no attestations of plural forms of the relative pronoun.

5.1 ḏV
5.1.1 Masculine
The lineage affiliations of men are indicated using ḏ.

ah 001 bn[w]d / w whbʾm / w ʿ//wd / w lbʾn / bnw // s¹ʿdʾl / ḏ yfʿn

‘bn[w]d and whbʾm and ʿwd and lbʾn sons of s¹ʿdʾl of the lineage
of yfʿn’

ah 157 wʾl // zdḥmm /ḏ bs¹n

‘wʾl zdḥmm of the lineage of bs¹n’

The relative ḏ is also commonly found in the phrase ḏ-kn l-h ‘that which was
his’ / ‘that which belonged to him’ (Farès-Drappeau 2005, 66).24

24 There are several common alternatives to this phrase: m kn l-h ‘that which was his’ (e.g.,
U 059, ah 125); ml / kn / l-h ‘the property that was his’ (e.g., ah 120) or (bʿd/ʿly) ml-h ‘on
behalf of his property’ (e.g., U 071; U 048; U 036). Note that all expressions with ml ‘prop-
erty’ occur in the al-ʿUḏayb area.

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166 chapter 6

U 050 s¹my / bn / tlġl // ʾẓll / l-ḏġbt / ṯl//ṯt / ʾẓlt / ʿly / {ḏ-}kn // {l-}h / b-bdr
‘s¹my son of tlġl performed three ẓll ceremonies for ḏġbt on behalf
of that which was his at bdr’

U 108 {b}rd / s¹lm//ḏġbt / ʾẓ//ll / l-ḏġbt // b-khl / bʿd // ḏ- kn / l-h / b-y// r

‘brd s1lmḏġbt performed the ẓll for ḏġbt at khl in behalf of that
which was his at yr’

ah 142 ʾẓl//l / l-ḏġbt / b-khl / bʿd ḏ//l-h / b-bdr/

‘he performed the ẓll for ḏġbt at khl on behalf of that which is his
at bdr’

5.1.2 Feminine
The feminine relative pronoun ḏt is attested once to mark the lineage affilia-
tion of a woman. The feminine relative ḏt is formally indistinguishable from
the feminine demonstrative.

U 126 ʿyḏh / ḏt / ṣd / ʾgt // l-ḏġbt / h-ẓll

‘ʿyḏh of the lineage of ṣd dedicated to ḏġbt the ẓll’

There are also several inscriptions in which a woman’s name is followed by ḏ

and a lineage affiliation (e.g., U 006; 068; 112).25 In these cases it seems likely
that the lineage affiliation given is that of the father.

U 006 (1–3) mrʾh / bnt / wdʿlh // ḏ-wṯmt / ʾẓlt / h- ẓl//l / l-ḏġbt

‘mrʾh daughter of wdʿlh of the lineage of wṯmt performed (fem.)
the ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt’

5.1.3 Variation
There is one inscription (JSLih 384) in which the relative ʾlt occurs (compare
CAr. allatī; see Farès-Drappeau 2005, 67).

JSLih 384 nfs¹ / ʿbds¹mn / bn // zdḫrg / ʾlt / bnh // s¹lmh / bnt / {ʾ}s¹ // ʾrs²n /
‘funerary monument of ʿbds¹mn son of zdḫrg which s¹lmh daugh-
ter of {ʾ}s¹ʾrs²n built’

25 I would like to thank Michael Macdonald for pointing out these examples to me.

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nominal and pronominal morphology 167

This short inscription seems to be linguistically and formulaically different

from the other Dadanitic inscriptions on several points, however (see the dis-
cussion of the language of the inscriptons in the Introduction and Chapter 5,
§ 1.2). For this reason it should probably be considered an Arabic inscription in
Dadanitic script (Macdonald 2000, 49).26

6 hmḏ

The anaphoric pronoun hmḏ is most commonly attested in the phrase hmḏ nḏr
‘that which he vowed’. It seems to be a compound with the relative ḏ and may
be compared to Ugaritic hnd,27 which Pardee suggested was a compound of the
particles */han + na + ḏū/ ‘this’ (2011, 464). Sima (1999, 115) proposed parsing it
as deictic element h- + particle -m- + relative -ḏ. Jaussen and Savignac (1909,
436–437) compare hmḏ to CAr. hamma allaḏī ‘this intention, design’ and the
CAr. construction ḥasba mā ‘according to’.

ah 244 ʾẓllw / h-ẓll / b-//h-mṣd / l-ḏġbt / hm-ḏ / nḏr / hn[ʾ]//s¹/

‘they dedicated the ẓll ceremony at the temple to ḏġbt which hnʾs1
vowed’

ah 013 ʾ//ẓlt / h-ẓll // l-ḏġbt / b-k//hl / hm-ḏ / nḏrt

‘she dedicated the ẓll to ḏġbt at khl which she vowed’

7 mh

The indefinite pronoun mh is only attested as a relative. When it appears inde-

pendently it is written with -h, but in proclitic position the h is not represented
(Farès-Drappeau 2005, 67; see Chapter 4, §2.1 for the implications this has for
its pronunciation).

26 Müller (1982, 32–33) already classified this inscription as Old Arabic, based on the form of
the relative pronoun. He considered the verb to reflect the third-person singular mascu-
line form, however, with the final -h reflecting -ā, after the collapse of the final triphthong
(followed by Macdonald 2000, 50).
27 This connection was suggested by Ahmad Al-Jallad in his 2015 talk ‘More Reflections on
the Linguistic Map of Ancient Arabia’ in Helsinki. Slides are available on academia.edu.

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168 chapter 6

JSLih 064 bʿls¹mn / ʾḥrm / h-qrt // mn / mh / trq-h / mrʾt // l-bhny / hn-ʾfklt //

ḏ
‘bʿls¹mn protected the village from what [spell] the woman of the
palm tree, the priestess cast on it ḏ’28

JSLih 077 whblh / bn / zdqny / w lmy / bn // nfyh / wdyw / nfs¹ / mr / bn / ḥwt

/ m{h }// ʾḫḏ / ʿl-hmy / ḫrg
‘whblh son of zdqny and lmy son of nfyh set up the funerary mon-
ument of mr son of ḥwt according to that which he took upon
them by lawsuit’29

al-Ḫuraybah 17
----{m}n / s¹rq / f-ʾn / yṣbr / b-mh / s¹r[q]---- //
‘… and if he is caught with what he stole …’

U 059 ʿly / m-kn / l-h

‘on behalf of that which was his’

8 mn

The indefinite relative mn occurs most frequently in curse formulae.

ah 289 f-mn yʿrrh // yʿrh nʿm // ḏġbt // w-ṭḥln

‘and may whoever mistreats it be stripped of property, ḏġbt and
ṭḥln’

Müller, D.H. 1889: 78, no. 29

[----] // [m][l]k / lḥyn / f-ʿrr / h----//ʿ {/} mn / ʿrr / h-kfr / ḏh
‘… {king} of Liḥyān so may he dishonor … the one who mistreats
this tomb’

JSTham 251.3 {w} mn yʿrr ʿrr ḏġbt ʿṭ{ḥ}{l}r

‘whoever mistreats [it] may ḏġbt disgrace [him] ???’

28 This inscription was translated during a reading session at the LeiCenSAA. Hekmat Dirbas
first suggested the meaning ‘to conjure a protective spell’ from the root rqy.
29 This translation was made during a reading session at the LeiCenSAA.

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nominal and pronominal morphology 169

It occurs once in an inscription that seems to be a legal text but is heavily

damaged.

al-Ḫuraybah 17
[----]//f / mm---- // ---- l-ddn / l-ʾbd / ---- // ----rs¹ / mn / s¹rqt / ʾym-
--- //----{m}n / s¹rq / f-ʾn / yṣbr / b-mh / s1r[q]---- // ----{d}n / thḍ-h
/ kll-h / f ḥṯm ---- // ----hs¹rqt / yṭb / h-s¹rq / ʾw / y ---- // ----bh
‘… to/for Dadan forever … … from theft days … … who stole(?)
and if he is caught with what he {stole} … … if all of it broke (the
stolen things) then beat him(?) … … the theft/stolen goods acquit
the thief or …’

9 Personal Pronouns

Most of the personal pronouns that are attested in Dadanitic are in the enclitic
form. Not all forms of the independent pronouns have been attested in the
Dadanitic inscriptions.

9.1 Independent Personal Pronouns

Only the first person singular ʾn, third person singular and plural masculine hʾ
and hm, respectively, are attested.30

JSLih 347 lbbt / ḥbb // w ʾn / nʿmn / bn / mnʿm

‘lbbt ḥbb and I am nʿmn son of mnʿm’31

Ǧabal Iṯlib 06
ʾn / mʿt // ʿs²r s¹lʿ{t}
‘I am mʿt companion/kinsman of s¹lʿ{t}’

JaL 166 e /ʾn rfs1ʾl

‘I am rfs1ʾl’

If JSLih 347 should indeed be read as two separate inscriptions, it seems that all
examples of ʾn can be interpreted as a kind of introductory particle, announcing

30 The existence of the first-person singular and the third-person masculine plural personal
pronouns has already been noted (e.g., Macdonald 2008, 197; Farès-Drappeau 2005, 68).
31 These may be two separate inscriptions.

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170 chapter 6

table 14 Personal
pronouns

Singular Plural

1 ʾn na
2 na na
3 hʾ hm

the start of the inscription.32 This is very different from the rest of the Dadanitic
inscriptions which generally do not have any introductory particle.
There are two inscriptions that use the third-person singular masculine
independent personal pronoun anaphorically: ah 288 (Farès-Drappeau 2005,
66) and JSLih 078 (Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2017, 67–68).33

ah 288 wʾl / ʿbd / s¹rmrʾ / hʾ / nṣb / ----//h / [l-]ʿtrġth / qbl / ʾns¹ / ---- // blhh
/ w hwdq / l-h / h-mḥry---- // ḥgr / f rḍyt-h / w ʾḫrt-h ---- // ʿrr / ḏġbt
/ w hʾ / ʾḫrt ----// ʿrr-h
‘wʾl, servant of s¹rmrʾ, he set up the cult stone … [for] Atargatis
before pn … and he offered to her the incense burner … ḥgr so
may she favor him and his posterity … may ḏġbt dishonor and his
posterity [too] … [who] mistreats it’34

JSLih 078 zdhnʾktb // wdʿ / bny /b//rʾ / h-mṯbr /ʿ//l-h / hʾ

‘zdhnʾktb wdʿ built the facade of the grave chamber and it is his’35

There is one inscription in which a third person plural indepent personal pro-
noun seems to be attested.

32 Compare the use of ʾn at the beginning of two Taymanitic inscriptions Esk. 169 and 177.
33 Note that this usage of the personal pronouns is no longer productive in Arabic (Al-Jallad
2015, 12).
34 This translation is largely following that proposed by Hidalgo-Chacón Díez (2017, 61),
except for the plural interpretation of the word mḥry, which I would consider a singular
noun (see the Appendix), and the reading of the first word of the third line.
35 This inscription was read during one of the reading sessions at the LeiCeSAA. Johan Lund-
berg suggested comparing brʾ to OffAram. brʾ ‘outside’ (cal, accessed 13-03-2017) which
led to the translation ‘façade’.

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JSLih 079 (2–3)

ʾḫḏw / h-qbr / ḏh / hm / w ʾḫw-hm
‘they took possession of this tomb, they and their brothers’

9.2 Clitic Pronouns

Due to the composition of the inscriptions the only attested enclitic pronouns
are third-person forms. Orthographically there is no difference between the
3sf and 3sm forms. There is one inscription with two women as its dedi-
cants (ah 032), but this does not contain an enclitic pronoun and the verb has
the regular plural suffix -w. Since the difference between masculine and femi-
nine enclitic pronouns is not made in the orthography in the singular and not
attested for the other forms, it will not be represented in the table below.

9.2.1 -hmy
The dual enclitic personal pronoun -hmy should probably be vocalized as
/humay/ or /humē/ in analogy with the bound dual suffix -y, which seems to
have been levelled to all cases in most inscriptions (see § 2.2).

9.2.2 Function
Clitic pronouns can be used to both indicate possession on nouns, and direct
or indirect objects on verbs and prepositions.

U 037 ʾrs² / bn // zdlh / w //bn-h / gffh

‘ʾrs² son of zdlh and his son gffh’

JSLih 072 ʾḫḏw / h-mkn // w h-mqʿd / ḏh / kll-h

‘they took the place and this seat, all of it’36

U 056 ʾmtbʿs¹mn bnt // ----ḥyt ʾẓllt l-//ḏġbt b-{k}hl bʿd // {d}ṯʾ-h / f rḍ-h
‘ʾmtbʿs¹mn daughter of … ḥyt performed the ẓll for ḏġbt at khl on
behalf of her crops of the season of the later rains so may he favor
her’

U 050 s¹my / bn / tlġl // ʾẓll / l-ḏġbt / ṯl//ṯt / ʾẓlt / ʿly / {ḏ-}kn // {l-}h / b-bdr
/ f r{ḍ}-h / w {s¹}ʿ//d-h
‘s¹my son of tlġl performed three ẓll ceremonies for ḏġbt on behalf
of what is his at bdr so may he favor him and aid him’

36 Translation following Lundberg (2015, 135).

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172 chapter 6

table 15 Clitic pronouns

Singular Dual Plural

1 na na na
2 na na na
3 -h -hmy -hm

ah 001 bn[w]d / w whbʾm / w ʿ//wd / w lbʾn / bnw // s¹ʿdʾl / ḏ-yfʿn / ʾẓ//llw /

ẓll / h-nq / l-//ḏġbt / f rḍ-hm
‘bn[w]d and whbʾm and ʿ wd and lbʾn sons of s¹ʿdʾl of the lineage of
yfʿn performed the ẓll of the nq for ḏġbt so may he favor them’

ah 199 s¹mwh / bnt / s¹mr / s¹lḥt / w//d / w zyd / bʿl-h / ḏ-yfʿn /ʾ//ẓllh / l-ḏġbt
/ h-ẓll / b-hmṣ//d / f rḍ-hmy / w s¹ʿd-hmy w----
‘s¹mwh daughter of s¹mr priestess of Wadd and zyd her husband
of the lineage of yfʿn performed (du.) the ẓll ceremony for Ḏġbt
at the sanctuary so may he favor them both and aid them both
and …’

9.3 Reflexive Pronoun

There is one attestation of the use of the word nfs¹ with a suffixed personal pro-
noun as a reflexive pronoun.

U 021 ʿf / bn / ʿ{y}ḏh / ʾ//ẓll / h-ẓll / nḏr // bʿd / d{ṯ}ʾ-h / w nfs¹//-h / f rḍ-h

/ w ʾṯb//-h / w s¹ʿd-h / w ʾṯb-h
‘ʿf son of ʿ{y}ḏh performed the ẓll ceremony vowed on behalf of
his crops of the season of the later rains and himself so may he
favor him and reward him and aid him and reward him’

10 Prepositions

The Dadanitic prepositions have received extensive treatment in an article by

J. Lundberg (2015). I generally agree with his interpretation, therefore, only ldy
merits further discussion here. Attested prepositions:

ʿly/ʿl locative on
benefactive for the sake of (Lundberg 2015, 125)

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nominal and pronominal morphology 173

bʿd benefactive for the sake of (Lundberg 2015, 127)

l- direct object to
benefactive for
possession of
possible temporal duration for/during (Lundberg 2015, 128)
b- locative (both spatial and in/at
temporal)
instrumental phrases by
indicating authorship by (Lundberg 2015, 129)
qbl temporal before (Lundberg 2015, 131)
ḫlf temporal after (Lundberg 2015, 132)
mʿ comitative with (Lundberg 2015, 132)
mn origin of source or partitive from or of
manner according to (Lundberg 2015, 133);
reason because
adversative from (Lundberg 2015, 134)
ʿdky terminative until, as far as (Lundberg 2015, 135)
ldy benefactive on account of (Lundberg 2015, 135)

10.1 ldy
The preposition ldy is only attested once in Dadanitic, in JSLih 077. While the
interpretation of ldy as benefactive with the translation ‘on account of’ (Lund-
berg 2015, 135) works well with the rest of the inscription, its meaning could
also be related to its CAr. equivalent laday, ladā ‘with’ (Lisān, 4023), possibly
from Aram. l-yd ‘under control of, next to’ (cal, 19-02-2018).

JSLih 077 whblh / bn / zdqny / wlmy / bn // nfyh / wdyw / nfs¹ / mr / bn / ḥwt

/ m{h} // ʾḫḏ / ʿl-hmy / ḫrg / w h- dṯʾ / ldy / d// ṯʾ / ḥmm / b-ḏʾfʿ
‘whblh son of zdqny and lmy son of nfyh erected the funerary mon-
ument of mr son of ḥwt (according to) that which he took upon
them by lawsuit and (which also included) the crops of the sea-
son of the later rains (together) with the decreed offering of the
crops of the season of the later rains at ḏʾfʿ’

11 Numerals

Only cardinal numbers are attested in Dadanitic. The numerals one through
ten have both a masculine and a feminine form. Since there is only a very
small range of nouns that occur with numerals it is difficult to say whether they

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174 chapter 6

conform to the Arabic system of crossed gender agreement. Based on the con-
sistent occurrence of ʾym with numerals without the suffix -t, similar to Safaitic,
it has been concluded that ym ‘day’ must be a feminine noun in Safaitic and
Dadanitic (Macdonald 2008, 212).37
In the numerals 13 to 19 the ten does not seem to inflect for gender. Compare
s¹nt / s¹t / ʿs²r---- ‘year sixteen’ (Nasif 1988: 99, pl. clvii) and s¹tt / ʿs²r / m//n /
s¹nt / mt / ʿl-//h ‘sixteen [times] according to the custom of the land [placed]
upon her’ (ah 064).
The numerals above ten are usually formed by placing the teen first,38 fol-
lowed by the conjunction w- and the digit, which is the opposite from the order
in CAr. (Caskel 1954, 71; Sima 1999, 119). The decades are formed with the mas-
culine plural suffix -n, similar to Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic (Huehnergard
2005, 182–183).39
The numerals are generally placed before the noun they are counting. How-
ever, most occur with the noun s¹nt ‘year’ in a specific construction in which the
number follows the noun s¹nt X ‘year X’. Here follows an overview of all attested
numerals in Dadanitic, followed by a short discussion of those that merit closer
attention.

‘1’ (m.)
s¹nt / ʾḥdy ‘year one’ Müller, D.H. 1889: 63–
64, no. 8; Nasif 1988: 96,
pl. cxliv; Nasif 1988: 96,
pl. cxlv; Nasif 1988: 96,
pl. cxlvi; Nasif 1988: 97,
pl. cxlvii; and probably
JaL 002 but in broken con-
text
ʾḥd-hm ‘one of them’ JaL 001

37 I would like to thank Michael Macdonald for adding that since ʾym is an inanimate plural
it is expected it would be treated as a feminine singular form (which would agree with a
numeral below ten with no suffix), but this does not mean that ym is a feminine noun too.
While this works for ʾym, the plural form ʾẓlt agrees with the numeral ṯlṯt.
38 There are two examples in which the digit precedes the teen (see § 11.4).
39 Huehnergard (2005, 182–184) concluded that this form of the tens is a Central Semitic
innovation. Based on this, and several other features of Dadanitic, Ahmad Al-Jallad argues
that Dadanitic is a sister language of Arabic rather than a direct ancestor of Proto-Arabic
(Al-Jallad 2018, 21–24; also see the discussion of the language of the Dadanitic inscriptions
in the introduction).

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nominal and pronominal morphology 175

‘2’ (m.)
s¹nt / ṯtn ‘year two’ JSLih 045

‘3’ (m.)
s¹nt / ṯlṯ iii40 ‘year three’ ah 239; Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999:
26–36, no. 341
l-ṯlṯ // s¹nn ‘for three years’ JSLih 07142
‘3’ (f.)
ṯlṯt / ʾẓl//t ‘three ẓll ceremonies’ U 032
‘3 t-base’ (m.)
ṯlt / ʾym ‘three days’ JSLih 068

‘5’ (m.)
s¹nt / ḫms¹ ‘year five’ ah 219; JSLih 072; JSLih
075; ah 013

‘6’ (m.)
s¹nt s¹t ‘year six’ ah 222

‘7’ (m.)
s¹bʿ / ʾym / qb//l / rʾy ‘seven days before ah 244
/ ḏʾs¹lʿn the rʾy of ḏʾs1lʿn’

‘10’ (m.)
ʿs²r / ʾym ‘ten days’ JSLih 070
‘10’ (m.)
ʿs²rt / mnh{h} ‘ten Minah’ JSLih 177

‘12’ (m.)
s¹nt // ʿs²r / w {ṯ}tn ‘in year 12’ ah 081

‘13’ (m.)
s¹nt / ʿs²r / w ṯlṯ/13 ‘year thirteen’ ah 197

40 The numeral is indicated by three vertical lines between two short diagonal lines placed
above each other on either side.
41 The word ṯlṯ ‘three’ occurs in broken context.
42 The inscription is marked as Arabic language in Dadanitic script in ociana (accessed 05-
03-17).

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176 chapter 6

‘16’ (m.)
s¹nt / s¹t / ʿs²r ---- ‘year sixteen’ Nasif 1988: 99, pl. clvii43
‘16’ (f.)
s¹tt / ʿs²r / m//n / s¹nt ‘sixteen [times] ah 064
/ mt / ʿl-//h according to the
custom of the land
[placed] upon her’

‘17’ (m.)
/ s¹nt / ʿ{s²}//r / w ‘year seventeen’ U 008
s¹bʿ

‘19’ (m.)
[s¹][n]{t} / ʿs²r / w ‘{year} nineteen’ Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 3–14,
ts¹ʿ no. 1

‘20’ (m.)
s¹nt / ʿs²rn ‘year twenty’ ah 063

‘22’ (m.)
s¹nt / ʿs²rn / w ṯtn ‘year twenty-two’ ah 244

‘24’ (m.)
s¹nt / ʿs²rn / w ʾr[b][ʿ] ‘year twenty-{four}’ ah 204; ah 226
----

‘25’ (m.)
s¹nt / ʿs²rn / w ‘year twenty-{five}’ ah 206
ḫ[m][s¹]

‘28’ (m.)
/{s¹}//nt / ʿs²rn / ‘year twenty-eight’ JSLih 068
⟨w⟩tmn{y}

43 The number is transcribed as s¹t / w ʿs²r in ociana, but the photograph shows that there
is no complementizer w- before the ten. This was already noted by Sima (1999, 199).

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nominal and pronominal morphology 177

‘29’ (m.)
s¹nt / ʿs²r//n / w ts¹ʿ ‘year twenty-nine’ JSLih 070; JSLih 083

‘30’ (c.)
s¹nt // ṯlṯn ‘year thirty’ ahud 1

‘35’ (m.)
s¹n[t] / ṯlṯn / w ‘year thirty-five 35’ JSLih 082
ḫm//s¹ 35

‘40’ (c.)
b-ʾrbʿn{/}s¹lʿt----- ‘with forty drach- JSLih 177
mas’44

‘41’ (m.)
/ s¹nt / ʾrbʾn / w ‘year forty-one’ (ah 202)
ʾ⟨ḥ⟩d//y

‘42’ (m.)
s¹nt / ʾr{b}//ʿn / w ṯtn ‘year forty-two’ al-Ḫuraybah 10

‘45’ (m.)
---- [ʾ][r][b][ʿ][n] [w] ‘[forty]-five 45’ ah 225
ḫms¹ 45 ----

‘60’ (c.)
[s¹]nt / s¹tn ---- ‘year sixty’ Müller, D.H. 1889: 77–78,
no. 28

‘120’ (c.)
mʾt / w ʿs²rn / s¹d---- ‘one hundred and JSLih 077
twenty …’

‘140’ (c.)
mʾt / w ʾrbʿn / ---- ‘one hundred and Müller, D.H. 1889: 77–78,
forty’ no. 28

44 Translation following Macdonald (2008, 213).

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178 chapter 6

‘145’ (c.)
m//ʾt / w ʾrbʿn / w ‘one hundred and U 023
ḫms¹ / nḫl45 forty-five palm trees’

11.1 One
The Dadanitic numeral one has the morphological form of a feminine ela-
tive/ʾvḥday/ (compare CAr. ‫ إحدى‬ʾiḥdā). There is one attestation where the
numeral is followed by a suffixed pronoun, in which the glide is not repre-
sented.

JaL 001 ----bndw / ʾḥd-hm / b-s¹lʿt----

‘… one of them with coins …’

11.2 Two
As already carefully discussed in Macdonald (2008), the form ṯtn ‘two’ is proba-
bly an assimilated form of *ṯintān, with the regular assimilation of n to follow-
ing consonants in Dadanitic (see Chapter 4, §6.1). Note that this form does not
have a prosthetic vowel (compare CAr. ṯintān and ʾiṯnatāni; Macdonald 2008,
213).46

11.3 Eight
The numeral eight is only attested once in the compound number twenty-eight
ʿs²rn / ⟨w⟩tmny47 (JSLih 068). If this reading is correct, this numeral underwent
the sound change ṯ > t, similar to some forms of the numeral three (see § 11.4
below). In the numeral eight, however, it cannot be explained as dissimilation.
While we have other isolated examples of etymological interdentals being writ-
ten with stops,48 this does not seem to have been common in Dadanitic. Since
we only have one example of tmny it is impossible to tell whether this spelling
is an anomaly or not.

45 As already noted by Macdonald (2008, 213) the first and last words of the line are almost
invisible in the photograph and are left off by Abū al-Ḥasan.
46 Macdonald (2008, 213) also points out the form ṯintēn in modern dialects of central and
eastern Arabia.
47 In the ociana database the final y is indicated as difficult to read. This is true on the
photograph of the squeeze taken by Jaussen and Savignac (1909), but in the more recent
photograph of the rock provided in the database, the final y is clearly visible (accessed
04-07-2017).
48 Possibly tlt for ṯlṯ (JSLih 047; also see Chapter 6 §11.4 below), nṭr for nẓr (e.g., ah 313), and
ṭll for ẓll (ah 009.1; also see Chapter 4, §6.3).

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nominal and pronominal morphology 179

11.4 Variation
11.4.1 Three
The numeral three is attested with two variant bases: twice as ṯlṯ (U 032; JSLih
071) and once as ṯlt (JSLih 068;).49 The example of ṯlt occurs with ʾym ‘days’,
which otherwise occurs with numerals in their short form (JSLih 070; ah 244),
therefore it is unlikely that the stop at the end of the word is the result of assim-
ilation to the -t suffix (Macdonald 2008, 212). It might have become a stop due
to dissimilation from the first interdental; compare Sab. s2ms1 and CAr. šams
‘sun’ < *s2ms2 (Kogan 2011, 193).

ṯlṯt / ʾẓl//t ‘three ẓll ceremonies’ U 032

s¹nt / ṯlṯ 350 ‘year three 3’ ah 239; Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 26–36,
no. 3
l-ṯlṯ // s¹nn ‘for three years’ JSLih 071
ṯlt / ʾym ‘three days’ JSLih 068

Note that the glyphs for t and ṯ are quite similar in shape. They both have an
x-shaped base. The ṯ is generally slightly smaller and sits on top of a vertical
line , while the t is simply an X. Given the similar basic shape they may be dif-
ficult to tell apart in the photographs. The t in JSLih 068 is curiously ligatured
to both the l preceding it and the following word divider. Due to the angle of
the photograph it is difficult to see whether there is a vertical line in the mid-
dle of the glyph, or whether it is a line that was part of the rock itself (in grey
on the trace); however, comparing the size of the x-shape in the ṯ and the last
letter of the word, it seems that it should be read as a t. Jaussen and Savignac
do not consider the line under discussion as part of the letter in their tracing
(1909–1914, pl. lxxxiv).
In addition to these forms, the existence of a third form, tlt, has also been
suggested on the basis of JSLih 047 (Macdonald 2000, 212–213).

JSLih 047 [----] // m----nw // tlt / mʿn / mn / d----//ft / b-ʾrbʿn / w----// lmn /
h-mrʾ----
‘… three (?) sanctuaries of/from … with forty and … the lord …’51

49 ociana reads ṯlṯ, but the copy and the photograph both clearly show ṯlt.
50 See note 40 in this chapter.
51 The translation largely follows ociana (accessed 04-07-2017), except for ʾrbʿn. ociana
takes this as ‘sanctuary’, probably based on the preceding preposition b- which is taken as

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180 chapter 6

figure 15
Tracing of the word ṯlt in JSLih 068
original photographs available on ociana

This form is found in a damaged text. From the photograph of the inscrip-
tion, it is not quite clear whether tlt is a continuation of the last word of the
previous line or not. If it is indeed a numeral ‘three’, it specifies the number
of mʿn. This word is attested in JSLih 072 as a singular noun with the meaning
‘sanctuary’ (Lundberg 2015, n. 37). The form mʿn, in JSLih 047, would then have
to be a broken plural. If tlt really does represent *ṯlṯ, the replacement of the
interdentals with stops may be compared to the examples in which ẓ > ṭ (see
Chapter 4, §6.3).

11.4.12 Teen-and-Digit and Digit-Teen Notation

Both teen-and-digit and digit-teen forms of the numerals are attested in Dada-
nitic (Sima 1999, 119). The teen-and-digit forms are by far the most common,
with only two examples of digit-first forms (ah 064; Nasif 1988: 99, pl. clvii).
According to R. Hetzron (1977), the teen-and-digit forms are the more archaic.
Even though there are only two examples of the digit-teen form in Dadanitic,
one is found in a dating formula, which is the most common environment for
numerals to occur in Dadanitic. Occurrences of teen-and-digit and digit-teen
notation:

Digit-teen Teen-and digit

12 s¹nt // ʿs²r / w {ṯ}tn ‘in year 12’

(ah 081)
13 s¹nt / ʿs²r / w ṯlṯ / 13 ‘year thirteen’
(ah 197)

a locative. I do not see any reason to translate the form as anything other than forty, how-
ever, which occurs several times in the exact same form in the corpus (JSLih 177; ah 202;
al-Ḫuraybah 10; ah 225). The preposition should then be translated as ‘with’ or ‘by’. The
following w- could be followed by a digit.

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nominal and pronominal morphology 181

(cont.)

Digit-teen Teen-and digit

16 s¹tt / ʿs²r / m//n / s¹nt / mt /

ʿl-//h ‘sixteen [times] accord-
ing to the custom of the land
[placed] upon her’ (ah 064)
s¹nt/s¹t/ʿs²r ----52 ‘year sixteen’
(Nasif 1988: 99, pl. clvii)
17 / s¹nt / ʿ{s²}//r / w s¹bʿ ‘year seven-
teen’ (U 008)
19 s¹][n]{t} / ʿs²r / w ts¹ʿ ‘{year} nine-
teen’ (Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 3–14,
no. 1)
22 s¹nt / ʿs²rn / w ṯtn ‘year twenty-two’
(ah 244)
24 s¹nt / ʿs²rn / w ʾr[b][ʿ] ---- ‘year
twenty-{four} …’ (ah 204; ah 226)
25 s¹nt / ʿs²rn / w ḫ[m][s¹] ‘year
twenty-{five}’ (ah 206)
28 /{s¹}//nt / ʿs²rn / ⟨w⟩tmn{y} ‘year
twenty-eight’ (JSLih 068)
29 s¹nt / ʿs²r//n / w ts¹ʿ ‘year twenty-
nine’ (JSLih 070; JSLih 083)

12 Adverbs

12.1 Locative b-ḏh

There is one attestation of the compound adverb b-ḏh ‘here’ (Macdonald 2008,
200) in a graffito.

JSLih 279 mrh ktb-h / b-ḏh

‘mrh wrote it here’

52 See note 43 in this chapter for the reading of the inscription.

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182 chapter 6

12.2 Temporal Adverbs

12.2.1 dm
The interpretation of w-dm at the end of JSLih 306 is not entirely certain. It is
the only example of this adverb, and it is taken to mean ‘forever’ here. Compare,
CAr. dāma ‘to persist, to continue’ (Lane, 935c) and dāʾim ‘continuing, lasting,
remaining, everlasting’ (Lane, 937c).

JSLih 306 brk{t}ġṯ {ḏ-}tḥyw // ʾḫḏ h-mqbr {ḏ}[h] w dm

‘brk{t}ġṯ {of the lineage of} tḥyw took possession of this tomb for-
ever’

12.2.2 ḫld
The adverb ḫld occurs twice in two related inscriptions with uncertain mean-
ing. For the meaning of ḫld, compare CAr. ḫalada ‘he remained, stayed’ (Lane,
783c).

JSLih 070: 1–4

ḫls¹ / zdḫrg / bn /// bl / ḫld / s¹nt / ʿs²r//n / w ts¹ʿ / ʿs²r / ʾym // ḫlf /
fḍg /
‘zdḫrg son of bl was released forever, year twenty-nine, ten days
after [the setting of? the asterism] fḍg’

JSLih 068 ḫls¹ lṭb / b{n} // s¹d / ḫld / {s¹}//nt / ʿs²rn / ⟨w⟩ tmn{y} // ṯlt / ʾym
/ qbl // rʾy / s¹lḥn
‘lṭb son of s¹d was released forever, year twenty-{eight}, three days
before the rising of the asterism slḥn’

13 Particles

13.1 ʾn
The particle ʾn / ʾin/ can be used to introduce the protasis of a conditional
clause. The phrase f-ʾn can be compared to CAr. fa-ʾinna.

al-Ḫuraybah 17
----[m]n / s¹rq / f-ʾn / yṣbr / b-mh / {s¹r}[q]---- //----{d}n / thḍ-h /
kll-h / f-ḥṯm
‘… who stole and if he is caught with what he {stole} … … if all of
it broke (the stolen things) then beat [him](?) …’

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nominal and pronominal morphology 183

13.2 Asseverative
The asseverative wl /walā/ ‘verily, already’ is attested twice. The asseverative l is
found in all branches of Semitic to assert the truth or certainty of a statement.
The Dadanitic form is augmented with the conjunction w-. In other Semitic lan-
guages, the asseverative is usually not used independently, but compare Sabaic,
where both proclitic and independent spellings are attested: w-l yknn hʾ (Fa
30) ‘and may it be’ and w-l-yknn ʾln ʾs¹dn w-ʾnṯn (Fa 3) ‘and may these men and
women be’.53

JSLih 313 l-lbh / w ẓʿ//nh / w bnt-h / h-ṭrt // ḏt / wl / wrṯ-hm54

‘for lbh and ẓʿnh and his daughter [is] this mountain and verily
[it is] their inheritance’

JSLih 077: 6–7

wl / ḥmm / b-bt-h ṣ{l}m / wl / s¹lmn // b-ḥq[w]y / kfr / ḥmm
‘and verily (or he has already) offered at his (ḏġbt?) temple a
statue and he has offered two offerings (?) for security on the walls
of (a?) cave’

13.3 Quantifier
The quantifier kll ‘all, all of it’ occurs in Dadanitic in legal and votive contexts to
indicate possession or dedication of the totality of a certain object. It is related
to CAr. kull ‘totality, entirety, everyone, each one, whole, entire, all’ (Lane, 978a),
but the spelling with both l’s represented indicates that it was probably pro-
nounced differently, as in other ana corpora such as Safaitic. Al-Jallad draws
a comparison between the Safaitic form and Ugaritic /kalīlu/ and suggests a
similar pronunciation /kalīl/ for Safaitic (2015, 89).

JaL 161 a l-s²ʿt / // ʿlʾl / kʿ//mn h-mqʿd k//ll -h / f ʿrr // ḏġbt / ʿr//r / h-s¹fr / ḏh
‘to the party of ʿlʾl kʿmn the seat,55 all of it and may ḏġbt dishonor
the one who mistreats this inscription’

53 dasi (accessed 08-02-2018).

54 ociana reads ġnṯh, which is interpreted as a personal name, instead of bnt-h (accessed
13-08-2018).
55 This might be compared to Nabataean inscriptions mentioning the dedication of a bed
or ritual couch rbʿtʾ, which Nehmé (2003, 24) suggests comes from the root √rbḍ. A
similar form, rbʿyʾ, was discovered in a Nabataean inscription from the Moab plateau (al-
Salameen and Shdaifat 2017, 3–4).

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184 chapter 6

JSLih 072: 4–7

ʾḫḏw / h-mkn // w h-mqʿd / ḏh / kll-h / mn / mʿ//n / h-gbl / hnʾʿly /
ʿdky // mʿ{n} / h-gbl / hnʾs¹{l}l
‘they took the place and the seat, all of it, from the assembly place
of the upper border up to the sanctuary of the lower border’

U 010 ʿbdʾtbl / bn / zdḥmm // ṯwbt / nḏr / h-ẓll / l-ḏġbt // b-khl / bʿd / ml-h
/ b-ṯr / f rḍ-h // w s¹ʿd-h / w ʾḫrt-h // kll-h
‘ʿbdʾtbl son of zdḥmm ṯwbt vowed the ẓll to ḏġbt at khl on behalf
of his property at ṯr so may he favor him and aid him and his pos-
terity, all of it’

14 Conjunctions

14.1 Coordinating Conjunctions

The two coordinating conjunctions attested in Dadanitic are w- and f-.

14.1.1 w-
The conjunction w- functions roughly as the English ‘and’. It is used to combine
two equivalent parts of a sentence, which can range from words to complete
sentences.

ah 081: 1–3 ʿyḏh / w ʾmth{n}ʾktb / bnt / qn//y / w ʾm-hm / s²nʾh / w bʿlhzd / nm-
---//h /w bn[t]-h /ʾ mtyṯʿn / ʾẓlw /
‘ʿyḏh and ʾmth{n}ʾktb daughter of qny and their mother s²nʾh and
bʿlhzd bm … h and his/her daughter ʾmtyṯʿn performed the ẓll’

U 038: 3–4 f rḍ-h / w ʾḫr[t]-h // w ʾṯb-h

‘so may he favor him and his posterity and reward him’

U 058: 1–5 ʿyḏ / bn / ydʿ // ʾẓll / h-ẓll // {b-}khl / l-ḏġ//bt / bʿd /{n}ḫl-h // w dṯʾ-h
b-bdr
‘ʿyḏ son of ydʿ performed the ẓll ceremony at khl for ḏġbt on behalf
of their palm trees and their crops of the season of the later rains
at bdr’

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nominal and pronominal morphology 185

14.1.2 f-
The conjunction f- is most commonly used to begin the blessing formula and
to start a curse at the end of a dedicatory inscription. Due to its almost exclusive
and static use as part of these formulae, Sima concludes that its use is ‘erstarrt’
and unproductive (1999, 112). Within this templatic use, a causal or temporal
relationship between the two parts ‘so, then’—similar to the use of f- in CAr.—
can still be recognized.

U 058 ʿyḏ / bn / ydʿ // ʾẓll / h-ẓll // {b-}khl / l-ḏġ//bt / bʿd / {n}ḫl-h // w

dṯʾ-h b-bdr // f r{ḍ}-h w ʾḫrt-h
‘ʿyḏ son of ydʿ performed the ẓll ceremony at khl for ḏġbt on behalf
of their palm trees and their crops of the season of the later rains
at bdr so {may he favor} him and his posterity’

JSLih 006 ʿmrtm / w ḥrm w nn // w ḏrh / w gzʾt // w ʾnʿm / w ʿbd // ddt / ḥggn
// f s¹mʿ / l-h{m}
‘ʿmrtm and ḥrm and nn and ḏrh and gzʾt and ʾnʿm and ʿbdddt are
pilgrims / are performing a pilgrimage so may he listen to {them}’

14.1 Subordinating Conjunction ʾḏh

The form ʾḏh occurs in two different inscriptions (JSLih 055; JSLih 069) prob-
ably with the meaning ‘if/when’. Compare, for example, Ug. ʾd ‘when, as soon
as’ (Tropper 2000, 796) and CAr. ʾiḏā ‘when’. While the attested forms look like
the Arabic ʾiḏā, the context does not allow for the definition of its function in
Dadanitic.

JSLih 055 ----y wkl / h{ġ}s¹n / ʾfkl / hktby ---- // ----h / bn / hrmh / ʾḏh / ḥrb-hm
----//----tlh / b-mṯb / b-{ṭ}ʿn / ṣd / ḏ----
‘… wkl h{ġ}s¹n priest of h-ktby … son of hrmh if/when he waged
war on them … at a throne(?) during the setting of the asterism
ṣd …’

JSLih 069 ws¹qt // ʿmm ʾḏh // nwl / ʿl mg//-h

‘??? ??? when he offered on behalf of his expulsion/grain’

Since ʾḏh occurs in a broken context in JSLih 055 and in a poorly understood
context in JSLih 069, it is not entirely clear whether it represents a conjunction
or an adverb.

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186 chapter 6

14.2 Disjunctive Conjunction ʾw

Both examples of ʾw occur in broken context, but the meaning seems clear on
comparative grounds, compare Ug. ʾu (< *ʾaw) ‘or’ (Tropper 2000, 792), and CAr.
ʾaw ‘or’ (Fischer 2001, 177).

al-Ḫuraybah 17 (line 6)
----h-s¹rqt / yṭb / h-s¹rq / ʾw / y ----
‘… the theft/stolen goods acquit the thief or …’

JaL 001 (line 2)

----hm / l-bn-h / ʾw / bnt ----
‘… for his son or daughter …’

14.3 Complementizer ʾn
The complementizer ʾn is attested once in Dadanitic. The construction ʾn ykn
in ah 203 is related to CAr. ʾan yafʿala ‘that he may do’ (Al-Jallad 2018, 24 and
see Chapter 5, §2.2).

ah 203 [----] //hm----[ḏ]//ġbt / ʾ{n} / yk{n} // l-h /{w}ld / f rḍy[-h] ---- // w

ʾḫrt-h {ḏ}----
‘… [ḏ]ġbt that there may be a son to him so may he favor him and
his posterity …’56

14.4 Presentative ʾny

The presentative ʾny can be compared to Ug. hny, Heb. hinneh, and CAr. ʾinna.57
It is used to initiate a new clause.58

U 026 ʾbʿl / ḏl / ʾfyh / h-ẓll // l-ḏġbt / ⟨ f ⟩ rḍ-hm / w s¹//ʿd-hm / w ʿqb-hm

[/] ʾny // ys¹rg [/] ʾb-hm / w {m}ʿn-h[m] // w {m}fr-h{m} / b- ms²hl
‘The lords of ḏl accomplished the ẓll for ḏġbt so may he favor them
(pl.) and aid them and their posterity see now that their pasture
may be beautified and their abode and their cultivated land at
ms²hl’59
56 The stone looks like it was prepared and cut into a block. While rḍy[-h] looks like it was
squeezed onto the surface to fit the block, and the h might be lost under the damage to
the edge of the stone, there seems to be an empty space following ykn in the line before
it, suggesting that it is complete.
57 This was suggested by Ahmad Al-Jallad, see commentary on U 026 in ociana.
58 Interpretation following ociana (accessed 19-02-2019).
59 Translation following ociana (accessed 14-04-2022).

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 chapter 7

A Quantitative Approach to Variation

Dadanitic contains many points of variation. The previous chapters described

how inscriptions may differ in their execution (Chapter 2); their purpose, com-
bined with differences in appropriate compositional formulae (Chater 3); the
location where they were left, and even the grammatical forms they contain
(Chapters 4 to 6). This chapter will bring the major points of variation within
the inscriptions together in a quantitative study, concerning grammatical and
stylistic features.
The investigation will focus on the co-occurrence of two variables within the
same inscription, to see whether there are any variables that co-occur more or
less often than expected. The underlying assumption is that if two variables co-
occur significantly more often than would be expected purely by chance, that
some relationship exists between the two. Two variants may consistently co-
occur together, for example, because an inscription was produced in a certain
time-period, when other variants were not in use, or because a specific topic
goes together with certain expressions and grammatical forms. Two variables
can also co-occur significantly fewer times than expected, which may indicate,
for example, that one form replaced another, or was deemed inappropriate in
certain types of inscriptions.
The statistical analysis of the variation in the inscriptions offered here will
provide evidence for the kind of relationships that may exist between forms
and reveal concrete patterns of distribution of variation. By considering cor-
relations between language-internal and extralingsuistic features this analysis
aims to take a more holistic approach to the epigraphic object. This approach,
which was outlined in the Introduction, will provide a more contextualized
discussion of variation in Dadanitic than previous text-focused approaches.
Including a statistical analysis will help move the discussion of linguistic varia-
tion in the Dadanitic corpus beyond impressionistic observations about single
varying features, thereby moving beyond the discussion offered by Sima (1999,
117) and Farès-Drappeau (2005, 65–66).

1 Methodology: Statistics

The significance of an association will be determined using the chi-square

test (Pearson 1900), which is designed to test whether there is a relationship

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188 chapter 7

table 16 Contingency table demon-

strating a comparison of the
co-occurrence of the variables
of gender and hat wearing

Boy Girl Total

Hat 40 10 50
No hat 20 30 50
Total 60 40 100

between two categorical variables. For the chi-square test the expected values
of each category are calculated based on the assumption that there was no
relationship between the two categories that are compared. This assumption
is called the null hypothesis. The expected frequencies can be calculated using
a contingency table, showing the attested frequencies per category.
The example in Table 16 contains fictitious numbers and categories to clar-
ify the basic principles. It shows a group of 60 boys and 40 girls, from which 40
boys and 10 girls wear a hat, and 20 boys and 30 girls do not wear a hat. These
numbers reflect the observed, or attested, frequencies. The expected frequen-
cies can be calculated by multiplying each row total by their associated column
total per cell and dividing it by the grand total.
The expected frequencies in Table 16 can be rendered using the following
equation (Eij = expected frequency for ith row and jth column; Ti = total of the
ith row; Tj = total of the jth column; N = grand total):

Ti × Tj
Eij =
N

Following this equation, the expected number of boys wearing hats, if there
was no correlation between gender and hat wearing habits, would be:

(50*60)/100 = 30

The round numbers in the table help to visualize how the distribution of the
expected frequency is calculated. If 50% of the whole population is wearing a
hat and 50% is not, and we have 60 boys, we would expect to find that half the
number of these boys (30) is wearing hats, all else being equal. That is, we are
multiplying the number of hat wearers by the number of boys and dividing it
by the grand total to get a proportion relative to the whole population. In doing

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a quantitative approach to variation 189

table 17 Contingency table showing the

expected frequencies of co-occurrence
of gender and hat wearing

Boy Girl Total

Hat 30 20 50
No hat 30 20 50
Total 60 40 100

this we find that more boys than expected are wearing hats in this case. Con-
tinuing this process for each cell in the table would give the expected results as
shown in Table 17.
The expected frequencies are then compared to the attested frequencies.
Since we are looking at the difference between the expected and attested fre-
quencies, an attestation of 1 or even 0 of a certain variable can still give a
significant result, as long as the expected result is far enough removed from
the attested numbers. If the difference between the expected and attested fre-
quencies exceeds a certain threshold, dependent on the degrees of freedom1 of
the underlying contingency table, the result is found to be significant. A signif-
icant result, therefore, indicates that the null hypothesis is likely not true, and
the two variables are probably not independent from each other.
This can be summarized in the following formula underlying the chi-square
test:

(Oi − Ei )2
x2c = ∑
Ei

Here, the subscript c stands for the degrees of freedom, the observed values (O)
are the attested frequencies, and E represents the expected frequencies (under
the null hypothesis). Subtracting the observed values from the expected values
gives us the difference or deviation of the attested numbers from our model, in
which we assume the two variables are independent. The difference between
the observed and expected values are squared to ensure that positive and neg-
ative outcomes will not cancel each other out, which could leave us with an

1 Degrees of freedom (df ) are calculated by multiplying the number of rows (r) of the table
minus one by the number of columns (c) minus one: df = (r – 1)(c – 1).

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190 chapter 7

outcome of zero. Dividing this deviation from the model by the expected value
gives us a ratio of just how much it deviated, which standardizes the result so
it can be compared to the deviation of the other cells. The sigma sign indicates
that the outcomes of this calculation for each data point need to be added up,
which means that the outcome of the formula will indicate whether the rela-
tionship between the two categories in general is significant or not. It does not
indicate which individual correlations are significant. In the case of gender and
hats, it will indicate whether gender can predict something about someone’s
hat-wearing preferences, and not specifically whether boys are more likely to
wear hats than girls.
In simple 2×2 tables, like the one in the example, this prediction may often
be gleaned by looking at the expected and attested frequencies, but when the
tables get bigger the relationships are not always immediately obvious (see § 1.2
below for more on standardized residuals and how they will be used). If one
were to do the calculations by hand, there are tables in which the critical values
per degrees of freedom of the contingency table are given. When the corre-
sponding chi-square value from the calculations is larger than the indicated
cut-off value in the table, this indicates a significant relation between the vari-
ables compared. More commonly, and in what follows, the results are described
by a p value.2 If this value is below .05, the correlation is found to be significant.
This value indicates that there is a 5% or smaller chance that there is no rela-
tionship between the two variables given the attested frequencies, or, in other
words, a 5% or smaller chance that the null hypothesis is true.3

1.1 Correcting for Smaller Sample Sizes

The chi-square test becomes less reliable when the expected frequencies are
low (Dunning 1993). This is corrected for by using Fisher’s exact test (Fisher
1922),4 which is typically used when one or more cells of the contingency table
contain an expected value of less than five.5 Almost all sets of variables com-
pared here contain such low expected frequencies. For each comparison, a
table containing the results of the chi-square test will be given. These tables
contain a footnote mentioning whether there were any cells with a lower

2 The p value, or calculated probability, indicates in decimals the percentage of probability that
the null hypothesis is true. The null hypothesis being that there is no relationship between
the two variables compared.
3 An excellent introduction to the chi-square test can be found in Field (2013, 721–723).
4 Another commonly used alternative to the chi-square test in corpus linguistics is the log-
likelihood test (McEnery and Hardie 2012, 51).
5 The general principles behind Fisher’s exact test are briefly discussed in Field (2013, 723–724).

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a quantitative approach to variation 191

expected frequency than five. If this is the case, the p value of Fisher’s exact
test will be reported, otherwise the p value of the chi-square test will be given.
For each p value, the effect size will be reported using Cramér’s V. This indi-
cates the strength of association between the variables. Significant results with
a very small effect size may not be very reliable, while non-significant results
with a very high effect size indicate that there is a good chance that if more
data were available, they could turn out to be significant. Cramér’s V gives an
output between 0 and 1, with a result of 0 meaning that there is no associa-
tion and a result of 1 meaning there is a perfect association between the groups
compared. I will report values between 0 and .3 as low effect size, .3 and .75 as
medium effect size, and values higher than .75 as high or strong effect size.

1.2 Standardized Residuals

The outcome of Fisher’s exact test only says something about the general rela-
tionship between two variables. It does not indicate which of the categories
of each variable caused a possible effect. Especially when a variable has more
than two categories (as, for example, the categories of genre and agreement, see
§ 2), it is not always clear from the expected and attested values which category
caused the effect.
The effect of individual categories will, therefore, be assessed by looking at
the standardized residuals of the contingency table. These essentially indicate
the difference between the expected frequencies and the attested frequencies
for each possible combination of variables. To return to the basic example from
Table 17, instead of giving a general indication for the association between hat-
wearing and gender, the standardized residuals will give an indication of the
association between boys and hats, boys and no hats, girls and hats, and girls
and no hats. This outcome is then standardized by dividing them by an esti-
mate of their standard deviation, so it becomes independent of the absolute
number of occurrences and can be compared across different datasets. A num-
ber above 1.96 (or below -1.96) indicates a 5% or smaller chance that the two
subcategories are not related.6 A positive value indicates that two categories
co-occur more often than expected if they had no relationship, while a nega-
tive value indicates that two categories co-occur less than expected if they had
no relationship.

6 The standardized residuals give us a z score, based on a standard normal distribution. In a

standard normal distribution with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1, a score of 1.96
cuts off the top 2.5% of the curve. Since normal distributions are symmetrical, -1.96 would
cut off the bottom 2.5% of the bell curve, thus adding up to the same 5 % general cut off point
for significance. See Field (2013) for a more detailed explanation of z scores (28–34) and the
use of standardized residuals (743–744).

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192 chapter 7

2 The Data and Methodology

The variables selected for comparison are text internal variants and stylistic
variants that may say something about the register of the inscription: script
style and genre. The previous chapters focused on describing the language of
the Dadanitic writing tradition and the attested variation found within it. In
this chapter the consistently varying grammatical and orthographic forms were
taken as text internal variables. These are the type of causative form (ʾ- or h-
causative), the form of the i-w causative, the spelling of the geminate causative,
the spelling of √rḍy, the spelling of *ẓ, and agreement type.
It is not always clear whether a variable can be considered an orthographic
or a grammatical variant. It is clear that agreement is a grammatical vari-
ant. The spelling of √rḍy and *ẓ and the variation of h/ʾ-causatives, however,
are related to phonological changes in the language underlying the Dadanitic
script and inscriptions. As it is impossible to tell if a certain spelling remained
in use after it no longer accurately reflected the phonological reality, it is prob-
lematic to draw a clear boundary between purely orthographic practice and
phonology in these cases. In the case of the geminate causative and the i-w
causative, deciding whether they represent orthographic or grammatical vari-
ants seems impossible at present, as it is unclear whether the variation repre-
sents variation in the spelling of diphthongs or between C and CD-stems of the
affected verbs (see Chapter 4, §5 and Chapter 5, § 3.3).
This ambiguity makes it problematic to include this distinction promi-
nently in the final analysis of the variation in the corpus, even though gram-
matical and orthographic variables were likely impacted by language change
in different ways, spelling conventions being typically conservative. Labeling
an ambiguous variable either grammatical or orthographic based on its dis-
tribution in the corpus runs the risk of ending in circularity. Therefore, the
distinction between orthographic and grammatical variants will be introduced
into the discussion only cautiously.
In the Introduction, the location of the inscription was also mentioned as a
component of its interpretation. It was shown, however, that the location of an
inscription is closely linked to the genre of the inscription. Therefore, adding
location as a separate category would not have added much information, as it
largely overlaps with genre and script style.
When comparing two variables they should co-occur in the same inscrip-
tion. Thus, when comparing causative type and √rḍy forms, the set may be
smaller than the total set of attested causative forms, for example. That is, while
there are 240 inscriptions containing a causative verb, and 256 with a form of
the root √rḍy, there are only 197 in which both occur together and can be used
to test any hypothesis about their co-occurrence (see Chapter 8, § 1.1).

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a quantitative approach to variation 193

Furthermore, any uncertain attestations were left out, to avoid skewing the
results. For example, inscriptions lacking a clear photograph or those that only
have a copy available in the ociana database were excluded from the script
type analysis, as were damaged inscriptions or inscriptions with unclear inter-
pretations. An example of this is JSLih 076.

JSLih 076 ʾmtḥmd / bnt // ʿṣm / h-mtʿt

‘ʾmtḥmd daughter of ʿṣm protected / the protector’

First, it is unclear whether the final word of the inscription is a verb, or a noun
preceded by a definite article. Second, based on the content of the inscription,
a personal name followed by a title or a single verb, it looks like a graffito. On
the other hand, the inscription is executed in relief, which seems to contradict
this interpretation. In summary, both the form of the verb and the genre of this
inscription are uncertain, making any further hypothesis based on it too uncer-
tain to include it in the analysis.
While such decisions limit the dataset, they should not make observations
about patterns in distribution invalid. As statistics is generally used to make
predictions about a general population based on a sample, having a limited
sample is part of the expected process. As discussed above (§ 1.1), both the use
of Fisher’s exact test and the incorporation of Cramér’s V in the discussion of
the data function as a control for the relatively small sample sizes. On top of
this, the contingency table, containing the attested and expected frequencies,
is supplied for every correlation that is discussed. This will ensure transparancy
about the actual distribution and frequency of the features under discussion.

2.1 Text Internal Variables

2.1.1 Morphological Variants
ʾ/h-Causative
As outlined in Chapter 5, §3.2, Dadanitic contains two forms of causative
verbs, a ʾ-causative and a formally archaic h-causative (also see, e.g., Sima 1999,
93; Farès-Drappeau 2005, 68–69). Table 18 gives an overview of the attested
causative verbs in the corpus. The numbers in parentheses indicate the num-
ber of attestations of each individual form, while the final column on the right
gives the total number of both ʾ- and h-causatives of the same root.

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 194 chapter 7

table 18 Attested forms of the causatives

Sigla of attested inscriptions ʾ-stem h-stem Total

JSLih 054 ʾfq (1) 1

U 005; U 037; U 035; U 026; U 004; U 031; ah 087.1; ah 015; ʾfy (9) 9
Private collection 1
JSLih 177 ʾgy (1) 1
U 038; U 049; ah 135; ah 157; ah 202; ah 201; ah 243; Nasif ʾgw (35) 35
1988: 99, pl. clvii; JaL 155 d; U 115; U 071; U 043; U 040;
U 032; U 095; U 088; U 082; ah 065; ah 109; ah 113; ah 138;
ah 140; U 055.1; Al-ʿUḏayb 001; Al-ʿUḏayb 009; Al-ʿUḏayb 011;
Al-ʿUḏayb 041; Al-ʿUḏayb 075; Al-ʿUḏayb 113; Al-ʿUḏayb 138;
U 126; ah 006; ah 079; Al-ʿUḏayb 129; Al-ʿUḏayb 008
ah 221 ʾġnm (1) 1
ah 197 hġny (1) 1
JSLih 064 ʾḥrm (1) 1
ah 204 ʾrqw (1) 1
JSLih 077 ʾrṭṭ/ʾrḥṭ (1) 1
JSLih 008; Müller, D.H. 1889: 68, no. 16 ʾṣdq (2) 2
al-Ḫuraybah 12 hṯb (1) 1
JSLih 075 ʾṯʿ (1) 1
JSLih 077; U 038; U 079bis; JaL 004; U 115; U 059; U 047; ʾṯb (31) 31
U 044; U 040; U 036; U 021; U 092; U 084; U 075; ah 006;
ah 065; ah 070; ah 072; ah 080; ah 084; ah 099; ah 101;
ah 125; ah 138; ah 141; ah 084.1; Al-ʿUḏayb 009; Al-ʿUḏayb
032; Al-ʿUḏayb 132; Al-ʿUḏayb 129; Al-ʿUḏayb 008
For ʾdq: ah 222; JSLih 061; JSLih 063; Al-Saʿīd 1419/1999: 4–24, ʾdq (7) hdq (2) 9
no. 1, side 1–2; ah 087; Private collection 2; al-Ḫuraybah 09
For hdq: JSLih 062; Al-Saʿīd 1419/1999: 4–24, no. 1, side 1–2
ah 288; JSLih 049; al-Ḫuraybah 13; al-Ḫuraybah 14 hwdq (4) 4
al-Ḫuraybah 12 hwḍʾ (1) 1
ah 239; ah 217; ah 226; ah 222; Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 3–14, ʾqd (5) 5
no. 1
For ʾẓll: e.g., ah 057; ah 163; ah 142; U 058. ʾẓll (116) hẓll (8) 124
For hẓll: ah 023; ah 021; ah 038; ah 225; ah 011; U 079bis;
ah 026
e.g., ah 064; U 125; U 016; ah 197; U 028 ʾẓl (42) 41
Total 234 17 271

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a quantitative approach to variation 195

table 19 Attested forms of i-w causatives

ʾ-causative h-causative Total

Without w ʾdq (7) hdq (2) 9

ʾfy (9) 9
ʾqd (5) 5
With w hwdq (4) 4
hwḍʾ (1) 1

Total 21 7 28

table 20 Attested forms of the geminate causative

ʾ-causative h-causative [.]-causative Total

Without geminate ʾẓl (42) 42

ʾṭl (5) 5
With geminate ʾẓll (108) hẓll (7) [.]ẓll (2) 117
ʾṭll (8) hṭll (2) 10

Total 163 9 2 174

i-w Causative
The h-causative of i-w verbs is attested in two different forms: with the root-
initial w represented and without it. Note that there are no attestations of
ʾ-causatives of i-w roots with the initial w represented in the corpus (see Chap-
ter 4, §5). Table 19 gives an overview of the attested forms.

Geminate Causative
There is only one geminate root attested as a causative verb: the very com-
mon root √ẓll. Besides variation in the type of causative, with a ʾ- or h- prefix,
there is also variation in the representation of the geminate root consonant,
which can be written just once or twice (see Chapter 5, § 3.2). Table 20 gives an
overview of the attestations of the different forms.

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196 chapter 7

table 21 Attested spellings of √rḍy

Masculine Feminine Total

Defective spelling rḍ (224) rḍt (2) 226

Plene spelling rḍy (29) rḍyt (1) 30

Total 253 3 256

2.1.2 Phonological/Orthographic Variants

Spelling of rḍy
The verb rḍy ‘he favored’ is only attested with an enclitic pronominal pronoun.
In this form, it is attested with the spelling rḍy and rḍ. Given the attestation of
both the feminine forms rḍyt and rḍt, it seems that the difference in spelling
represents a chronological development in the corpus. If this is correct, then
the rḍy forms reflect an older form with the triphthong still intact, while the
rḍ forms represent a more progressive spelling from after the collapse of word
final triphthongs (for a complete discussion see Chapter 4, § 3.2 and Kootstra
2019). Table 21 gives an overview of the attested forms of √rḍy.

ẓ/ṭ Spelling
There are some attestations of etymological *ẓ represented with ṭ. The ociana
database identifies two examples of this spelling in the highly frequent root
√ẓll (ah 009.1; U 048). Upon closer inspection of the photographs, I would
propose that there are 26 such spellings of √ẓll in the corpus (see Chapter 2
for a complete overview). Beside these examples, this spelling is also commonly
found in inscriptions mentioning the guarding of Dadan *√nẓr and in per-
sonal names (Kootstra 2018b). As discussed in Chapter 4, it is not entirely clear
whether the use of ṭ for *ẓ reflects a change in the spoken language at the oasis,
or a borrowing from Aramaic in the nṭr inscriptions. The use of ṭll for ẓll, how-
ever, is not likely due to a borrowing. The verb seems to be unique to Dadan, and
the more archaic ẓll spelling is clearly the norm, indicating that ṭll is the sub-
strate form. The data from the personal names cannot be directly compared to
that of the verbs found in the inscriptions,7 and will therefore not be part of the
statistical analysis.

7 See the introduction for a complete methodological discussion of the use of personal names
for the analysis of the corpus.

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a quantitative approach to variation 197

table 22 Agreement types

Subject Verb Pro- No. of attes-

nouns tations

Full dual agreement pn bn pn w-pn bn pn fʿl-h -hmy 1

Partial dual agreement pn bn pn w-pn bn pn fʿl-w -hmy 5
Neutralization of dual pn bn pn w-pn bn pn fʿlw -hm 13
agreement

Total 19

2.1.3 Syntactic Variants

Agreement
It is possible to distinguish three types of dual agreement in Dadanitic: full
dual agreement with a dual subject agreeing with a dual verb and dual suffixed
pronouns; partial dual agreement with a dual subject, a plural verb, and dual
pronouns; and neutralization of dual concord, in which case we see two dedi-
cants being mentioned, with a plural verb and plural pronouns (see Chapter 5,
§§1.3 and 1.4).8 The category of neutralization of the dual is by far the most
common. As shown in Table 22, there are thirteen inscriptions with neutraliza-
tion,9 five examples of partial dual agreement,10 and only one example of full
dual agreement (ah 199). There is one example that suggests the dual may have
survived on nouns while it was already lost on verbs and pronouns (U 001).11
This distribution of the dual is typologically common and can be found in Ara-
bic dialects12 (Macdonald 2008, 217) and Biblical Hebrew (Joüon and Muraoka
2009, 514–517), for example. Since there is only evidence for this in Dadanitic in

8 See Sima (1999, 117) for an overview table of inscriptions from al-ʿUḏayb with incongru-
ences in their number agreement.
9 U 027; U 044; ah 011; Al-ʿUḏayb 064; Al-ʿUḏayb 065; U 047; U 064; U 063; U 115; ah 081;
JSLih 079; JSLih 282; U 036; Al-ʿUḏayb 075. Al-ʿUḏayb 075 is not completely certain. The
beginning of the inscription is damaged, casting some doubt on the number of dedicants.
10 Nasif 1988: 99, pl. clviii; Müller, D.H. 1889: 63–64, no. 8; U 069; ah 209; JSLih 077; ah 215;
JSLih 037. ah 215 and JSLih 037 are uncertain: although they both have dual pronouns,
suggesting they had partial dual agreement, both inscriptions are damaged, making the
number of the subject and verb uncertain.
11 For a complete discussion and description of dual agreement see Chapter 5, § 1.3.
12 E.g., in Syrian Arabic, where dual nouns agree with plural predicates: wəṣlu l-əktābēn
tabaʿi? ‘have my two books arrived?’ (Cowell 1964, 420).

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198 chapter 7

one inscription, however, it is impossible to say whether this system underlies

all inscriptions which have lost the dual on verbs and pronouns.

Anomalous Agreement
Several inscriptions seem to be different from the more common and regular
types of agreement.13 These can be divided into two subgroups: those which
seem to contain a mistake and inscriptions with two different suffixed pro-
nouns. There are only four inscriptions that seem to contain mistakes. There are
eight examples of inscriptions with ‘mixed pronouns’ (Table 23). Even though
this type of inscription is not very common, they seem to occur too often to be
dismissed simply as slips of the pen. They may be explained in different ways.
When trying to explain this category of ‘mixed agreement’, one can imagine
that the scribe or the mason simply lost track of the subject toward the end of
the inscription. The distance between them is likely part of the reason that the
disagreement happened or was deemed acceptable, but it is not consistently
the last pronoun that disagrees with the rest of the inscription. In addition to
the distance between the pronouns and the subject, the real-life referents of
the persons and objects mentioned in the inscription may also have played a
role.

U 075 qnh / bnt / ʾqḥwnh // w-{ḫ}tn-h / ʿbb / ʾẓllw [/] l-ḏġ//[b][t][/] bʿd /
dṯʾ-h / b-hm // ḏhb / f-rḍ-hm / w-ʾṯb-//hm
‘qnh daughter of ʾqḥwnh and her relative through marriage ʿbb
performed the ẓll (pl.) for ḏġ[bt] on behalf of his/her crops of
the season of the later rains in hmḏhb so may he favor them and
reward them’

ah 089 ----ns²ms¹ / bn // kdn /ʾẓll // h-ẓll / l-ḏġbt // ʿly /ml-hm / b-ḏʿ//mn /

f rḍ-h / w ʾḫ//rt-h
‘… ns²ms¹ son of kdn performed (sing.) the ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt
on behalf of their property at ḏʿmn so may he favor him and his
posterity’

It is possible—for example, when we consider U 075—that while the inscrip-

tion was dedicated by two people, the crops the dedication was made on behalf
of only belonged to one of them, but the blessing invoked by it was meant for
both of them again. A similar situation can be imagined for ah 089: while one

13 For a complete overview of the verbal forms and agreement types see Chapter 5.

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a quantitative approach to variation 199

table 23 Attested anomalous agreement

Siglum Subject Verb Pronoun 1 Pronoun 2

ah 120 Singular Singular Singular Dual

U 075 Dual Plural Singular Plural
ah 096 Singular Singular Singular Plural
ah 023 Singular(?) Singular(?) Singular Plural
U 079bis Singular? Singular Singular Plural
ah 089 Singular Singular Plural Singular
U 073 Singular Singular Plural Singular
ah 072 Singular Singular Plural Singular

person performed the ritual, he did it on behalf of communal crops, but he is

only asking for favor for himself as he was the one performing the ritual, as
already suggested by Sima (1999, n. 21). Since we do not know what the ritual
exactly entailed and what the rules for obtaining blessings from them were,
this can of course be no more than a suggestion. It does, however, provide an
explanation for this relatively commonly occurring ‘error’ in the corpus.

2.2 Register Indicators

2.2.1 Script Style
Script style refers to the technique used to make an inscription. The different
forms that can be distinguished were discussed in Chapter 2. Therefore, here,
the different categories will only be listed (see Table 24). Note that the num-
ber of inscriptions listed is less than half of the total number of inscriptions.
This is because not all inscriptions have (clear) pictures available. On top of
that, there are some styles of inscribing that occur so infrequently that they
are not very helpful as a category to analyze the general trends in the corpus.
These are given in Table 25, and include texts such as those incised in pottery
(ta 00888; ta 11414.1; Tall al-Kaṯīb, no. 3) and inscriptions in which only the
outline of the letters are inscribed, possibly as preparation for an inscription in
relief that was abandoned halfway through the process (Müller, D.H. 1889: 69,
no. 17; JSLih 057).

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200 chapter 7

table 24 Distinguished script styles

and no. of occurrences

Script style No. of occurrences

Pounded 375
Chiseled 242
Incised 163
Relief 135
Iṯlib relief 9

Total 924

table 25 Inscriptions that were excluded from the script style anlysis and no. of occur-
rences

Category Sigla No. of attes-

tations

Unsure, maybe pounded e.g., JSTham 539; Umm Daraǧ 72; 26

ah 311
Unsure, maybe chiseled e.g., Nasif 1988: 68, pl. lxxix; 23
U 113; Al-ʿUḏayb 002
Unsure, maybe incised Müller, D.H. 1889: 66, no. 11; Nasif 7
1988: 97, pl. cxlix/a; ah 246;
ah 301; Nasif 1988: 65, pl. lxxii;
Nasif 1988: 69, pl. lxxxi(b); Nasif
1988: 97, pl. cxlvii
Unsure, maybe relief Al-ʿUlā Museum 2 1
Incised in pottery ta 00888; ta 11414.1; Tall al-Kaṯīb, 3
no. 3
Outline Müller, D.H. 1889: 69, no. 17; JSLih 3
048; JSLih 057
No picture available, or e.g., U 082; Nasif 1988: 98, pl. cli; 47
too unclear to determine ah 255
script style
Only a copy available e.g., Bogue 058; JaL 007 b; 934
JaL 169 k
Total 1044

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a quantitative approach to variation 201

table 26 Distinguished genres and

no. of occurrences

Genre No. of occurrences

Building 6
Dedication 82
Funerary 24
Graffiti 1462
nṭr 20
Non-graffiti 33
ẓll 244

Total 1871

2.2.2 Genre
Genre refers to the content and purpose of the inscription. The different genres
and compositional formulae that come with them were discussed in Chap-
ter 3. A basic distinction is made between graffiti and more official inscriptions.
Within the more official inscriptions, the genres of building, dedication, funer-
ary, non-graffiti, nṭr, and ẓll inscriptions are distinguished (Table 26). Since the
ẓll inscriptions take such a central part within the corpus it seems useful to
take them as a category separate from other dedicatory texts, even though they
seem to overlap in their compositional formulae and ritual aspect (see Kootstra
2022 and Chapter 3, §2.2 in the present work for a more detailed discussion of
the interpreation of the ritual). The high frequency of the ẓll inscriptions likely
affected their formularity.
The category non-graffiti comprises texts that are too rare as a type to form
their own subgroup in a meaningful way but seem more elaborate than aver-
age graffiti such as legal (JSLih 065; JSLih 077) and narrative texts (JSLih 072)
and short texts containing a curse (ah 289) or a date (JSLih 054; Nasif 1988: 96,
pl. cxliv). It also includes three inscriptions that were incised into an object
(al-Ḫuraybah 15, al-Mazroo and Nasīf 1992: 4, no. 3, al-Ḫuraybah 01). The graffiti
genre contains inscriptions with their own compositional formulae, inscrip-
tions mentioning tqṭ ‘he wrote’ and wdd ‘he loved’, but which still belong to
the more general genre of graffiti. It also includes eight inscriptions that only
consist of a single letter.14 Finally, even though they can arguably be seen as

14 JaL 008 o; JaL 014 b; JaL 023 c; JaL 085 h; JaL 156 d; JaL 124; JaL 135 a; JaL 142.

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202 chapter 7

table 27 Inscriptions excluded from genre analysis

Category Sigla No. of attes-

tations

Fragment e.g., JaL 001; ah 335; JSLih 050 80

Genre undetermined, e.g., Al-ʿUlā 1; Al-ʿUḏayb 016; Al- 8
possibly graffiti ʿUḏayb 050
Name on object al-Ḫuraybah 01; al-Ḫuraybah 15; 3
al-Mazroo and Nasīf 1992: 4, no. 3
Rockart JaL 005 1
Unknown Qaṣr al-Ṣāniʿ 4 1
Total 93

graffiti, the nṭr inscriptions were kept apart from graffiti in general because they
have several unique features in their phonology, script style, and location, set-
ting them apart from the other types of graffiti. Including them in the genre
of graffiti would unduly influence the outcome of any comparison with other
variables (Tables 26 and 27).

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 chapter 8

Analysis

1 Text Internal Variants

1.1 ʾ/h-Causative
The occurrence of one of the two causative types correlates significantly with
two other grammatical variants: the spelling of the i-w causative and the
spelling of rḍy, which also have a significant correlation to each other. Interest-
ingly, even though the ʾ/h-causative does not correlate significantly with script
style, it does with genre. There are 241 inscriptions of which both the causative
type and genre could be determined; there are 219 inscriptions of which both
the causative type and script style could be determined. Below, the significant
correlations will be reported. The results will be interpreted in §§ 4 and 5.

table 28 Overview of the correlations between the attested variables. The p value indicates the chance
that the null hypothesis is true as a value between o and 1. The cut-off point for significance
is .05: grey cells represent significant results, na means the combination of features is not
attested.

ʾ/h Geminate i-w Spelling Agree- ẓ/ṭ Script Genre

causative causative causative of rḍy ment spelling style

ʾ/h causative ---

Geminate causative p = .116 ---
i-w causative p < .001 na ---
Spelling of rḍy p < .001 p = .372 p = .002 ---
Agreement p=1 p = .243 na p = .378 ---
ẓ/ṭ spelling p = .298 p = .349 na p=1 p=1 ---
Script style p = .228 p = .671 p = .498 p = .001 p = .001 p < .001 ---
Genre p < .001 na p = .34 p < .001 p = .138 p < .001 p < .001 ---

1.1.1 Co-occurrence with i-w Causative

There are 27 inscriptions in which both evidence for either a ʾ- or h-causative
and the spelling of i-w causative occur. Two further inscriptions in which both
the ʾ- and h-causative occur were taken out of the sample so as not to skew the
general trend (U 079 bis; ah 197), because these two would have constituted
a separate type of mixed-causative by themselves. The inscriptions Al-Saʿīd
1419/1999: 4–24, no. 1, side 1–2 were counted as two separate inscriptions: once
as a text with an h-causative and defective spelling of the i-w causative, and

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204 chapter 8

table 29 Contingency table comparing causative type and spelling of i-w causative

Causative type * i-w in C-stem crosstabulation

i-w in C-stem Total

plene i-w defective i-w

causative causative

Causative type h-causative Count 5 2 7

Expected Count 1.3 5.7 7.0
Standardized Residual 3.3 -1.6
ʾ-causative Count 0 20 20
Expected Count 3.7 16.3 20.0
Standardized Residual -1.9 .9

Total Count 5 22 27
Expected Count 5.0 22.0 27.0

once as a text with a ʾ-causative and defective spelling of the i-w causative.
Even though both verbs occur on the same side of the object, the second form
seems to be a separate inscription, as it starts with a personal name (zdh) right
after the blessing in the lines above ( f-rḍ-h w-ʾḫ[rt-h]). Note that the inscrip-
tion at the top of the object, which seems to have been carved first, contains
the h-causative hdq, while the inscription following it contains the ʾ-causative
ʾdq. Comparing the use of causative type to the spelling of i-w causatives using
Fisher’s exact test gives a highly significant result with a strong effect size (p <
.001; χ² = 17.532; df = 1; Cramér’s V = .806). This indicates that there seems to be
a relationship between the use of the type of causative and the spelling of i-w
causatives in the same inscription.1
Looking at the standardized residuals in Table 29, only the combination of
h-causative and plene spelling of the i-w causative verb (hwdq type) gives a
significant result (3.3). This indicates that the most relevant effect found with

1 As this analysis is based on the inscriptions that are part of the ociana database, this does
not include the two ʾwdq forms that are part of inscriptions that were exhibited at the Sharja
Museum as part of the exhibition The Echo of Caravans (Page, Hussein, and Al-Hadhram
2018). Note that, even when those two forms are included in the sample, there is still a sig-
nificant correlation between these forms (p = .003). Looking at the standardized residuals,
after adding the two ʾwdq forms, it is also still only the combination of h-causative with plene
spelling of the w that gives a significant result: 2.5.

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analysis 205

table 30 Contingency table comparing causative type and spelling of rḍy

Causative type * rḍy spelling crosstabulation

rḍy spelling Total

plene defective
spelling spelling

Causative type h-causative Count 6 6 12

Expected Count .7 11.3 12.0
Standardized Residual 6.2 -1.6
ʾ-causative Count 6 179 185
Expected Count 11.3 173.7 185.0
Standardized Residual -1.6 .4

Total Count 12 185 197

Expected Count 12.0 185.0 197.0

Fisher’s exact test is caused by an unexpectedly high number of plene spellings

of the i-w causative verbs using the h-prefix. The combination of ʾ-causative
with plene spelling of the i-w causative verb (ʾwdq type) approaches a negative
significant result (-1.9), indicating that this combination occurs less frequently
than expected to a degree just shy of statistical significance.

1.1.2 Co-occurrence with rḍy

There are 197 inscriptions in which both evidence for a ʾ- or h-causative and
the spelling of √rḍy occur. Two further inscriptions were excluded from the
analysis to avoid obscuring the general trend, because they contained both h-
and ʾ-causatives and would have constituted a separate type of mixed-causative
by themselves (U 079 bis; ah 197). Comparing the use of causative type to the
spelling of rḍy using Fisher’s exact test gives a highly significant result with
a medium effect size (p < .001; χ² = 43.068; df = 1; Cramér’s V = .468). This
indicates that there seems to be a relationship between the use of the type of
causative and the spelling of rḍy in the same inscription.
Looking at the standardized residuals (Table 30), only the combination of h-
causative and plene spelling gives a significant result (6.2). This indicates that
the most relevant effect found with Fisher’s exact test is caused by an unexpect-
edly high number of plene spellings of rḍy co-occurring with h-causatives.

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206 chapter 8

table 31 Contingency table comparing causative type and genre of the inscription

Genre * causative crosstabulation

Causative Total

h-causative ʾ-causative

Genre ẓll Count 8 201 209

Expected Count 13.9 195.1 209.0
Standardized Residual -1.6 .4
dedication Count 7 19 26
Expected Count 1.7 24.27 26.0
Standardized Residual 4.0 -1.1
funerary Count 0 1 1
Expected Count .1 .9 1.0
Standardized Residual -.3 .1
non-graffiti Count 1 4 5
Expected Count .3 4.7 5.0
Standardized Residual 1.2 -.3

Total Count 16 225 241

Expected Count 16.0 225.0 241.0

1.1.3 Co-occurrence with Genre

There are 241 inscriptions for which both the causative type and the genre can
be determined. Again, the inscription with both a ʾ- and h-causative (Al-Saʿīd
1419/1999: 4–24, no. 1, side 1–2) was treated as two separate inscriptions, one
with a ʾ-causative and one with an h-causative (see above). The two inscriptions
that include both a ʾ- and h-causative (U 079 bis and ah 197) were excluded to
avoid a separate ‘mixed causative’ category. Comparing the use of the causative
type to the genre in which the verb occurs using Fisher’s exact test gives a highly
significant result with a low effect size (p < .001; χ² = 21.435; df = 3; Cramér’s V
= .298). This indicates that there is a relationship between the use of the type
of causative and the genre of the inscription.
Looking at the standardized residuals in Table 31, the combination of the h-
causative with dedicatory inscriptions gives a significant result (4.0). This indi-
cates that there are significantly more attestations of h-causatives in dedica-
tory inscriptions than expected. The relationship that probably exists between

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table 32 Contingency table comparing the spelling of rḍy and i-w causatives

i-w causative * rḍy spelling crosstabulation

rḍy spelling Total

Plene Defective

i-w causative Plene Count 4 0 4

Expected Count 1.1 2.9 4.0
Standardized Residual 2.7 -1.7
Defective Count 1 13 14
Expected Count 3.9 10.1 14.0
Standardized Residual -1.5 .9

Total Count 5 13 18
Expected Count 5.0 13.0 18.0

causative type and genre that is indicated by Fisher’s exact text is therefore
caused by a relatively high number of h-causatives in the dedicatory inscrip-
tions.

1.2 Spelling of √rḍy

The occurrence of one of the two types of the spelling of √rḍy correlates signif-
icantly with grammatical and register variants. It correlates significantly with
the spelling of the i-w causative, and with script style and genre.

1.2.1 Co-occurrence with i-w Causative

There are 18 inscriptions which include evidence for both the spelling of √rḍy
and that of the i-w causative. Comparing the spelling of rḍy with the spelling
of i-w causatives in the same inscription using Fisher’s exact test gives a signifi-
cant result with a high effect size (p = .002; χ² = 13.371; df = 1; Cramér’s V = .862).
This indicates that there is probably a relationship between the spelling of rḍy
and of i-w causative verbs in the same inscription.
Looking at the standardized residuals in Table 32, only the combination of
plene spelling of rḍy with the plene spelling of i-w causative gives a significant
result (2.7). This indicates that the co-occurrence of the plene spelling of both
forms within the same inscription is significantly higher than expected if they
were in free variation.

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table 33 Contingency table comparing script style and spelling of rḍy

Script style * rḍy spelling crosstabulation

rḍy spelling Total

plene Defective
spelling spelling

Script style relief Count 14 51 65

Expected Count 7.7 57.3 65.0
Standardized Residual 2.3 -.8
incised Count 8 56 64
Expected Count 7.5 56.5 64.0
Standardized Residual .2 -.1
chiseled Count 0 53 53
Expected Count 6.2 46.8 53.0
Standardized Residual -2.5 .9
pounded Count 5 42 47
Expected Count 5.5 41.5 47.0
Standardized Residual -.2 .1

Total Count 27 202 229

Expected Count 27.0 202.0 229.0

1.2.2 Co-occurrence with Script Style

There are 229 inscriptions for which the spelling of √rḍy and script style could
be determined. This does not include one inscription that was only outlined
(Müller, D.H. 1889: 69, no. 17), seemingly in preparation for later execution in
relief (see Chapter 2, §2.1). This inscription was excluded from the analysis to
avoid a category of just one example. Comparing the spelling of rḍy with script
style of the inscription in which it occurs, using Fisher’s exact test, gives a sig-
nificant result with a low effect size (p = .001; χ² = 13.114; df = 3; Cramér’s V =
.239). This indicates that there is probably a relationship between the spelling
of rḍy and the script style of the inscription in which it occurs.
Looking at the standardized residuals in Table 33, the combination of the
plene spelling of rḍy in a chiseled inscription gives a significant result (-2.5).
This indicaties that the occurrence of plene spelling of rḍy is significantly lower
in chiseled inscriptions than expected if they were in free variation. The com-

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table 34 Contingency table comparing the spelling of rḍy and genre

Genre * rḍy spelling crosstabulation

rḍy spelling Total

plene Defective
spelling spelling

Genre ẓll Count 10 189 199

Expected Count 20.6 178.4 199.0
Standardized Residual -2.3 .8
dedication Count 15 29 44
Expected Count 4.6 39.4 44.0
Standardized Residual 4.9 -1.7
building Count 1 3 4
Expected Count .4 3.6 4.0
Standardized Residual .9 -.3
non-graffiti Count 0 4 4
Expected Count .4 3.6 4.0
Standardized Residual -.6 .2

Total Count 26 225 251

Expected Count 26.0 225.0 251.0

bination of plene spelling and execution in relief, on the other hand, shows a
positive significant relationship (2.3), indicating that the occurrence of plene
spelling of rḍy is significantly higher in inscriptions in relief than would be
expected if they were in free variation.

1.2.3 Co-occurrence with Genre

There are 251 inscriptions for which the spelling of √rḍy and genre could
be determined. This excludes five fragmentary inscriptions of which too little
survived to determine the exact genre. One funerary inscription was grouped
under non-graffiti to avoid a category with a single example (JSLih 075).2
Comparing the spelling of rḍy with the genre of the inscription in which it
occurs using Fisher’s exact test gives a highly significant result with a moderate

2 There are 24 funerary inscriptions in total.

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effect size (p < .001; χ² = 34.170; df = 3; Cramér’s V = .369). This indicates that
there is probably a relationship between the spelling of rḍy and the genre of
the inscription in which it occurs.
Looking at the standardized residuals in Table 34, the combination of plene
spelling of rḍy in dedicatory inscriptions gave a significant result (4.9). This
indicates that the number of rḍy spellings in dedicatory inscriptions is higher
than expected. The plene spelling of rḍy also yielded a significant result in the
ẓll inscriptions (-2.3) showing the opposite relationship: the number of plene
spellings of rḍy in ẓll inscriptions is significantly lower than expected if they
had a relation to each other.
The fact that ẓll inscriptions have the opposite relationship with plene spell-
ings of rḍy than other dedicatory inscriptions confirms that they are a relevant
separate category and are not just another type of dedicatory inscription.

2 Register Indicators

2.1 Script Style

Script style correlates significantly with several grammatical variants. Specifi-
cally, it correlates significantly with rḍy spelling, ṭ/ẓ spelling, and agreement
type. Script style and genre also correlate significantly.

2.1.1 Co-occurrence with ẓ/ṭ Spelling

There are 211 inscriptions for which both script style and the spelling of *ẓ could
be determined. Comparing the script type of an inscription with the spelling of
*ẓ with either ẓ or ṭ in the inscription, using Fisher’s exact test, gives a signifi-
cant result, with a moderate effect size (p < .001; χ² = 39.832; df = 4; Cramér’s V =
.434). This indicates that there is probably a relationship between the spelling
of *ẓ and the script style of an inscription.
Looking at the standardized residuals in Table 35, the combination of chis-
eled inscriptions and the spelling of *ẓ with ṭ gives a significant result (2.5). This
indicates that there are significantly more chiseled inscriptions with ṭ spellings
than would be expected if there was no relation between spelling and script
style. The ṭ spelling has a positive relationship with the Iṯlib relief style, as
expected (4). The ẓ spelling has a negative relationship with the Iṯlib relief style
(-2). This shows that there are more inscriptions with ṭ spelling in Iṯlib relief
style than expected, but less with ẓ spelling than expected if there was no rela-
tionship between the categories. Finally, the *ẓ spelled with ṭ has a negative
significant relationship with inscriptions in relief (-2.5), indicating there are sig-
nificantly less inscriptions than expected in relief with ṭ spelling for *ẓ if there
was no relationship between them.

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table 35 Contingency table comparing script style and spelling of *ẓ

Script style * *ẓ spelling crosstabulation

*ẓ spelling Total

ẓ ṭ

Script style relief Count 39 1 40

Expected Count 32.0 8.0 40.0
Standardized Residual 1.2 -2.5
incised Count 44 4 48
Expected Count 38.4 9.6 48.0
Standardized Residual .9 -1.8
Iṯlib relief Count 0 5 5
Expected Count 4.0 1.0 5.0
Standardized Residual -2.0 4.0
chiseled Count 40 21 61
Expected Count 48.9 12.1 61.0
Standardized Residual -1.3 2.5
pounded Count 46 11 57
Expected Count 45.7 11.3 57.0
Standardized Residual .1 -.1

Total Count 169 42 211

Expected Count 169.0 42.0 211.0

2.1.2 Co-occurrence with Agreement Type

There are 67 inscriptions for which both agreement type and script style could
be determined. Comparing the script type of an inscription with the agreement
type used in it using Fisher’s exact test gives a significant result with a low effect
size (p = .001; χ² = 28.005; df = 15; Cramér’s V = .373). This indicates that there
is probably a relationship between the agreement type used in an inscription
and the technique used to inscribe it.
Looking at the standardized residuals in Table 36, the overall significant
result is mostly due to how inscriptions with a loss of the dual interact with
script style. Chiseled inscriptions and neutralization of the dual give a signifi-
cant result (2.1), while relief and neutralization of the dual have the opposite
relation (-2.2). This indicates that the neutralization of the dual seems to occur

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table 36 Contingency table comparing script style and agreement type

Agreement type * script style crosstabulation

Script style Total

Relief Incised Chiseled Pounded

Agreement type full plural agree- Count 20 10 2 7 39

ment Expected Count 15.1 10.5 4.7 8.7 39.0
Standardized Residual 1.3 -.1 -1.2 -.6
full dual agree- Count 1 0 0 0 1
ment Expected Count .4 .3 .1 .2 1.0
Standardized Residual 1.0 -.5 -.3 -.5
partial dual agree- Count 2 3 0 0 5
ment Expected Count 1.9 1.3 .6 1.1 5.0
Standardized Residual .0 1.4 -.8 -1.1
neutralization of Count 0 3 4 5 12
dual agreement Expected Count 4.7 3.2 1.4 2.7 12.0
Standardized Residual -2.2 -.1 2.1 1.4
mixed number Count 0 2 2 2 6
agreement Expected Count 2.3 1.6 .7 1.3 6.0
Standardized Residual -1.5 .3 1.5 .6
mistake Count 3 0 0 1 4
Expected Count 1.6 1.1 .5 .9 4.0
Standardized Residual 1.2 -1.0 -.7 .1

Total Count 26 18 8 15 67
Expected Count 26.0 18.0 8.0 15.0 67.0

more than expected if the two factors had no relation to each other in the
chiseled inscriptions, while it occurs less often than expected in inscriptions
in relief (in fact, it never does).

2.1.3 Co-occurrence with Genre

There are 861 inscriptions for which both script style and genre could be deter-
mined. This excludes a further 68 fragmentary inscriptions for which the genre
could not be determined, and one inscription incised in pottery to avoid a cat-
egory with a single example. Inscriptions inscribed into objects were classified
as non-graffiti. Comparing the combination of script style and genre within
inscriptions using Fisher’s exact test gives a highly significant result with a
moderate effect size (p < .001; χ² = 521.566; df = 24; Cramér’s V = .392). This indi-
cates that there is probably a relationship between the genre of an inscription
and the technique used to inscribe it. Looking at the standardized residuals in

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table 37 Contingency table comparing the genre and script style of inscriptions

Genre * script style crosstabulation

Script style Total

Relief Incised Iṯlib relief Chiseled Pounded

Genre graffiti Count 4 47 4 159 284 498

Expected Count 62.5 86.2 5.2 135.9 208.2 498.0
Standardized Residual -7.4 -4.2 -.5 2.0 5.3
ẓll Count 48 53 0 55 64 220
Expected Count 27.6 38.1 2.3 60.0 92.0 220.0
Standardized Residual 3.9 2.4 -1.5 -.7 -2.9
dedication Count 40 24 0 4 8 76
Expected Count 9.5 13.2 .8 20.7 31.8 76.0
Standardized Residual 9.9 3.0 -.9 -3.7 -4.2
nṭr Count 0 0 5 11 2 18
Expected Count 2.3 3.1 .2 4.9 7.5 18.0
Standardized Residual -1.5 -1.8 11.1 2.7 -2.0
building Count 6 0 0 0 0 6
Expected Count .8 1.0 .1 1.6 2.5 6.0
Standardized Residual 6.0 -1.0 -.3 -1.3 -1.6
funerary Count 4 8 0 3 0 15
Expected Count 1.9 2.6 .2 4.1 6.3 15.0
Standardized Residual 1.5 3.4 -.4 -.5 -2.5
non-graffiti Count 6 17 0 3 2 28
Expected Count 3.5 4.8 .3 7.6 11.7 28.0
Standardized Residual 1.3 5.5 -.5 -1.7 -2.8

Total Count 108 149 9 235 360 861

Expected Count 108.0 149.0 9.0 235.0 360.0 861.0

Table 37, each genre correlates significantly with at least one script style. Given
the long list of significant combinations, I have summarized them in Table 38.
The strong interaction between genre and script style and the direction in
which they correlate as shown in Table 37 and Table 38, clearly shows that the
more official inscriptions (building, dedicatory, funerary, non-graffiti, and ẓll)
tend to be executed using more technically demanding writing techniques (in-

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table 38 Overview of the significant standardized residuals of genre and script style

Genre Script style Standardized Attested no. Expected no.

residuals of inscriptions of inscriptions

Graffiti Chiseled 2 159 135.9

Incised -4.2 47 86.2
Pounded 5.3 284 208.2
Relief -7.4 4 62.5
ẓll Incised 2.4 53 38.1
Pounded -2.9 64 92
Relief 3.9 48 27.6
Dedication Chiseled -3.7 4 20.7
Incised 3 24 13.2
Pounded -4.2 8 31.8
Relief 9.9 40 9.5
nṭr Chiseled 2.7 11 4.9
Iṯlib relief 11.1 5 .2
Pounded -2 2 7.5
Building Relief 6 6 .8
Funerary Incised 3.4 8 2.6
Pounded -2.5 0 6.3
Non-graffiti Incised 5.5 17 4.8
Pounded -2.8 2 11.7

cised and relief) than would be expected if there was no relation between script
style and genre, while graffiti tend to be inscribed more often than expected
in the less-demanding script styles (chiseled and pounded). This supports the
idea that script style can be used as a measure of the formality of a text.

2.2 Genre
Genre correlates significantly with the variants mentioned above (script style,
ʾ/h causative, and spelling of rḍy) but also with ẓ/ṭ spelling.

2.2.1 Co-occurrence with ẓ/ṭ Spelling

There are 225 inscriptions for which genre and the spelling of *ẓ can be deter-
mined. This excludes one further inscription (Al-ʿUḏayb 048) that contains the
letters ẓl but is too fragmentary to determine whether is it a ẓll inscription with
certainty. Comparing these categories using Fisher’s exact test gives a highly sig-

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table 39 Contingency table comparing the genre of the inscription and

the spelling of *ẓ

Genre * *ẓ spelling crosstabulation

*ẓ spelling Total

ẓ ṭ

Genre ẓll Count 178 27 205

Expected Count 163.1 41.9 205.0
Standardized Residual 1.2 -2.3
nṭr Count 1 19 20
Expected Count 15.9 4.1 20.0
Standardized Residual -3.7 7.4

Total Count 179 46 225

Expected Count 179.0 46.0 225.0

nificant result with a moderate effect size (p < .001; χ² = 75.019; df = 1; Cramér’s
V = .577), indicating that there is probably a relationship between the genre of
the inscription and the spelling of *ẓ.
Looking at the standardized residuals in Table 39, both nṭr inscriptions and
ẓll inscriptions have a significant relationship with the spelling of *ẓ. The nṭr
inscriptions have a significant positive relationship with the ṭ spelling (7.4) and
a negative relationship with ẓ spelling (-3.7). This shows that there are more
inscriptions than expected with ṭ spelling and less than expected with ẓ spelling
in the nṭr genre if the two had no relationship to each other. There is a sig-
nificant negative relationship between the ṭ spelling and the ẓll genre (-2.3),
showing there are fewer ẓll inscriptions with ṭ spelling than expected if the two
had no relation to each other.

3 Important Non-significant Co-occurrences

There are several relationships between variables that are non-significant, but
still contribute to the overall picture of how the different variables interact with
each other. First, there is the interaction between genre and the two grammat-
ical variables it does not interact with, which do have significant relations with

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table 40 Contingency table comparing genre and the spelling of i-w causative

Genre * i-w causative crosstabulation

i-w causative Total

plene Defective
spelling spelling

Genre ẓll Count 3 7 10

Expected Count 1.9 8.1 10.0
Standardized Residual .8 -.4
dedication Count 2 14 16
Expected Count 3.1 12.9 16.0
Standardized Residual -.6 .3

Total Count 5 21 26
Expected Count 5.0 21.0 26.0

other variables: i-w causative and agreement. Second, it is worth exploring the
relationship of the geminate causative to the other variables, since this is the
only variable that does not interact significantly with any other one. Below, the
results of the correlation between geminate causatives and causative type and
script style will be given. Even though these correlations are not necessarily the
ones closest to a significant result (see Table 28), they do show a pattern in their
distribution.

3.1 Genre
3.1.1 Co-occurrence with i-w Causative
There are 26 inscriptions that contain evidence for the spelling of the i-w
causative and for which the genre can be determined. Comparing the co-
occurrence of genre and spelling of the i-w causative does not give a significant
result, and only shows a low effect size (p = .340; χ² = 1.213; df = 1; Cramér’s V =
.216).
Looking at the standardized residuals in Table 40, the plene spelling of i-
w causatives and the ẓll inscriptions have the strongest relationship (.8). This
indicates that there are slightly more i-w causatives with plene spelling in ẓll
inscriptions than expected, but not nearly enough to reach significance (for
which a standardized residual of 1.96 would be needed). The spelling of i-w
causatives seems fairly evenly distributed across genres.

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table 41 Contingency table comparing agreement type and genre

Agreement type * genre crosstabulation

Genre Total

graffiti ẓll dedication non-graffiti

Agreement type full plural agree- Count 2 19 15 3 39

ment
Expected Count 1.7 24.3 9.6 3.4 39.0
Standardized Residual .2 -1.1 1.7 -.2
full dual agree- Count 0 1 0 0 1
ment
Expected Count .0 .6 .2 .1 1.0
Standardized Residual -.2 .5 -.5 -.3
partial dual Count 0 2 1 2 5
agreement
Expected Count .2 3.1 1.2 .4 5.0
Standardized Residual -.5 -.6 -.2 2.4
neutralization of Count 1 10 1 1 13
agreement
Expected Count .6 8.1 3.2 1.1 13.0
Standardized Residual .6 .7 -1.2 -.1
mixed agreement Count 0 7 0 0 7
Expected Count .3 4.4 1.7 .6 7.0
Standardized Residual -.6 1.3 -1.3 -.8
mistake Count 0 4 0 0 4
Expected Count .2 2.5 1.0 .3 4.0
Standardized Residual -.4 1.0 -1.0 -.6

Total Count 3 43 17 6 69
Expected Count 3.0 43.0 17.0 6.0 69.0

3.1.2 Co-occurrence with Agreement

There are 69 inscriptions for which both the genre and agreement type can be
determined. This excludes two further fragmentary inscriptions which seem
to deal with multiple persons and include the plural enclitic pronoun -hm
(ah 220; JaL 001). Because of their fragmentary nature the readings of the
inscriptions are unclear, and we cannot be certain of verbal and pronomi-
nal agreement in them. There is no significant correlation between genre and
agreement type, with a moderate effect size (p = .138; χ² = 20.143; df = 15;
Cramér’s V = .312). Looking at the standardized residuals in Table 41, non-graffiti
and partial dual agreement have a positive relationship (standardized residual
= 2.4).

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table 42 Contingency table comparing causative type and spelling of geminate causative

Causative type * geminate causative crosstabulation

Geminate causative Total

Double Single
geminate geminate

Causative type h-causative Count 9 0 9

Expected Count 6.5 2.5 9.0
Standardized Residual .96 -1.57
ʾ-causative Count 116 47 163
Expected Count 118.5 44.5 163.0
Standardized Residual -.23 .37

Total Count 125 47 172

Expected Count 125.0 47.0 172.0

3.2 Geminate Causative

The geminate causative is the only linguistic variable that does not correlate
significantly with any of the other variables in the corpus. Since the geminate
causative only occurs with the root √ẓll, there is logically no possible correla-
tion with i-w causatives. There is also no correlation possible with genre, as all
examples occur in ẓll inscriptions.

3.2.1 Co-occurrence with Causative Type

There are 172 inscriptions for which the causative type and spelling of the gem-
inate causative could be determined. Fisher’s exact test gives a non-significant
result, with a low effect size (p = .116; χ² = 3.114; df = 1; Cramér’s V = .144). Looking
at the standardized residuals in Table 42, the defective spelling of the gemi-
nate causative and the h-causative have the strongest relationship, albeit not
a significant one. The relationship between them is negative (-1.57). This indi-
cates that there are fewer attestations of hẓl forms than expected, while there
are slightly more plene spellings with the h-causative (hẓll) than expected. The
opposite relationships were found between the ʾ-causative and spelling of the
geminate causative, but the strength of association between them is even lower.

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table 43 Contingency table comparing the spelling of geminate causatives and script style

Script style * spelling of geminate root crosstabulation

Spelling of geminate root Total

Defective Plene

Script style Chiseled Count 10 33 43

Expected Count 11.6 31.4 43.0
Standardized Residual -.5 .3
Incised Count 10 28 38
Expected Count 10.3 27.7 38.0
Standardized Residual -.1 .1
Pounded Count 11 33 44
Expected Count 11.9 32.1 44.0
Standardized Residual -.3 .2
Relief Count 12 22 34
Expected Count 9.2 24.8 34.0
Standardized Residual .9 -.6

Total Count 43 116 159

Expected Count 43.0 116.0 159.0

3.2.2 Co-occurrence with Script Style

There are 159 inscriptions with a geminate causative of which the script style
could be determined. Their relationship is not significant with a low effect size
(p = .671; χ² = 1.589; df = 3; Cramér’s V = .1). Looking at the standardized resid-
uals in Table 43, relief and the spelling of the geminate causative with one l
has the strongest relationship (1.3). This indicates that there are more defective
spellings of the geminate causative than expected in inscriptions executed in
relief, but not to a significant degree.

3.2.3 Co-occurrence with rḍy

There are 152 inscriptions for which both a causative form of the geminate root
and the verb rḍy occur. There is no significant correlation between the two
with a low effect size (p = .176; χ² = 1.94; df = 1; Cramér’s V = .113). Looking at the
standardized residuals in Table 44, the strongest relationship exists between
the plene spelling of rḍy and the defective spelling of the geminate causative

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table 44 Contingency table comparing the spelling of geminate causatives and rḍy

Spelling of geminate causative * spelling of rḍy crosstabulation

Spelling of rḍy Total

Defective Plene

Spelling of geminate roots Defective Count 36 3 39

Expected Count 37.5 1.5 39.0
Standardized Residual -.2 1.2
Plene Count 110 3 113
Expected Count 108.5 4.5 113.0
Standardized Residual .1 -.7

Total Count 146 6 152

Expected Count 146.0 6.0 152.0

(1.2), but not to a significant degree. This means that there are slightly more
inscriptions with plene spelled rḍy and defectively spelled geminate causative
than expected.

3.2.4 Co-occurrence with Agreement

There are 32 inscriptions for which both plural agreement type and the spelling
of geminate causatives could be determined. They do not correlate signifi-
cantly, and there is a medium effect size (p = .27; χ² = 6.163; df = 5; Cramér’s
V = .439). Looking at the standardized residuals in Table 45, the strongest rela-
tionship exists between the category of mistake in agreement and the spelling
of the geminate causative. There is a positive relationship between mistake and
defective spelling (1.3) and a negative relationship between mistake and plene
spelling (-1.1), but not to a significant degree. This indicates that there are more
inscriptions than expected with a mistake in agreement with only one l of ẓll
represented; while there are slightly fewer inscriptions with mistaken number
agreement with both l’s represented.

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table 45 Contingency table comparing spelling of geminate causatives with agreement type

Agreement type * spelling of geminate causative crosstabulation

Spelling of geminate Total

causative

Defective Plene

Agreement type Full plural Count 6 6 12

Expected Count 4.9 7.1 12.0
Standardized Residual .5 -.4
Full dual Count 0 1 1
Expected Count .4 .6 1.0
Standardized Residual -.6 .5
Neutralization Count 3 5 8
Expected Count 3.3 4.8 8.0
Standardized Residual -.1 .1
Mistake Count 2 0 2
Expected Count .8 1.2 2.0
Standardized Residual 1.3 -1.1
Partial dual Count 1 6 7
agreement Expected Count 2.8 4.2 7.0
Standardized Residual -1.1 .9
Mixed number Count 1 1 2
agreement Expected Count .8 1.2 2.0
Standardized Residual .2 -.2

Total Count 13 19 32
Expected Count 13.0 19.0 32.0

4 Discussion

The following will bring together the statistical data that came out of the anal-
ysis in the previous sections and discuss potential interpretations of the data.
The present section will focus on the discussion of the correlations that came
out of the statistical analysis; these will be further contextualized in light of the
writing culture of ancient Dadan in the Conclusions.

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figure 16 Overview of correlations between variables. Significant relations are indicated by

a line, the thicker the line the higher the significance (see Table 28 for the exact p
values)

4.1 Genre
The overview in Figure 16 shows that genre has a significant relationship with
most of the variables that interact significantly with at least one other vari-
able, except for the spelling of i-w causatives and agreement. In light of the
high formularity of the inscriptions, it is unsurprising that the content and
topic of an inscription go together with specific linguistic conventions, espe-
cially in the case of inscriptions that were produced in a more formal set-
ting. The correlation between genre and linguistic variables shows that gen-
eral dedicatory inscriptions tend to contain more archaic linguistic forms (h-
causative and plene spelling of √rḍy), while the ẓll inscriptions, which are
a particular kind of dedicatory inscription, have a negative relationship with
the archaic, plene spelling of √rḍy. There also seems to be a preference for
avoiding the more archaic h-causative in ẓll inscriptions, but this relationship
is not significant (the standardized residual for this relationship is -1.6, see
Table 31). A more elaborate discussion of the ẓll inscriptions follows below in
§ 4.4.
Looking at the spelling of *ẓ, we see that there is a significant positive rela-
tionship between the more innovative ṭ spelling and nṭr graffiti, while there is
a negative relationship between ṭ spelling of *ẓ and ẓll inscriptions. Not only is
there a significant correlation between genre and the spelling of *ẓ, the correla-
tion also has a moderate effect size, showing a convincing relationship between

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the two variables. This clearly shows that ṭ spelling, while attested, was not gen-
erally preferred in the more formal inscriptions.
We should note that there are only attestations of lexical items with *Ẓ in
ẓll and nṭr inscriptions. These two types may give us some insight into the
general categories of formal inscriptions, as opposed to graffiti, but we can-
not be sure that the behavior of these sub-categories is always the same as all
other types of formal inscriptions and graffiti. A clear example of this can be
found in the relationship between ẓll inscriptions and the causative type, which
shows the opposite distribution from that between dedicatory inscriptions and
the causative type. The matter is complicated further by the possibility that
nṭr was borrowed from Aramaic as a term related to government and power
(see the Introduction for a discussion of the interaction between Aramaic and
Dadanitic). Since both nṭr and nẓr are attested in the guarding inscriptions,
however, it seems likely that we are looking at a Dadanitic internal develop-
ment in these inscriptions, similar to the alternation of ẓ and ṭ spellings in the
ẓll inscriptions.
Even though one might expect genre to affect all variables, based on the
strong link between content and form in the inscriptions, not all linguistic vari-
ables have a significant correlation with genre: it does not seem to influence the
writing of the i-w causative and the choice of agreement type. In the case of the
variable i-w causative this might be due to the particularly small data set (26
inscriptions), which has the effect that finding a single new inscription with
such a verbal form could drastically change the outcome of the comparison.
Moreover, all attestations of i-w causatives occur in just two different genres
of inscriptions: ẓll (10) and dedicatory (16). The sample size and its association
with two genres that seem to interact in similar ways with several other vari-
ables likely had a strong impact on the lack of significant correlation between
genre and i-w causatives. Finally, the low effect size of this correlation (see § 3)
does not provide clear support for a possible increase in significance when the
dataset is expanded.
There is also no correlation between genre and agreement type (see § 3).
Agreement does, however, correlate significantly with script style. This is based
on a negative relationship between inscriptions in relief and the neutralization
of the dual (standardized residual -2.2, see Table 36), but a positive relationship
between chiseled inscriptions and the loss of the dual category (standardized
residual 2.1, see Table 36). The low effect size is likely due to the high number
of categories being compared in combination with a total sample of only 67
inscriptions and makes this correlation somewhat less certain (§ 2), but the dis-
tribution could support an interpretation that dual agreement was part of an
archaic linguistic register that was more available to the professional scribes

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who were likely involved in the production of inscriptions executed in relief,

than to private individuals chiseling their own inscription into a rock face.
Alternatively, the relationship between script style and agreement could indi-
cate a historical development of a preference for specific script styles, with a
higher number of inscriptions in relief being produced before the dual was lost,
while the different genres in use remained more stable over time. While this
may explain the lack of correlation between genre and agreement type, this is
difficult to confirm, since agreement does not correlate significantly with any
of the other linguistic variables whose chronological development is more cer-
tain (such as the spelling of rḍy, see Chapter 4, § 2.3).
Script style and genre are particularly intricately intertwined, with many
individual combinations of script style and genre being significantly related
to each other. Despite the relatively large dataset, the effect size is only moder-
ate. This is probably due to the high number of categories being compared. The
pattern in which they relate to each other confirms the hypothesis that graffiti
are more likely to be produced using less technically demanding writing tech-
niques such as pounding, while the more formal inscriptions are more likely to
be incised or executed in relief (see §2, Table 38). Since genre seems to have
a different relationship to different variables, it cannot be taken as a general
explanation for all the variables it interacts with. Considering the significant
relationships apart from genre is therefore useful.
Figure 17 offers a visualization of the relationship between three text inter-
nal variables that clearly cluster together once genre is taken out of the picture.
This group of text internal features (ʾ/h-causative, the form of the i-w causative,
and the spelling of rḍy) clusters together and is here shown in red, on the left.
One of the three (the spelling of rḍy) is also related to script style (besides
genre) and forms the only point of overlap with one of the features in the
other cluster. The other side of the diagram contains two text internal fea-
tures (agreement and ṭ/ẓ spelling of *ẓ) that correlate significantly with script
style (and genre) but not with each other or with the other text internal vari-
ables.
I would propose that the relationship between the variables in the red clus-
ter on the left (cluster i) is mainly due to diachronic change, or because these
variables were preserved together as markers of an archaic register mostly avail-
able to persons with some training in writing and/or engraving. Cluster ii is less
strongly related, as the spelling of *ẓ behaves very differently from all the other
text internal variables. The spelling of *ẓ is the only variable for which the more
archaic variant is the most commonly attested. The use of the dual may have
been part of the same archaic register as the variables associated with cluster i,
but the use of dual agreement is so rare that it seems to have been less impor-

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figure 17 Overlap of variables with significant results excluding genre. The degree
of overlap does not represent the degree of significance

tant as a marker of high register texts or possibly less available to the authors
of the inscriptions.

4.2 Cluster i: ʾ/h-causative, i-w causative, rḍy

Not only do the causative type, the spelling of the i-w causative, and rḍy all
correlate significantly with each other, they all correlate with each other in the
same way. All correlations seem quite robust, as all combinations have highly
significant p values (< .001 for ʾ/h-causative in combination with i-w causative,
and rḍy with i-w causative; p = .002 for causative with rḍy, see Table 28), and
medium (causative with rḍy) to strong effect size (the other two pairs, see § 1).
Independently from its correlation with other variables in the corpus, it is
clear that the plene spelling of final weak verbs in non-word-final position is
more archaic than the defective spelling. It is also clear that the sound change
underlying this change in spelling occurred in the period attested in the inscrip-
tions. This follows from the variation in spelling of the final glide (see Chap-
ter 4, §2).
Based on comparative evidence, a similar claim can be made for the differ-
ence between the ʾ- and h-causative forms, where the h-causatives represent a
more archaic form than the ʾ-causatives.3 However, the existence of two inscrip-

3 Compare, for example, Aramaic, in which h > ʾ in the causative prefix in the attested material
(Gzella 2015, 34).

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table 46 Overview of correlations between the variables in cluster i

Variable i Variable ii Standardized residual

h-causative Plene spelling of rḍy 6.2

h-causative Plene spelling of i-w causative 3.3
Plene spelling of rḍy Plene spelling of i-w causative 2.7

tions containing both forms also clearly shows that there was a period in which
both forms were available to the authors of the Dadanitic inscriptions. This
indicates that we cannot conclude that all inscriptions containing h-causatives
must have been produced before those containing ʾ-causatives (see Chapter 5,
§ 3.2).
Looking at the variant spellings for i-w causative forms, it is not immedi-
ately clear if one form is more archaic than the other and, if this is the case,
which should be considered archaic. Given the lack of evidence for the plene
spelling of word internal diphthongs in other forms, the variation might be best
explained as the loss of the CD-stem (see Chapter 4, § 5). If this analysis is cor-
rect, the ‘defective spelling’, without the w represented, is the more developed
form. Interpreting this variation as a historical development seems to be sup-
ported by the significant relationship between plene spelling of i-w causatives
and the more archaic features of the other two variables it correlates with.

4.2.1 Cluster i and Genre

If the features in this cluster indeed represent a historical development in the
language of the inscriptions, then the relationship between the spelling of rḍy
and genre and script style and the relationship between causative type and
genre could support a historical development in the use of genre and script
style as well (see also §4.1). It seems likely, however, that convention and pres-
tige played an important role in the maintenance of some archaic linguistic
features in the dedicatory inscriptions. Despite the positive significant relation-
ship between dedicatory inscriptions and the h-causative and plene spelling of
rḍy, there are plenty of attestations of dedicatory inscriptions with ʾ-causative
forms and defective spelling of rḍy. Any prestige that was connected to these
archaic linguistic forms did not, therefore, make it obligatory to use only those
forms in higher register inscriptions. The high prestige connected to more
archaic linguistic forms would have made them more appropriate for more for-
mal inscriptions even if their use were open to individual choice, to a certain
degree. Looking at the absolute number of occurrences of each feature, it is

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clear that the more progressive linguistic forms eventually became the norm
in all layers of the corpus, as they are the most numerously attested.

4.2.2 Cluster i and Geminate Causative

The geminate causative does not show a significant correlation with any of
the variables it could be compared to. Therefore, it seems that the different
spellings of the geminate causative (metathesized and plene) either contin-
ued to exist in free variation, or represented different morphological forms
(a C-stem and a CD-stem) which possibly continued to be productive in this
particular context due to its high formularity and centrality to the writing tra-
dition.
However, this lack of correlation is probably at least partly due to its re-
stricted use. The only attested verb in the causative form of a geminate root
is √ẓll. Since it is only found in ẓll inscriptions, it cannot be compared to the
variable genre, and since there are no i-w geminate roots, a comparison to that
category is also impossible.

4.3 Cluster ii: ẓ/ṭ Spelling, Script Style, Agreement, and Genre
As discussed above (§4.1), agreement and the spelling of *ẓ each have a sig-
nificant correlation with genre. The spelling of *ẓ also correlates significantly
with script style. The fact that they do not correlate significantly with any of
the variables in cluster I suggests that either they are not part of a similar his-
torical development, or that the archaic spelling of ẓll was more accessible to
all authors while the other variables associated with a more archaic register
were more commonly limited to the authors of more professionally produced
inscriptions.

4.3.1 ẓ/ṭ Spelling

In relation to the significance of genre as an explanatory factor for variation, I
have already noted that the spelling of ṭ for *ẓ was dis-preferred in the more
official ẓll inscriptions, while the nṭr graffiti show a strong preference for the
more progressive ṭ spelling (§4.1). The use of ṭ for *ẓ is, therefore, probably best
understood as influence from the spoken language of the inscriber. It is unclear
whether this means that ẓ and ṭ had merged in the language of the oasis itself,
or that the authors of the inscriptions using ṭ for *ẓ spoke an entirely different
language (Kootstra 2018b, 210).
However, in a more general sense, the spelling of *ẓ behaves very differently
from other text internal variables where we can clearly identify a more archaic
and a more progressive variant. For the other text internal variants (spelling of
rḍy, ʾ/h-causative, agreement) it is always the more progressive form that is the

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most widely attested. If the correlation between plene spelled i-w causatives,
and the archaic variants of both the spelling of rḍy and ʾ/h-causatives means
that the plene spelled i-w causative was the more archaic variant as well, then
this pattern also includes i-w causative forms.
The more common preservation of *ẓ might have to do with the relative
rarity of this phoneme in combination with its occurrence in one of the most
frequently used roots in the corpus and the central place the ẓll ritual seems to
have had in Dadanitic cultural practice. While the spelling of a single, frequent
lexical item can be done in relative isolation, the preservation of other archaic
spellings, such as the h-causative and the plene spelling of rḍy in non-word-final
position, would have more parallels outside a ritual, and formulaic context.
The use of h-causative verbs in ritual contexts would be strikingly different
from ʾ-causatives in day-to-day usage, and the pronunciation, and possibly the
spelling, of rḍy-hm would have plenty of parallels in other word final weak verbs
with attached suffixes outside the context of the inscriptions, putting these
archaic forms under more pressure to level to the more commonly used vari-
ants.

4.3.2 Agreement
Agreement only correlates significantly with script style, mostly due to a signifi-
cantly lower number of inscriptions with neutralization executed in relief than
expected, and a significantly higher number of inscriptions with neutralization
that were chiseled into the rock (see §2). This seems to suggest that the linguis-
tically most progressive forms, which neutralized dual agreement completely,
were preferred in more simply produced inscriptions, while neutralization was
avoided in the more elaborate inscriptions. This is supported by the attestation
of two inscriptions in which the author seemed unsure about the usage of the
dual. One of these inscriptions uses the dual on the verb, but not the pronouns
(U 019), and the other uses a dual pronoun where none is needed (ah 120).
Especially hypercorrections, such as that attested in ah 120, suggest that some
authors continued to (attempt to) use the dual form even though it was not, or
was no longer, part of their day-to-day speech. The low number of occurrences
of dual forms clearly shows that despite any prestige the dual may have had
during the production of the inscriptions, it was probably already falling out of
use by the time the Dadanitic writing tradition developed, and neutralization
of the dual was completely acceptable in all registers.

Agreement and Causative Type

Taking into consideration the distribution of ʾ- and h-causatives in inscrip-
tions across the different agreement types, we see that the most archaic type

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of the causative (h-form) only occurs in an inscription with the most progres-
sive treatment of the dual (neutralization, ah 011) and mixed pronouns (U 079
bis),4 while the most archaic form of dual agreement (full dual agreement) only
occurs in an inscription with a ʾ-causative (ah 199). It should, however, also be
noted that there are only three instances of h-causatives in this dataset. As dis-
cussed above, there seems to be a general historical trend in the development
of the h-causatives to ʾ-causative, but it is impossible to say in absolute terms
that any inscription containing h-causative forms is older than one containing
ʾ-causative forms (§4.2). Therefore, the few examples of h-causatives in inscrip-
tions for which the agreement type can be determined do not show definitively
that the development of the agreement types has no historical component. It
does show, however, that it probably did not develop in parallel with the lin-
guistic variables in cluster i, and that archaic and more progressive linguistic
variants of different variables could be mixed.5

4.4 The ẓll Inscriptions

Within cluster i the ẓll inscriptions deserve special attention. Both in content,
structure, and wording the ẓll inscriptions and more general dedicatory inscrip-
tions are similar: something is performed or given to a deity, and the inscription
ends with a petition to the deity. There is even overlap in the verbs (ʾdq; ʾgw and
fʿl) that occur in the narratio part of both ẓll and general dedicatory inscrip-
tions (see Chapter 3, §2). Given their similarities, they would be expected to
belong to the same or a similar register as they are both clearly not graffiti, but
formulaic and official in character. Their similar degree of formality is indeed
reflected in the way both genres of inscription interact with script style (see
Table 47). Even though the ẓll inscriptions are more evenly distributed across
the different script types, and dedicatory inscriptions have a much stronger
positive relationship to relief than ẓll ones, they always correlate in the same
direction to specific script styles.
A similar overlap can be found in the relationship between ẓll and dedicatory
inscriptions and the spelling of *ẓ. The relationships are not identical, but they
do all correlate in the same direction. This seems to confirm that both genres
have a similar kind of official character warranting the use of more elaborate
techniques for their execution, while they both have a negative relationship
with the more progressive spelling of ṭ for *ẓ (see Table 47 and Table 48).

4 And once with the neutral full plural agreement (JSLih 049).
5 The distribution of agreement type across geminate causative types is fairly similar for each
type of geminate causative. Note that the one example of full dual agreement occurs in what
might be the more archaic plene spelled geminate causative (a ʾ-causative verb).

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230 chapter 8

table 47 Relationship between script style and ẓll or dedicatory inscriptions

in standardized residuals

Script style Relationship to ẓll Relationship to dedicatory

Pounded -2.9 -4.3

Chiseled -.6 -3.7
Iṯlib relief -1.5 -.9
Incised 2.5 2.9
Relief 3.7 10.1

table 48 Relationship between spelling of *ẓ and ẓll or dedicatory inscrip-

tions in standardized residuals

*ẓ spelling Relationship to ẓll Relationship to dedicatory

ẓ 1.2 .2
ṭ -2.4 -.4

table 49 Relationship between the spelling of rḍy and ẓll or dedicatory inscrip-
tions in standardized residuals

Spelling of rḍy Relationship to ẓll Relationship to dedicatory

Plene -2.3 4.9

Defective .8 -1.7

If we compare their relationship to the linguistic variables in cluster i (spell-

ing of rḍy, causative type, spelling of i-w causative and agreement type; see
Table 49,Table 50, and Table 51), however, they always have the opposite rela-
tionship to them. In these cases, the authors of the ẓll inscriptions seem to
have preferred the more common progressive variants. Considering that these
two variables (causative type and spelling rḍy) also cluster together and seem
to share a historical dimension (see §4.2), the general dedicatory inscriptions
seem to occur more frequently with the more archaic forms, while the ẓll
inscriptions seem to occur more frequently together with the linguistically
more progressive forms.

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analysis 231

table 50 Relationship between causative type and ẓll or dedicatory inscriptions

in standardized residuals

Causative type Relationship to ẓll Relationship to dedicatory

h-causative -1 3.2
ʾ-causative .2 -.8

table 51 Relationship between the i-w causative and ẓll or dedicatory inscrip-
tions in standardized residuals

i-w causative Relationship to ẓll Relationship to dedicatory

Defective .5 -.4
Plene -1.2 .9

table 52 Absolute number of attestations of inscriptions executed in

the different script styles

Relief Incised Chiseled Pounded

ẓll 48 53 55 64
Dedication 40 24 4 8
Total attested 108 149 235 360

The difference in linguistic form between the dedicatory and ẓll inscriptions
may be explained by their distribution in absolute numbers across the different
script types. Table 52 shows that even though ẓll inscriptions have a positive sig-
nificant correlation to relief style, the number of inscriptions attested in each
style is roughly equal. Since other types of inscriptions, apart from dedicatory
inscriptions, almost never occur in relief this gives a significant correlation.
However, when we compare this to the distribution of dedicatory inscriptions
across script styles a very different picture emerges, as the dedicatory inscrip-
tions clearly shy away from simpler modes of production. Therefore, the dif-
ference in their correlation to linguistic variables may be related to who was
involved in the production of the inscriptions, and not just to how their authors
perceived their formality.

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232 chapter 8

As discussed in the introduction, inscriptions that were deeply incised and

inscriptions executed in relief were likely commissioned and made by skilled
craftsmen (Macdonald 2010, 7). From the signatures of people who identify
themselves as h-s¹fr ‘the writer; the scribe’ in a few of the inscriptions executed
in relief (ah 213, 220; JSLih 082), it is clear that the production of at least some
of these inscriptions also involved a scribe, besides a mason (ṣnʿ). Scribal train-
ing, whatever precise form it took at Dadan, is a likely environment for the
preservation of the kind of linguistic archaisms we see preserved more often
in these more formally executed inscriptions. This does not mean that prestige
had nothing to do with the choice to use more archaic linguistic forms, but the
fact that such linguistic forms seem connected to the level of execution of the
object of the inscription might also tell us something about who had access to
this more archaic linguistic register.
If this interpretation is correct, this could explain why both ẓll and more gen-
eral dedicatory texts have different relationships to the archaic linguistic forms
identified as cluster i (see §4.2) despite their similarity in content and word-
ing, and probably level of formality. Since the ẓll dedications are much more
numerous than other dedicatory inscriptions and are more often executed by
persons who do not seem to have had any training in inscribing, this may sug-
gest that this ritual was more widespread in the community and that persons
from more diverse strata of society participated in it. Some were able to afford
to commission the inscriptions associated with the ritual, but others seem to
have made their own.
Another possibility could be to consider the non-material aspects of the rit-
uals that were involved in the production of the general dedicatory and ẓll
inscriptions. As they are both types of religious texts, they were likely part of
a ritual practice that is now lost to us. Therefore, a difference in language use
between these two types of religious texts may say something about the nature
of the ẓll ritual. If we imagine a performative aspect to the ẓll inscriptions, a
spoken part to the ritual may have contributed to its language developing more
closely along with the spoken register, which may explain the occasional use of
more progressive ṭ spellings for *ẓ in the ẓll inscriptions. However, even spo-
ken ritual language is often archaic and not a direct reflection of the spoken
language in the society in which it is used.
Another possibility might be that even though the ẓll inscriptions follow the
general formulae of the dedicatory inscriptions, their function was not purely
religious. The association between the ẓll ritual and crops and what seem to
have been names of agricultural plots, may suggest that apart from their rit-
ual association, the ẓll inscriptions also had a legal function, related to taxes or
property rights as I recently proposed elsewhere (Kootstra 2022). Such a legal

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analysis 233

function may have influenced the language used in them, pushing them closer
to the language of documentary texts, which tend to be linguistically more pro-
gressive.6 Unfortunately, we have no direct evidence for such documentary use
of Dadanitic.7
In summary, based on the currently available material, it is difficult to say
whether a difference in cultural practice surrounding the general and ẓll dedi-
cations caused the difference in language preference between them. It is clear,
however, that the dedicatory inscriptions and inscriptions executed in styles
that require more skill, seem to be associated with a special archaic linguistic
register.

4.4 Agreement and the ẓll Inscriptions

Agreement and genre do not correlate significantly with only a moderate effect
size, but the pattern of co-occurrence of these factors is still interesting. The
relationship between genre and full plural agreement does not say anything
about the language used for the inscriptions, as there is no linguistic variation
in the expression of plural agreement. The positive relationship between dedi-
catory inscriptions and full plural agreement, therefore, only means that there
are more attestations of dedicatory inscriptions made by more than two people
than expected if there was no relationship between these two factors, but not
as many as to give a significant result. Thus, their correlation might still be due
to chance.
While agreement type and genre do not have a significant relationship (p =
.138), the ẓll and other dedicatory inscriptions do pattern with agreement type
in similar directions as with the other linguistic variables. Especially interesting
is the relationship between the most progressive neutralization and the genre
of the inscription: it has a negative relationship with general dedicatory inscrip-
tions but a slightly positive relationship with ẓll inscriptions (Table 53), which
seems to confirm the more common use of more progressive linguistic forms
in the ẓll inscriptions and a dis-preference for them in dedicatory inscriptions.

6 Compare, for example, the Sabaic documentary texts (Stein 2011, 1048). For a discussion of
this phenomenon see the methodological discussion in the Introduction.
7 Macdonald argues for the use of Dadanitic script for writing on soft materials, on the basis of
specific kinds of variation in letter shapes and the strong preference for unidirectional writ-
ing we see in the inscriptions (see Macdonald 2015, 7; 2010, 12–14; and my discussion on script
in the Introduction).

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234 chapter 8

table 53 Relationship between agreement type and ẓll or dedicatory inscriptions in stan-
dardized residuals

Agreement type Relationship to ẓll Relationship to dedicatory

Full plural agreement -1.1 1.7

Full dual agreement .5 -.5
Partial dual agreement -.6 -.2
Mix 1.3 -1.3
Mistake 1 -1
Neutralization of the dual .7 -1.2

5 Summary

Looking at the absolute number of occurrences, the forms that are most com-
mon in the Dadadnitic writing tradition are those that are more linguistically
progressive. The more archaic forms are usually the less frequent form.8 How-
ever, at the same time they correlate significantly with the more formal script
styles and genres. Especially the use of the dual (part of the variable agree-
ment), which only correlates significantly with script style, seems to be driven
by the register of the inscription. However, the plene spelling of rḍy, which has
a clear historical component, also correlates significantly with script style and
genre.
Additional support for the high prestige of some of the more archaic fea-
tures can be seen in the inscriptions in which the authors seem to have been
confused about their usage. For example, in the inscriptions in which both an h-
causative and a ʾ-causative occur (U 079bis; ah 197 and Al-Saʿīd 1419/1999: 4–24,
no. 1, side 1–2 with both causatives on the same object); the inscription in which
two dedicants agree with a dual verb but plural resumptive pronouns (U 019);
and an inscription that is completely in the singular except for the resumptive
pronoun in the blessing formula in the dual (ah 120). This suggests that the
authors of these inscriptions were trying to use linguistic forms that they were
(no longer) familiar with in their day-to-day speech, apparently because these
had special significance or status.
On the other hand, the fact that the more archaic forms were not adopted
as the written norm, shows that even though register had some effect on their

8 The spelling of *ẓ is the only exception to this general trend.

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analysis 235

usage, the archaic forms did not have the kind of prestige that would make
them the target variety of the entire written register. Instead, they seem to
have existed in parallel to the more progressive linguistic variables and their
use was possibly more of an artistic choice. The physical presence of other
(possibly older) inscriptions with archaic linguistic forms in the landscape may
have inspired the authors of some of the inscriptions to (attempt to) copy their
archaic language. The lower number of occurrences of archaic linguistic forms
outside more professionally produced inscriptions may also indicate that the
use of the more highly prestigious, archaic forms was the domain of trained
craftsmen and less readily available or relevant to private persons leaving an
inscription.
Given the fact that there was not a prescriptive archaic norm for the inscrip-
tions, and therefore register alone cannot explain or predict their usage, it may
be suggested that script style and genre are not merely indicators of register,
but also underwent a historical development themselves. In the case of script
style this would mean that technically less-demanding manners of inscribing
became more acceptable for more formal inscriptions as well (as we can see in
the wide variety of styles the ẓll inscriptions were executed in). Within genre,
the ẓll inscriptions contain less archaic linguistic forms than the general dedi-
catory inscriptions. This clearly shows that they were somehow different from
each other, despite their overlap in formulaic usage and register.
The higher proportion of ẓll inscriptions inscribed in simpler styles, when
compared to dedicatory inscriptions, may help us understand how they dif-
fered. Possibly, the ẓll inscriptions were produced in a period in which it was
harder to afford a professional scribe and mason to prepare the text. Alter-
natively, a wider cross-section of society may have participated in this ritual,
some able to afford to commission their text, others opting not to hire a profes-
sional. If we consider the register of the inscriptions to be leading, however,
it might suggest that the administrative function of the the ẓll inscriptions
(besides their religious function) influenced the language choice in the inscrip-
tions (Kootstra 2022). Such a documentary character of the texts could have
resulted in a closer relation between the language of the inscriptions and a pos-
sibly more progressive administrative written practice.

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Conclusions

The general aim of this work was to investigate the linguistic variation attested
in the Dadanitic inscriptions in order to understand the reasons behind this
variation. A better understanding of the variation in the inscriptions also sheds
light on the role of writing in ancient Dadan and the role of a scribal school or
writing culture at the oasis. As previous works that focused on the text of the
inscriptions had not been able to provide a comprehensive explanation for the
variation attested in the inscriptions, this work set out to take a more holistic
approach to the inscriptions by including aspects of their materiality into the
analysis of variation besides their language. This means I have also considered
the manner of inscribing and the different formulaically expressed genres of
inscriptions.1
In the Introduction, the concepts of script, genre, and language were intro-
duced to help understand the Dadanitic inscriptions and the variation attested
in them. These three elements combined make a Dadanitic inscription recog-
nizably a product of the local Dadanitic writing culture. Bringing the writing
culture that produced the inscriptions more clearly into view in this way, helps
to contextualize the choices their authors made in their production in a way
that only looking at the text of the inscriptions does not. This approach was
combined with a statistical analysis of the co-occurrence of selected variables,
including the manner of inscribing, genre, and language of the inscriptions.
This led to a clearer understanding of how these variables cluster together in
the corpus, some through historical development, and some purposefully com-
bined by the authors of the inscriptions to create social meaning.
The following provides a brief summary of the conclusions reached in each
chapter. This is then followed by a more synthesized discussion in which the
cultural context and materiality of the inscriptions will be combined with the
variation attested in them. This allows me to address this study’s central ques-
tion and focus on the possible causes for the variation attested in the different
layers of the Dadanitic inscriptions.

1 Given the very clear link between genre and location of the inscriptions, discussed in Chap-
ter 1, location was left out of the analysis as it would not have contributed to our understand-
ing of the variation in the inscriptions beyond the currently selected variables.

© Fokelien Kootstra, 2023 | doi:10.1163/9789004512634_011

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conclusions 237

1 Descriptive and Grammar Chapters

Chapter 2 gave an overview of the variation in letter shapes and script styles in
the Dadanitic corpus. Following Macdonald (2010, 2015), I argued that the vari-
ation in letter shapes cannot be used to date the inscriptions relative to each
other. Furthermore, I showed that there is no absolute relationship between
the script style and purpose of an inscription. For example, formal inscriptions
commemorating the ẓll ceremony are attested in both the least technically
demanding pounded style (e.g., U 116) and in the most complex relief style (e.g.,
U 001).
Chapter 3 gave an overview of the different genres and compositional formu-
lae attested in Dadanitic. The compositional formulae are an essential compo-
nent of the Dadanitic writing culture. Defining the main compositional formu-
lae helps to define which inscriptions and phrases are at the core of the local
writing tradition and which are peripheral to it.
This was followed by a treatment of the orthography and phonology of the
inscriptions in Chapter 4, which argued that Dadanitic used matres lectionis
-h and -w for -ā and -ū respectively. The mater -y for -ī seems to have devel-
oped within the time span documented by the Dadanitic inscriptions (Kootstra
2019).
The often-attested difference in representation of the diphthongs between
the personal names and the content of the inscriptions could suggest a dif-
ference in phonology between the personal names and the language of the
inscriptions. If diphthongs had collapsed in the language of the inscriptions but
were preserved in the pronunciation of some of the personal names, this may
have led to confusion as to how to represent the diphthongs in the Dadanitic
orthography, leading to the inconsistent representation of diphthongs in the
personal names.
One of the more consistently varying phonemes is ẓ, which is sometimes
represented with ṭ. The spelling with ṭ mostly occurs in a specific group of
inscriptions, mentioning ‘guarding’ activities nṭr, from the root *nẓr. Other ṭ
spellings occur in the ẓll inscriptions and in several personal names. This occa-
sional variation suggests that /ẓ/ and /ṭ/ merged in the spoken language of at
least some of the inhabitants of the oasis. Based on these relatively few exam-
ples, however, it remains difficult to say just how widespread this feature was.
Chapter 5 described the verbal morphology of the Dadanitic inscriptions,
including the variation attested for each form. The more prominent points of
variation in verbal morphology are the variation in dual agreement, causative
type, spelling of the i-w causative, and the spelling of the geminate causative.2

2 These are the same variables that are used in Chapter 7.

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238 conclusions

Especially remarkable is the use of the construction ʾn + subjunctive, as the

use of ʾn as a subordinator is considered a Proto-Arabic innovation (Al-Jallad
2015, 12).
Chapter 6 described the attested nominal and pronominal morphology and
its variation in the Dadanitic inscriptions. Only the variation in dual agreement,
which was also discussed in the chapter on verbal morphology, was used as a
variable for the quantitative analysis in Chapter 7.
Of note is the fact that there is a difference in bound and unbound dual and
plural suffixes (as already noted by Macdonald 2008, 194). There is some evi-
dence for the preservation of case. Even though in most inscriptions it seems
that the oblique form of the bound dual (-y) was leveled to the nominative,
there is one inscription with a dual form bnh ‘sons’ (Nasif 1988: 99, pl. clviii)
with a suffix -ā in the nominative case. There is one attestation of a plural form
bnw (JSLih 079) in the nominative case, suggesting a vocalic suffix -ū. I also
noted that there is a remarkable degree of variation in the form of the definite
article. The h(n)- form is the most commonly used, but there also seems to be
one attestation of a hl- definite article (JaL 021f). Finally, several attestations of
an assimilated ʾl- definite article (e.g., JSLih 276; ah 119), and one of an unas-
similated form before a ʾ (Ǧabal al-Ḫuraymāt 04) were identified.

2 Chapters Analyzing Variation

Based on the description and grammatical analysis in Chapters 2 through

6, several of the more consistently varying features of the inscriptions were
selected to perform a quantitative analysis of the variation in the corpus. These
variables included both grammatical and stylistic features of the texts. The
stylistic features, script style, and genre can give insights into the register of
an inscription. The grammatical variables were chosen to give insight into the
linguistic variation in the Dadanitic corpus. The grammatical features chosen
were the type of causative form (ʾ- or h-causative), the form of the i-w causative
(ʾ/hwCC or ʾ/hCC), the spelling of the geminate causative (ʾ/hẓll or ʾ/hẓl), the
spelling of √rḍy (rḍy-h(m) or rḍ-h(m)), the spelling of *ẓ (as ẓ or ṭ), and agree-
ment type. For the analysis, the chi-square test was used to find statistically
significant associations between variables.
This approach revealed two main causes underlying variation: language
change and the use of different registers. Moreover, the close association be-
tween expertly carved inscriptions and archaic linguistic forms suggests that
this archaic register was mainly the domain of skilled craftsmen. There is one
cluster of grammatical features that co-occur significantly with each other

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conclusions 239

table 54 Overview of the grammatical variants with a positive

significant relationship

h-causative plene spelling of w-causative

h-causative plene spelling of √rḍy
plene spelling of √rḍy plene spelling of w-causative

and with high register inscriptions. These variables are the causative type, the
spelling of i-w causative forms, and the spelling of √rḍy, referred to as ‘clus-
ter i’ in Chapter 8, §4. Of these features, the more archaic linguistic forms all
co-occur significantly with each other (Table 54) and with high-register inscrip-
tions.
For the causative form and the spelling of √rḍy it can be independently
established which of the two variant forms is linguistically more archaic. Based
on comparative data it is clear that the h-causative is more archaic than the ʾ-
causative. The fact that the development of the spelling of √rḍy is attested
within the corpus clearly shows that the plene spellings of √rḍy before the
pronominal suffix are the more archaic forms as shown in Chapter 4, § 3, build-
ing on Kootstra (2019).
However, as per the discussion in Chapter 4, § 5, for the spelling of the w-
causative it is less evident which variant represents the archaic form. The most
plausible explanation seems to be to interpret the spelling with the medial w as
representing a CD-stem which was eventually lost. So even though we cannot
date any of the individual inscriptions relative to each other, the fact that we
can independently establish the archaic nature of at least two of the linguis-
tic variables, combined with the consistent pattern of association between all
the archaic variants, strongly suggests that the variation in all three features is
at least partly the result of diachronic change in the language of the inscrip-
tions and probably their subsequent use as markers of an archaic linguistic
register, which seems to have been associated with higher register inscrip-
tions.
The strong association between these archaic linguistic forms and high-
register inscriptions shows that even though the archaic linguistic forms were
the minority, they are not likely to have been infiltrations from a spoken reg-
ister into the written language. Such intrusions would be expected to be more
frequent in less carefully composed and constructed inscriptions. While the
clustering of archaic linguistic forms suggests a historical component to their
development, the association with high register inscriptions implies that pres-
tige may also have played a role. The relationship between archaic forms and

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240 conclusions

high prestige seems to be supported by the occasional misuse of archaic linguis-

tic features, such as the co-occurrence of an h- and a ʾ-causative within the same
inscription (Al-Saʿīd 1419/1999: 4–24, no. 1, side 1–2) or the inconsistent use of
dual agreement (U 019 and ah 120), both of which suggest that the author was
trying to use a form that was prestigious, albeit one they were not completely
familiar with.
It is somewhat problematic, however, to assume that the use of archaic forms
was solely driven by register. If archaic linguistic forms had such prestige, it is
somewhat surprising that they are not more common and did not become the
target forms of all inscriptions. This may suggest that the relationship between
general dedicatory inscriptions and archaic linguistic forms is partly caused by
the age of the inscriptions, and they are simply generally older than the other
inscriptions. This cannot explain the occasional misuse of archaic linguistic
forms mentioned above, however.
In this light it is worth repeating that there seems to be a strong differ-
ence between ẓll inscriptions and other dedicatory inscriptions and their pref-
erence for archaic linguistic forms. Even though they seem to belong to the
same register in terms of content, formulae, and execution, general dedicatory
inscriptions show a preference for the use of archaic linguistic forms, while ẓll
inscriptions show the opposite relationship to the same variables. This might
be explained by the relatively higher proportion of more simply executed ẓll
inscriptions than dedicatory inscriptions. If the archaic linguistic register that
we typically see in more formal and elaborate inscriptions was mainly used by
skilled scribes and masons, this would explain why they are also most com-
monly found in dedicatory inscriptions, most of which were produced by such
professionals, based on their technical execution and the signatures that some
of them bear.
In turn, the preference for more progressive linguistic forms in the ẓll inscrip-
tions may be due to several different reasons. They may simply be younger than
the other dedicatory inscriptions and date to a time when the archaic forms had
lost, or were losing, their prestige, also as a formal register marker, by the time
the ẓll inscriptions were produced. Alternatively, it may say something about
the nature of the ritual. The content of the inscriptions suggests the ẓll cer-
emony may have had a legal aspect, besides its religious significance, related
to taxes or property rights (Kootstra 2022). A connection to legal practice may
have caused the language of the inscriptions to be closer to the linguistic reg-
ister of documentary texts, which tends to be more progressive than that of
monumental inscriptions.
In the variation of the spelling of *ẓ and the use of dual agreement on the
other hand, the influence of register is more obvious. Even though the use of

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conclusions 241

dual agreement does not correlate significantly with any of the variables in
cluster i, it mimics their distribution across registers: the more progressive neu-
tralization of the dual correlates negatively with higher-register inscriptions,
while it correlates positively with lower-register script styles; again, confirm-
ing the connection between lower-register inscriptions and more progressive
linguistic forms and possibly the skill level of the author of the inscriptions as
well. The attestation of mistakes in the use of the dual further confirms that at
some point this type of agreement probably fell out of use in the spoken lan-
guage of the oasis but was remembered for a while as part of an archaic, higher
register used in writing.
The spelling of *ẓ shows the opposite distribution in absolute numbers. In
this case the more archaic form is the most commonly used variant. However,
similar to the relative distribution of the other variables across the different
registers, we also saw that the more progressive form ṭ correlates significantly
with lower register inscriptions. The low number of attestations, however, sug-
gests that the ṭ spellings are infiltrations from the spoken language that crept
into more casually composed inscriptions, possibly by accident.

3 Variation and Literacy

As discussed above, script and manner of inscribing, genre, and the language
of the Dadanitic inscriptions are important elements for the description and
analysis of the epigraphic corpus from ancient Dadan. To fully contextualize
the variation attested in the Dadanitic epigraphic record, however, we also need
to consider the role of writing and literacy in ancient Dadan and their impact
on the local writing culture. In the Introduction, I discussed the role of writ-
ing at the oasis of Dadan and the methodological implications of analyzing the
output of a writing culture which was influenced by the presence of trained
scribes. The following will bring together this study’s conclusions about the
variation in the manner of inscribing, genre, and language of the Dadanitic
inscriptions and the discussion of literacy and scribal training at the oasis of
Dadan.
As Macdonald (2010) has shown, the Dadanitic script contains features that
suggest it was probably also used for writing on soft materials, and the oasis was
likely a literate society (Macdonald 2010, 12–14). This suggests that there was
a need for scribes who would know how to draw up certain specialized doc-
uments, like contracts or letters, which required training to become familiar
with the designated formulae. Looking at the production of the inscriptions,
the high level of craftsmanship needed to produce the inscriptions in relief

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242 conclusions

clearly shows that there was an industry surrounding their production and that
the people who made them received specialized training as well (Macdonald
2010, 7). From the inscriptions JSLih 082 and ah 220 it is clear that, at least
for some inscriptions, both a craftsman ṣnʿ and a scribe s¹fr were involved in
their production. Therefore, there seem to have been professional scribes at
the oasis that one could turn to when in need of a specific kind of inscrip-
tion or written document. These scribes would be trained in the local scribal
tradition, or scribal school. Given the size of the corpus and the oasis, these
scribes were probably not trained in massive institutions. The presence of a
family or a small number of families of scribes where knowledge was passed
on from father to son would probably have been enough to establish a writing
tradition and to pass on the knowledge of less-common forms and registers as
well.
Having posited the existence of a defined written register, apart from the
spoken languages at the oasis, the introduction also explored the possible
effects the existence of such a scribal school may have had on the language of
the inscriptions and the linguistic variation attested in them. The results of the
statistical analysis in Chapters 7 and 8 showed that while the archaic linguistic
forms did not become the standard, they did have a certain prestige and were
favored in some of the higher register inscriptions. The clustering of several
more archaic linguistic forms also seems to imply a genuine historical dimen-
sion to the linguistic variation and possibly their subsequent preservation as
markers of a prestigious archaic linguistic register. The fact that the inscriptions
seem to witness development of the language suggests that, while in some cases
the use of archaic forms was deemed prestigious, the written language was not
completely divorced from the spoken language and developed alongside it. The
lack of absolute correlations between archaic and progressive forms indicates
that there was not a sudden, enforced change of writing practice, but a more
gradual development. This allowed for different linguistic forms to remain in
use side by side, which gave the authors of the inscriptions a choice of forms
and styles they could employ.
This lack of absolute divisions, and the presence of fuzzy variation, does not
support the existence of a scribal school with a strong regularizing effect on
the language. Instead, it seems that variation was acceptable and possibly even
desired in the production of the inscriptions. Macdonald has shown that even
within inscriptions beautifully produced in relief, variation in letter shapes can
be found (2010, 14). This seems to suggest that we might need to abandon the
modern idea that perfect regularity is generally the desired aesthetic aim.
The preponderance of graffiti within the corpus of Dadanitic inscriptions
supports the idea that literacy was not confined to only a small group of trained

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conclusions 243

scribes. A parallel might be drawn here with the situation in Iron Age Judah. It
is clear that as literacy in Hebrew began to spread, there was also an increase
in inconsistencies in grammar and spelling, noticeable in the epigraphic mate-
rial (Schniedewind 2013, 100). Based on this, Schniedewind concludes that as
literacy spreads it becomes problematic for a scribal school to maintain con-
trol over the maintenance of a strictly defined written language. As less highly
trained individuals begin to use the written language, influence from the spo-
ken register is bound to creep in. Such tension between, on the one hand,
professional scribes, and on the other hand, private individuals, where both
were leaving inscriptions, may partially explain the variation attested in the
Dadanitic written record. The presence of a small group of trained scribes
might have been enough to maintain a written register somewhat removed
from the spoken register, and even the memory of some more archaic forms.
Scribes could then employ such forms to lift the significance of a commissioned
text. At the same time, the participation of private individuals in the writing
practices of the oasis may have pushed the incorporation of more progressive
forms in the written register. Their participation in the production of texts may
also explain the occasional misuse of an archaic form, or even the incorpora-
tion of forms that were not part of the less formal registers of writing (yet), such
as the ṭ spelling for *ẓ.
A final point of contact between different linguistic forms may also have
come from the documents written on perishable materials. As we know from
the Sabaic material, for example, the linguistic norms used to write personal
letters are often a lot more progressive than those used to write monumen-
tal inscriptions. One can imagine how someone, who was not a highly trained
scribe, leaving a graffito or small inscription may have used some forms that
were common in day-to-day writing, but not necessarily part of the high reg-
ister of inscriptions. This is similar to the scenario sketched by Macdonald
concerning the interaction of formal and informal forms of the script in such a
situation (2015, 7). Influence from a linguistically more progressive documen-
tary written practice may also explain why the ẓll inscriptions have a nega-
tive relationship with several more archaic linguistic variants (see Chapter 8,
§ 4.4).
From the association between archaic linguistic forms and higher register,
and the occasional unsuccessful attempt at using them, it is clear that while
these forms fell out of use at some point, they had a certain prestige, and they
were remembered after they had fallen out of regular use in the spoken variety.
The fact that archaic linguistic forms were remembered further supports the
idea that the people who produced the inscriptions were educated, and that
there was strong cultural continuity at the oasis. The cultural continuity is, of

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244 conclusions

course, very clearly visible in the homogeneity in formulae used in the inscrip-
tions. The physical presence of older inscriptions in the landscape undoubtedly
also contributed to the memory of older linguistic forms and formulae.3

4 Future Directions

By incorporating statistical methods into the analysis of linguistic variation in

Dadanitic, this work has demonstrated an effective approach to dealing with
the fuzzy kind of variation attested in many other epigraphic corpora as well.
This quantitative approach can help identify relationships that are especially
close, despite the fact that their features may not correlate together to the exclu-
sion of others. This can help bring out patterns in the data that would be easy
to miss when comparing the occurrence of variables in a more impressionistic
way.
More specific to the study of Dadanitic, this methodology may yield fruitful
results in the future study of paleography and variation in the use of phrases
and word order. Although the proposals to use paleographic variation to date
the inscriptions so far have been unreliable (as demonstrated by Macdon-
ald 2015, 17–18), the diachronic dimension to linguistic variation found in this
study raises new questions about the possibility to link the variation in script
to diachronic development as well. Approaching the fuzzy variation in letter
shapes with similar quantitative methodology may shed new light on the devel-
opment of the script and the reasons underlying the choice for more or less
archaic letter shapes within individual phrases or inscriptions, if similar clus-
ters of co-occurring variables can be found.
Despite the highly formulaic nature of the inscriptions, there is quite a lot of
variation in them in terms of the order and number of different elements a text
can consist of, as shown in Chapter 3, §2. The sheer number of possible varia-
tions in word order and the different levels of building blocks present within an
inscription (genre, but also the elements of superscriptio, narratio, and invoca-
tio within each inscription) that can also vary in their order and length, means
that a differently structured database is needed to catalogue this variation than

3 Such conscious use of archaic forms may be compared to the use of Kufic script from about
the twelfth century ce (this was brought to my attention by Petra Sijpesteijn). Even though
round scripts started to replace Kufic from the late ninth to the early tenth centuries ce in
manuscripts and from the late eleventh century also in monumental epigraphy, Kufic con-
tinued to be used sporadically in headings in Quran manuscripts and historical texts (Blair
2007, 600–601).

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conclusions 245

the one I built for the analysis of the linguistic variables analyzed in this study.
However, as formulae are such an important part of writing traditions in gen-
eral, understanding the variation attested in the Dadanitic inscriptions can
make a serious contribution to furthering our understanding of the writing tra-
dition of Dadan.

5 Summary

In short, the language of the Dadanitic inscriptions changed during the time in
which the corpus was produced. The fact that there is no clear break between
linguistic habits shows that this change was gradual and probably not strictly
regulated by a scribal authority. This seems to suggest that professional scribes
were not the only ones able to write; however, the sophisticated production
of the inscriptions and cultural setting at the oasis do point to the existence
of a scribal school. As part of this education the professional scribes probably
also familiarized themselves with archaic linguistic forms. It needs to be kept
in mind, however, that less highly trained literate individuals also had access
to such forms through the presence of inscriptions containing archaic forms,
which could be found in the landscape and possibly encountered through oral
ritual practice.
It has also become clear that while the more archaic linguistic forms appear
to have had a certain prestige, they did not become the standard written form.
Instead, it seems that after they fell out of use in the spoken language of the
oasis, they could be used optionally, possibly to add to the cultural or reli-
gious significance of an inscription. A certain degree of variation, both in letter
shapes and linguistic form seems to have been an accepted part of the writing
tradition at Dadan.

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 appendix

Glossary

This glossary contains the lexical material present in the Dadanitic inscriptions that
make up the corpus of the current study.1 It also includes all toponyms and theonyms
included in the corpus. Only the personal names that have been interpreted as lexical
items in the ociana database have been included. The entries are lexeme based, rather
than root based, to facilitate searching of ambiguous forms. Each entry does include a
field with the root of the word. Whenever a lexeme is found in several derived forms,
the base form (usually the most commonly occurring form) will be the entry form, with
the derived forms listed inside the lemma. When only a derived form is available, this
will be listed. For example, only the plural form ʾfqw ‘they dedicated’ is attested and,
therefore, it has its own lexical entry, while both pl. ʾẓllw and sing. ʾẓll ‘to perform the ẓll
ceremony’ are attested, therefore, ʾẓllw can be found under the singular form ʾẓll. Vari-
ant spellings of the same form can also be found under the same entry. The translation
of each example is marked with * to indicate it is my interpretation of the inscription.
Those marked with ** follow the translation offered in ociana. Whenever the transla-
tion is based on another source it will be cited using regular in-text citation.

A lemma can have a note added to it, which includes comparative notes and addi-
tional discussion and references when necessary. The linguistic comparisons in these
notes are not meant to claim linguistic affiliation (see § 1.6.3 for comments on the lin-
guistic affiliation of Dadanitic). Some semantic shifts clearly form linguistic isoglosses,
such as the shift of the meaning of the root hlk ‘to go’ > ‘to die’ for Arabic, or the shift
of the root ʿbd ‘to serve’ > ‘to make’ for nws languages. However, such lexical items
can easily spread through contact as well, as we can see in the Dadanitic usage of ʿbd,
and fʿl for the verb ‘to make’ (see glossary, below). Given the clear contact between
Dadanitic, and both Aramaic and South Arabian writing culture, there will be regular
comparisons to the use of certain roots in nws and asa varieties, not based on a sup-
posed direct linguistic affiliation, but because of cultural contact between these writing
traditions.

1 This corpus is based on the inscriptions that were available in the ociana database March
2019. A complete overview of the inscriptions that were considered for this work can be found
in the Index of Inscriptions.

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248 appendix

Alphabetic Order

ʾ – ʿ – b – d – ḏ – ḍ – f – g – ġ – h – ḫ – ḥ – k – l – m – n – q – r – s (for s1) – s2 – ṣ – t – ṯ –
ṭ–w–y–z–ẓ

Structure of the Entries

pos, verbal stem, pgn. Gloss. Root. Example sentence followed by (sigla/ line no.) ‘trans-
lation of the example’. Variant: form in boldface. example sentence (sigla/ line no.)
‘translation of example’. derived forms: form in boldface. example sentence (sigla/
line no.) ‘translation of example’. note: etymological comments and discussion
when necessary. Certainty: note about how certain the proposed translation is. Fre-
quency: no. of attestations of each attested form. Typology: different text genres in
which the word occurs. Usage: example of highly frequent or idiomatic usage; transla-
tion.

∵
ʾ

ʾʿly adjective, elative. highest, upper. Etym: ʿlw. ʾḫḏw / h-mkn // w h-mqʿd / ḏh / kll-h /
mn / mʿ//n / h-gbl / hnʾʿly / ʿdky // mʿ{n} / h-gbl / hn-ʾs{ f }l ( JSLih 072/ 4–7) ‘they
took the place and this seat, all of it, from the assembly place of the upper border
until the sanctuary of the lower border (Lundberg 2015, 135)’. Certainty:: certain.
Frequency:: 1. Typology:: narrative.
ʾb noun. pasture. Etym: ʾbb. ʾny // ys¹g [/] ʾb-hm / w {m}ʿn-h[m] // w {m}fr-h{m} / b-
ms²hl (U 026/3–5) “that their pasture may be beautified and their abode and their
cultivated land at ms²hl**”.
note: Compare CAr. ʾabb ‘herbage, whether fresh or dry or, pasture or herbage
which beasts feed upon’ (Lane, 3c). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology::
dedicatory, legal.
ʾbt noun. Q. Etym: Q. ----//{n} / ʾly / ʾbt / d---- (ah 218) ‘… on behalf of families/herbage
…*’.
note: Compare CAr. bayt ‘house, family’ or ʾabb ‘herbage, whether fresh or dry
or, pasture or herbage which beasts feed upon’ (Lane, 3c). Certainty:: uncertain,
broken context. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: Q.
ʾdq verb, c, 3m.s. to offer. Etym: wdq. ʾd{q} / h-//{ẓ}{l}l / l-ḏġ//{b}{t} (ah 087/ 2–4) ‘he
offered the ẓll to Ḏūġābat so favor him**’. ʾdq / l-l//h / {h}-ṣlmn ( JSLih 061/ 3–4) ‘he
offered to Lh the two statues/the statuette**’. 3pl.:: ʾdqw. ʾdqw / w qr//bw / h-ṣlm

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/ h-nḥs / l-//ḏġbt (Al-Ḫuraybah 09/ 3–5) ‘they dedicated and offered the bronze
statue to ḏġbt*’.
note: Compare CAr. wadaqa ‘to approach’ (Lisān). A similar semantic connec-
tion exists in CAr. D-stem form qarraba ‘he presented it, or offered it to them’
(Lane 2505b) from qaraba ‘to become near’ (Lane 2504b) and Aram. ʾty ‘to come’
and hyty ‘to bring’ (cal, 4-10-2017). See also hdq and hwdq. Certainty:: certain.
Frequency:: ʾdq: 6; ʾdqw: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
ʾḏh complementizer. if; when. Etym: ḏV. ----h / bn / pn / ʾḏh / ḥrb-hm ----// ( JSLih 055/
2) ‘… son of pn if/when he waged war on them …**’. wsqt // ʿmm ʾḏh // nwl / ʿl
mg//-h ( JSLih 069) ‘??? ??? when he offered on behalf of his expulsion/grain*’.
note: Compare e.g. Ug. ʾd /ʾidā/ē/ ‘when, as soon as’ (Tropper 2000, 796), CAr.
iḏā ‘if, when’. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: legal; Q.
ʾḍm noun pl.?. wheat? Etym: nḍm. ddn / hṯbt / mṯb / w hwḍʾt / ʾḍm / l-ḏġbt / mrʾ//-h
(Al-Ḫuraybah 12) ‘Dadan dedicated the throne and offered the wheat(?) to ḏġbt *
her lord**’.
note: al-Saʿīd proposed to translate ʾḍm as ‘presents’ (al-Saʿīd 2013–2014, 293–
295). Compare CAr. naḍm ‘rich wheat’ (Steingass, 1126b). Certainty:: uncertain.
Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
ʾfkl noun. priest. Etym: ʾpkl. pn // ʾfkl / w//d / w bn-h // pn / w p//n ( JSLih 049/ 1–5)
‘pn priest of Wadd and his son pn and pn**’. ----y pn / pn / ʾfkl / hktby ---- ( JSLih
055/ 1) ‘… pn pn* priest of h-ktby …**’. pn {ʾ}fkl l{t} ( JSLih 277) ‘pn priest of Lt**’.
feminine:: ʾfklt. ʾgw / h-ẓll / ḏh / l-ḏġbt // ʿl----mʿ / hn-ʾfklt / b-bnʾl (U 038/ 2–3) ‘he
dedicated* this ẓll for ḏġbt … the priestess at Bnʾl*’. bʿlsmn / ʾḥrm / h-qrt // mn /
mh / trqh / mrʾt // l-bhny / hn-ʾfklt // ḏ ( JSLih 064) ‘bʿlsmn protected the village
from what [spell] the woman of the palm tree, the priestess, cast on it ḏ* (see
Lundberg 2015, 134 for the interpretation of ʾḥrm and trq)’.
note: Compare Palm. and Nab. ʾpkl ‘a high religious official’ (cal, 16-2-2018);
Sab. ʾfkl ‘priest in conquered Nashan’ (Beeston et al 1982, 2). The term is thought
to come from Sumerian apkallu through Akkadian (Kaufman 1974, 34). ʾfkl also
seems to occur as a personal name: certainly in JSLih 383, probably also in JaL 012;
024; ah 065.1; al-Ḫuraybah 15. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: ʾfkl: 8; ʾfklt: 2. Typol-
ogy:: dedicatory; narrative; graffiti; construction.
ʾfqw verb, c, 3m.pl. to dedicate. Etym: nfq. ---- // ʾfqw / f-rḍ-hm / w ---- ( JSLih 054/ 4) ‘…
they dedicated so favor them and…*’.
note: Compare Sab. nfq ‘to demand’ (Beeston 1982. 92); Nab., JAr.Palm. npq ‘to
leave, to go forth’, hifʿil ‘to send’, OffAram. wtpq ʾḥṭb ʿmr ‘and that A. may bring
one ʿomer …’ (Hoftijzer and Jongeling 1995, 742). ociana translates ʾfq as ‘they
exercised the administrative powers’. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typol-
ogy:: dedicatory.
ʾfy verb, c, 3m.s. to pay, grant, fulfill an obligation. Etym: wfy/nfy. ʾfy // h-ẓll / l-ḏġbt /

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b-khl (U 031/ 2–3) ‘he fulfilled* the ẓll for ḏġbt at Khl**’. 3s.f.:: ʾft. pn / bnt // pn /
ʾft / h-ẓ//ll / ḏh / l-ḏġbt // b-khl (U 005/ 2–4) ‘she fullfilled* this ẓll-ceremony for
ḏġbt at Khl**’. du.:: ʾfyh. ʾbʿl / ḏl / ʾfyh / h-ẓll // l-ḏġbt (U 026/ 1–2) ‘the lords of ḏl
fulfilled* the ẓll for ḏġbt**’. 3pl.:: ʾfyw. ʾfyw / [ẓ][l][l] h-nq // l-ḏġbt (U 037/ 4–5)
‘they fulfilled [the ẓll] of the nq for ḏġbt*’.
note: Compare Sab. hwfy ‘to pay, grant, fulfill obligatons, render s.o. his due’
(Biella: 138) and CAr. ʾawfā’ ‘to accomplish (a vow)’ (Hava, 876b). Certainty:: cer-
tain. Frequency:: ʾfy: 5; ʾft: 2; ʾfyh: 1; ʾfyw: 1. Typology:: ẓll.
ʾgw noun. dedication. Etym: ngw or gyw. pn / w-sṭ-h / sṭ//ʿn pn // ʾgw-h / {ẓ}nfss // w-
ḥggw / ḏġbt // b-khl (Al-ʿUḏayb 075/ 1–5) ‘pn and he dedicated it, a portion for pn
his dedication ???* and they performed the pilgrimage to ḏġbt at Khl**’.
note: Either from gyw ‘to go’ as a causative ‘to bring’ or from ngw (suggested by
Drewes 1985, 172). compare Sab. ‘to announce’ (see Macdonald 2014, 154, in con-
nection to ngy in Saf.). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
ʾgw verb, c, 3m.s. to dedicate. Etym: ngw or gyw. ʾgw [h-]ẓl//l [l-]ḏġb[t] (U 049/ 3–4) ‘he
dedicated* [the] ẓll to ḏġb[t]**’. ʾgw b-k//hl / l-ḏġbt(ah 113/ 2–3) ‘he dedicated* at
Khl to ḏġbt**’. Variant: ʾgy. ʾgy / ʿs²rt / mnh{h} / {ʾ}{y}dn // {w} mṣhn ( JSLih 177/
1–2) ‘he dedicated ten minah ??? and ???*’. 3s.f.:: ʾgt. ʾgt // l-ḏġb{t} / {h-}ẓll (U 126/
1–2) ‘she dedicated to* ḏġbt the ẓll**’. 3pl.:: ʾgww. ʾgww / h-ẓll / [l-][ḏ]ġ//bt (U 088/
2–3) ‘they dedicated the ẓll to ḏġbt’.
note: Either from gyw ‘to go’ as a causative ‘to bring’ or from ngw (suggested by
Drewes 1985, 172): compare Sab. ngw ‘to announce’ (http://sabaweb.uni‑jena.de/​
Sabaweb/Suche/Suche, accessed 14-07-2021, and see Macdonald 2014, 154, who
connects this to ngy in Saf.). Certainty:: semantic domain is certain. Frequency::
ʾgw: 26; ʾgy: 1; ʾgt: 5; ʾgww: 4. Typology:: ẓll; dedicatory. Usage: ʾgw h-ẓll; he dedi-
cated the ẓll ceremony.
ʾġnmw verb, c, 3m.pl. to present, dedicate (spoils?) Etym: ġnm. ----rb / ḥggw / w//----
r / w ʾġnmw / l//---- (ah 221/ 3–4) ‘… they performed the pilgrimage … and they
presented (as booty?) …**’.
note: Compare CAr. ġannamtu-hu ‘I gave him spoil, or a free and disinterested
gift’ (Lane, 2301a); Sab. ġnm ‘to give booty (deity)’ (Beeston et al 1982, 54). Cer-
tainty:: semantic domain is certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
ʾhl noun. family. Etym: ʾhl. ---- / bn // pn / ḏ-ʾh{l}---- // ʾẓll / h-ẓll // l-ḏġbt (U 060/ 1–
4) ‘… son of pn of the lineage of** … or of the lineage of ʾhl* performed the ẓll
ceremony for ḏġbt**’.
note: Kinship is usually indicated with only the particle ḏ directly followed by
the family name in Dadanitic, therefore ʾhl may actually be the family name.
Compare the Saf. term ʾhl which seems to have a more restricted meaning ‘fam-
ily’ than ʾl. Macdonald and Nehmé point out the original Semitic meaning of ʾhl
as ‘tent’. In Saf. this original meaning may have remained in the sense of referring

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to the close family group one shares a tent with (Macdonald and Nehmé, 2015).
Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: lineage; ẓll.
ʾḫ noun. brother. Etym: ʾḫ. pn / w ʾḫ-h / p//n / bnw / pn // pn / ʾẓlw / h-ẓll / l-ḏġbt
(U 064/ 1–3) ‘pn and his brother pn pn sons of pn pn performed the ẓll ceremony
for ḏġbt**’. pl.:: ʾḫw (construct form). pn / w pn / bnw // nṭr / ʾḫḏw / h-qb//r / ḏh
/ hm / w ʾḫw-hm ( JSLih 079/ 1–3) ‘pn and pn sons of pn took possession of this
tomb, them and their** brothers*’.
note: See ʾḫt for the feminine Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: ʾḫ: 2; ʾḫw: 1. Typol-
ogy:: lineage.
ʾḫrt noun. posterity, descendants. Etym: ʾḫr. f r{ḍ}-h w ʾḫrt -h (U 058/ 6) ‘so favor him
and his posterity**’. f {r}ḍ {-h} // w sʿd-h / w ʾḫrt-h (ah 100/ 6–7) ‘so favor her and
aid her and her posterity**’.
note: Compare Nab. ʾḥr ‘posterity’ (cal, 16-2-2018). Certainty:: certain. Frequen-
cy:: 116. Typology:: dedicatory; blessing formula. Usage: f-rḍ-h w-ʾḫrt-h w-sʾd-h;
so favor him and his posterity and aid him.
ʾḫt noun. sister. Etym: ʾḫ. w-ʾrṭṭ / ʾḫ-h // w ʾḫt-h / b-mh / ʿntw ( JSLih 077/ 7–8) ‘and he
made his brother and sister ??? with what they ??? …*’. ----ʿ----ʾl / bn / pn ----// ʾḫt-
h / ʾrqww / h---- (ah 204/ 1–2) ‘… son of pn … his sister they sent up {the} …*’.
note: see ʾḫ for ‘brother’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: lineage.
ʾḫḏ verb. to take; take possession of st. Etym: ʾḫḏ. pn / ʾḫḏ // h-ṣfḥt ḏt ( JSLih 066) ‘pn
took possession of this cliff face*’. w-ʾḫḏ / h-mṯbrn ( JSLih 045/ 3) ‘and he took the
two grave chambers**/fields*’. wdyw / nfs / pn / bn / pn / m{h} // ʾḫḏ / ʿl-hmy / ḫrg
( JSLih 077/ 2–3) ‘they set up the funerary monument for pn son of pn** which
was placed upon them as a lawsuit*’. 3pl.:: ʾḫḏw. ʾḫḏw / h-qb//r / ḏh ( JSLih 079/
2–3) ‘they took possession of this tomb**’. ʾḫḏw / h-mkn // w h-mqʿd / ḏh / kll-h
( JSLih 072/ 4–5) ‘they took the place and this seat, all of it**’. pn // bn pn / ʾḫḏ //
hl-btt ( JaL 021 f ) ‘pn son of pn took possession of this section*’.
note: Compare CAr. ʾaḫaḏa ‘he took, he took with his hand, he took hold of’
(Lane, 28b). The funerary inscriptions do not mark an existing grave, but might
be laying claim to a certain part of the rockface for the cunstruction of a tomb at
a later time, comparable to Nab. inscriptions laying claim to a tomb or a site of
a future tomb (Nehmé 2015, 105). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: ʾḫḏ: 10; ḫḏw: 2.
Typology:: funerary; legal; graffiti.
ʾḥdy numeral, m. one. Etym: ʾḥd. pn / pn // tqṭ / snt / ʾḥdy // b-rʾy / ḏʾbsmwy (Nasif
1988: 96, pl. cxliv) ‘pn pn wrote [in] year one during the** rising of the asterism
of ḏʾbsmwy*’. Variant: ʾḥd (bound form). ----bndw / ʾḥd-hm / bslʿt----// ( JaL 001/
5) ‘… one of them** with coins …*’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: ʾḥdy: 8; ʾḥd: 1.
Typology:: dating formula. Usage: ʾḥd-hm; one of them.
ʾḥrm verb, c, 3m.s. to protect. Etym: ḥrm. bʿlsmn / ʾḥrm / h-qrt // mn / mh / trqh / mrʾt
// l-bhny / hn-ʾfklt // ḏ( JSLih 064) ‘bʿlsmn protected the village from what [spell]

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the woman of the palm tree, the priestess cast on it ḏ* (see Lundberg 2015, 134
for the interpretation of ʾḥrm and trq)’.
note: Compare CAr. ḥarama ‘he was, or became sacred, inviolable’ (Lane, 553).
Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: narrative.
ʾkbr adjective, elative. biggest. Etym: kbr. [----]//----h / bn / pn // ----/ h-mqdr / hn-ʾkbr
//---- (Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 26–36, no. 3/ 1–2) ‘… pn son of pn … the the biggest cultic
structure …*’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: funerary; dedicatory?.
ʾl noun. family, tribe, clan. Etym: ʾl. pn // ḏ-ʾl // TrN ( JSLih 226) ‘pn of the family of
TrN*’. pn / pn // pn / ʾl / TrN ( JSLih 127) ‘pn pn pn* of the family of TrN**’. pn / bn
/ pn // bn / pn / bn / pn // ḏʾl / TrN // sḥ / s²f-h ( JSLih 071/ 1–4) ‘pn son of pn son of
pn son of pn of the family of TrN his grain were abundant**’. pn / bn / pn // w pn
/ ḏ ʾl / TrN // ʾẓllw / l-ḏġbt (U 047/ 1–3) ‘pn son of pn and pn of the family of TrN
performed the ẓll for ḏġbt**’.
note: Based on the attestations in the Dadanitic corpus it is impossible to say
how large a social group ʾl could refer to, but compare the Saf. use of ʾl which can
range from a family or tribe to a whole nation (e.g. ʾl rm referring to the Romans)
(Nehmé and Macdonald, 2015). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 4. Typology:: lin-
eage; graffiti; narrative; ẓll. Usage: ḏ ʾl TrN; of the lineage of TrN.
ʾlhn noun. sanctuary, divine place. Etym: lh. ----pn / bn pn // fʿl / h-bt / w h-//ʾlhn /
f-sʿd//---- (ah 247) ‘… pn son of pn made the temple and the sanctuary(?)* so
aid …**’.
note: Compare the theonym ʾlh e.g., in Saf. (Al-Jallad 2015, 299). Certainty::
uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
ʾlmʿ noun/pn?, elative. brightest. Etym: lmʿ. pn hn-ʾlmʿ// pn hn-ʾlmʿ (Qaṣr al-Ṣāniʿ 6)
‘pn the brightest pn the brightest*’.
note: It is not clear whether hnʾlmʿ is title here or a personal name. Compare
CAr. lmʿ ‘to shine very brightly, to flash’. ociana translates ʾlmʿ as ‘the sagacious’
following CAr. ʾalmaʿ ‘sharp minded’ (Hava 1915, 689). Certainty:: uncertain. Fre-
quency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.
ʾm noun. mother. Etym: ʾmm. pn / w-pn / bnt / p//n / w-ʾm-hm (ah 081/ 1–2) ‘pn and pn
daughter of pn and their mother pn**’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 7. Typol-
ogy:: dedicatory; ẓll; genealogy.
ʾmt noun. maid servant. Etym: ʾm. ---- ḏ ʾl TrN ʾdq---- s---- // l-ḏġbt ʾmt-{h}my pn // b{n}t
pn (ah 222/1–3) ‘… of the family of TrN dedicated* … to ḏġbt their maidservant
pn daughter of pn**’.
note: Compare Sab. ʾmt ‘bondwoman, female vassal’ (Beeston et al 1982, 5);
OffAram. ʾmh ‘maid servant’ (cal, 16-2-2018). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1.
Typology:: dedicatory.
ʾn complementizer. that. Etym: ʾn. [----]//hm ---- [ḏ]//ġbt / ʾ{n} / yk{n}----// l-h / {w}ld
(ah 203/ 1–4) ‘… ḏġbt that there may be a son … to him**’.

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note: Compare CAr. ʾan yafʿala ‘that he may do’ (Al-Jallad 2018, 24) Certainty::
certain. Frequency:: 3. Typology:: dedicatory; legal.
ʾn pronoun, 1c.s. i. Etym: ʾn. l-pn / ḥbb // w-ʾn / pn / bn / pn ( JSLih 347) ‘for pn pn and
I am pn son of pn’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 3. Typology:: graffiti; dedica-
tory?.
ʾn particle. that. Etym: ʾn. ----//---- {m}n / srq / f-ʾn / yṣbr / b-m-h / sr[q]---- // ----{d}n /
thḍ-h / kll-h / f-ḥṯm ----- (Al-Ḫuraybah 17/ 4–5) ‘… who stole(?) and if he is caught
with what he {stole} … … if all of it broke (the stolen things) then beat him(?)
…*’.
note: Compare CAr. fa-ʾinna to introduce the apodosis of a conditional clause.
Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 3. Typology:: dedicatory; legal.
ʾny presentative. that. ʾny // ysrg [/] ʾb-hm / w {m}ʿn-h[m] // w-{m}fr-h{m} / b-ms²hl
(U 026) ‘that their pasture may be beautified and their abode and their cultivated
land at Ms²hl**’.
note: Compare Ug. hny, Heb. hinneh and CAr. ʾinna. Certainty:: certain. Fre-
quency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory; legal.
ʾqd verb, c, 3m.s. to make, to dedicate. Etym: wqd. ---- ḏ ʾl TrN ʾdq---- s----// l-ḏġbt ʾmt -
{h}my ʿyḏh // b{n}t ʾmthnʿṯt ---- h----t // ym ʾqd h-m---- l-ḫrg (ah 222/ 1–4) ‘… of the
family of TrN he dedicated … to ḏġbt their maid servant pn daughter of pn … he
made the … for ḫrg**’.
note: Compare CAr. wdq ‘to approach’ (Lisān). A similar semantic connection
exists in the CAr. D-stem form qarraba ‘he presented it, or offered it to them’
(Lane 2505b) from qaraba ‘to become near’ (Lane 2504b). Certainty:: uncertain.
Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
ʾqd noun. produce, dedication. Etym: wqd?. ----{ḥ}y / ʾqd / h- rʿ / f//---- (ah 239/ 3–4) ‘…
the dedication of the sheep so …*’. ----m / ym / stḥbl / ʾqd / h- rʿ (Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999:
3–14, no. 1/ 4) ‘… [the] day he pledged the produce/dedication of the sheep**’.
note: Compare CAr. wdq ‘to approach’ (Lisān). A similar semantic connection
exists in the CAr. D-stem form qarraba ‘he presented it, or offered it to them’
(Lane 2505b) from qaraba ‘to become near’ (Lane 2504b). Frequency:: 3. Typol-
ogy:: dedicatory. Certainty:: uncertain.
ʾrbʿ numeral. four. Etym: rbʿ. s //----[n][t] ʿs²rn / w-ʾrbʿ / 24 // ---- [t][l]ymy/ bn /
hnʾs / m{l}[k] //---- l[ḥ][y][n] (ah 226/ 4–7) ‘year twenty-four 24 … Tlmy son of
Hnʾs king of Liḥyān**’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 5. Typology:: dating for-
mula.
ʾrbʿn numeral. forty. Etym: rbʿ. {ġ}rsw / b- bdr / [w] b- bnʾl / m//ʾt / w ʾrbʿn / w ḫms / nḫl
(U 023/ 4–5) ‘they planted at Bdr and at Bnʾl hundred forty-five palm trees**’. … snt
/ ʾr{b}//ʿn / w ṯtn / b-rʾ//y / ḏʾslʿn / tlm/y / bn / hnʾs / ml//k / lḥyn (al-Ḫuraybah 10) ‘…
{them} year forty-two** during the rising of the asterism ḏʾslʿn*, Tlmy son of Hnʾs
king of Liḥyān*’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 7. Typology:: dating formula; ẓll.

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ʾrbʿw noun. sanctuary. Etym: rbʿ. bnyw / hn-ʾrb//ʿw (U 008/ 3–4) ‘they built the sanctu-
ary**’.
note: Compare Sab. rbʿ ‘residence/residents’ (Beeston et al 1982, 113); CAr. rabʿ
‘a place of alighting or abode of people or a company of men’ (Lane, 1016–1017).
ʾrbʿw may be compared to Nab. ʾrbʿn, which Nehmé suggests to be derived from
the root rbʿ ‘four’ and which she interprets as ‘square building’ (Nehmé 2003,
25). In the Nab. context these buildings were also the object of dedications men-
tioned in inscriptions. More recently the possibly related form rbʿyʾ was discov-
ered in a Nab. inscription from the Moab plateau (al-Salameen and Shdaifat 2017,
3–4). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 3. Typology:: construction.
ʾrf active participle, 3m.s. limited; fenced? Etym: ʾrf. ---- / bn / p//n / mṯbr / ʾrf ( JSLih
317) ‘… son of pn a fenced field/delimited grave chamber*’.
note: Compare CAr. ʾarafa ‘he set or put limits or boundaries’ (Lane, 49c).
ociana translates ʾrf as a verb ‘… son of pn limited the grave chamber’ but
this does not work syntactically as noted in the commentary section. Certainty::
uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.
ʾrḫ noun. matter, (judicial) case. Etym: ʾrḫ. ----l-hm / w-{s²}hdt / w h-ʾrḫ //---- ( JSLih
052/ 7) ‘… and witness and the case …*’.
note: Compare Sab. ʾrḫ ‘affair, matter, undertaking’ and ‘judicial case’ (Beeston
et al 1982, 7). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: legal.
ʾrqww verb, c, 3c.pl. to make ascend; to dedicate. Etym: rqw. ----ʿ----ʾl / bn / zdl{h} ----
// ʾḫt-h / ʾrqww / h---- // bt / hmḏ / nḏr / ḏġ[b][t] ---- (ah 204/ 1–3) ‘… son of pn …
his sister** they sent up {the} …* according what was vowed to ḏġbt …**’.
note: Compare CAr. raqā ‘he ascended’ (Lane 1140a). To make ascend may refer
to a burnt offering or an offering of incense in this context. Compare to the possi-
ble ritual use of dedicating incense also possibly CAr. raqā-hu ‘he charmed him,
put a spell on him’ (see also trq (JSLih 064) in Dadanitic). Certainty:: uncertain.
Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
ʾrṯ noun?. legacy; inheritance. Etym: wrṯ. pn / bn / pn // ʾrṯ-h hlqn (Al-ʿUḏayb 106) ‘pn
son of pn [for] his legacy the support/help*’.
note: Compare CAr. ʾirṯ (from wirṯ) ‘inheritance’ (Lane 2934b). Translated as a
noun ‘his memory’ in ociana Hlqn does not occur as a pn at all in ociana how-
ever. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.
ʾsd noun. lion. Etym: ʾsd. pn fʿl ʾl-//ʾsd ( Jabal al-Khraymāt No. 4) ‘pn made the lion
(Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2017, 226)’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology::
graffiti.
ʾṣdq verb, c, 3m.s. to fulfill a duty. Etym: ṣdq. pn / ʾṣd{q} / // f-rḍ-h / h-lh / w-sʿd-h ( JSLih
008) ‘pn fulfilled his duty* so favor him** Hlh* and aid him**’.
note: Compare Sab. hṣdq ‘to fulfill a duty, obligation, to maintain in proper order,
to duly bestow s.t. on s.o., to justify s.o.’ (Beeston et al 1982, 141). Note that in MMin.

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ṣdq occurs with the meaning ‘to claim proprietal rights’ (M 358). Certainty:: cer-
tain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
ʾṣdqn noun, elative, pl. rightful heirs. Etym: ṣdq. [----]//---- h-/ʾṣdqn b---- // w b / ḏmr /
ḏġbt ----//----h / h-bt / ḏh ----(Müller, D.H. 1889: 68, no. 16) ‘… the rightful heirs …
ḏġbt … this temple …**’.
note: Compare CAr. ʾaṣdaq ‘more and most true and veracious’ (Lane, 1668c) in
this conext as the truest heirs, descendants. Compare ʾṣdqh ‘legitimate heir’ in
Nab. funerary texts (Nehmé 2015, 103). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typol-
ogy:: Q.
ʾṯʿ verb, c, 3m.s. protect. Etym: yṯʿ. pn / bn / pn / h-ṣ//nʿ / ḏ-TrN / ʾṯʿ // pn / b-ḥqwy / k//fr
( JSLih 075/ 1–4) ‘pn son of pn the artisan of the lineage of TrN** protected pn*
on two sides of [the] tomb**’.
note: Compare Heb. yšʿ ‘to help’ (Hoftijzer and Jongeling 1995, 476). Certainty::
uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: funerary?.
ʾṯb verb. to reward so. Etym: ṯwb. f rḍ-hm // w ʾṯb-hm (U 079 bis/ 6–7) ‘so favor them
and reward them**’. f-rḍ-h // w ʾ[ḫ]rt-h / w ʾṯ[b]-h / {w} [s]{ʿ}[d]-h (Al-ʿUḏayb 008/
3–4) ‘so favor her and her posterity and reward her and aid her**’.
note: compare Sab. yṯwbn ‘reward, recompense (a worshipper by a deity)’ (Bee-
ston et al, 151). In JSLih 077 ociana reads ʾtb-hm, but on the photograph it is
visible that there is a horizontal line coming donw from the X. Certainty:: certain.
Frequency:: 36. Typology:: ẓll; blessing formula. Usage: f-rḍ-h w-ʾṯb-h; so favor him
and reward him.
ʾṯt noun. wife. Etym: ʾnṯ. pn / bn p//n / w-ʾṯt-h // pn / bn//t / pn / ʾgw // w ʾẓll / l-ḏġbt
(U 115/ 1–5) ‘pn son of pn and his wife pn daughter of pn dedicated* and per-
formed the ẓll for ḏġbt**’. pn----nt / bn / ʾft / s//lḥ / ḏġbt / w-bn-h / pn // ʾ / w ʾṯt-h
/ p//n / {ġ}rs¹w / b-bdr / [w]b-bnʾl / m//ʾt / w ʾrbʿn / w ḫms / nḫl (U 023/ 1–5) ‘pn
son of pn priest of ḏġbt and his son pn and his wife pn planted at Bdr and at Bnʾl
hundred and forty-five palm trees**’.
note: Compare e.g. Sab. ʾnṯt and ʾṯt ‘woman, female, wife’ (Sabaweb, accessed 15-
07-2021). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 5. Typology:: dedicatory; legal; geneal-
ogy.
ʾw complementizer. or. Etym: ʾw. [----]//----n----//---hm / l-bn-h / ʾw / bnt ----// ( JaL 001/
2) ‘… {them} for his son or daughter …**’. //----h-srqt / yṭb / h-srq / ʾw / y ----//----
bh (Al-Ḫuraybah 17/ 6) ‘… the theft/stolen goods acquit the thief or …*’.
note: Compare CAr. ʾaw ‘or’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: dedica-
tory, legal.
ʾydn q. Q. Etym: Q. pn / pn / ʾgy / ʿs²rt / mnh{h} / {ʾ}{y}dn ( JSLih 177/ 1) ‘pn pn ded-
icated ten minah {as support}?*’. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology::
dedicatory.
note: Compare possibly to CAr. ʾiyād ‘anything by which a person or a thing is
strengthened’ (Lane, 136c).

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ʾẓll verb, c, 3m.s. to perform the ẓll. Etym: ẓll. ʾẓll / h-ẓll // {b-}khl / l-ḏġ//bt (U 058/ 2–4)
‘he performed the ẓll ceremony at Khl for ḏġbt**’. Variant: ʾẓl. ʾẓl // bʿd / ml-h / b-
// bdr / l-ḏġbt (ah 080/ 2–4) ‘he performed the ẓll on behalf of his property at Bdr
for ḏġbt**’. Variant: ʾṭll. [ʾ]ṭll // h-ṭll ---- b-khl // l-ḏġbt (ah 009.1/ 1–3) ‘he performed
the ṭll ceremony … at Khl for ḏġbt**’. Variant: ʾṭl. ʾṭl l-ḏġbt // b-khl (U 125/2–3)
‘he performed the ṭll for ḏġbt*’. 3s.f.:: ʾẓllt. ʾẓllt l-//ḏġbt b-{k}hl (U 056/2–3) ‘she
performed the ẓll for ḏġbt at khl**’. Variant: ʾẓlt. ʾẓlt / l-ḏ//ġbt (ah 165/ 3–4) ‘she
performed the ẓll for ḏġbt**’. Variant: ʾṭllt. ʾṭllt / b-khl (ah 163/ 2) ‘she performed
the ṭll at khl*’. Variant: ʾṭlt. ʾṭlt // l-ḏġbt / bʿ//d / ml-h / b-tqmm (U 048/ 2–4) ‘she
performed the ṭll for ḏġbt on behalf of her property at Tqmm**’. du.:: ʾẓllh. ẓllh /
l-ḏġbt / h-ẓll / b-h-mṣ//d/(ah 199/ 1–5) ‘they both performed the ẓll ceremony for
ḏġbt** at the sanctuary (Lundberg 2015: 136)’. Variant: ʾẓlh. pn / bn / pn / w //pn
/ slḥt // ḏġbt / ʾẓlh / h-ẓl//l / l-ḏġbt (U 019/ 1–5) ‘pn son of pn and pn priestess of
ḏġbt both performed the ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt**’. 3pl.:: ʾẓllw. ʾẓlw / h-ẓll / l-ḏġbt
(U 064/ 3) ‘they performed the ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt**’. ʾẓ//llw / ẓll / h-nq / l-//ḏġbt
(ah 001/ 3–5) ‘they performed the ẓll of the nq* for ḏġbt**’. Variant: ʾẓlw. ʾẓlw / h-
ẓll / l-ḏġbt (Nasif 1988: 99, pl. clviii/2) ‘they performed the ẓll for ḏġbt**’. Variant:
ʾṭlw. ʾṭlw / ṭl[l] h-nq // b-khl (ah 032/ 2–3) ‘they performed the ṭll of the nq* at
Khl*’.
note: For a discussion of the proposed translations of ʾẓll h-ẓll so far see (Scag-
liarini 2002, 573–575). Recently, a new interpretation of the form hẓl from same
root in Sabaic has been suggested, which links it to the act of writing, rather than
shade (http://sabaweb.uni‑jena.de/SabaWeb/Suche/Suche/SearchResultDetail?i
dxLemma=5547&showAll=0 consulted 04/10/2021. I would like to thank Peter
Stein for pointing me to this recent interpretation.). See Kootstra (2018) on the
variation between ẓ and ṭ in Dadanitic and Kootstra (2022) for a new analysis
of the ẓll ritual as a reference to the inscription itself and part of local legal
and documentary practice. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: ʾẓll: 87; ʾẓl: 6; ʾṭll: 7;
ʾṭl: 2; ʾẓllh: 1; ʾẓlh: 1; ʾẓllt: 8; ʾẓlt: 16; ʾṭllt: 2; ʾṭlt: 2; ʾẓllw: 11; ʾẓlw: 8; ʾṭlw: 2. Typol-
ogy:: ẓll; dedicatory. Usage: ʾẓll h-ẓll l-ḏġbt; he performed the ẓll ceremony for
ḏġbt.

ʿbd verb, g, 3m.s. to make. Etym: ʿbd. pn / bn / ʾws / h-ṣnʿ / ʿbd / l-mrʾ-h (Al-Ḫuraybah
12/ 3) ‘pn son of pn the artisan made [it] for his lord**’. pn / bn / pn / h-ṣnʿ // ʿbd
/ l-mrʾ-h ( JSLih 035/ 1–2) ‘pn son of pn the artisan made [it] for his lord*’.
note: Compare Aram. ʿbd ‘to make, act, do’ (cal, 13-2-2018; Hoftijzer and Jon-
geling 1995, 810). Or possibly to be compared to CAr. ʿabada Allāh ‘he served,
worshipped God’. Note that ociana translates JSLih 053 as ‘he served for his lord’

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(accessed 15-07-2021). Each translation is syntactically slightly awkward as the

verb would typically be expected to take a direct object which would be ommit-
ted completely in case of a translation that follows the typical nws meaning of
the root ‘to make’ (Hoftijzer and Jongeling 1995, 810). If we opt for a translation
‘to serve’ there is an unexpected oblique object. However, an exact parallel to this
construction can be found in Dadanitic with the verb fʿl ‘to do to make’ (Al-Saʿīd
2011.1), where we also have fʿl directly followed by the preposition l- + theonym. It
is unclear at the moment if and how the different forms of ‘to make’ in Dadanitic
relate to linguistic or dialectal diversity at the oasis. Certainty:: quite certain. Fre-
quency:: 2. Typology:: dedication.
ʿbd pn. pn. Etym: ʿbd. pn / bn / p//n / h-ṣnʿ / pn // pn / h-ṣwġ (Al-Ḫuraybah 05) ‘pn son
of pn the artisan**, pn pn the smith*’.
note: This word is translated as a noun ‘slave’ in ociana, but it may be interter-
preted as a personal name, as it seems that not all personal names in a genealogy
were seperated by bn ‘son of’ in Dadanitic. See for example: ḏbn/ʿmr/bn/mrd//
ʾgw/h-ẓll/ḏh (U 038) ‘pn pn son of pn dedicated this ẓll’. Certainty:: uncertain.
Frequency:: 9. Typology:: genealogy.
ʿdb noun. name of a time period. Etym: ʿdb. f rḍ-h / w ʾḫr//t-h / ʿdb / snt // ʿs²rn / tlmy
/ [mlk / l]//ḥyn (ah 064/ 6–9) ‘so favor her and her posterity** [during] ʿdb* year
twenty of Tlmy king of Lḥyn**’.
note: This may be considered an ellipsed form of the b-rʾy formula, with only the
asterism or period mentioned. Unfortuantely there is no attestation of ʿdb with
rʾy or ṭʿn so far. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dating formula.
ʿdky preposition. until. Etym: ʿd+ky. ʾḫḏw / h- mkn // w h-mqʿd / ḏh / kll-h / mn / mʿ//n
/ h-gbl / hnʾʿly / ʿdky // mʿ{n} / h-gbl / hnʾs{l}l ( JSLih 072/ 4–7) ‘they took the place
and this seat, all of it, from the assembly place of the upper border until the sanc-
tuary of the lower border (Lundberg 2015, 135)’.
note: See Lundberg (2015, 135) for a discussion of the preposition ʿdky. For a dis-
cussion on the significance of ʿdky for the classification of Dadanitic see Al-Jallad
(2018, 23). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: legal; narrative.
ʿkb verb, g, 3m.s. to remain. Etym: ʿkb. pn/ // ṭrq / h-{n}qn / w-ʿkb / (ah 287) ‘pn ham-
mered the two nq and pn or and he remained*’.
note: ʿkb is attested as a personal name (JaL 052c), which it may be here as well.
If it is a verb, compare CAr. ʿakaba ‘to remain standing, to stand still’; Aram. ‘to
hold back, to hestitate, to delay’ (cal, 16-2-2018). Certainty:: very uncertain. Fre-
quency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.
ʿly preposition. on behalf of; on. Etym: ʿly. w-b-mmʾ / ʿ//ly / mg-h / mn / h-ḫls ( JSLih 070/
4–6) ‘and by the oath against his expulsion/grain from the loan*’. l-pn // bn /pn /
hn-//qbr / ḏh / {ḥ}{m} // ʿly / ymn // w ʿly / s²m[l] // mn / ṯrqr ( JSLih 081) ‘for pn
son of pn [is] this grave {ḥm} from the south and from the north** from ṯrqr(?)*’.
pn // tqṭ // ʿly // qrt ( JSLih 182) ‘pn wrote* on a boulder** or pn wrote on behalf

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of pn*’. ʾẓlt /h-ẓll // l-ḏġbt / ʿly / ḏ-kn l-h / b-bd[r] (U 087/ 3–4) ‘she performed the
ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt on behalf of** that which was hers* at Bdr**’. Variant: ʿl.
pn / ʾẓl//l / h-ẓll // l-ḏġbt // ʿl / ḏ-kn / l-hm // b-bdr (U 073/ 1–5) ‘pn performed the
ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt on behalf of** that which was theirs* at Bdr**’. wdyw / nfs
/ pn / bn / pn / m{h} // ʾḫḏ / ʿl-hmy / ḫrg ( JSLih 077/ 2–3) ‘they set up the funerary
monument for pn son of pn** which was placed upon them as a lawsuit*’. pn //
pn / bny / b//rʾ / h-mṯbr / ʿ//l-h / hʾ ( JSLih 078) ‘pn pn built the facade of the grave
chamber and it is his* on behalf of that which was his at [toponym]’.
note: see Lundberg (2015, 125–127) for a discussion of the preposition ʿly and its
bi-form ʿl. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: ʿly: 25; ʿl: 12. Typology:: ẓll; dedicatory;
funerary; graffiti. Usage: ʿly ḏ-kn l-h b-tn, ʿly m-kn l-h b-tn; on behalf of what
was his at [toponym].
ʿnk noun. door? Etym: ʿnk. ----// w /h-mqdr / w hn-ʿnk /---- ( JSLih 054/ 3) ‘… the cultic
structure and the door? …*’.
note: Compare CAr. ʿank ‘the larger part of anything’ and ʿink ‘door’ (Steingass,
732b). This would work well with the intepretation of mqdr as an architectural
structure as well (see mqdr). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: ded-
icatory.
ʿntw verb, g, 3c.pl. to commit a sin, a crime. Etym: ʿnt. w-ʾrṭṭ / ʾḫ-h // w ʾḫt-h / b-mh /
ʿntw / b-rṣs / bn----//( JSLih 077/ 7–8) ‘and he ?? his brother and his sister according
to what crime they committed ?? …*’.
note: Compare CAr. ʿnt ‘he committed a sin, a crime, or an act of disobedience
deserving punishment’ (Lane, 2168c). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typol-
ogy:: legal?.
ʿqb noun. offspring, descendants. Etym: ʿqb. { f } rḍ-hm / w s//ʿd-hm / w ʿqb-hm (U 026/
2–3) ‘so favor them and aid them and their descendants**’.
note: Compare CAr. ʿāqibah ‘offspring’ (Lane, 2153 b), and the parallel Dadanitic
expression: f rḍ-hm w sʿd-hm w ʾḫrt-hm ‘so favor them and aid them and their
posterity’ Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: ẓll; blessing.
ʿrḍ noun. land. Etym: ʿrḍ. ʾẓll / h-ẓll / ḏ//h / b-khl / bʿd / h-ʿrḍ // w-ḏ-kn / l-h / b-bdr / l-
ḏġbt (U 046/ 2–4) ‘he performed this ẓll ceremony at Khl on behalf of** the land*
and that which was his at Bdr for ḏġbt**’.
note: Compare CAr. ʿarḍ ‘a part, region, quarter or tract’ and ‘the low ground or
land of, or partaining to, either side of these [the side of a valley]’ (Lane, 2007–
2008). ociana translates ʿrḍ as ‘the valley’, but since the dedication seems to
be made on behalf of personal property a claim to the valley in general seems
unlikely. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: ẓll.
ʿrr active participle, m.s. mistreater, dishonorer. Etym: ʿrr. f-ʿrr // ḏġbt / ʿr//r / h-sfr / ḏh
( JaL 161a/ 4–6) ‘so may ḏġbt dishonor the one who mistreats this inscription**’.
note: Compare CAr. ʿarrar-hu and ʿarrara-hu ‘he disgraced or dishonored him’

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and ‘he wronged him, or treated him unjustly or injuriously’ (Lane, 1990a). See
Hidalgo-Chacón Díez (2008, 31–43) for a discussion of the verb ʿrr and its inter-
pretation. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 12. Typology:: dedicatory. Usage: f-
ʿrr//ḏġbt/ʿr//r/h-sfr/ḏh; so may ḏġbt dishonor the one who mistreats this inscrip-
tion.
ʿrr verb, d, 3m.s.. to mistreat, dishonor, disgrace. Etym: ʿrr. f-ʿrr // ḏġbt / ʿr//r / h-sfr / ḏh
( JaL 161a/ 4–6) ‘so may ḏġbt dishonor the one who mistreats this inscription**’.
mn yʿrr ʿrr ḏġbt ʿṭ{ḥ}{l}r ( JSTham 251.3) ‘whoever mistreats [it] may ḏġbt disgrace
[him] ʿṭḥlr*’.
note: Compare CAr. ʿarrar-hu and ʿarrara-hu ‘he disgraced or dishonored him’
and ‘he wronged him, or treated him unjustly or injuriously’ (Lane, 1990a). See
Hidalgo-Chacón Díez (2008, 31–43) for a discussion of the verb ʿrr and its inter-
pretation. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 13. Typology:: dedicatory; graffiti.
Usage: f-ʿrr // ḏġbt / ʿr//r / h-sfr / ḏh; so may ḏġbt dishonor the one who mistreats
this inscription.
ʿs²r numeral. ten. Etym: ʿs²r. [sn]{t} / ʿs²r / w tsʿ / b-rʾy / hrʿ / tlmy / hnʾs (Al-Saʿīd
1420/1999: 3–14, no. 1/ 5) ‘year nineteen** during the rising of the asterism hrʿ*
Tlmy Hnʾs**’. ʾẓlt // l-ḏġ[b]t / b-kh//l / stt / ʿs²r / m//n / snt / mt / ʿl//h (ah 064/
2–6) ‘she performed the ẓll for ḏġbt at Khl sixteen [times]** according to the cus-
tom of the land [placed] upon her*’. feminine:: ʿs²rt. pn / pn / ʾgy / ʿs²rt / mnh{h}
/ {ʾ}{y}dn ( JSLih 177/ 1) ‘pn pn dedicated ten minah ??? and ???*’. Certainty:: cer-
tain. Frequency:: ʿs²r: 7; ʿs²rt: 1. Typology:: dating formula; dedication.
ʿs²r noun. companion; kinsman. Etym: ʿs²r. ʾn / mʿt // ʿs²r {pn/TrN} (Ǧabal Iṯlib 06) ‘I
am pn companion/kinsman of pn/TrN*’. feminine:: ʿs²rt. ----pn / w hn-ʿs²rt / ʿs²rt
/ ʾ---- (Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 3–14, no. 1/ 1) ‘… pn and the community, community(?)
…**’.
note: Compare CAr. ʿašīr ‘an associate, a relation, a friend’ and ʿašīrah ‘a man’s
kinsfolk, or the smallest subdivision of a tribe’ (Lane, 2053a). Certainty:: certain.
Frequency:: ʿs²r: 1; ʿs²rt: 1. Typology:: dating formula; graffiti.
ʿs²rn numeral. twenty. Etym: ʿs²r. w l-ḏġbt /----//bl / yn / mʾt / w ʿs²rn / sd---- ( JSLih 077/
4–5) ‘and for ḏġbt …** wine* hundred twenty …**’. snt//ʿs²rn/tlmy/[m][l][k][/][l–
]//ḥyn (ah 064/ 7–9) ‘year twenty of Tlmy [king] of Liḥyān**’. Certainty:: certain.
Frequency:: 11. Typology:: dating formula; dedication.

B–b

bʿd preposition. on behalf of. Etym: b + ʿd. ʾft h-ẓll ḏh l-ḏġbt b-khl bʿd ml-h (U 005/ 2–5)
‘she fulfilled this ẓll-ceremony for ḏġbt at Khl on behalf of her property**’. ʾẓllt l-
//ḏġbt b-{k}hl bʿd //{d}ṯʾ -h (U 056/ 2–4) ‘she performed the ẓll for ḏġbt at Khl on
behalf of her crops of the season of the later rains**’. ʾẓll / h-ẓll // {b-}khl / l-ḏġ//bt

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/ bʿd / {n}ḫl-h // w-dṯʾ-h b-bdr (U 058/ 2–5) ‘he performed the ẓll ceremony at Khl
for ḏġbt on behalf of his palm trees and his crops of the season of the later rains
at Bdr**’.
note: For a complete discussion of the preposition bʿd see Lundberg (2015, 127–
128). Based on its meaning this preposition seems to be a compound of bi- and
ʿad (Al-Jallad 2015, 147). Compare Saf. bʿd ‘on behalf of’ (e.g., wh 599 nẓr bʿd-h-
msrt ‘he stood guard on behalf of the troop’). The consonantally identical bʿd
(compare CAr. baʿd ‘after’) never occurs in Dadanitic (Lundberg 2015, n. 9). See
ḫlf for the preposition with the meaning ‘following, after’. Certainty:: certain. Fre-
quency:: 122. Typology:: dedication; ẓll.
bʿl noun. leader, husband. Etym: bʿl. pn / bnt / pn / slḥt / w//d / w-pn / bʿl-h / ḏ-TrN/
(ah 199/ 1–2) ‘pn daughter of pn priestess of Wd and pn, her husband of the lin-
eage of TrN**’. pn / w-pn ⟨/⟩ bʿl // ḏ-TrN ( JSLih 167) ‘pn and pn leader of the
lineage of TrN*’. pl.:: ʾbʿl. ʾbʿl / ḏl / ʾfyh / h-ẓll // l-ḏġbt (U 026/ 1–2) ‘the lords of
Ḏl fulfilled the ẓll for ḏġbt**’.
note: Compare e.g., Aram. bʿel ‘husband’ (cal, 16-2-2018); Sab. bʿl (Beeston et al.
25). In ah 199 bʿl is translated in ociana as ‘lord’. There are inscriptions of people
also mentioning their servants (ʾmt, qyn) but these inscriptions are usually left
by the ‘masters’ and not by the servants themselves. There are however, many
examples of people dedicating texts with family members (their children, their
parents) which makes a translation ‘husband’ more likely. Certainty:: certain. Fre-
quency:: bʿl: 2; ʾbʿl: 1. Typology:: ẓll; narrative.
bdr toponym. bdr. Etym: bdr. ʾẓll / // l-ḏġbt / b-khl // b ʿd / ʾnḫl-h // w ʾdṯʾ-h / b-bdr (Al-
ʿUḏayb 071/ 2–5) ‘he performed the ẓll for ḏġbt at Khl on behalf of his palm trees
and his seasonal crops* at Bdr so favor him and his descendants**’.
note: See Hidalgo Chacon Dièz (2014, 15–16) for a a discussion of the place name
and its distribution in the Dadanitic corpus. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 51.
Typology:: ẓll.
bhny noun. type of palm tree. Etym: bn. bʿlsmn / ʾḥrm / h-qrt // mn / mh / trqh / mrʾt
// l-bhny / hn-ʾfklt ( JSLih 064) ‘Bʿlsmn protected the village from what [spell] the
woman of the palm tree, the priestess, cast on it ḏ* (see Lundberg 2015, 134 for
the interpretation of ʾḥrm and trq)’.
note: Compare CAr. bhn ‘specific kind of palm tree’ (Biberstein-Kazimirski 1860,
174). It might be compared to Min. bhny ‘sons’ e.g. M.151, M185, M200 (available
on dasi) If this reading is correct, this would be the only example where Minaic
clearly influenced Dadanitic, instead of the other way around. The commonly
used construct plural of bn in Dadanitic is bnw (see bn). Certainty:: uncertain.
Frequency:: 1. Typology:: unique text.
blḥ toponym. blḥ. Etym: blḥ. ʾgw / h-ẓl//l / b-khl / ʿl{y} // ml-h [/] b-b{d}[r] // w b-blḥ
(U 071/ 2–5) ‘he dedicated the ẓll at Khl on behalf of his property at Bdr and at

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Blḥ**’. ʾẓ//ll / l-ḏġb[t] // b-khl / bʿ[d] // ----l-h / b-blḥ (U 072/ 3–6) ‘he performed
the ẓll for ḏġbt at Khl on behalf {his} … at Blḥ**’.
note: See Hidalgo Chacon Dièz (2014, 15–16) for a a discussion of the place name
and its distribution in the Dadanitic corpus. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 2.
Typology:: ẓll.
bn noun. son. Etym: bn. pn // bn / pn (U 114) ‘pn son of pn **’. du.:: bnh. ḏ / pn / w-pn
/ bnh / pn // ʾẓlw / h-ẓll / l-ḏġbt (Nasif 1988: 99, pl. clviii/ 1–2) ‘ḏ pn and pn sons
(du.) of pn performed the ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt **’. du.:: bny (construct). pn / w-
pn // bny / mṭr / bnyw // l-ḏġbt (ah 200/ 1–3) ‘pn and pn sons (du.) of pn built for
ḏġbt **’. pl.:: bnw (construct). pn / w-pn / bnw // pn / ʾḫḏw / h-qb//r / ḏh ( JSLih
079/ 1–3) ‘pn and pn sons of pn took possession of this tomb **’.
note: See Macdonald and Nehmé (2015) for a discussion of the term bny, ʾl and
ʾhl in the Saf. and Nab. inscriptions. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: bn: 666; bnh:
1; bny: 2; bnw: 4. Typology:: genealogy.
bnʾl toponym. bnʾl. Etym: Q. ʾẓll / hẓll / b-khl / l-ḏġbt / bʿd / nẖl-h / b-bnʾl / w-tqmm
(U 025/ 1–4) ‘he performed the ẓll ceremony at Khl for ḏġbt on behalf of his palm
trees at Bnʾl and Tqmm**’.
note: See Hidalgo Chacon Dièz (2014, 17) for a a discussion of the place name
and its distribution in the Dadanitic corpus. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 10.
Typology:: ẓll.
bnt noun. daughter. Etym: bn. pn // bnt / pn // ḏ-TrN // ʾẓllt / h-ẓll // l-ḏġbt (U 068/ 1–4)
‘pn daughter of pn of the lineage of TrN performed the ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt **’.
pl.:: bnt. pn / w pn / bnt / p//n / w ʾm-hm / pn (ah 081/ 1–2) ‘pn and pn daughters
of pn and their mother pn **’. Variant: bt. pn / bt pn ( JaL 008 c) ‘pn daughter of
pn**’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: bnt (sg.): 69; bnt (pl.): 2; bt (sg): 2. Typol-
ogy:: genealogy.
bny verb, g, 3m.s. build. Etym: bny. pn / bn / pn / pn / bny / h-//kfr / l-h / w-l-wrṯ-h / h-
kfr/ ḏh / kll-h ( JSLih 045/ 1–2) ‘pn son of pn pn built** the* tomb for him and his
posterity, the whole of this tomb**’. pn / bn / pn / ʾfkl / hl---- // bn{y} / h-bn{y}n /
ḏh / l-ʾlh (Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 15–26, no. 2/ 1–2) ‘pn son of pn priest of hl … built this
building for** ʾlh*’. 3s.f.:: bnt (fem.). pn ---- // pn / bnt / l-ḏġbt // mqm (Al-ʿUḏayb
043) ‘pn … pn built for ḏġbt an abode **’. 3pl.:: bnyw. pn / w pn // bny / pn / bnyw
// l-ḏġbt (ah 200/ 1–3) ‘pn and pn sons of pn built for ḏġbt **’. pn / bn / pn / p//n
/ w-pn / ḏ//TrN / bnyw / hn-ʾrb//ʿw (U 008/ 1–4) ‘pn son of pn pn and pn of the
lineage of TrN built the sanctuary **’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: bny: 4; bnt:
1; bnyw: 4. Typology:: construction; funerary.
bnyn noun. building. Etym: bny. pn / bn / pn / ʾfkl / hl----// bn{y} / h-bn{y}n / ḏh / l-ʾlh
(Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 15–26, no. 2/ 1–2) ‘pn son of pn priest of hl … built this build-
ing** for ʾlh*’.
note: Compare e.g. CAr. bunyān ‘building’ (Lane, 261b); Sab. bnyt and bnwt

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‘building’ (Beeston et. al, 29); Aram. benyān ‘bulding’ (cal, 10-5-2018). Certainty::
certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: construction.
brʾ noun. facade, outside. Etym: brʾ. pn // pn / bny / b//rʾ / h-mṯbr / ʿ//l-h / hʾ ( JSLih
078) ‘pn pn built the facade of the grave chamber and it is his * (This interpreta-
tion was made during a reading session at the LeiCenSAA with Hekmat Dirbas,
Ahmad Al-Jallad and Johan Lundberg)’.
note: Compare OffAram. brʾ ‘outside’ (cal, 16-2-2018). Certainty:: certain. Fre-
quency:: 1. Typology:: construction.
brʾt noun. health. Etym: brʾ. [----]// wʾ----// brʾ//t-h / w//hʿ{d} // h-ṣl//[m] ( JSLih 057)
‘… his health (?) … the statue … *’.
note: Compare Aram. brē ‘healthy, firm’ (cal, 16-2-2018); Heb. bariʾa ‘to become
free of an illness; recover’ (halot, 1414) Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1.
Typology:: dedicatory?.
brḥ verb, q, 3m.s. Q. Etym: brḥ. qrb / h- ṣlm // l-ḏġbt / b-h-brḥt // brḥ / bt ḏ-ʿly h- s²ʾn//t /
mʿ gbl / ddn / h-{s²}{ʾ}[n] ( JSLih 041/ 2–5) ‘he offered the statue to Ḏġbt, with the
honour [with which] the illustrious** temple of ḏʿly* is honoured in company
with the {illustrious} lord of Ddn**’.
note: Compare Syr. brḥ (D-stem) ‘to make clear, shiny’ (cal, 16-2-2018) for the
meaning in the ociana translation. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typol-
ogy:: dedication.
brḥt noun. Q. Etym: brḥ. qrb / h-ṣlm // l-ḏġbt / b-h-brḥt // brḥ / bt ḏ-ʿly h- s²ʾn//t / mʿ
gbl / ddn / h- {s²}{ʾ}[n] ( JSLih 041/ 2–5) ‘he offered the statue to Ḏġbt, with the
honour [with which] the illustrious** temple of ḏʿly* is honoured in company
with the {illustrious} lord of Ddn **’.
note: Syr. brḥ (D-stem) ‘to make clear, shiny’ (cal, 16-2-2018). Certainty:: uncer-
tain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedication.
bt noun. daughter. Etym: bnt.
note: See bnt
bt noun. temple. Etym: byt. ----[b]ny / h-bt / {l-}ḏġbt ( JaL 006/ 1) ‘he built the temple
for ḏġbt**’. ----//b-h-bt / ḏh ( JSLih 042/ 3) ‘… at this temple*’. wl / ḥmm / b-bt-h
ṣ{l}m ( JSLih 077/6–7) ‘and verily he offered at his temple a statue’. Certainty:: cer-
tain. Frequency:: 12. Typology:: dedication, construction.
btʿ personal name. pn. Etym: btʿ. pn / btʿ ( JSLih 209) ‘pn pn*’. P⟨/⟩N / w-bnt-{h} / w-
qnt-hm / btʿ ( JSLih 282) ‘pn and his daughter and their female servant pn*’. pn btʿ
( Jacobs & Macdonald 2009: 372–373) ‘pn pn*’.
note: In ociana, this word is translated as ‘may he be resolute’, based on CAr.
‘bātīʿ’ ‘strong’ and the modern Bedouin usage bātūʿ ‘a resolute hero, a brave rider
who does not shrink from a fight’ and bitaʿ ‘to go about one’s business in a resolute
manner’ (see Macdonald in Jacobs and Macdonald, 2009; 373). This translation is
problematic, especially in JSLih 282. In Dadanitic, verbs regularly mark the differ-

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glossary 263

ence between singular and plural in agreement with the subject. The article also
lists JSLih 015 as an attestation of the verb btʿ, but this inscription only seems to
contain the letters btʿ, making it even more likely that this is a personal name.
Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 3. Typology:: graffiti.
btt noun. section? Etym: btt. pn // bn pn / ʾḫḏ // hl-btt ( JaL 021 f ) ‘pn son of pn took
this section*’.
note: Compare CAr. battata-hu and batta-hu ‘he cut it off, severed it’; within
Dadanitic ʾẖḏ is usually used to indicate taking possession of a piece of rockface
(to cut a tomb) or a grave (chamber): JSLih 045 ʾẖḏ h-mṯbrn ‘he took possession
of the two grave chambers’; JSLih 066 ʾẖḏ h-ṣfḥt ḏh ‘he took possession of this
rockface’ JSLih 079 ʾẖḏw h-qbr ḏh ‘they took possession of this grave’ Certainty::
uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti; funerary?.
bṯr toponym. bṯr. Etym: bṯr. hẓll / h-ẓ//ll // b-bṯ//r / bʿd / n{ḫ}l-h w //dṯʾ-h / b-ḏʿmn
(U 079bis/ 2–5) ‘He performed the ẓll ceremony at Bṯr on behalf of his palm trees
and his crops of the season of the later rains at Ḏʿmn**’.
note: See Hidalgo Chacon Dièz (2014, 15) for a a discussion of the place name and
its distribution in the Dadanitic corpus. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typol-
ogy:: ẓll.
byt verb, d, 3m.s. to spend the night or pn. Etym: byt. pn // pn // w byt (ah 291) ‘pn pn
and he spent the night** or and pn*’. ----pn / w-pn // byt / b-lwh / ḍlḍ(Graf Abū
al-Ḍibāʿ 1) ‘… pn and pn he spent the night at lwh ḍlḍ** or and pn were at Lwḥ
Ḍlḍ*’.
note: Compare CAr. bāta ‘to pass or spend the night; to stay overnight’. It is
unusual that in Graf Abū al-Ḍibāʿ 1 byt is not in the plural, to agree with the two
dedicants, which probably indicates that it should be interpreted as a pn. Cer-
tainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: graffiti.

D–d

dʿt noun. advisor. Etym: wdʿ. pn / b[n] pn kbr // h-dʿt / s²ʿt / hnṣ / w rb-h//m / pn /
bn / pn / kb//ry / s²ʿt / hnṣ ( JSLih 072/ 1–4) ‘pn son of pn kabir of the council*
of the party of Hnṣ and their lord pn son of pn the two kabirs of the party of
Hnṣ**’.
note: Jaussen and Savignac (1909–1922 vol. ii, 429–430) translate dʿt as ‘advisor’
based on the root ydʿ ‘to know’ in nws. Since the text mentions a leader of dʿt
however, it seems more reasonable to translate it as referring to a group of peo-
ple. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: narrative.
dm adverb?. forever. Etym: dym. pn {ḏ-}TrN // ʾḫḏ h-mqbr {ḏ}[h] w dm ( JSLih 306) ‘pn
of the lineage of TrN took possession of this tomb for ever*’.
note: compare CAr. dāma ‘to persist, to continute’ (Lane, 935c) and dāʾim ‘con-

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264 appendix

tinuing, lasting, remaining, everlasting’ (Lane, 937c). Certainty:: uncertain. Fre-

quency:: 1. Typology:: funerary.
drt noun. enclosed area. Etym: dwr. ʾẓll / h-ẓl//l / nḏr / bʿd / h-dr//t (U 003/ 2–4)
‘He performed the ẓll ceremony** vowed on behalf of the fields*’. ---- h-drt / b-
mṯb//[r]---- (Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 26–36, no. 3/ 3–4)
note: ociana proposes to translate drt as ‘productive lowlands’ in U 003 based
on “Arabic dārah ‘a wide tract of land among the mountains, reckoned among
productive lowlands’” (Lane 1863–1893: 931c) and as ‘chamber’ in Al-Saʿīd 1420/
1999: 26–36, no. 3 “on the basis of Arabic dārah, meaning “any space that is sur-
rounded or confined by a thing” (Lane 931c)”. I would propose to use ‘the enclosed
area’ as a more general meaning to fit both inscriptions, based on the same root.
Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: dedicatory; funerary/construc-
tion.
dṯʾ noun. crops of the season of the later rains. Etym: dṯʾ. pn / slḥ / ḏġ//bt / ʾẓll / ʿly //
{d}ṯʾ{-h} / w nḫl //[-h] (Al-ʿUḏayb 132/ 1–4) ‘pn priest of ḏġbt performed the ẓll on
behalf of his crops of the season of the later rains and his palm trees**’. Variant:
ḏṯʾ. ---- / h-ẓll // ʿly [/]ḏṯʾ-h[/]w nḫ//l-h (ah 107/ 2–4) ‘… the ẓll ceremony on behalf
of his crops of the season of the later rains and his palm trees**’. pl.:: ʾdṯʾ. ʾẓll / // l-
ḏġbt / b-khl // bʿd / ʾnḫl-h // w ʾdṯʾ-h / b-bdr (Al-ʿUḏayb 071/ 2–5) ‘he performed the
ẓll for ḏġbt at Khl on behalf of his palm trees and his crops of the season of the
later rains at Bdr**’.
note: The ociana translation of this word follows Macdonald’s (1992) interpre-
tation of this word as ‘season of the later rains’ (Macdonald 1992, 3). This is based
on the meaning of dfʾ/dṯʾ in the Arabic lexica and on evidence from the content
of the Saf. inscriptions that mention dṯʾ (Macdonald 1992, 3). He also mentions
dṯʾ attested in Sab. and Min. inscriptions (see Beeston 1956, 10–13), where it refers
to “the season of the northeast monsoon (November to April)”, but cautions that
the two cannot be simply equated, since the climate in the south of the Penin-
sula was clearly very different from that in what is now Jordan ad the North of
Saudi Arabia (Macdonald 1992, 2). ḏṯʾ was probably a mistake by the author of
the inscription. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: dṯʾ: 32; ḏṯʾ: 1; ʾdṯʾ: 2. Typology:: ẓll.

Ḏ–ḏ

ḏ relative, m.s. that, which, of. Etym: ḏV. pn / w pn / w pn ----//ʿ / ḏ-TrN / w ʾm-hm / pn /
bn[t] ---- (ah 197/ 1–2) ‘pn and pn and pn … of the lineage of TrN and their mother
pn daughter of …**’. ʾẓll / l-ḏġbt / ṯl//ṯt / ʾẓlt / ʿly / {ḏ-}kn // {l}-h / b-bdr (U 050/ 2–
4) ‘he performed three ẓll ceremonies for ḏġbt on behalf of that which was his at
Bdr**’. ḏ / s²b{ṭ}ḏ (ah 147) ‘s²b{ṭ}**’. feminine:: ḏt. pn / ḏt / TrN / ʾgt // l-ḏġb{t} /
{h-}ẓll (U 126/ 1–2) ‘pn of the lineage of TrN** dedicated* for ḏġbt the ẓll**’.

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glossary 265

note: There are several inscriptions with either a ḏ both at the beginning and
the end of the inscription, and some with only a ḏ at the end of the inscription,
possibly as a reference to ḏġbt (Macdonald 2008, 200). Note that there are several
inscriptions in which a woman’s name is followed by ḏ to indicate lineage (e.g.
U 006; 068; 112) (Macdonald, pc.) in these cases ḏ should probably be interpreted
as a reference to the lineage of the father. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: ḏ: 117; ḏt:
1. Typology:: lineage; dedication; introductory particle. Usage: pn bn pn ḏ TrN,
ʿly ḏ kn l-h; pn son of pn of the lineage of TrN, on behalf of what was his.
ḏʾdn toponym. Q. ʾgt // l-ḏġb{t} / {h-}ẓll / ʿly / n{ḫ}/l-h / b-bdr / [w] b-ḏʾdn (U 126/ 1–3)
‘she dedicated* to ḏġbt the ẓll on behalf of her palm trees at Bdr [and] at ḏʾdn**’.
ʾẓll / h-ẓll / ḏ//h / l-ḏġbt / bʿd // dṯʾ-h / b-ḏʾdn/ (ah 066) ‘he performed this ẓll for
ḏġbt on behalf of his** seasonal crops* at ḏʾdn**’.
note: See Hidalgo Chacon Dièz (2014, 18) for a discussion of the place name and
its occurrence in the Dadanitic corpus. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 2. Typol-
ogy:: ẓll.
ḏʾḏn toponym. Q. ʾẓlt // h-ẓlt / b-khl / l-ḏġ//bt / bʿd / ṯbrt-h /{ b-}//ḏʾḏn (U 013/ 2–5) ‘she
performed the {ẓll ceremony*/ẓll ceremonies**} at Khl for ḏġbt on behalf of her
grain at Ḏʾḏn**’.
note: See Hidalgo Chacon Dièz (2014, 18–19) for a a discussion of the place
name and its occurrence in the Dadanitic corpus. Certainty:: certain. Frequency::
1. Typology:: ẓll.
ḏʿmn toponym. Q. hẓll / h-ẓ//ll // b-bṯ//r / bʿd / n{ḫ}l-h w //dṯʾ-h / b-ḏʿmn // l-ḏġbt
(U 079bis/ 2–6) ‘he performed the ẓll ceremony at Bṯr on behalf of his palm trees
and his crops of the season of the later rains at Ḏʿmn**’.
note: See Hidalgo Chacon Dièz (2014, 19–20) for a a discussion of the place name
and its occurrence in the Dadanitic corpus. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 23.
Typology:: ẓll.
ḏbẖ q. Q. sn[t] / ṯlṯn / w ḫm//s 35 / b-rʾy / [m]nʿy / lḏn / b//n / hnʾs / mlk / lḥyn / pn
/ b//[n] ---- h-ṣnʿ / w-pn / bn //---- sʿbṭṭ / h-sfr / ḏbḫ //[----] ( JSLih 082/ 4–9) ‘year
thirty-five 35 during** the rising of the asterism Mnʿy*, Lḏn son of Hnʾs king of
Liḥyān pn** … the artisan and pn son of** … pn the writer ??? …*’. snt / ʾḥdy / b-
rʾy / ḏʾs{l}ʿn/ t//{l}my / bn / lḏn / mlk / lḥyn / ḏ bḫ (Müller, D.H. 1889: 63–64, no. 8/
3–4) ‘year one during** the rising of the asterism Ḏʾslʿn*, Tlmy son of Lḏn king of
Li hyān** ???*’.
note: The root does not seem to exist. Caskel proposed to interpet it as an
abbreviation ḏukir bi-ḫayr calqued on Nab. dkīr b-ṭāb ‘may he be remembered
well’ (Caskel 1954, 76). This seems unlikely given the recent developments in our
understanding of the history of the inscriptions (see Rohmer and Charloux 2015).
ociana proposes to interpret it as an indication of a lineage ḏ bḫ ‘he of bḫ. Cer-
tainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: dating formula.

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ḏh demonstrative. this. Etym: ḏV. pn / pn / bn / pn // ʾgw / h-ẓll / ḏh / l-ḏġbt (U 038/ 2)

‘he organized* this ẓll for ḏġbt**’. ʾḫḏw / h-qb//r / ḏh ( JSLih 079/ 2–3) ‘they took
possession of this tomb**’. f ʿrr / ḏġbt / ʿrr / ʾ-sfr / ḏh ( JSLih 276) ‘so may ḏġbt dis-
honor the one who mistreats this inscription**’. pn ktb-h / b-ḏh ( JSLih 279) ‘mrh
wrote this here**’. hdq // h-ṣlm // [ḏ]h // [l-ḏ]{ġ}//bt (Al-Saʿīd 1419/1999: 4–24, no. 1,
side 1–2/ 5–9) ‘he offered this statue to ḏġbt**’. feminine:: ḏt. pn / ʾḫḏ // h-ṣfḥt ḏt
( JSLih 066) ‘pn took possession of this cliff face**’. l-pn / w pn / w-bnt-h / h-ṭrt //
ḏt / wl / wrṯ-hm ( JSLih 313) ‘for pn and pn and his daughter [is] this mountain*
and verily [it is] their inheritance**’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: ḏh: 31; ḏt: 3.
Typology:: funerary; dedicatory; curse; graffiti. Usage: h-ẓll ḏh, b-ḏh (JSLih 279);
this ẓll (most likely referring to the inscription itself), here.
ḏṯʿʿl toponym. Q. ʾẓllw / h-ẓll / b-khl // bʿd / ṯbrt-hmy / b-ḏ//ṯʿʿl (U 069/ 3–5) ‘they per-
formed the ẓll at Khl on behalf of both their grain at Ḏṯʿʿl**’.
note: See Hidalgo Chacon Dièz (2014, 19) for a a discussion of the place name and
its occurrence in the Dadanitic corpus. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 6. Typol-
ogy:: ẓll.

F–f

f- complementizer. and, and so. Etym: f. f ʿ//rr ḏġbt ʿrr h-sfr (ah 222/ 6–7) ‘and may
ḏġbt dishonor** the one who mistreats the inscription*’. ḥggn // f smʿ / l-h{m}
( JSLih 006/ 4–5) ‘they are pilgrims* so may he (the deity) listen to them**’. f r{ḍ}-
h w ʾḫrt-h (U 058/ 6) ‘so favor him and his posterity**’. f rḍ-hm // w ʾṯb-hm (U 079
bis/ 6–7) ‘so favor them and reward them**’.
note: Compare CAr. fa- ‘so, and’. See Sima (1999: 110–114) for a discussion of f-
in the inscriptions from al-ʿUḏayb. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 261. Typology::
blessing formula after dedicaton; curse. Usage: f rḍ-h w ʾḫrt-h; so favor him and
his posterity.
fʿl verb, g, 3m.s. do, make. Etym: fʿl. hẓll / h-ẓll // w fʿl / h-ṣlm // l-ḏġbt (U 039/ 3–5) ‘he
performed the ẓll ceremony and made the statue for ḏġbt**’. pn / mlk ddn / fʿl //
l-ṭḥln (Al-Saʿīd 2011.1) ‘pn king of Dadan made [it] for ṭḥln**’. fʿl / h-bt (ah 247/
2) ‘he made the temple*’. pn fʿl ʾl-//ʾsd ( Jabal al-Khraymāt No. 4) ‘pn made the
lion (Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2017, 226)’. 3s.f.:: fʿlt. pn / fʿlt // h-ẓll (ah 088/ 1–2) ‘pn
made the ẓll*’. 3pl.:: fʿlw. w //fʿl//w / mʿ // ʾb-h//m / h-g//{l}----t//---- (Al-Ḫuraybah
11) ‘and they made with their father the …**’.
note: Compare e.g. CAr. faʿala ‘to do, make’. Within Dadanitic, ʾbd seems to have
been used with the same meaning. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: fʿl: 9; fʿlt: 1;
fʿlw: 1. Typology:: ẓll; dedicatory; graffiti; construction.
fḥt noun. governor. Etym: fḥt. ----rm / pn / fḥt / ddn (ah 305/ 2) ‘… pn governor of
Dadan**’. b-ʾym / pn / bn // pn / w pn / fḥt / ddn / b-rʾ[y] ---- ( JSLih 349/ 1–2)

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note: fḥt is interpreted as coming from Assyrian pīḫatu from the title bēl pīḫati
‘governor’ or ‘minor provincial official in Babylonia’ (cad, Vol. 12, 367) via Ara-
maic (Winnett 1937, 49–51 and Winnett and Reed 1970, 115–117). See Rohmer
(forthcoming) for a complete discussion and overview of the use of this word for
the dating of the Dadanitic incsriptions. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 2. Typol-
ogy:: graffiti?.
frs noun. horseman. Etym: frs. pn / h-frs (ah 137) ‘pn the horseman**’.
note: Compare Aram. parrāš ‘horseman’ (cal, 30-4-2018); CAr. fāris ‘cavalier’
(Lane, 2423c). Also once as a personal name (JSLih 374). Certainty:: uncertain.
Frequency:: 2. Typology:: graffiti.

G–g

gbl noun. border. Etym: gbl. ʾḫḏw / h-mkn // w h-mqʿd / ḏh / kll-h / mn / mʿ//n / h-gbl /
hn-ʾʿly / ʿdky // mʿ{n} / h-gbl / hn-ʾs{ f }l ( JSLih 072/ 4–7) ‘They took the place and
this seat, all of it, from the assembly place of the upper border up to the sanctu-
ary of the lower border (Lundberg 2015, 135)’.
note: Compare Old.Aram. gbwl ‘border, territory surrounded by a border’ (cal,
16-2-2018). Most occurrences are in broken context. It is unclear whether gbl
means the same thing in each inscription. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1.
Typology:: dedicatory; narrative.
gbl noun. lord. Etym: gbl. qrb / h-ṣlm // l-ḏġbt / b-h-brḥt // brḥ / bt ḏ-ʿly h- s²ʾn//t /
mʿ gbl / ddn / h-{s²}{ʾ}[n] ( JSLih 041/ 2–5) ‘they offered the statue to Ḏġbt, with
the honour [with which] the illustrious house of the lineage of ʿly is honoured in
company with the {illustrious} lord of Ddn**’.
note: JSLih 041 is translated as ‘the lord of Dadan’ compare e.g. CAr. jabal ‘the
lord, or chief of a people or company of men’ (Lane, 379a). This interpretation
may be correct in JSLih 041. Note also Palm. gbl ‘people, collectivity’ (cal, 16-2-
2018). Gblddn occurs once as a personal name (JSLih 278). Certainty:: uncertain.
Frequency:: 4. Typology:: dedicatory; narrative.
gbn noun. place of prayer. Etym: gbn. ----pn / bn pn // fʿl / h-bt / w h-//ʾlhn / f sʿd//--
-- {b-}h-gbn (ah 247) ‘… pn son of pn made the temple and the sanctuary(?) so
aid … at the place of prayer (?)**’.
note: Compare CAr. gabbānah ‘a place of prayer; a burial ground; elevated land,
land that produces much herbage’ (Lane, 377a). In this place in the inscription
one would expect a dating formula rather than information about a location. Cer-
tainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
gdw noun; pl. granted/gifted property. Etym: gdw. ʾẓllt / h-ẓll // l-ḏġbt / bʿ//d / gdw l-
h / b-t[q]//mm (U 070/ 2–5) ‘pn daughter of pn performed the ẓll ceremony on
behalf of the property that was given to her* at Tqmm**’.

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note: ociana suggests reading the letters as gr ʿwl-h with the translation ‘a part-
ner, or sharer in immovable property, such as land and houses’ (Lane 1863–1893:
483c). However, the phrase shows up in a slot that usually indicates a specific
crop, which is followed by the name of the field where it was grown (tqmm is
known with this meaning in other inscriptions). I would propose to read the let-
ters as gdwlh and parse them as gdw l-h, reading what was previously read as two
seperate letters r and ʿ as one d. Compare Sab. gdy ‘to make a grant of land’ (Bee-
ston et al. 1982, 49). It may be interpreted as a bound plural ‘granted property’.
This would then make this an equivalent of the phrase bʿd ml-h b-X ‘on behalf
of his/her property at X’ and bʿd ḏ-kn l-h b-X ‘on behalf of what was his at X’.
Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: ẓll.

Ġ–ġ

ġlm noun. boy. Etym: ġlm. hw//dqw / h-ġ//lm / pn / h-//[m]ṯlt / l-//ḏġbt // f rḍy-h//m-
--- ( JSLih 049/ 5–11) ‘they offered the boy* pn as a substitute to ḏġbt so may he
favor them …**’.
note: Compare CAr. ġulām ‘a young man, youth, boy, or male child’ (Lane, 2331c).
Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
ġrsw verb, g, 3m.pl. to plant. Etym: ġrs. {ġ}rsw / b-bdr / [w] b-bnʾl / m//ʾt / w ʾrbʿn / w
ḫms / nḫl(U 023/ 4–5) ‘they planted at Bdr and at Bnʾl hundred and forty-five palm
trees**’.
note: Compare CAr. ġarasa-hu ‘he planted it, or fixed it in the ground namely a
tree’ (Lane, 2247a). Certainty:: quite certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory;
agriculture.

H–h

h- definite article. the. Etym: hn.

note: See hn- for the definite article h- and variant forms
hʾ pronoun. he; it. Etym: hʾ. pn / pn / pn / hʾ / nṣb /----//h/[l-]ʿtrġth / qbl / ʾns/---- (ah 288/
1–2) ‘pn pn pn he set up the cult stone … [for] Atargatis in the presence of pn …**’.
pn // pn / bny / b//rʾ / h-mṯbr / f //l-h / hʾ ( JSLih 078) ‘pn pn built the facade of the
grave chamber and it is his*’.
note: For the anaphoric use of hʾ see Hidalgo-Chacón Diéz (2017, 67). ociana
reads ʿl-h hʾ at the end of JSLih 078. The letter they read as ʿ is clearly open at the
bottom however and should probably be read as f instead. Certainty:: certain.
Frequency:: 3. Typology:: dedicatory; funerary.
hdq verb, c, 3m.s. offer. Etym: wdq. p//n / bn / p//n // hdq // h-ṣlm // [ḏ]h // [l]-
[ḏ]{ġ}//bt (Al-Saʿīd 1419/1999: 4–24, no. 1, side 1–2/ 1–9) ‘pn son of pn offered this

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statue to ḏġbt**’. 3s.f.:: hdqt. {s²}---- [b]//nt / pn // hdqt / h-//ṣlmn // l-hnʾkt//b

( JSLih 062/ 1–6) ‘… daughter of pn offered the two statues* to Hnʾktb**’.
note: Compare CAr. wdq ‘to approach’ (Lisān). A similar semantic connection
exists in CAr. D-stem form qarraba ‘he presented it, or offered it to them’ (Lane
2505b) from qaraba ‘to become near’ (Lane 2504b) and Aram. ʾty ‘to come’ and
hyty ‘to bring’ (cal, 4-10-2017). See also hwdq and ʾdq. Certainty:: certain. Fre-
quency:: hdq: 1; hdqt: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
hḏh demonstrative. this; that. Etym: h + ḏ. [----] // ḥyw ---- h-{ṣ}lmn / hḏh//{n} / nḏr
/ ( JSLih 082/ 1–2) ‘… pn … these two statues he vowed**’. Variant: hḏ. {h}ḏ // l-
ḏ//ġbt / f //rḍy-h // w ----//[----] (Müller, D.H. 1889: 69, no. 17) ‘this [is] for ḏġbt so
may he favor him and … **’.
note: Compare CAr. haḏā ‘this’ (m.s.). The more common form of the demon-
strative is dẖ. JSLih 082 is usually read as hḏhn and interpreted as a dual demon-
strative. This is the only example of such a form however, and the stone on which
the inscriptions was carved is damaged. For hḏ: the reading of this part of the
inscription is uncertain. Compare CAr. haḏā ‘this’ (m.s.). Certainty:: reading of
JSLih 082 is uncertain. Frequency:: hḏh: 2; hḏ: 1. Typology:: dedication.
hġnyw verb, c, 3m.pl. to offer; lit. to make prosperous. Etym: ġny. ḥggw / h-nq / w-
hġnyw / b-bt-hm / l- ---- (ah 197/ 5) ‘they performed the pilgrimage** of the Nq
and made an offering at their temple for …*’.
note: Compare CAr. ʾaġnāhu ʿan kaḏʾā ‘he caused him to be in no need, or free
from want, of such a thing’ or ‘to enrich’ (Lane, 2302c) and ġanā ‘he was or became
free from want; in a state oor condition of having no wants’ (Lane 2301c). Cer-
tainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
hlh theonym. hlh. Etym: lh. pn / ʾṣd{q} / // f-rḍ-h / hlh / w sʿd-h ( JSLih 008) ‘pn ful-
filled his duty so favor him, Hlh and aid him*’. pn / bn / pn / ʾfkl / h-l{h} (Al-Saʿīd
1420/1999: 15–26, no. 2/ 1) ‘pn son of pn priest of {Hlh}’.
note: Compare to the theonym ʾlh, probably allāh, also attested in Saf. inscrip-
tions (Al-Jallad 2015, 299). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: dedica-
tory.
hmḏ relative. according to that which. Etym: Q. pn / bn / pn / ʾgw / h-ẓll / b-{m}ṣ//d
/ hmḏ / tr{k}---- (ah 202/ 1–2) ‘pn son of pn dedicated the ẓll** at [the] sanctu-
ary* in accordance with what** he left/relinquished …*’. ----ʿ----ʾl / bn / pn---- //
ʾḫt-h / ʾrqww / h----//bt / hmḏ / nḏr / ḏġ[b][t] ---- (ah 204/ 1–3) ‘… son of pn … his
sister they sent up {the}* … according to what was vowed to ḏġbt …**’. ʾẓllw / h-
ẓll / b-//h-mṣd / l-ḏġbt / hmḏ / nḏr / hn[ʾ]//s (ah 244/ 3–5) ‘they performed the ẓll
ceremony at the sanctuary* for ḏġbt according to what Hnʾs vowed**’.
note: compound with the relative ḏ. It may be compared to Ugaritic hnd (sug-
gested by Ahmad Al-Jallad in his 2015 talk ‘more reflections on the linguistic map
of Ancient Arabia’ in Helsinki. Slides are available on academia.edu.), which has

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been suggested to be a compound of the particles */han + na + ḏū/ ‘this’ (Pardee

2011, 464). Sima (1999, 115) proposed to parse it as deictic element h- + particle
-m- + relative -ḏ. Jaussen and Savignac (1909, 436–437) compare hmḏ to CAr.
hamma allaḏī ‘this intention, design’ and the CAr. construction ḥasba mā ‘accord-
ing to’. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 7. Typology:: dedication. Usage: hmḏ
nḏr; according to what he vowed.
hmḏhb toponym. hmḏhb. Etym: Q. ʾẓllw [/] l-ḏġ//[b][t] [/] bʿd / dṯʾ-h / b-hm//ḏhb
(U 075/ 2–4) ‘they performed the ẓll for ḏġbt on behalf of their crops of the season
of the later rains* at Hmḏhb**’.
note: See Hidalgo Chacon Dièz (2014, 23) for a a discussion of the place name
and its occurrence in the Dadanitic corpus. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1.
Typology:: ẓll.
hn- definite article. the. Etym: hn. pn/ / hn-ʾfkl ( JaL 010a) ‘pn the priest**’. l-pn // bn
/ pn / hn-//qbr / ḏh ( JSLih 081/ 1–3) ‘for pn son of pn [is] this grave**’. ----krn
/ w hn-ʿs²rt / ʿs²rt / ʾ----// (Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 3–14, no. 1/ 1) ‘… pn and the com-
munity community(?)**’. Variant: h-. ʾẓll h-ẓll (U 054/ 2) ‘He performed the ẓll
ceremony**’. Variant: hl-. pn bn pn ʾẖḏ hl-btt ( JaL 021f ) ‘pn son of pn took this
section (of the rock?)*’. Variant: ʾ-. ʾẓlt / l-//ḏġbt / ʾ-ẓll // ḏh (ah 119/ 2–4) ‘she
performed this ẓll ceremony**’. ʾgw ʾẓll l-ḏġbt (ah 138/ 2–3) ‘he dedicated the ẓll
ceremony to ḏġbt**’. Variant: ʾl-. pn fʿl ʾl-//ʾsd ( Jabal al-Khraymāt No. 4) ‘pn made
the lion (Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2018, 226)’.
note: See Chapter 6 §2.3 for a discussion of the variation and phonological con-
ditioning of h-/hn- alternation. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: hn-: 12; h-: 281; hl-:
1; ʾ-: 6; ʾl-: 1. Typology:: occurs in all types of inscriptions. Usage: h-ẓll; the ẓll cer-
emony.
hny verb, g, 3m.s. to benefit. Etym: hny. pn / pn // ʾẓll h-ẓll // hny / hn-ʾ//ḫrt (U 040.1)
‘pn pn performed the ẓll ceremony may he benefit* the descendants**’.
note: Compare e.g. Heb. hny ‘to benefit’ (Hoftijzer and Jongeling 1995, 289). Cer-
tainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: dedicatory.
hnyt q. Q. l-pn / bn // pn / h-qbr // ḏh / w h-n{yt} ( JSLih 312) ‘this grave and the ???
belong to pn son of pn*’.
note: ociana comments mention that there would not be space between the
t and the n for a y at the end of the inscription, even though Jaussen and Savi-
gnac (1909–1912, 515) restored nyt. They consider the vertical line in the rock that
would be the shaft of the y to be damage on the rock. Formally it could be a bless-
ing ‘may she save’ similar to the use of hny in U 040.1. Such blessings are usually
preceded by the conjunction f-, however, in Dadanitic formulae. It would also be
unclear who the feminine deity would be who is asked for protection. Certainty::
uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: funerary.
hṯbt verb, c, 3f.s. Etym: wṯb. to dedicate. ddn / hṯbt / mṯb / w hwḍʾt / ʾḍm / l-ḏġbt / mrʾ//-

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h (Al-Ḫuraybah 12/ 1–2) ‘Dadan dedicated the throne and offered the wheat(?) to
ḏġbt her lord*’.
note: Sab. hwṯbt (n.) ‘laying foundations’ (Beeston et al. 1982, 165). Compare
Aram. ytb ‘to sit, to dwell, to stay, remain’ (cal, 16-2-2018). Certainty:: certain.
Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
hwdq verb, cd, 3m.s. offered. Etym: wdq. w-hwdq / l-h / h-mḥry (ah 288/ 3) ‘and he
offered to him the incense burner* … to Ḥgr**’. hw//dq / h-//{ṣ}lm (Al-Ḫuraybah
13/ 6–8) ‘he offered the statue**’. ---//h-ṣyġ / h//wdq / h-m//ṯlt / l-ḏ//ġbt (Al-
Ḫuraybah 14/ 2–5) ‘… the smith offered the substitute to ḏġbt**’. 3pl.:: hwdqw.
hw//dqw / h-ġ//lm / pn / h-//[m]ṯlt / l-//ḏġbt ( JSLih 049/ 5–9) ‘they offered the
boy pn as a substitute to ḏġbt**’.
note: compare CAr. wdq ‘to approach’ (Lisān). A similar semantic connection
exists in CAr. D-stem form qarraba ‘he presented it, or offered it to them’ (Lane
2505b) from qaraba ‘to become near’ (Lane 2504b), and Aram. ʾty ‘to come’ and
hyty ‘to bring’ (cal, 4-10-2017). See also hdq and ʾdq. Certainty:: certain. Fre-
quency:: hwdq: 3; hwdqw: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
hwḍʾt verb, cd, 3f.s. to offer, to fulfill an obligation. Etym: wḍʾ. ddn / hṯbt / mṯb / w
hwḍʾt / ʾḍm / l-ḏġbt / mrʾ//-h (Al-Ḫuraybah 12/ 1–2) ‘Dadan dedicated the throne
and offered the wheat(?) to ḏġbt her lord*’.
note: Compare Sab. wḍʾ ‘to come out; to acquit oneself of an obligation’ and
uncertainly in one inscription in the C-stem ‘to be proclaimed (an outlaw)’; Geʾez
ʾawḍəʾa ‘to bring out, bring forth, spend’ (Leslau, 605). Certainty:: general seman-
tic domain is certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
hẓll verb, c, 3m.s. to perform the ẓll ritual. Etym: ẓll. pn // hẓll / l-ḏġ//bt / f rḍy-h (U 116)
‘pn performed the ẓll for ḏġbt so may he favor him**’. 3pl.:: hẓllw. hẓllw / ẓll / h-
//nq / l-ḏġ[b]t / f rḍ-hm (ah 011/ 2–3) ‘they performed the ẓll ceremony of the
Nq* for ḏġbt so favor them**’. Variant: ṭll. 3s.f.:: hṭllt. pn / bnt //---- hṭllt // ---- //
---- [ḏ][ġ]//bt ---- //[----] (Al-ʿUḏayb 088) ‘pn daughter of … performed the ṭll …
{ḏġbt}**’.
note: The more common form of the verb is ʾẓll. While it is clear that his is a rit-
ual for the local deity ḏġbt, it is unclear what the ritual entailed exactly, although
inscriptions metioning h-ẓll ḏh ‘this ẓll’ suggest that the inscription itself was
considered ‘the ẓll’ or part of it. The primary meaning of the root ẓll is ‘shade,
cover’ but it is unclear how this relates exactly to the ritual at the moment. See
Scagliarini (2002, 573–575) for a discussion of the translations of ẓll, offered so
far. Certainty:: semantic domain is certain. Frequency:: hẓll: 8; hẓllw: 1; hṭllt: 1;.
Typology:: ẓll. Usage: hẓll h-ẓll l-ḏġbt; he performed the ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt.

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Ḫ–ḫ

ḫld adverb. forever. Etym: ḫld. ẖls / pn bn // pn / ẖld ( JSLih 070/ 1–2) ‘pn son of pn
was released for ever*’. ḫls pn / b{n} // pn / ḫld ( JSLih 068/ 1–2) ‘pn son of pn was
released for ever*’.
note: Compare CAr. ẖalada ‘he remained, stayed’ (Lane, 783c). Certainty:: uncer-
tain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: legal; funerary?.
ḫlf preposition. following, after. Etym: ḫlf. snt / ʿs²r//n / w tsʿ / ʿs²r / ʾym//ḫlf / fḍg ( JSLih
070/ 2–4) ‘year 19, 10 days after fḍg**’. snt / ʿs²r / w ṯlṯ / 13 / ymn / ḫlf / ṭʿn / ḏ//---
-l{ʿ}{b}/[t]lmy / bn / [l]ḏ{n} / ml{k} / {l}{ḥ}yn (ah 197/ 8–9) ‘year thirteen 13 two
days after** the setting(?) of the asterism …, Tlmy son of Lḏn king of Liḥyān*’.
note: Compare CAr. ḫalafa ‘he came after, followed, succeeded’ (Lane, 792a). See
Lundberg (2015: 131) for a complete discussion of this preposition in Dadanitic.
Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: dating formula.
ḫls q. Q. Etym: ḫls. ḫls pn / b{n} // pn / ḫld / {s}//nt / ʿs²rn / tmn{y} // ṯlt / ʾym / qbl
// rʾy / slḥn ( JSLih 068) ‘pn son of pn was released for ever year twenty-{eight},
three days before the rising of the asterism slḥn*’. ḫls / pn / bn / // pn / ḫld / snt
/ ʿs²r//n / w tsʿ / ʿs²r / ʾym // ḫlf / fḍg ( JSLih 070/ 1–4) ‘pn son of pn was released
forever* in the year 19, 10 days after fḍg**’.
note: Both inscriptions are found in relation to tombs cut out in the rock face.
Possibly compare Aram. ḥlš ‘to strip, to remove (one’s garment)’ (cal, 23-1-2019).
Both the etymological and semantic relation are unsure however. Certainty::
uncertain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: legal/funerary?.
ḫlym noun. sincere; pure. Etym: ḫlm. pn pn pn // h-ḫlym (U 096) ‘pn pn pn the sin-
cere**’.
note: Fllowing Abū l-Hasan’s intrepretation ‘sincere, pure’ (Abū l-Hasan 1997,
346–347). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.
ḫms numeral, m. five. Etym: ḫms. snt / ḫms // s²{h}r / {b}n / hnʾs (ah 013/ 8–9) ‘year
five of S²hr son of Hnʾs**’. {ġ}rsw / b-bdr / [w] b-bnʾl / m//ʾt / w ʾrbʿn / w ḫms / nḫl
(U 023/ 4–5) ‘they planted at Bdr and at Bnʾl hundred and forty-five palm trees**’.
Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 8. Typology:: dating formula; ẓll.
ḫrf noun. crops of the season of the first rains. Etym: ḫrf. ʾẓll / b-khl // ʿly / m-kn / l-
h / b-ḏ//ṯʿʿl / mn / dṯʾ / w ḫrf (U 059/ 2–4) ‘he performed the ẓll at Khl on behalf
of what was his at Ḏṯʿʿl of the crops of the season of the later rains and the crops
of the season of the first rains**’. hẓll // [l-]ḏġbt / b-khl // b[ʿ]d / ḫrf-h / b-bd[r]
(U 041/ 2–4) ‘he performed the ẓll [for] ḏġbt at Khl on behalf of his crops of the
season of the first rains at Bdr**’.
note: compare dṯʾ ‘seasonal crops of the later rains’ which are much more com-
mon in the ẓll inscriptions. Macdonald notes that ḫrf does not occur as a name
for a season “either in Saf. or in modern bedouin usage”, and points to the seden-

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tary use of ḫrf as autumn (Macdonald 1992, 3–4). Since, in the dry desert climate
these would be the first rains after the dry period, and therefore a very welcome
event, Macdonald proposes to translate it as signifying ‘the first rains’. Certainty::
certain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: ẓll.
ḫrg noun. lawsuit. Etym: ḫrg. wdyw / nfs / mr / bn / ḥwt / m{h} // ʾḫḏ / ʿl-hmy / ḫrg
( JSLih 077/ 2–3) ‘they placed the funerary monument for pn son of pn** which
was placed upon them as a lawsuit*’.
note: Compare Sab. ḫrg ‘to bring a lawsuit against so.’ (Beeston et al 1982, 62).
Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: legal.
ḫrg theonym. ḫrg. Etym: ḫrg. ḥggw / h----// l-ḫrg (ah 217/ 3–4) ‘they performed the pil-
grimage … for ḫrg**’. ḥggw / h-nq / w hġnyw / b-bt-hm / l- ----//tn / l-ḫrg / w ʾẓlw /
b-h-mṣd / ẓll / h-[nq] // l-ḏġbt{b} (ah 197/ 5–7) ‘they performed the pilgrimage**
of the nq and offered at their temple to …* to ḫrg and they performed the ẓll cer-
emony** of the nq at the sanctuary for ḏġbt*’.
note: Based on context. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 3. Typology:: dedica-
tory.
ḫtn noun. male relative by marriage. Etym: ḫtn. pn / bnt / pn // w {ḫ}tn-h / pn / ʾẓllw[/]
l-ḏġ//[bt] (U 075/ 1–3) ‘pn daughter of pn and her relative law pn performed the
ẓll for ḏġbt**’.
note: Compare CAr. ḫatan ‘daughter’s husband’ (Lane, 704a); Aram. ḥtn (D-
stem) ‘to become a son in law; to ally by marriage’ (cal, 14-2-2018). Certainty::
certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: ẓll.
ḫṭ verb, g, 3m.s. to inscribe; to write. Etym: ḫṭṭ. pn // ḫṭ / pn // snt / hs ( JSLih 181) ‘pn
inscribed [for?] pn year Hs**’.
note: See ḫṭṭ for the D-stem. Compare CAr. ḫaṭṭa ‘he made a line, a mark’ (Lane,
759b). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.
ḫṭṭ verb, d, 3m.s. to cut; to carve. Etym: ḫṭṭ. pn ḫṭṭ ʿdm ʿdm (Nasif 1988: 92, pl. cxxxii)
‘pn carved ʿdm ʿdm*’.
note: See ḫṭ for the G-stem. Compare CAr. ḫaṭṭa ‘he made a line, a mark’ (Lane,
759b). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.

Ḥ–ḥ

ḥfr personal name. pn. Etym: ḥfr. ʿlwt/ ḥfr / hrs ( JSTham 427) ‘pn pn pn*’.
Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.
note: Translated as a verb ‘he engraved’ in ociana, it does not occur as a pn in
the Dadanitic corpus, but ḥfrt os attested in Saf. as a personal name (Is.R 116).
Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.
ḥgg verb, d, 3m.s. to make a pilgrimage. Etym: ḥgg. ḥgg / l-ḏġb//t / b-h-mṣd / w --
- (ah 198/ 4–5) ‘he performed the pilgrimage for ḏġbt** at the sanctuary* and

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…**’. 3s.f.:: ḥggt. ----t / pn / bn / pn /ḏ Tr//N / ḥggt / ḏġbt / f rḍ-h//m / w ʾḫrt-

hm / w sʿd-hm (ahud 1/ 2–3) ‘… pn son of pn of the lineage of TrN performed
the pilgrimage to ḏġbt so favor them and their posterity and aid them**’. 3pl.::
ḥggw. ḥggw / ḏġ//[b][t][/] (Rabeler 001/ 3–4) ‘they performed the pilgrimage to
{ḏġbt}**’.
note: Compare CAr. ḥajja ‘he performed the pilgrimage to the House [of God
at Mekkeh]’ (Lane, 513)). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: ḥgg: 1; ḥggt: 1; ḥggw: 9.
Typology:: dedicatory.
ḥggn participle, m.pl. being a pilgrim/making a pilgrimage. Etym: ḥgg. pn / w pn w pn
// w pn / w pn // w pn / w p//n / ḥggn // f smʿ / l-h{m} ( JSLih 006) ‘pn and pn and
pn and pn and pn and pn and pn are pilgrims/performing a pilgrimage* so may
he (the deity) listen to them**’.
note: Compare CAr. ḥajja ‘he performed the pilgrimage to the House [of God
at Mekkeh]’ (Lane, 513)). See ḥgg for the more commonn verbal form. Certainty::
certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
ḥgt noun. pilgrimage. Etym: ḥgg. ---- / ḥgt / {b}-khl / ʿl-hm (ah 206/ 1) ‘… pilgrimage
at Khl on behalf of them**’. ----bt / ḥgt / h-mṣd (ah 219) ‘… the pilgrimage of the
sanctuary*’.
note: Compare CAr. ḥajja ‘he performed the pilgrimage to the House [of God
at Mekkeh]’ (Lane, 513). See ḥgg for the more common verbal form. Certainty::
uncertain. Frequency:: 4. Typology:: dedicatory.
ḥmm noun. decreed offering. wdyw / nfs / pn / bn / pn / m{h} // ʾḫḏ / ʿl-hmy / ḫrg /
w h-dṯʾ / ldy / d//ṯʾ / ḥmm / b-ḏʾfʿ ( JSLih 077/ 2–4) ‘they set up the funerary mon-
ument of pn son of pn** [according to] what was placed upon them them as a
lawsuit, and the crops of the season of the first rains with the decreed offering of
the crops of the season of the later rains at ḏʾfʿ*’.
note: CAr. ḥumma la-hu kaḏā ‘he decreed or appointed for him, such a thing’
(Lane, 635c). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: dedicatory, legal?.
ḥqwy noun, du, cs. two sides. Etym: ḥqw. pn / bn / pn / h-ṣ//nʿ / ḏ-TrN / ʾṯʿ / p//n /
b-ḥqwy / k//fr ( JSLih 075/ 1–3) ‘pn son of pn the artisan of the lineage of TrN**
protected* pn on two sides of [the] tomb**’. wl / ḥmm / b-bt-h ṣ{l}m / wl /
slmn // b- ḥq[w]y / kfr / ḥmm ( JSLih 077/ 1–7) ‘and verily he offered at his tem-
ple a statue and he has offered two peace offerings (?) on the walls of (a?)
cave/tomb* (J. Lundberg (pc.) proposed to interpret this section as a chiastic
structure)’.
note: Compare CAr. ḥaqw ‘waist; flank’ also of a mountain (Lane: 613c). Cer-
tainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: funerary.
ḥrb verb, q, 3m.s. he waged war (on so.) Etym: ḥrb. ----h / bn / pn / ʾḏh / ḥrb-hm ----
( JSLih 055/ 2) ‘son of pn when he waged war on them …**’.
note: Compare CAr. ḥāraba-hu ‘he waged, or contended in, war with him,

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glossary 275

warred, or battled with him’ (Lane, 510b); Sab. ḥrb ‘to wage war on so.’ (Beeston
et al. 1982, 690). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: narrative.

K–k

kbr noun. kabir, leader. Etym: kbr. pn / b[n] pn kbr // h-dʿt / s²ʿt / hnṣ / w rb-h//m / pn
/ bn / pn / kb//ry / s²ʿt / hnṣ ( JSLih 072/ 1–4) ‘pn son of pn kabir of the council* of
the party of Hnṣ and their lord pn son of pn the two kabirs of the party of Hnṣ**’.
dual:: kbry. pn / b[n] pn kbr // h-dʿt / s²ʿt / hnṣ / w rb-h//m / pn / bn / pn / kb//ry
/ s²ʿt / hnṣ ( JSLih 072/ 1–4) ‘pn son of pn kabir of the council* of the party of Hnṣ
and their lord pn son of pn the two kabirs of the party of Hnṣ**’.
note: Compare CAr. kabīr ‘lord or chief’ (Lane, 2586c); Sab. ‘chief administrative
officer of a ‘tribe’’ (Beeston et al 1982, 76). Min. kbr ‘kabīr, chief’ e.g., res 2742. Cer-
tainty:: certain. Frequency:: kbr: 1; kbry: 1. Typology:: narrative.
kfr noun. tomb. Etym: kfr. pn / bn / pn / h-ṣ//nʿ / ḏ-TrN / ʾṯʿ / p//n / b-ḥqwy / k//fr ( JSLih
075/ 1–4) ‘pn son of pn the artisan of the lineage of TrN represented pn on two
sides of [the] tomb **’. wdyw / nfs / pn / bn / pn ( JSLih 077/ 1–2) ‘They set up
the funerary monument for pn son of pn**’. f-ʿrr / h----//ʿ {/} mn / ʿrr / h-kfr / ḏh
(Müller, D.H. 1889: 78, no. 29/ 1–2) ‘so may he dishonor … the one who mistreats
this tomb*’. pn / bn / pn / pn / bny / h-//kfr / l-h / w l-wrṯ-h / h-kfr / ḏh / kll-h ( JSLih
045/ 1–2) ‘pn son of pn pn built the tomb for him and his descendants, all of it**’.
note: CAr. kafara ‘he veiled, concealed, hid or covered the thing’ (Lane, 2620b)
and kafr ‘earth or dust’ “because it covers what is beneath it” and from that also ‘a
grave or sepulchre’ (Lane, 2621b). Compare JSLih 257 ‘qfr’, which is also translated
as ‘tomb’ in ociana. The content of JSLih 045 makes it likely that the struc-
ture mentioned it is a funerary cave, but no physical context is visible. JSLih
075 does not seem to be connected to any tombs in the rockface; neither does
JSLih 077; no context is visible for Müller, D.H. 1889: 78, no. 29. The form kprʾ is
commonly found in Nabataean inscriptions with the meaning ‘grave’. Healey sug-
gested that the term entered Nabataean through ‘Lihyanite’ (Healey 1993, 69). For
a discussion of the term in Nabataean inscriptions and its attestations in other
Semitic languages see Abdelaziz and Rababeh (2008, 178). Certainty:: uncertain.
Frequency:: 4. Typology:: funerary.
khf noun. cave, tomb. Etym: khf. l-mḫhr / h-khf (Umm Daraǧ 60) ‘The cave* belongs
to mḫr**’. khf / l-pn/b-ʿly ( JSLih 124) ‘cave* of pn at ʿly**’. khf / pn / bn pn / mlk
/ ddn / w ṯrw / nʿm / b-h / nʿrgd ( JSLih 138) ‘cave(tomb) of pn son of pn king of
Dadan**’.
note: Compare CAr. kahf ‘cave, shelter’ (Lisān). In Umm Daraǧ 60 khf occurs
on an overhanging rockface with a sheltered place beneath it. ociana translates
khf as cave tomb, but it is unclear whether this is where the dead were left, or

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whether someone simply claimed the spot for himself for other purposes during
life. The other inscriptions lack context on the available copies or photographs.
None of them seems to be obviously associated with an actual tomb. Certainty::
uncertain. Frequency:: 7. Typology:: funerary?; royal funerary.
khl toponym. khl. Etym: khl. pn / slḥt / ḏġbt / ʾẓllt // h-ẓll / b-khl / bʿd / nḫl-h / b-bnʾl
(ah 012/ 1–2) ‘pn priestess of ḏġbt performed the ẓll ceremony at Khl on behalf of
her palm trees at Bnʾl**’.
note: Maria del Carmen Hidalgo-Chacon Diez has clearly shown that all attes-
tations of the place Khl occur at al-ʿUḏayb (2014: 20–22), suggesting that it was
the ancient name for this site, which was one of the two sites at which the ẓll
inscriptions are found. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 78. Typology:: ẓll. Usage:
ʾẓll h-ẓll b-khl l-ḏġbt, ʾẓll h-ẓll l-ḏġbt b-khl; he performed the ẓll ceremony at khl,
he performed the ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt at khl.
khlw verb, g, 3m.pl. to be successful; to prosper. Etym: khl. pn / w pn // w pn / w pn //
khlw (ah 153) ‘pn and pn and pn and pn have prospered**’.
note: Compare Sab. khl ‘to be succesful’ (Beeston et al 1982, 77); OffAram. ‘to be
able’ (cal, 16-2-2018). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.
kll quantitative. all, each, everything. Etym: kll. l-s²ʿt/ // ʿlʾl / kʿ//mn h-mqʿd k//ll-h
( JaL 161a/ 1–4) ‘to the party of ʿlʾlkʿmn the seat, all of it**’. ʾḫḏw / h-mkn // w h-
mqʿd / ḏh / kll-h / mn / mʿ//n / h-gbl / hnʾʿly / ʿdky // mʿ{n} / h-gbl / hnʾsf{l} ( JSLih
072: 4–7) ‘they took the place and the seat, all of it, from the assembly place of
the upper border until the sanctuary of the lower border (Lundberg 2015, 135)’.
f-rḍ-h // w sʿd-h / w ʾḫrt-h // kll-h (U 010/ 3–5) ‘So favor him and aid him and his
posterity, all of it**’.
note: Compare CAr. kull ‘totality, entirety, everyone, each one, whole, entire, all’
(Lane, 978a); Saf. kll ‘all, each, everything’ (Al-Jallad 2015, 89). Certainty:: certain.
Frequency:: 7. Typology:: legal, dedicatory(?).
kn verb, c, 3m.s. to be. Etym: kwn. ʾẓ//ll / l-ḏġbt // b-khl / bʿd // ḏ-kn / l-h / b-y//r (U 108/
2–6) ‘he performed the ẓll for ḏġbt at Khl on behalf of what was his at Yr**’. pn
/ slḥ // ḏ{ġ}bt / ʾẓll / b-khl // ʿly / m-kn / l-h / b-ḏ//ṯ ʿʿl / mn / dṯʾ / w ḫrf (U 059/ 1–
4) ‘pn priest of ḏġbt performed the ẓll at Khl on behalf of what was his at Ḏṯʿʿl of
the crops of the season of the later rains and the crops of the season of the first
rains**’. pn / bn // pn / sl//ḥ / ḏġb//t / ʾẓll / b//ʿd / ml / kn / [l-]//h / b-bdr / l-ḏġbt
(ah 120/ 1–6) ‘pn son of pn priest of ḏġbt performed the ẓll on behalf of property
that was his at Bdr for ḏġbt**’. prefixing conjugation:: ykn. [----]//hm ---- [ḏ]//ġbt
/ ʾ{n} / yk{n}---- // l-h /{w}ld (ah 203/ 1–3) ‘… ḏġbt that there may be a son {for
him}*’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: kn: 25; ykn: 1. Typology:: ẓll; dedicatory.
Usage: bʿd ḏkn l-h; on behalf of that which was his.
ktb verb, g, 3m.s. to write. Etym: ktb. pn ktb-h / b-ḏh ( JSLih 279) ‘pn wrote it here**’.
Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.

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glossary 277

L–l

l- preposition. for, to. Etym: l. ʾẓ//ll / l-ḏġbt // b-khl / bʿd // ḏ-kn / l-h / b-y//r (U 108/ 2–
6) ‘He performed the ẓll for ḏġbt at Khl on behalf of what was his at Yr**’. l-pn /
h-khf (Nasif 1988: 94, pl. cxl/a) ‘for pn the cave/tomb’. l-pn (Eut 681–682) ‘for/by
pn*’.
note: The use of the lam auctoris is common in most types of ana inscriptions
(Taymanitic; Thamudic B, C, D; Saf. and some Hismaic inscriptions (Macdonald
2008, 209–210)). However, in Dadanitic it is rare. While in most of the other cor-
pora the lam auctoris is left untranslated (Macdonald 2006, 294–295), Nasif 1988:
94, pl. cxl/a shows that in the case of Dadanitic there are several clear examples
in which the initial l- indicates possession. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 352.
Typology:: ẓll; dedicatory; funerary; graffiti. Usage: ʾẓll h-ẓll l-ḏġbt, bʿd ḏ-kn l-h;
he performed the ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt, on behalf of that which was his.
ldy preposition. with. Etym: l + yd. wdyw / nfs / pn / bn / pn / m{h} // ʾḫḏ / ʿl-hmy /
ḫrg / w h-dṯʾ / ldy / d//ṯʾ / ḥmm / b-ḏʾfʿ ( JSLih 077: 1–4) ‘They set up the funerary
monument for pn son of pn [according to] what had been placed upon them as
a lawsuit and the seasonal crops with the decreed offering of the seasonal crops
at Ḏʾfʿ*’.
note: See Lundberg (2015, 135) for a discussion of the preposition ldy. Compare
CAr. ladā ‘with, by, at’ (Lisān). Certainty:: quite certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology::
ẓll; dedicatory; funerary; graffiti.
lh theonym. Lh. Etym: lh. l-lh/ pn pn ʾ//gw / ḏʿmn (ah 134) ‘for Lh pn pn dedicated
Ḏʿmn*’. ʾdq / l-l//h / {h}-ṣlmn // { f } rḍy-h / w //{s}ʿd-h ( JSLih 061/ 3–6) ‘He offered
to Lh the two statues so may he favor him and aid him**’.
note: Name of a deity, probably allāh or lāh, also attested in Saf. inscriptions
(Al-Jallad 2015, 299). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: dedicatory.
lqn noun. support. Etym: lqn. pn / bn / pn // ʾrṯ-h h-lqn (Al-ʿUḏayb 106) ‘pn son of pn
[for] his legacy the support/help*’.
note: Compare CAr. liqn ‘support, help’ (Hava, 685b). Certainty:: uncertain. Fre-
quency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.
lwh noun. sandy depression. Etym: lwy. pn / w pn // byt / b-lwh / ḍlḍ (Graf Abū al-
Ḍibāʿ 1) ‘… pn and pn he spent the night at** [the] sandy depression ḍlḍ* or and
pn were at [the] sandy depression ḍlḍ*’.
note: Compare CAr. liwā ‘bande des sables qui fait un détour; détour, coude (des
sables ou d’une vallée)’. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.

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M–m

mʾt numeral. hundred. Etym: mʾt. {ġ}rsw / b-bdr / [w] b-bnʾl / m//ʾt / w ʾrbʿn / w ḫms
/ nḫl (U 023/ 4–5) ‘They planted at Bdr and at Bnʾl hundred and forty-five palm
trees**’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 4. Typology:: dedicatory.
mʿ preposition. with. Etym: mʿ. fʿl//w / mʿ // ʾb-h//m / h-g//{l}----t (Al-Ḫuraybah 11/ 1–
6) ‘they made with their father the …**’. qrb / h-ṣlm // l-ḏġbt / b-h-brḥt // brḥ /
bt ḏ-ʿly h-s²ʾn//t / mʿ gbl / ddn / h-{s²}{ʾ}[n] ( JSLih 041) ‘He offered the statue to
Ḏġbt, with the honour [with which] the illustrious house of the lineage of ʿly is
honoured in company with the {illustrious} lord of Ddn**’.
note: compare CAr. maʿ ‘with’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 4. Typology:: ded-
icatory; legal?.
mʿd noun. sanctuary, dwelling, abode. Etym: ʿwn. mn / mʿ//n / h-gbl / hn-ʾʿly / ʿdky
// mʿ{d} / h-gbl / hn-ʾs{ f }l ( JSLih 072/ 5–7) ‘from the sanctuary of the upper
border up to the assembly place of the lower border (based on Lundberg 2015,
135)’.
note: following the comparison made in Lundberg (2015) who compares mʿd
to Heb. mwʿd ‘meeting place’ (halot, 557–558) from the root yʿd. He also ref-
erences the CAr. form mawʿid ‘a covenant, compact’ and miʿād ‘a time and a
place of promise, … and of appointment’ (Lane, 2953a) from the cognate root wʿd
(Lundberg 2015 nt. 37) Certainty:: not completely certain. Frequency:: 3. Typol-
ogy:: narrative; dedicatory.
mʿn noun. sanctuary, dwelling, abode. Etym: ʿwn. mn / mʿ//n / h-gbl / hn-ʾʿly / ʿdky //
mʿ{d} / h-gbl / hn-ʾs{ f }l ( JSLih 072/ 5–7) ‘from the sanctuary of the upper border
up to the assembly place of the lower border (based on Lundberg 2015, 135)’. ʾny
// ysrg [/]ʾb -hm / w {m}ʿn-h[m] // w {m}fr-h{m} / b-ms²hl (U 026/ 3–5) ‘See now
that their pasture may be beautified and their abode and their cultivated land at
Ms²hl**’.
note: following the comparison made in Lundberg (2015): “Heb. mʿwn which
occurs in the Dead Sea Scrolls with the meaning ‘abode’ or as a reference to the
temple or a dwelling place (twq ii, 728–730). There is also an Akkadian noun
māʾunnu with the meaning ‘dwelling’ which, according to von Soden, is derived
from Canaanite māʿōn (ahw ii, 637). In addition to this, there is an example of
mʿwn meaning ‘temple’ in Punic (dnwsi, 668) and compare Aram. mʿwn (cal,
16-2-2018).” (Lundberg 2015 nt. 37) Certainty:: not completely certain. Frequency::
3. Typology:: narrative; dedicatory.
mfr noun. cultivated land. Etym: mfr. [/]ʾny // ysrg [/] ʾb-hm / w {m}ʿn-h[m] // w {m}fr-
h{m} / b-ms²hl (U 026/ 3–5) ‘see now that their pasture may be beautified and
their {abode} and their {cultivated} land at Ms²hl**’.
note: see Stein (2007, 34) and Robin (1992). mfr occurs in Sab. Haram. 8 (dasi),

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where it is translated as ‘agricultural land’ (Kultur Land). Certainty:: uncertain.

Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
mg noun. Q. Etym: mgg. ẖls / pn bn // pn / ẖld / snt / ʿs²r//n / wtsʿ / ʿs²rʾym // ẖlf / fḍg /
w-b-mmʾ / ʿ//ly / mg-h / mn / h-ḫls ( JSLih 070/ 1–5) ‘pn son of pn was released for
ever, in the year 19, 10 days after fḍg and by the oath against his expulsion/grain
from the loan*’. wsqt // ʿmm ʾḏh // nwl / ʿl mg//-h ( JSLih 069) ‘??? ??? when he
offered on behalf of his expulsion/grain*’.
note: Compare CAr. majja ‘he cast it forth, or ejected it’ (mostly in relation to
things coming out of the mouth) (Lane, 2689a). Note also CAr. majj ‘a kind of
grain resembling the lentil, but more round’ (Lane 2689b) which may fit the
context of JSLih 069 better. JSLih 070 and JSLih 069 are on the same rockface.
Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: legal?; dedicatory?.
mgdl noun. tower, sanctuary. Etym: gdl. h-qymh / mgdl / ḏġbt / (Müller, D.H. 1889: 63–
64, no. 8) ‘the caretakers of the tower of ḏūġābat*’.
note: Compare Moab. mgdl ‘tower’ (Hoftijzer and Jongeling 1995, 592), Aram.
mgdl ‘tower’ (cal, 08-01-2021). The French-Saudi survey of spring 2020 discov-
ered another building/dedicatory inscription with the similar phrase qymy mgdl
ḏġbt to describe the dedicants at the beginning of the text. mgdl is attested once
in a Minaic inscription from Dadan (M 315 = JSMin 010) Certainty:: certain. Fre-
quency:: 3. Typology:: dedicatory, construction.
mgmrt noun. incense burner. Etym: gmr. pn / bn // pn // ʾdq / h-m//gmrt / l-//ḏġbt
(Private collection 2) ‘pn son of pn offered the incense burner to ḏġbt**’.
note: Compare CAr. gamrah ‘a live or burning coal; a piece of smokeless burn-
ing fire’ (Lane, 453b) and migmarah ‘a vessel for fumigation, a vessel in which live
coals are put with incense’ (Lane, 454 ab). The inscription is incised on an incense
burner or altar, confirming the interpretation. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1.
Typology:: dedicatory.
mh relative/interrogative. what. Etym: mh. bʿlsmn / ʾḥrm / h-qrt // mn / mh / trqh / mrʾt
// l-bhny / hn-ʾfklt // ḏ ( JSLih 064) ‘bʿlsmn protected the village from what [spell]
the woman of the palm tree, the priestess cast on it* (see Lundberg 2015, 134 for
the translation of ʾḥrm, trq and bhny)’. wdyw / nfs / pn / bn / pn / m{h} // ʾḫḏ /
ʿl-hmy / ḫrg ( JSLih 077/ 2–3) ‘They placed the funerary monument for pn son of
pn which was placed upon them as a lawsuit* (translation was made during a
reading session at LeiCenSAA)’. Variant: m-. ʾẓll / {h-}[ẓ]ll // ʿl-m-kn / l-h / l-ḏġb[t]
// b-bdr / (ah 125/ 3–5) ‘he performed the ẓll ceremony on behalf of what was his
for ḏġbt at Bdr**’.
note: Compare CAr. mā, mahmā ‘what, whatever’. Certainty:: certain. Frequen-
cy:: mh: 2; m: 3. Typology:: narrative; legal. Usage: m-kn / l-h; what was his.
mhgt toponym. Q. Etym: Q. ʾẓll // h-ẓll / b-khl [/] bʿd / ml-h // b-mh{g}t / l-ḏġbt / (U 089/
1–3) ‘he performed the ẓll at Khl on behalf of his property at Mhgt for ḏġbt**’.

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note: See Hidalgo Chacon Dièz (2014, 22–23) for a a discussion of the place
name and its occurrence in the Dadanitic corpus. Certainty:: certain. Frequency::
1. Typology:: ẓll.
mḥrw noun. incense burner. Etym: ḥrw. fʿl / h-mḥr{w} // l-ḏġbt (Al-Ḫuraybah 06/
2–3) ‘He made the incense burner* for ḏġbt**’. qr//bw / h-//mḥrw // l-ḏġ//bt
(ah 209/ 4–8) ‘They dedicated the incense burner to ḏġbt**’. Variant: mḥry.
w-hwdq / l-h / h-mḥry ---- (ah 288/ 3) ‘he offered to him the incense burner
…*’.
note: See Hidalgo-Chacón Díez (2017) for a discussion of the word mḥr [sic],
which she translates as ‘mḥr rituals (incense offerings)’ interpreting mḥrw as a
plural form from the root mḥr (Hidalgo-Chacón Díez 2017, 60). Compare Aram.
mḥrn ‘incense altar’ on an Imperial Aramaic incense altar in the Taymāʾ museum
(tm.ia.017), first published in al-Theeb (1414/1993, 43–44). Possibly compare CAr.
ḥrr ‘it was or became hot, the fire burned up and became fierce or hot’ (Lane,
538a). Possibly reanalized as a final weak root. The last word of the second line
in Al-Ḫuraybah 06 was read as mḥg. However, when is is compared to the ry
sequence in the personal name earlier in the line, it seems that letters with
a circular base were written inside the hook of the r. This also explains why
the top of what would have been the g is not closed. The inscription is carved
on what may have been an altar of some sort, further supporting the inter-
pretation. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: mḥrw: 2; mḥry: 1. Typology:: dedica-
tory.
mkn noun. place. Etym: kwn. ʾḫḏw / h-mkn // w h-mqʿd / ḏh / kll-h ( JSLih 072/ 4–7)
‘they took the place and this seat, all of it**’.
note: Compare e.g. CAr. makān; Sab. mknt ‘agricultiral estate’ (Beeston et al 1982,
80). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: narrative.
mks²d personal name?. ks²d. pn // bn pn // h-mtʿ // nṭr / b-tlb / mks²d ( JSLih 007) ‘pn
son of pn the protector guarded at Tbl Mks²d**’.
note: The meaning is very uncertain. Most inscriptions with the verb nṭr are
followed by a place name or a personal name functioning as a direct object. It
may be that btlb mks²d is simply a personal name, even though mks²d does not
occur as such in other Dadanitic inscriptions. Possibly compare CAr. kas²ad ‘who
toils for his family’ (Steingass: 886). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology::
guarding.
ml noun. property. Etym: mwl. ʾẓll / bʿd / ml / kn / [l-]h / b-bdr / l-ḏġbt (ah 120/ 4–6)
‘He performed the ẓll on behalf of property that was his at Bdr for ḏġbt**’. ʾgw [/]
h-hb / b-khl // bʿd / ml-h / b-ḏʿmn (ah 140/ 2–3) ‘He dedicated* the veneration at
Khl on behalf of his property at ḏʿmn**’.
note: compare CAr. māl ‘property’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 25. Typology::
ẓll; dedicatory.

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mlk noun. king. Etym: mlk. snt / ʿs²rn / w ṯtn ---- sbʿ / ʾym / qb//l / rʾy / ḏʾslʿn / hnʾs /
bn / tlmy / m//lk / lḥyn (ah 244/ 6–8) ‘year twenty-two … seven days before** the
rising of the asterism ḏʾslʿn*, Hnʾs son of Tlmy king of Liḥyān**’. pn / qnh / h-mlk
(ah 304) ‘pn maid servant of the king**’. khf / pn / bn pn / mlk / ddn ( JSLih 138)
‘cave(tomb) of pn son of pn king of Dadan**’. pn / mlk ddn / fʿl // l-ṭḥln (Al-Saʿīd
2011.1) ‘pn king of Dadan made [it] for ṭḥln**’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 28.
Typology:: dating formula; graffiti; funerary; dedicatory. Usage: snt X b-rʾy Y pn
bn pn mlk lḥyn, snt X pn bn pn mlk lḥyn; year X during the rising of the asterism
Y, pn son of pn king of Liḥyān, year X of pn son of pn king of Liḥyān.
mmʾ noun. oath, agreement. Etym: wmʾ. w-b-mmʾ / ʿ//ly / mg-h / mn / h-ḫls ( JSLih 070/
4–5) ‘and by the oath against his expulsion/grain from the loan*’.
note: Compare Aram. mawmaʾ ‘oath’ from the root ymʾ (cal, 30-4-2018); CAr.
muwāmaʾt ‘to agree with, to come to an agreement’ (Steingass, 1233b). Certainty::
certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: legal.
mn relative pronoun. who, whoever. Etym: mn. f mn yʿrrh // yʿrh nʿm //ḏġbt // w-ṭḥln
(ah 289) ‘and may whoever mistreats it be stripped of property, ḏġbt and ṭḥln (Al-
Jallad pc.)’ f-ʿrr / h----//ʿ{/} mn / ʿrr / h-kfr / ḏh (Müller, D.H. 1889: 78, no. 29/ 1–2) ‘so
may he dishonor … the one who mistreats this tomb**’. ---- // mn / srqt / ʾym---- //
----{m}n / srq / f ʾn / yṣbr / b-mh / sr[q]---- (Al-Ḫuraybah 17/ 3–4) ‘… who stole(?)
and if he is caught with what he {stole} …*’.
note: Compare CAr. man ‘who, whoever’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 4. Ty-
pology:: curse; legal.
mn preposition. from, of. Etym: mn. ʾẓll / b-khl // ʿly / m-kn / l-h / b-ḏ//ṯʿʿl / mn / dṯʾ / w-
ḫrf (U 059/ 2–4) ‘he performed the ẓll at Khl on behalf of what was his at Ḏṯʿʿl of
the crops of the season of the later rains and the crops of the season of the first
rains**’. ʾẓlt // l-ḏġ[b]t / b-kh//l / stt / ʿs²r / m//n / snt / mt / ʿl-//h (ah 064/ 2–6)
‘She performed the ẓll for ḏġbt at Khl sixteen [times] according to the custom of
the land [placed] upon her*’. w-b-mmʾ / ʿ//ly / mg-h / mn / h-ḫls ( JSLih 070/ 4–5)
‘and by the oath against his expulsion/grain from the loan*’. ʾḫḏw / h-mkn // w h-
mqʿd / ḏh / kll-h / mn / mʿ//n / h-gbl / hn-ʾʿly / ʿdky // mʿ{n} / h-gbl / hn-ʾs{ f }l ( JSLih
072/ 4–7) ‘They took the place and this seat, all of it, from the assembly place of
the upper border until the sanctuary of the lower border (Lundberg 2015, 135)’.
note: see Lundberg (2015, 133–134) for a discussion of the preposition mn. Cer-
tainty:: certain. Frequency:: 13. Typology:: ẓll; genealogy?; funerary/legal; narra-
tive.
mnhh noun, pl. minah, coins. Etym: mny. ʾgy / ʿs²rt / mnh{h} / {ʾ}{y}dn // {w} mṣhn ʿ-
--- ( JSLih 177/ 1–2) ‘He dedicated ten minah ??? and ??? (Al-Jallad pc.)’
note: ociana reads mnhl. Compare jba, Qumran, mnʾ ‘minah (weight)’ (cal,
7-2-2018) Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
mqʿd noun. seat, throne. Etym: qʿd. ʾḫḏw / h-mkn // w h-mqʿd / ḏh / kll-h ( JSLih 072/

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4–5) ‘they took the place and this seat all of it (Lundberg 2015, 135)’. l-s²ʿt / // ʿlʾl
/ kʿ//mn h-mqʿd k//ll-h ( JaL 161 a/ 1–4) ‘the whole seat belongs to the party of ʿlʾl
Kʿmn**’.
note: Compare e.g. CAr. qaʿada ‘he sat down’ (Lane, 1544c); Possibly comparable
in function to the ritual couches mentioned in Nab. inscriptions as rbʿt (Nehmé
2003, 24–25). Certainty:: not completely certain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: narra-
tive, legal?.
mqbr noun. tomb. Etym: qbr. pn {ḏ-}TrN // ʾḫḏ h-mqbr {ḏ}[h] w dm ( JSLih 306) ‘pn of
the lineage of TrN took possession of this tomb for ever**’.
note: Compare CAr. maqbar ‘burial place, place of graves’ (Lane 2480c); Sab.
mqbr ‘tomb, burial place’ (Beeston et al 1982, 103). Certainty:: quite certain. Fre-
quency:: 1. Typology:: funerary. Etym: qbr.
mqdr noun. cultic structure, part of a religious building. Etym: qdr. ---- // w /h-mqdr
/ w hn-ʿnk /---- // ʾfqw ( JSLih 054/ 3–4) ‘… the cultic structure and the door? they
dedicated*’. ---- / h-mqdr / hn-ʾkbr // ---- (Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 26–36, no. 3/ 2) ‘… the
the biggest cultic structure …*’.
note: Compare Sabaic ʾqdr, Sabaweb includes an uncertain meaning of ʾqdr,
from the root qdr as ‘unspecified part of a building’, based on its occurrence in
broken context in cih 633 bis/1.–2. (accessed 14-07-2021). Certainty:: uncertain.
Frequency:: 2. Typology:: dedicatory; funerary; construction.
mqm noun. place, abode. Etym: qwm. bnt / l-ḏġbt // mqm / ʾ{ẓ}lt / b-bdr (Al-ʿUḏayb
043/ 2–3) ‘She built for ḏġbt an abode [and] she performed the ẓll at Bdr** (or
the place of the ẓll)*’. ---- / h-mqm ---- (Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 15–26, no. 2/ 5) ‘… the
place …**’.
note: Compare CAr. qāma ‘to rise and stand upright, to be erected, to stand’
(Steingass, 864a); Heb. qōm ‘to rise’ (halot, 8302); Palm mqmw ‘stead, place’
(cal, 16-2-2018). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: dedicatory; con-
struction.
mrʾ noun. lord. Etym: mrʾ. ddn / hṯbt / mṯb / w hwḍʾt / ʾḍm / l-ḏġbt / mrʾ//-h (Al-
Ḫuraybah 12/ 1–2) ‘Dadan dedicated the throne and offered the wheat(?) to ḏġbt
her lord*’. pn / bn / pn / h-ṣnʿ//ʿbd / l-mrʾ-h ( JSLih 035/ 1–2) ‘pn son of pn the arti-
san made [it] for his lord*’.
note: Compare e.g. Sab. mrʾ ‘lord/lady, overlord, suzerain, social superior’ (Bees-
ten et al. 1982, 87); CAr. marʾ ‘man, human being’ (Lane, 2702c); Aram. mrʾ ‘lord/
fem. lady’ (Hoftijzer and Jongeling 1995, 682–684). Certainty:: certain. Frequency::
4. Typology:: dedicatory.
mrʾt noun, f. woman. Etym: mrʾ. bʿlsmn / ʾḥrm / h-qrt // mn / mh / trqh / mrʾt // l-bhny /
hn-ʾfklt // ḏ ( JSLih 064) ‘bʿlsmn protected the village from what [spell] the woman
of the palm tree, the priestess cast on it ḏ* (see Lundberg 2015, 134 for the inter-
pretation of ʾḥrm, trq and bhny)’.

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note: Compare e.g. Sab. mrʾ ‘lord/lady, overlord, suzerain, social superior’ (Bee-
ston et al. 1982, 87); CAr. marʾ ‘man, human being’ (Lane, 2702c); Aram. mrʾ ‘lord/
fem. lady’ (Hoftijzer and Jongeling 1995, 682–684). Certainty:: certain. Frequency::
1. Typology:: narrative.
mrbḍ noun. meadow. Etym: rbḍ. ʾẓll l-ḏġbt bʿd mrbḍ-h b-ḏʿmn (ah 073/ 2–4) ‘he per-
formed the ẓll for ḏġbt on behalf of his field(?) at Ḏʿmn**’.
note: Compare Sab. mrbḍ ‘grazing ground’ (Beeston et al 1982, 114). Certainty::
uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: ẓll.
mt noun. land, town. Etym: mwt. ʾẓlt // l-ḏġ[b]t / b-kh//l / stt / ʿs²r / m//n / snt / mt
/ ʿl-//h (ah 064/ 2–6) ‘She performed the ẓll for ḏġbt at Khl sixteen [times]**
according to the custom of the land [placed] upon her*’.
note: Compare OldAram. and OffAram. mt ‘land, town (as political entity)’
(Hoftijzer and Jongeling 1995, 707). Certainty:: quite certain. Frequency:: 1. Typol-
ogy:: ẓll; legal?.
mtʿ acive participle, 3m.s. protector. Etym: mtʿ. pn // bn pn // h-mtʿ // nṭr / b-tlb /
mks²d ( JSLih 007) ‘pn son of pn the protector guarded at Tbl Mks²d**’. femi-
nine:: mtʿt. pn / bnt // pn / h-mtʿt ( JSLih 076) ‘pn daughter of pn the protec-
tor**’.
note: Compare e.g. Sab. hmtʿ ‘to save, deliver, make thrive’, mtʿt ‘deliverance’
(Beeston et al 1982, 88); or CAr. mataʿa ‘to enjoy’ and mutaʿ ‘to be strong, to be
generous’ (Steingass, 949). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: mtʿ: 1; mtʿt: 1. Typol-
ogy:: guarding.
ms²hr noun. name of an asterism. Etym: s²hr. b-ṭʿn / ms²hr / ʾd---- ( JSLih 059/ 2) ‘dur-
ing the setting of the asterism ms²hr …*’.
note: b-ṭʿn seems to indicate the opposite of b-rʾy. Therefore ms²hr is probably
an indication of the date, most likely based on a local star calendar. See Kootstra
(2020) for a full discussion of the dating formula in Dadanitic. Certainty:: uncer-
tain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dating formula.
ms²h{l/r} toponym (or asterism?). Q. ʾny // ysrg [/] ʾb-hm / w {m}ʿn-h[m] // w {m}fr-
h{m} / b-ms²hl (U 026: 3–5) ‘that their pasture may be beautified and their abode
and their cultivated land at Ms²hl** (or during (the visibility of) the asterism
Ms²hr)*’.
note: May be compared to ms²hr, which seems to be the name of a month or
asterism. It is not entirely clear from the photograph whether the hook at the top
of the l is damage or intentional. See Hidalgo Chacon Dièz (2014, 19–20) for a a
discussion of ms²hl as a place name and its occurrence in the Dadanitic corpus.
Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: ẓll.
mṣd noun. sanctuary. Etym: ṣdd. ḥgg / l-ḏġb//t / b-h-mṣd (ah 198/ 4–5) ‘he performed
the pilgrimage for ḏġbt** at the sanctuary (Lundberg 2015: 136)’. ʾẓllw / h-ẓll /
b-//h-mṣd (ah 244/3–4) ‘they performed the ẓll ceremony** at the sanctuary

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(Lundberg 2015: 136)’. ʾgw / h-ẓll / b-{m}ṣ//d / hmḏ / tr{k}----(ah 202/ 1–2) ‘he ded-
icated the ẓll** at [the] sanctuary (Lundberg 2015: 136) in accordance with what
he left/relinquished …*’.
note: Mṣd from ṣadda ‘to protect’. Compare Aram. mṣd ‘fortress’ (cal, 16-2-2018)
maṣad ‘the sanctuary’ Hebrew məṣōdâh ‘mountain stronghold’ (halot, 5538).
14 of the 15 the inscriptions that refer to activity at a/the mṣd are found at Umm
Daraj, one was found at al-ḫuraybah, the ancient settlement. mṣd seems to be
in completmentary distribution with Khl, which only occurs at al-ʿUḏayb (see
Maria del Carmen Hidalgo-Chacon Diez 2014: 20–22). Note that the remains of
a temple have been found at Umm Daraj (Abū l-Ḥasan, 2001: 97–99), which may
have been the sanctuary the inscriptions refer to, as suggested by Abū l-Hasan
Abū l-Ḥasan (2002, 36–37). The fact that mṣd seems to occur 3 times without the
definite article (ah 202; ah 219 and ah 207) seems to suggest that it was such a
well-known place that it almost came to function as a toponym. The first word
in Müller, D.H. 1889: 66, no. 10 is read as h-ṣmd ‘the Lord’ in ociana but the
photograph shows it says mṣd instead (accessed 14-07-2021). Certainty:: certain.
Frequency:: 21. Typology:: dedicatory; ẓll. Usage: ḥgg b-h-mṣd; he performed the
pilgrimage at the sanctuary.
mṯb noun. throne; seat. Etym: wṯb. ddn / hṯbt / mṯb / w hwḍʾt / ʾḍm / l-ḏġbt / mrʾ//-h
(Al-Ḫuraybah 12/ 1–2) ‘Dadan dedicated the throne and offered the wheat(?) to
ḏġbt her lord*’. ----tlh / b-mṯb / b-{ṭ}ʿn / ṣd / ḏ---- ( JSLih 055/ 3) ‘… at throne(?)
during the setting of the asterism ṣd …*’.
note: Compare Aram. ytb ‘to sit, to dwell, to stay, remain’ and mittōḇ ‘seat’ (cal,
16-2-2018). Sab. mwṯb ‘throne’ (Sabaweb, accessed 14-07-2021). The ‘seat’ may have
been comparable in function to the ritual couches mentioned in Nab. inscrip-
tions rbʿt (Nehmé 2003, 24–25). Certainty:: quite certain. Frequency:: 2. Typology::
dedicatory; legal?.
mṯbr noun. field, grave. Etym: ṯbr. l-pn / bn / pn / h-mṯbr ( JSLih 012) ‘for pn son of pn
is the grave**/field*’. pn // pn / bny / b//rʾ / h-mṯbr /ʿ//l-h / hʾ ( JSLih 078) ‘pn pn
built the facade of the grave chamber** and it is his*’. l-pn / h-mṯbr // w h-mṯbr /
ʿly / h-qrt ( JSLih 366) ‘the grave**/field* is for pn and the grave**/field* is above
the village*’. l-pn / bn / pn // ʾ-mṯbr (Ǧabal Iṯlib 07) ‘the grave**/field* is for pn
son of pn’. dual:: mṯbrn. w-ʾḫḏ / h-mṯbrn ( JSLih 045/3) ‘and he took the two grave
chambers**/fields*’.
note: ṯbr in CAr. means ‘to confine, hold back’ tuṯbūr ‘going astray, destruc-
tion’, possibly a field or chamber, from the sense of a defined or restricted area.
Dadanitic-internally it may be related to ṯbrt ‘grain’ and indicate an agricultural
field. Note that none of the inscriptions is clearly linked to a grave or tomb.
The inscriptions that seem to lay a claim on a mṯbr (l-pn h-mṯbr and ʾḫḏ h-
mṯbr) may be compared to the Nab. practice of leaving an inscription to lay

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claim to a tomb or a part of a rockface for a future tomb (Nehmé 2015, 1: texte:
105). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: mṯbr: 8; mṯbrn: 1. Typology:: legal?; funer-
ary?.
mṯl verb, g, 3m.s. to copy. Etym: mṯl. pn pn bn pn tqṭ w mṯl ( JSLih 339) ‘pn pn son of
pn inscribed and copied*’.
note: Compare e.g. CAr. miṯl (noun) ‘a like, a match, a resemblance, an equiva-
lent’ (Lane (Supplement) 3017c). Possibly referring to the copying of legal inscrip-
tions to be kept at a central place, comparable to the Nab. practice (Nehmé 2015,
100). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.
mṯlt noun. substitute. Etym: mṯl. pn // ʾfkl / w//d / w-bn-h // pn / w p//n / hw//dqw
/ h-ġ//lm / pn / h-//[m]ṯlt / l-//ḏġbt ( JSLih 049/ 1–9) ‘pn priest of Wadd and his
two sons pn and pn offered** the boy* pn as the substitute to ḏġbt**’. ---- // h-
ṣyġ / h//wdq / h-m//ṯlt / l-ḏ//ġbt (Al-Ḫuraybah 14/ 1–4) ‘… the smith dedicated the
substitute to ḏġbt**’.
note: Compare Sab. mṯl ‘similar in status to someone’ (Beeston at al 1982, 88);
CAr. mṯl ‘a like, a similar thing, a match, a fellow’ (Lane (Supplement) 3017c).
Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: dedicatory.
mṭr personal name. mṭr. Etym: mṭr. pn / w pn w // pn w pn w pn //w pn / ḥwyn mṭr //
b-{ḏ}wh / ymn (Graf Abū al-Ḍibāʿ 2) ‘pn and pn and pn and pn and pn and pn pn
pn [were] at {ḏwh} for two days*’.
note: ociana translates mṭr as ‘rain watered field’. This does not seem to follow
the content of the rest of the inscription. Note that mṭr is attested in Dadanitic
as a pn (ah 200). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.

N–n

nʿm noun. livestock; property; grace. Etym: nʿm. ʾẓlt / ʾ-ẓl//l / l-ḏġbt // bʿd / nʿm-h / b-
//bnʾl (ah 074/ 2–5) ‘She performed the ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt on behalf of her
property/livestock at Bnʾl*’. khf / pn / bn pn / mlk / ddn / w-ṯrw / nʿm / b-h / nʿrgd
( JSLih 138) ‘cave(tomb) of pn son of pn king of Dadan and may he become abun-
dant in property/divine grace by means of him, Naʿrgadd*’. f-mn yʿrrh // yʿrh nʿm
// ḏġbt // w-ṭḥln (ah 289) ‘and may whoever mistreats it be stripped of prop-
erty/grace, ḏġbt and ṭḥln (Al-Jallad pc.)’pl.:: ʾnʿm. ʾgy / ʿs²rt / mnh{h} / {ʾ}{y}dn
// {w} mṣhn ʿ---- ʿly / {m}zny / b-ʾrbʿn {/} slʿt----- mn / ʾnʿ{m} // fkw{y} ( JSLih 177/
1–3) ‘He dedicated ten Minah ??? and ??? … on behalf of ??? with forty coins(?)
[worth] of livestock …*’.
note: Compare CAr. naʿam, ʾanʿām ‘camels, sheep, cattle’ (Hava, 775a). Certainty::
uncertain. Frequency:: nʿm: 7; ʾnʿm: 1. Typology:: dedicatory; ẓll; funerary, curse.
nḏr verb, g, 3m.s. to vow. Etym: nḏr. ʾfy / h-ẓ//ll / hmḏ / nḏr / ʾ//b-h / l-ḏġbt / b-h-//mṣd
(Private collection 1/ 2–5) ‘He fulfilled* the ẓll ceremony according to that which

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his father vowed to ḏġbt** at the sanctuary*’. 3s.f.:: nḏrt. pn / bnt // pn / slḥt //
ḏġbt /ʾ//ẓlt / h-ẓll // l-ḏġbt / b-k//hl / hmḏ / nḏrt (ah 013/ 1–6) ‘pn daughter of
pn priestess of ḏġbt performed the ẓll for ḏġbt at Khl according to that which she
vowed**’. act part:: nḏr. ʾẓll / h-ẓl//l / nḏr / bʿd / h-dr//t (U 003/ 2–4) ‘He performed
the ẓll ceremony vowed on behalf of the fields*’.
note: Compare CAr. naḏara ʿalā nafsi-hī ‘he imposed upon himself a vow’ (Lane,
2781c). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: nḏr: 8; nḏrt: 2; nḏr (act. part.): 3. Typology::
dedicatory; ẓll. Usage: hmḏ nḏr pn; according to what pn vowed.
nfs reflexive pronoun. self. Etym: nfs. ʾ//ẓll / h-ẓll / nḏr // bʿd / d{ṯ}ʾ-h / w nfs//-h (U 021/
1–4) ‘He performed the ẓll ceremony vowed on behalf of his seasonal crops* and
himself**’.
note: Compare e.g. CAr. raʾaytu nafsī ‘I saw myself’ (Fischer 2002, 145). Certainty::
certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: ẓll.
nfs noun. funerary monument. Etym: nfs. wdyw / nfs / pn / bn / pn / m{h} // ʾḫḏ / ʿl-
hmy / ḫrg ( JSLih 077/ 2–3) ‘They set up the funerary monument of pn son on pn
according to what had been placed upon them as a lawsuit*’. nfs / pn / bn // pn /
ʾlt / bnh // pn / bnt / p//n / ( JSLih 384) ‘funerary monument of pn son of pn which
pn daughter of pn built**’.
note: Compare OffAram and, Nab. npš ‘funerary monument, stele’ (cal, 16-2-
2018). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 3. Typology:: funerary.
nḫl noun. palm tree. Etym: nḫl. ʾẓll / h-ẓll // {b-}khl / l-ḏġ//bt / bʿd / {n}ḫl-h // w-dṯʾ-
h b-bdr (U 058) ‘He performed the ẓll ceremony at Khl for ḏġbt on behalf of his
palm trees and his crops of the season of the later rains at Bdr**’. pl.:: ʾnḫl. ʾẓll / //
l-ḏġbt / b-khl // bʿd / ʾnḫl-h // w-ʾdṯʾ-h / b-bdr (Al-ʿUḏayb 071/ 2–5) ‘He performed
the ẓll for ḏġbt at Khl on behalf of his palm trees and his crops of the season of
the later rains at Bdr**’.
note: Compare CAr. naḫīl ‘palm tree; palm grove’ (Steingass, 1109b). In most
inscriptions the nḫl is used collectively. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: nḫl: 39;
ʾnḫl: 2. Typology:: ẓll; dedicatory. Usage: bʿd nḫl-h b-tn; on behalf of his palm
trees at tn.
nḥs noun. bronze object. Etym: nḥs. pn // pn // ʿrr / b----l //ʿrr/h-nḥs//ḏh ( JSLih 269)
‘pn pn dishonor … the one who mistreats** this bronze [object]*’.
note: Compare OffAram. nḥs ‘bronze’ also used to refer to bronze objects (Hofti-
jzer and Jongeling 1995, 726); CAr. nuḥās and naḥās ‘copper or brass’ (Lane,
2775b). Certainty:: quite certain. Frequency:: nḥs (noun): 1; nḥs (adjective): 1.
Typology:: dedicatory. nḥs • noun. ʾdqw / w qr//bw / h-ṣlm / h-nḥs / l-//ḏġbt / w-
slḥ / s[l]//ʿt / ʾslḥt (Al-Ḫuraybah 09/ 3–6) ‘They dedicated and offered the bronze
statue to ḏġbt and sent tax coins(?)*’.
nḥt verb, g, 3m.s. to cut. Etym: nḥt. pn / h-ṣnʿ / nḥt / h-ṣlm ( JSLih 074) ‘pn the artisan
cut the statue**’.

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note: Compare CAr. naḥata ‘he cut or hewed, formed or fashioned by cutting’
(Lane, 2773b). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
nq noun. noun. Etym: Q. ḥggw / h-nq / w-hġnyw / b-bt-hm / l- ---- (ah 197/ 5) ‘performed
the pilgrimage** of the Nq and made an offering at their temple for …*’. hẓll / ẓll
/ h-nq / l-ḏġ[b]t / f r//ḍ-h (Al-ʿUḏayb 014/ 2–3) ‘He performed the ẓll** of the nq*
for ḏġbt so favor him**’. dual:: nqn. pn / // ṭrq / h-{n}qn / w ʿkb / (ah 287) ‘pn ham-
mered the two nq and pn or and he remained*’.
note: The meaning of this noun is unclear, and will probably remain so as long
as the exact meaning of the ẓll ritual remains unclear. It is most commonly
used to modify the ẓll that is mentioned or by itself following a dedicatory verb.
ociana reads s²qn in ah 287 and translates it as ‘the two clefts’. The inscription
is crudely made, but he letter read in ociana as s² seem to have a similar shape
as the -n at the end of the same word. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: nq: 14;
nqn: 1. Typology:: ẓll; dedicatory. Usage: ʾẓll ẓll h-nq; he performed the ẓll of the
nq.
nṣb verb, g, 3m.s. to set up a cult stone. Etym: nṣb. pn / nṣb wasm h-yd wqt ̣( JaL 152) ‘pn
set up a cult stone and inscribed the arm*’. pn / pn / pn / hʾ / nṣb / ----//h /[l-]ʿtrġth
/ qbl / pn /---- (ah 288/ 1–2) ‘pn pn pn he set up the cult stone … [for] Atargatis in
the presence of pn …**’.
note: Compare CAr naṣaba ‘setting up, planting, raising, erecting something’
(Steingass, 1123b); OffAram. Nab. nṣb (noun) ‘a stele’ (cal, 16-2-2018). The ‘wasm’
in JaL 152 is a drawing of an arm the isncription seems to refer to the produc-
tion of the drawing. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: dedicatory; graf-
fiti.
nṭr verb, g, 3m.s. to guard. Etym: nẓr. pn bn pn // nṭr ddn (ah 312) ‘pn son of pn guarded
Dadan**’. Variant: nẓr. nẓr ddn //pn (ah 328) ‘pn guarded Dadan**’. pn h-ṯm//dy
nẓr (ah 325) ‘pn the ṯmdy guarded**’.
note: Compare e.g. Aram. nṭr ‘to watch over, to guard’ (cal, 14-07-2021); CAr. ‘he
looked at or towards in order to see him or it’ (Lane, 2810c). See Kootstra (2018) for
a discussion on the variation between nẓr and nṭr. Certainty:: certain. Frequency::
nṭr: 17; nẓr: 2. Typology:: guarding; graffiti. Usage: pn bn pn nṭr ddn; pn son of pn
guarded Dadan.

Q–q

qbl preposition. before. Etym: qbl. snt / ʿs²rn / w ṯtn ---- sbʿ / ʾym / qb//l / rʾy / ḏʾslʿn / hnʾs
/ bn / tlmy / m//lk / lḥyn (ah 244/ 6–8) ‘year twenty-{two} … seven days before the
rising of the asterism ḏʾslʿn, Hnʾs son of Tlmy king of Liḥyān*’. pn / ʿbd / pn / hʾ
/ nṣb / ----//h / [l-]ʿtrġth / qbl / pn / ---- (ah 288/ 1–2) ‘pn son of pn he set up the
standing stone … [for] Atargatis in the presence of of pn**’.

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note: Compare CAr. qabl ‘before’ (Lane (supplement), 2983c). See Lundberg
(2015, 131) for a complete discussion of the prepositions in Dadanitic. Certainty::
certain. Frequency:: 3. Typology:: dating formula; dedicatory.
qbr noun. tomb. Etym: qbr. pn / w-pn / bnw // pn / ʾḫḏw / h-qb//r / ḏh / hm / w ʾḫw-hm
( JSLih 079/ 1–3) ‘pn and pn sons of pn took possession of this** tomb*, they and
their brothers**’. l-pn // bn / pn / hn-//qbr / ḏh ( JSLih 081/ 1–3) ‘for pn son of pn [is]
this grave**’. pn ʾ{ḫ}ḏ h-q(b)r ---- ( JSLih 257) ‘pn took possesion of** the tomb*’.
l-pn / bn // pn / h-qbr // ḏh ( JSLih 312/ 1–3) ‘this tomb* belongs to pn son of pn**’.
note: Compare CAr. qabr ‘a grave, tomb’ (Lane, 2480c). Aram. qbr ‘tomb, grave’
(cal, 16-2-2018). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 4. Typology:: funerary.
qdst noun. sacred offering. Etym: qds. ---- / lm / ʿly / pn / {q}{d}st / w ṣlm---- ( JSLih
063/ 3) ‘… on behalf of pn a sacred offering and a statue …**’.
note: Compare CAr. quds ‘holiness, sanctity, purity’; Sab. qds ‘holiness, holy’
(Beeston et al 1982, 104). Note that the reading of some of the letters of qdst is
unsure in JSLih 063. Certainty:: uncertain reading. Frequency:: 3. Typology:: ded-
icatory.
qnt noun. female servant. Etym: qyn. h-qnt (ah 186/2) ‘the female servant**’. pn / bn
/ pn // w-qnt-h / pn / bn//t / pn (ah 303) ‘pn son of pn and his female servant pn
daughter of pn**’. Variant: qnh. pn / qnh / h-mlk (ah 304) ‘pn maid servant of the
king**’.
note: Compare CAr. qaynah ‘maid servant’ (Steingass, 868a). In ah 304 qnh may
be a writing error on behalf of the author, or possibly qnh is a personal name and
the inscription should be read ‘pn pn the king’. If the final -h represents the shift
of -at# ⟩ -ah, it may be compared to the same sound change in the language of
the author of JSLih 384. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: qnt: 4; qnh: 1. Typology::
graffiti.
qrb verb, d, 3m.s. to offer, dedicate (lit. bring close). qrb / h-ṣlm // l-ḏġbt ( JSLih 041/
2–3) ‘He dedicated the statue to Ḏġbt**’. 3pl.:: qrbw. qr//bw / h-//mḥrw // l-ḏġ//bt
(ah 209/ 4–8) ‘They dedicated the incense burner to ḏġbt**’. ʾdqw / w qr//bw /
h-ṣlm / h-nḥs / l-//ḏġbt (Al-Ḫuraybah 09/3–5) ‘They dedicated and offered the
bronze statue to ḏġbt*’.
note: Aram. qrb D-stem ‘to offer, dedicate’ (cal, 16-2-2018); CAr. qarraba ‘to bring
st. near, to show favor to so., to present an offering to God’ (Hava, 577b). Certainty::
certain. Frequency:: qrb: 1; qrbw: 2. Typology:: dedicatory.
qrt noun. village, settlement. Etym: qry. s²rfw / b-h-{q}rt (ah 300/ 6) ‘They were about
to reach the village*’. bʿlsmn / ʾḥrm / h-qrt( JSLih 064) ‘bʿlsmn protected the vil-
lage* (see Lundberg 2015, 134 for the interpretation of ʾḥrm )’. {ʿ}bdhny // tqṭ // ʿly
// qrt ( JSLIh 182) ‘pn wrote* on a boulder** or pn wrote on behalf of pn*’. l-pn /
h-mṯbr // w h-mṯbr / ʿly / h-qrt ( JSLih 366) ‘the field is for pn and the field is above
the village*’.

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note: Compare CAr. qariyah ‘village’ (Hava, 595b); Aram. qryh ‘town, village’
(Hoftijzer and Jongeling 1995, 1033–1034). See Lundberg (2015, nt. 34) for the
interpretation of qrt as ‘village’. Note that qrt may have a different meaning in
JSLih 182 and 366. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 5. Typology:: narrative; graffiti;
legal.
qsm noun. oracle priest. Etym: qsm. pn / h-qsm (U 100) ‘pn the oracle priest**’.
note: Compare Sab. mqsm ‘oracle’ and the causative verb of the same root hqsm
‘to obtain an oracle’ (Sabaweb, 02-09-2021) ah 218 probably contains a plural ver-
bal form ---qsmw, but as the letters preceding the q are missing, it is impossible to
determine what the exact formation of the verb would be. In many of the attes-
tations hqsm can be interpreted as a pn. In ah 218 hqsm seems to be attested
as a pn, directly preceding bn ‘son of’. This casts some doubt on whether the
other attestations should be interpreted as a title or a pn. It is not uncommon
in Dadanitic inscriptions to mention someone’s patronym directly following the
pn. However, there are two persons with hqsm and two with hnfy as their pn in
ah 218. Each with a different patronym, making an interpretation of hqsm and
hnfy as titles not impossible here. ah 303 and Nasif 1988: 96, pl. cxlvi; Ǧabal
al-Zuhrah 07 contain hqsm clearly as patronym following bn ‘son of’. Certainty::
uncertain. Frequency:: 3. Typology:: graffiti, dedicatory.
qsmw verb, g, 3m pl. Q. Etym: qsm. ----qsmw / gbl / d[d][n] ---- (ah 218/ 4) ‘… they ???
the border/lord of Dadan …** (see Lundberg 2015 n. 37 for gbl as border)’.
note: Compare Aram. qsm ‘to divine’ (cal, 16-2-2018); Sab. mqsm ‘oracular deci-
sion’ or CAr. qasama ‘to divide, to distribute’ ‘they distributed the territory of
Dadan’? Certainty:: uncertain, broken context. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: Q.
qṭ verb, g, 3m.s. to cut. Etym: qṭṭ. pn / nṣb wasm h-yd w-qṭ ( JaL 152) ‘pn set up a cult
stone and inscribed the arm*’.
note: Compare CAr. qaṭṭa-hu ‘he cut it’ (Lane 2539a). The wasm in JaL 152 is a
drawing of an arm. The inscription seems to refer to the production of the draw-
ing. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.
qymh noun, m.du. caretakers (du.) Etym: qym. [----]// hqymh / mgdl / ḏġbt / bnyw / bt /
h-ṣn---- // l-ḏġbt (Müller, D.H. 1889: 63–64, no. 8/ 1–2) ‘… the caretakers of the tower
of ḏġbt built the temple of the [statue] for ḏġbt*’. pn---- / bn / pn ----[h]//qymh /
nʿm / ḏġbt /----//( JSLih 054/ 1–2) ‘pn son of pn … caretakers of the property (trea-
sury?) of ḏġbt…*’.
note: Compare CAr. qiyam ‘superintendent, guardian’ (Steingass, 1993, 867b).
Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 2?. Typology:: dedicatory; construction.

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R–r

rʾy noun. rising/appearance of an asterism. Etym: rʾy. {s}//nt / ʿs²rn / tmn{y} // ṯlt /
ʾym / qbl // rʾy / slḥn ( JSLih 068/ 2–5) ‘year twenty-{eight}, three days before** the
rising of the asterism slḥn*’. sn[t] / ṯlṯn / w ḫm//s 35 / b-rʾy /[m]nʿy / lḏn / b//n
/ hnʾs / mlk /l ḥyn ( JSLih 082/ 4–6) ‘year thirty-five 35 during** the rising of the
asterism mnʿy Lḏn son of Hnʾs king of Liḥyān*’.
note: compare to the usage in Saf. ṯlg b-h-dr b-rʾy ʿqbt ‘there was snow in this
region at the rising of Scorpio’. For a complete discussion of the meaning of rʾy
as rising of an asterism in the Safaitic inscriptions see Al-Jallad (2014; 2016) for
a discussion of this dating formula in Dadanitic see Kootstra (2020). Certainty::
semantic domain is certain. Frequency:: 19. Typology:: dating formula. Usage: snt
X b-rʾy Y pn bn pn mlk Lḥyn; year X during the rising of Y [in the era of] pn son
of pn king of Liḥyān.
rʿ noun. livestock or pasture. Etym: rʿy. ----{ḥ}y / ʾqd / h-rʿ / f //---- (ah 239/ 3) ‘… the
produce of the livestock {so} …*’. ----m / ym / stḥbl / ʾqd / h-rʿ / f rḍ-hm / w //---- (Al-
Saʿīd 1420/1999: 3–14, no. 1/ 4) ‘… [the] day he pledged the produce of the livestock
so favor them and …*’.
note: Compare CAr. riʿy ‘pasture or herbage’ and raʿiyyah ‘cattle pasturing or pas-
tured by themselves and cattle kept, tended, pastured’ (Lane 1109bc). Certainty::
uncertain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: dedicatory.
rʿy verb, g, 3m.s. to pasture (livestock). Etym: rʿy. pn / bn pn / rʿy ( JSLih 139) ‘pn son of
pn pastured (the livestock)*’. pn / rʿy ( JSLih 140) ‘pn pastured (the livestock)*’.
note: Compare CAr. raʿā ‘he pastured upon or depastured the herbage by him-
self’ (Lane, 1108b). ociana translates rʿy as a noun ‘[the] herdsman’. In parallel
with other Dadanitic inscriptions that mention the occupation of the author, the
noun should have a definite article preceding it for such an interpretation. Cer-
tainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: graffiti.
rb noun. lord. Etym: rbb. f rḍ-hm // w rb-hm / pn w //qnt / pn (U 063/ 5–7) ‘so favor
them and their lord pn** and the maid servant of pn*’. l-pn / w l-rb-hmy (ah 295/
1–2) ‘for* pn and for their (du.) lord**’. pn / b[n] pn kbr // h-dʿt / s²ʿt / TrN / w
rb-h//m / pn / bn / pn / kb//ry / s²ʿt / TrN ( JSLih 072/ 1–4) ‘pn son of pn kabir of
the council* of the party of TrN and their lord pn son of pn the two kabirs of the
party of TrN**’.
note: Compare CAr. rabb ‘a lord, a possessor, an owner’ (Lane 1003b). Certainty::
certain. Frequency:: 4. Typology:: dedicatory; graffiti.
rḍy verb, d, 3m.s. to favor so. Etym: rḍw. f rḍy-hm / w ʾḫrt-hm / w sʿd-hm (ah 197/ 7) ‘so
may he favor them and their posterity and aid them**’. pn / p//n / rḍy ( JaL 119 b)
‘pn pn bestowed a favor(?)*’. Variant: rḍ. f rḍ-h / w ʾḫr[t]-h // w ʾṯb-h / pn / bn /
pn (U 038/ 3–4) ‘so favor him and his posterity and reward him, pn son of pn**’.

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3s.f.:: rḍyt. f rḍyt-h / w ʾḫrt-h ---- (ah 288/ 4) ‘so may she favor him and his pos-
terity …**’. 3s.f.:: rḍt. f rḍt / w ʾḫr[t]----//(Tall al-Kaṯīb, no. 1/ 2) ‘so may she favor
[him] and [his] posterity …*’. f rḍt-h / {h}---- ( JSLih 036/ 2) ‘so may she favor him
…**’.
note: Compare CAr. raḍḍiya ‘he made him to be pleased, content or satisfied’
(Lane 1099c). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: rḍy: 29; rḍ: 224; rḍyt:1; rḍt: 2. Typol-
ogy:: dedicatory; ẓll; blessing formula; graffiti. Usage: f rḍ-h w sʿd-h w ʾḫrt-h; So
favor him and aid him and his posterity.
rhḍ verb, q, 3m.s. to favor so. Etym: rḍw. pn / bn / pn / ʾẓll // l-ḏġbt / ʿly / ḏ-kn // l-h / b-
bdr / f rhḍ-h (ah 075) ‘pn son of pn performed the ẓll for ḏġbt on behalf of that
which was his at Bdr so favor him**’.
note: This is probably a writing error for the common blessing formula f rḍ-h
(see rḍ). There is some damage, or a previous inscription on the rock around rhḍ.
This may explain why the author got confused. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency::
1. Typology:: blessing formula.
rs personal name. pn. Etym: Q. ʿlwt / ḥfr / hrs ( JSTham 427) ‘pn pn pn*’.
note: ociana does not translate rs, but takes it as a noun ‘pn engraved the rs’.
Hrs does not occur as a personal name in the Dadanitic corpus, but it occurs in
Saf. (e.g. hch 185; hch 4; krs 1326). ḥfrt occurs once as a pn in Saf. (Is.R 116).
Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.

S–s

sʿd verb, g, 3m.s. to aid. Etym: sʿd. f r{ḍ}-h / w {s}ʿ//d-h (U 050/ 4–5) ‘so favor him and
aid him**’.
note: Compare e.g. CAr. sāʿada-hu ‘he aided, assisted or helped him’ (Lane,
1360c); Sab. sʿd ‘grant, bestow a favor (deity)’ (Beeston et al 1982, 121). Certainty::
certain. Frequency:: 96. Typology:: dedicatory; blessing formula. Usage: f rḍ-h w
ʾḫrt-h w sʿd-h; so favor him and his posterity and aid him.
sbʿ numeral. seven. Etym: sbʿ. ---- sbʿ / ʾym / qb//l / rʾy / ḏʾslʿn / hnʾs / bn / tlmy / m//lk /
lḥyn (ah 244/ 6–8) ‘… seven days before** the rising of the asterism ḏʾslʿn* (during
the reign of) Hnʾs son of Tlmy king of Liḥyān**’. Certainty:: certan. Frequency:: 7.
Typology:: dating formula.
sfr noun. inscription; writing. Etym: sfr. pn / bn / pn / ḏ-TrN / f ʿrr / ḏġbt / ʿrr
/ ʾ-sfr / ḏh ( JSLih 276) ‘pn son of pn of the lineage of TrN so may ḏġbt dis-
honor the one who mistreats this inscription**’. f ʿrr // ḏġbt / ʿr//r / h-sfr / ḏh
( JaL 161 a/ 4–6) ‘so may ḏġbt dishonor the the one who mistreats this inscrip-
tion**’.
note: Compare CAr. sifr ‘a book, or writing’ (Lane, 1371a). Certainty:: certain. Fre-
quency:: 6. Typology:: curse; graffiti. Usage: f ʿrr ḏġbt ʿrr h-sfr ḏh.

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sfr active participle, m.s. writer; written. Etym: sfr. pn / b//[n] ---- h-ṣnʿ / w-pn / bn //
---- sʿbṭṭ / h-sfr ( JSLih 082/ 6–9) ‘pn {son of} … the artisan** and pn son of … pn
the writer*’. m----r---- / bn // {h-}//sfr / w-pn / h-ṣnʿ (ah 220/ 6–7) ‘… son of pn the
writer* and pn the artisan**’.
note: Compare CAr. sāfir ‘a writer, a scribe’ (Lane 1371c). Certainty:: certain. Fre-
quency:: 2. Typology:: dedicatory; title.
sfr verb, g, 3m.s. to write. Etym: sfr. pn // sfr / l-pn // bnt / pn (Ǧabal Iṯlib 08) ‘pn wrote
for pn daughter of pn*’. l-pn / w sfr-h / pn / qyn{-h} ( JSLih 128) ‘for pn and pn {his}
servant wrote it**’.
note: Compare CAr. safara al-kitāb ‘he wrote the book’ (Lane, 1370b). Certainty::
certain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: graffiti.
slmn noun. security or theonym. Etym: slm. wl / ḥmm / b-bt-h ṣ{l}m / wl / slmn //
b-ḥq[w]y / kfr / ḥmm / ( JSLih 077/ 6–7) ‘and verily he offered at his temple a
statue and he has offered two peace offerings (?) on the walls of (a?) cave/tomb*
(J. Lundberg (pc.) proposed to interpret this section as a chiastic structure)’.
pn / bnt // dd / nḏ[r]t / bʿd bn//t-h qn / bnt ḥṯl // l-slmn / hm-ḏ nḏ /rt ʿl-h /
ʾm-h ( JSLih 073/ 1–5) ‘pn daughter of pn vowed on behalf of her daughter pn
daughter of pn to Slmn according to that which she vowed on behalf of her, her
mother**’.
note: Compare CAr. salama ‘he was or became, safe, secure, or he escaped’
(Lane, 1412b). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: dedicatory; legal?.
slʿt noun, pl(?). coins. Etym: slʿ. ʾdqw / w qr//bw / h-ṣlm / h-nḥs / l-//ḏġbt / w slḥ / s[l]//ʿt
/ ʾslḥt (Al-Ḫuraybah 09/ 3–6) ‘they dedicated and offered the bronze statue to ḏġbt
and sent the sent coins(?)*’. ʾgy / ʿs²rt / mnh{h} / {ʾ}{y}dn // {w}-mṣhn ʿ---- ʿly /
{m}zny / b- ʾrbʿn {/} slʿt----- mn /ʾ nʿ{m} // fkw{y} ( JSLih 177/ 1–3) ‘he dedicated ten
minah also and ??? on behalf of ??? with forty coins … [worth] of cattle ???*’. ----
bndw / ʾḥd-hm / b-slʿt---- ( JaL 001) ‘… one of them with coins …*’.
note: Compare Sab. slʿ ‘coin’ (Beeston, 126). Heb, Palm jar. slʿ ‘certain coin
(drachm in Nab., tetradrachm in Heb. and JAr.)’ (Hoftijzer and Jongeling 1995,
788). Certainty:: not quite certain. Frequency:: 3. Typology:: dedicatory.
slḥ noun. priest. Etym: slḥ. pn / slḥ / ḏġ//bt / ʾẓll (Al-ʿUḏayb 132/ 1–2) ‘pn priest of ḏġbt
performed the ẓll**’. ----] // pn / pn / {s}//lḥ / ḏġb//t / ʾdq / l-l//h / {h}-ṣlmn ( JSLih
061/ 1–4) ‘… pn pn priest of ḏġbt offered to Lh* the two statues**’. feminine:: slḥt.
pn / bn / pn / w-//pn / slḥt // ḏġbt / ʾẓlh / h-ẓl//l / l-ḏġbt / b-kh//l (U 019/ 1–5) ‘pn
son of pn and pn priestess of ḏġbt performed the ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt at Khl**’.
note: Compare CAr. sillīḥ ‘Apostle’ (Have, 322b); Aram. šlḥ ‘to send’ (cal, 16-2-
2018). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: slḥ: 25; slḥt: 9. Typology:: genealogy; title;
ẓll; dedicatory. Usage: pn bn pn slḥ ḏġbt; pn son of pn priest of ḏġbt.
slḥ verb, g, 3m.s. to send. Etym: slḥ. w-slḥ / s[l]//ʿt / ʾslḥt / (Al-Ḫuraybah 09/ 5–6) ‘and
he sent the sent coins(?)*’.

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note: Compare Heb. and OffAram. šlḥ ‘to send’ (Hoftijzer and Jongeling 1995,
1137–1138). ociana translates this phrase as: ‘and he collected the representative
taxes’. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
smʿ verb, g, 3m.s. to listen, to hear. Etym: smʿ. pn / w pn w pn // w pn / w pn//w pn / w
p//n / ḥggn // f-smʿ / l-h{m} ( JSLih 006) ‘pn and pn and pn and pn and pn and pn
and pn are performing a pilgrimage* so may he (the deity) listen to them**’. pn
// bn / pn // ʾẓll / ʿ / f rḍ-h / w smʿ / l-{l}//ḥy / n{ḫ}l / b- ḏʿmn (U 066) ‘pn son of pn
performed the ẓll so may he favor him and listen to lḥy* palm trees at Ḏʿmn**’.
note: see ysmʿ for the pc. Compare CAr. samiʿa aš-šayʾ ‘he heard or listened to
the thing’ (Lane 1427b). See Sima (1999, 112–113) for a comparison of the f smʿ l-h
formula to the inscriptions from Qaryat al-Faw. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 2.
Typology:: dedicatory; blessing formula. Usage: smʿ l-X; listen to so.
snt noun. custom. Etym: snn. pn / bnt // pn / ʾẓlt // l-ḏġ{b}t / b-kh//l / stt / ʿs²r / m//n /
snt / mt/ʿl-//h / (ah 064/ 1–6) ‘pn daughter of pn performed the ẓll for ḏġbt at Khl
sixteen [times]** according to the custom of the land [placed] upon her*’.
note: Compare CAr. sanna-hu ‘he instituted, establihsed, or prescribed it i.e. a
custom, practice, usage or the like, whether good or bad’ (Lane 1436b) and sun-
nah ‘a way, course, rule, mode or manners of acting or cunduct of like or the like’
(Lane, 1438b). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedication.
snt noun. year. Etym: snt. ʾmr // b-l-ḥgr / w s²[d] // snt / mnʾḏy / s//fy ( JSLih 071/ 4–7)
‘he was amir in al-Ḥigr and {stood out} for a year against the aggression of Sfy**’.
f rḍ-h // w ʾḫrt-h / snt / ʾrbʿn / w ʾ⟨ḥ⟩d//y / hnʾs / mlk / lḥyn (ah 202/ 2–4) ‘so favor
him and his posterity year forty-one of Hnʾs king of Liḥyān**’. f rḍ-h//m / w ʾḫrt-
hm / w sʿd-hm / snt // ṯlṯn / b-rʾy / ʿtdn / lḏn / bn // hnʾs / mlk / lḥyn (ahud 1/ 2–5)
‘so favor them and their posterity and aid them year thirty during the rising of
the asterism ʿtdn, Lḏn son of Hnʾs king of Liḥyān*’. pl.:: snn. f ḫfr // hlmfl / ḏ // l-
ṯlṯ // snn ( JSLih 071/ 7–10) ‘and he subsequently acted as caravan guard in these
desert areas** for three years (Lundberg 2015, 129)’.
note: See rʾy for the extended dating formula. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: snt:
41; snn: 1. Typology:: dating formula. Usage: snt X pn bn pn mlk lḥyn, snt X b-rʾy Y
pn bn pn mlk lḥyn; year X of pn son of pn king of Liḥyān, year X during the rising
of the asterism Y (in the era of) pn son pn king of Liḥyān.
srq verb, g, 3m.s. to steal. Etym: srq. ----rs / mn / srqt / ʾym---- // ---- {m}n / srq / f ʾn /
yṣbr / b-m-h / sr[q]---- (Al-Ḫuraybah 17/ 3–4) ‘… from theft days … who stole(?)
and if he is caught with what he {stole} …*’.
note: Compare Sab. srq ‘to steal’ (Beeston et al. 1982: 128); CAr. saraqa min-hu
mālan ‘he stole from him property’ (Lane, 1352a). Certainty:: certain. Frequency::
1. Typology:: legal.
srq noun. thief. Etym: srq. ----h-srqt / yṭb / h-srq / ʾw / y ---- // ----bh (Al-Ḫuraybah 17/
6–7) ‘… the theft/stolen goods acquit the thief** or …*’.

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note: Compare Sab. srq ‘to steal’ (Beeston et al. 1982: 128); CAr. saraqa min-hu
mālan ‘he stole from him property’ (Lane, 1352a). Certainty:: certain. Frequency::
1. Typology:: legal.
srqt noun. theft/stolen goods. Etym: srq. ----rs / mn / srqt / ʾym---- // ----{m}n / srq / f
ʾn / yṣbr / b-m-h / sr[q]---- // ----{d}n / thḍ-h / kll-h / f ḥṯm ---- // ----h-srqt / yṭb / h-
srq / ʾw / y ---- // ----bh (Al-Ḫuraybah 17/ 3–7) ‘… from theft days … … who stole(?)
and if he is caught with what he {stole} … … if all of it broke (the stolen things)
then beat him(?) … the theft/stolen goods acquit the thief or …*’.
note: Compare Sab. srq ‘to steal’ (Beeston et al. 1982: 128); CAr. saraqa min-hu
mālan ‘he stole from him property’ (Lane, 1352a). Certainty:: certain. Frequency::
1. Typology:: legal.
st numeral, m. six. Etym: st. ---- snt st hnʾs // mlk lḥyn (ah 222/ 5–6) ‘… year six of Hnʾs
king of Liḥyān**’. / snt / st / w ʿs²r ---- // ----n / hnʾs / mlk / lḥyn (Nasif 1988: 99,
pl. clvii/ 5–6) ‘… year sixteen … [son of] Hnʾs king of Liḥyān …**’. feminine:: stt.
pn / bnt // pn / ʾẓlt // l-ḏġ[b]t / b-kh//l / stt / ʿs²r / m//n / snt / mt / ʿl//h (ah 064/ 2–6)
‘pn daughter of pn performed the ẓll for ḏġbt at Khl sixteen [times]** according
to the custom of the land [placed] upon her*’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: st:
2; stt: 1. Typology:: dating formula.
stḥbl verb, st, 3m.s. to pledge. Etym: ḥbl. ----m / ym / stḥbl / ʾqd / h-rʿ / f-rḍ-hm / w//----
(Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999: 3–14, no. 1/ 4) ‘… [the] day he pledged the dedication/produce
of the livestock so favor them and …*’.
note: Compare Aram. ḥbl ‘to take as a pledge’ (cal, 16-2-2018); Sab. ḥbl ‘to con-
clude a pact’ (Beeston et al. 1982, 65); CAr. ḥabl ‘The making of a coventant [i.e. a
promise or an asurance of secutiry or safety]’ (Lane 504b). Certainty:: uncertain.
Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
stn numeral. sixty. Etym: st. [s]nt / stn (Müller, D.H. 1889: 77–78, no. 28/ 4) ‘year sixty**’.
Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dating formula.
stṭr verb, t-infix, 3m.s. to write. Etym: sṭr. ---- stṭr / b-mṣd ---- (ah 207) ‘he wrote at the
sanctuary*’.
note: Compare MMin. stṭr (M335 and M 370) and Ḥaḍ. (Qāniʾ 4) (dasi, 22-2-
2018). Compare CAr. saṭara ‘he wrote; he ruled a book’ (Lane, 1375c). In Nab. texts
the noun šṭr is used with the meaning ‘decree’ (compare Akk. šaṭaru ‘written doc-
ument’) (Nehmé 2015, 119), it is unclear if such a legal meaning applies to the
writing referenced in this Dadanitic text as well. Certainty:: certain. Frequency::
1. Typology:: graffiti.
sṭ verb, g, 3m.s. to portion, dedicate. Etym: syṭ. pn / w sṭ-h / sṭ//ʿn pn // ʾgw-h / {ẓ}nfss
(Al-ʿUḏayb 075/ 1–3) ‘pn and he dedicated it, a portion for pn his dedication ???*’.
note: Compare CAr. sawṭ ‘a portion or share’ (Lane 1467a) and sawṭ ‘a remaining
porting (of water)’ (Lane 1467b); Sab. syṭ ‘rainwater cistern’ (Beeston et al 1982,
130). The second sṭ in Al-ʿUḏayb 075 may be another noun, to disambiguate the

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first general term, even though it is unclear why the disambiguation would not
be given with the first mention of sṭ. See also sṭsṭ. There seems to be one attes-
tation of an unpiblished inscription with what seems to be a reduplicated verb
sṭsṭ l-ḏġbt (Ahmad Al-Jallad pc.) Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology::
dedicatory?.
sṭ noun. portion. Etym: swṭ. pn // pn / w-sṭ // ḏʿmn / ḥggw // ḏġbt / b-khl (U 063/ 1–4)
‘pn pn and [on behalf of???] the portion of Ḏʿmn* they performed the pilgrimage
to ḏġbt at Khl**’. pn / w sṭ-h / sṭ // ʿn pn // ʾgw-h / {ẓ}nfss // w ḥggw / ḏġbt // b-khl
(Al-ʿUḏayb 075/ 1–5) ‘pn and he dedicated it, a portion for pn his dedication ???*
and they performed the pilgrimage to ḏġbt at Khl**’.
note: See also sṭsṭ. Compare CAr. sawṭ ‘a portion or share’ (Lane 1467a) and sawṭ
‘a remaining portion (of water)’ (Lane 1467b); Sab. syṭ ‘rainwater cistern’ (Beeston
et al 1982, 130). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: Q.
sṭr verb, g, 3m.s. to write. Etym: sṭr. pn bn pn sṭr ( JaL 061 f ) ‘pn son of pn has written**’.
note: compare CAr. saṭara ‘he wrote; he ruled a book’ (Lane, 1375c). Certainty::
certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: graffiti.
sṭsṭ noun. Q. Etym: Q. pn // bn[/]t⟨⟨⟩⟩rf // h-sṭ sṭ // ḏʿmn // snt / r{ṭ} (ah 111) ‘pn son
of … the ??? ḏʿmn year(?) rṭ*’.
note: See also sṭ. Note that ḏʿmn is a toponym that is generally associated with
agriculture in the inscriptions. Compare CAr. sawṭ ‘a portion or share’ (Lane
1467a) and sawṭ ‘a remaining porting (of water)’ (Lane 1467b); Sab. syṭ ‘rainwater
cistern’ (Beeston et al 1982, 130). It is unclear at this point what the reduplicated
form would mean. Note that in U 063 sṭ also occurs together with ḏʿmn. There
seems to be one attestation of an unpiblished inscription with what seems to be
a reduplicated verb sṭsṭ l-ḏġbt (Ahmad Al-Jallad pc.) Certainty:: uncertain. Fre-
quency:: 1. Typology:: title; dedicatory?.

S² – s²

s²ʾn adjective, m.s. honor, dignity. Etym: s²ʾn. qrb / h-ṣlm // l-ḏġbt / b-h-brḥt // brḥ / bt
ḏ-ʿly h-s²ʾn /t / mʿ gbl / ddn / h-{s²}{ʾ}[n] ( JSLih 041/ 2–5) ‘he offered the statue to
Ḏġbt, with the honour [with which] the illustrious house of the lineage of ʿly is
honoured in company with the {illustrious} lord of Ddn**’. feminine:: s²ʾnt.
note: Farès-Drappeau suggests to connect s²ʾn with CAr. šaʾn (Farès-Drappeau
2005, 132), compare CAr. ʿaẓīm aš-šaʾni ‘of great importance, or rank or dignity’
(Lane, 1491c). Certainty:: uncertain reading. Frequency:: s²ʾn: 1; s²ʾnt: 1. Typology::
dedicatory.
s²ʿt noun. party; group. Etym: s²yʿ. pn / b[n] pn kbr // h-dʿt / s²ʿt/ pn / w rb-h//m / pn
/ bn / pn / kb//ry / s²ʿt / TrN / ʾḫḏw / h-mkn // w h-mqʿd / ḏh / kll-h ( JSLih 072/ 1–
5) ‘pn son of pn kabir of the council* of the party of Hnṣ and their lord pn son

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of pn the two kabirs of the party of Hnṣ took the place and this seat, all of it**’. l-
s²ʿt///pn / p//n h-mqʿd k//ll-h ( JaL 161 a/ 1–4) ‘the whole seat belongs to the party
of ʿlʾl kʿmn**’.
note: Compare CAr. šīʿah ‘a seperate or distinct party. or sect of men’ (Lane,
1632c). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 4. Typology:: dedicatory.
s²hdt noun. witness. Etym: s²hd. //----l-hm / w {s²}hdt / w h-ʾrḫ // ----lh / bn / pn----//[-
---] ( JSLih 052/ 7–9) ‘… and a witness(?) and the case … [pn] son of pn …’
note: Compare e.g. CAr. šāhid ‘witness’ (Lane, 1610a). For the use of witnesses in
proceedings noted in inscriptions compare e.g. the Min. inscription M 316 (found
at Dadan). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: legal?.
s²ml noun. north. Etym: s²ml. l-pn // bn / pn / hn{---}//qbr / ḏh / {ḥ}{m} // ʿly / ymn
// w ʿly / s²m[l] // mn / ṯrqr ( JSLih 081) ‘for pn son of pn [is] this grave {ḥm} from
the south and from the north** from ṯrqr(?)*’.
note: Possibly compare the expression in the inscription to Q.50.17 ʿan al-yamīn
wa-ʿan al-šimāl qaʿīd ‘seated on the right and on the left’. Lane (2546c) mentions
this in relation to expressions of concilliation: qaʿʿadtu-ka llaha ‘I beg God to
preserve, keep, guard, or watch thee’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology::
funerary?.
s²ym noun. field. Etym: s²ym. ʾẓll / {l-}ḏġbt bʿ//d / s²ym-h (U 118/ 2–3) ‘he performed
the ẓll {for} ḏġbt on behalf of his field**’. ʾgw / ʾ-ẓll / l-ḏġb//t // bʿd / ṯbrt-h / w s²ym-
h (ah 138/ 2–4) ‘he dedicated* the ẓll to ḏġbt on behalf of his grain and his field**’.
ʾẓ[l]t / bʿ//d / nḫl-h / w s²ym//-h (ah 100/ 2–4) ‘she performed the ẓll ceremony on
behalf of her palm trees and her field**’.
note: Translated as ‘field’ in Sima (1999, 31). Sima (1999, 104) connects this word
to Sab. ms²m pl. ms²ymt, ms²mt, ms²ym ‘cultivated area, field’ (Beeston et al. 1982,
136) and Min. ms²mm “surface cultivée, champ” (Arbach 1993, 88). Certainty::
uncertain. Frequency:: 3. Typology:: ẓll; dedicatory.

Ṣ–ṣ

ṣfḥt noun. cliff face. Etym: ṣfḥ. pn / bn / pn // ʾḫḏ/ʾṣfḥt ( JSLih 065) ‘pn son of pn took
possession of** the cliff face*’. pn/ ʾḫḏ // h-ṣfḥt ḏt ( JSLih 066) ‘pn took possession
of this cliff face**’.
note: Compare CAr. ṣafḥah ‘the face, surface or front of a thing’ (Lane, 1695b).
Compare to the Nab. inscriptions taking possession of a piece of cliff for cutting
out a tomb there in the future (Nehmé 2015, 100). Certainty:: certain. Frequency::
2. Typology:: legal; funerary.
ṣlm noun. statue. Etym: ṣlm. qrb / h-ṣlm // l-ḏġbt ( JSLih 041/ 2–3) ‘he dedicated the
statue to ḏġbt**’. pn / h-ṣnʿ / nḥt / h-ṣlm ( JSLih 074) ‘pn the artisan cut the statue**’.
dual:: ṣlmn. [----] // pn / pn / {s}//lḥ / ḏġb//t / ʾdq / l-l//h / {h}-ṣlmn ( JSLih 061/

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1–4) ‘… pn pn priest of ḏġbt offered** to Lh* the two statues/the statuette**’.

pl.:: ʾṣlm. ʾdq / {l}-ḏġ{b}t / hn-ʾṣl[m] ( JSLih 063/ 2) ‘he offered to ḏġbt the stat-
ues**’.
note: Compare Sab. ṣlm ‘image, statue of man’; Nab. ṣlm ‘statue’ (Hoftijzer and
Jongeling 1995, 968). See Scagliarini (2007, 254–255) for a discussion of the word
ṣlm in the Dadanitic inscriptions. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: ṣlm: 13; ṣlmn: 5;
ʾṣlm: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
ṣnʿ noun. artisan. Etym: ṣnʿ. pn / h-ṣnʿ / nḥt / h-ṣlm ( JSLih 074) ‘pn the artisan cut the
statue**’.
note: Compare CAr. ṣanāʿ ‘a man skilful in the work of the hands or hand’ (Lane,
1733c) and ṣāniʿ ‘a handicraftsman; a manufacturor’ (Lane, 1734c). Certainty:: cer-
tain. Frequency:: 11. Typology:: dedicatory; graffiti.
ṣwġ noun. smith. Etym: swġ. pn // h-ṣwġ (Al-Ḫuraybah 04) ‘pn the smith**’. pn / bn /
p//n / h-ṣnʿ / pn // pn / h-ṣwġ (Al-Ḫuraybah 05) ‘pn son of pn the artisan**, pn pn
the smith*’. Variant: ṣyġ. ---- // h-ṣyġ / h//wdq / h-m//ṯlt / l-ḏ//ġbt (Al-Ḫuraybah 14/
1–4) ‘… the smith offered the substitute to ḏġbt**’.
note: Compare CAr. ṣawwāġ ‘a goldsmith or worker in gold’ (Lane, 1747b). Cer-
tainty:: certain. Frequency:: swġ: 2; syġ: 1. Typology:: title, profession.

T–t

tmny numeral. eight. Etym: ṯmn. {s}//nt / ʿs²rn / tmn{y} // ṯlt / ʾym / qbl // rʾy / slḥn
( JSLih 068/ 2–5) ‘year twenty-{eight}, three days before** the rising of the aster-
ism slḥn*’.
note: While there are some examples of etymological interdentals being repre-
sented with stops this is not very common in Dadanitic. Since there is only one
attestation of the numeral eight, it is unclear whether this spelling is an anomaly
or not. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dating formula.
tqmm toponym. tqmm. Etym: Q. pn / bn / pn / ʾẓll / hẓll / bkhl / l-ḏġbt / bʿd / nẖl-h /
bbnʾl / w tqmm (U 025/ 1–4) ‘pn son of pn performed the ẓll ceremony at Khl for
ḏġbt on behalf of his palm trees at Bnʾl and Tqmm**’.
note: See Hidalgo Chacon Dièz (2014, 18) for a discussion of the place name and
its occurrence in the Dadanitic corpus. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 11. Typol-
ogy:: ẓll.
tqṭ verb, t, 3m.s. inscribe. Etym: nqṭ. pn / bn pn // tqṭ ( JaL 169 af ) ‘pn son of pn
inscribed*’. pn // bn pn tqṭ // w mṯl ( JSLih 339) ‘pn son of pn inscirbed and
copied*’. pn / bn / pn // tqṭ / mʿ // ḏ-TrN (W.Dad 16/ 1–3) ‘pn son of pn inscribed
with the family of TrN*’. pn / bn / p//n tqṭ / sn//t / {ʾ}ḥdy (Nasif 1988: 96, pl. cxlvi)
‘pn son of pn inscribed [in] year one**’. Variant: tqṭṭ. pn t{q}ṭ⟨⟨ṭ⟩⟩ m---- ḏ----
(ah 260) ‘pn inscribed(?) …*’.

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note: Compare CAr. naqaṭa ‘he dotted, the letter or the word with the diacritical
points’ and naqqaṭa ‘he made small specks’ (Lane, 2844b). For the interpretation
of tqṭ as a t-stem verb of the root nqṭ or wqṭ see (Macdonald 2008, 206). If the
ṭ is really written twice in ah 260, this may indicate that the verb is a t-stem of
the root qṭṭ rather than nqṭ, but the photograph is unclear. Certainty:: certain.
Frequency:: tqṭ: 84; tqṭṭ: 1. Typology:: graffiti. Usage: pn bn pn tqṭ; pn son of pn
inscribed.
trk verb, g, 3m.s. to leave, relinquish. Etym: trk. pn / bn / pn / ʾgw / h-ẓll / b-{m}ṣ//d
/ hmḏ / tr{k}---- (ah 202/ 1–2) ‘pn son of pn dedicated the ẓll at [the] sanctuary
in accordance with what he left/relinquished …*’. ---- wld-h / ʾgww / h ḫ----//----d
/ hm ḏ / trk / ʾ---- // ----y / hm / nḏr / l-ḏġ[b][t]---- (ah 243/ 4–6) ‘… his son they
dedicated the … according to what he left/relinquished …* they vowed to ḏġbt
…**’.
note: Compare CAr. taraka-hu ‘he left it, forsook it, relinquished it, abandoned it,
deserted it, or quitted it’ (Lane, 304c). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 2. Typol-
ogy:: dedicatory.
trq verb, g, 3f.s. jussive. to conjure; to cast a spell. Etym: rqy. bʿlsmn / ʾḥrm / h-qrt // mn
/ mh / trq-h / mrʾt // l-bhny / hn-ʾfklt // ḏ ( JSLih 064) ‘bʿlsmn protected the village
from what [spell] the woman of the palm tree, the priestess cast on it ḏ* (but see
Lundberg 2015, 134 for the interpretation of ʾḥrm and trq)’.
note: Compare CAr. raqiya ‘he enchanted him or fascinated him by uttering a
spell, or by tying knots in a thread or string and puffing or sputtering upon them’
(Lane, 1140b). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: narrative.
tsʿ numeral, m. nine. Etym: tsʿ. snt / t[sʿ]---- // b- rʾy / ḫmt / gs²m / bn / lḏn / mlk ---
- [l]// ḥyn ( JSLih 085) ‘year nine … during the rising of the asterism ḫmt* Gs²m
son of Lḏn king of Liḥyān**’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 4. Typology:: dating
formula.

Ṯ–ṯ

ṯbrt noun. grain. Etym: ṯbr. ʾẓlt / h-ẓll / l-ḏġbt // b-kh[l] / f rḍ-h / w ʾḫrt-h / bʿd /ṯbr[t]-h
(U 112/ 2–3) ‘she performed the ẓll ceremony for ḏġbt at Khl so favor her and her
descendants on behalf of her grain**’. ʾẓllw / h-ẓll / b-khl // bʿd / ṯbrt-hmy (U 069/
3–5) ‘they performed the ẓll ceremony at Khl on behalf of their grain**’.
note: Farès-Drappeau (2005, 206) connects its to Heb. šeber ‘corn, grain (which
is broken in a mill)’ (Gesenius, 803b). See Sima (1999, 104) for a discussion on this
term. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 12. Typology:: ẓll.
ṯlṯ numeral. three. Etym: ṯlṯ. snt / ṯlṯ 3 / b-r//[ʾy] / ---- [b]n hnʾs / mlk / lḥyn (ah 239/ 4–
5) ‘year three 3 during the rising of the asterism* … son of Hnʾs king of Liḥyān*’.
Variant: ṯlt. {s}//nt / ʿs²rn / tmn{y} // ṯlt / ʾym / qbl // rʾy / slḥn ( JSLih 068/ 2–5)

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‘year twenty-{eight}, three days before** the rising of the asterism slḥn*’. femi-
nine:: ṯlṯt. ʾẓll / l-ḏġbt / ṯl//ṯt / ʾẓlt (U 050/ 2–3) ‘he performed three ẓll ceremonies
for ḏġbt**’.
note: See Macdonald (2008, 212) on the variation between ṯlṯ and ṯlt. Certainty::
certain. Frequency:: ṯlṯ: 4; ṯlt: 1; ṯlṯt: 2. Typology:: dedication.
ṯlṯn numeral. thirty. Etym: ṯlṯ. sn[t] / ṯlṯn / w ḫm//s 35 / b-rʾy / [m]nʿy / lḏn / bn / hnʾs
/ mlk / lḥyn ( JSLih 082/ 4–6) ‘year thirty-five 35 during the rising of the asterism
mnʿy* [during the reign of] Lḏn son of Hnʾs king of Liḥyān**’.
note: See also ṯlṯ. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 3. Typology:: dating formula.
ṯr toponym. ṯr. nḏr / h-ẓll / l-ḏġbt // b-khl / bʿd / ml-h / b-ṯr/ (U 010/ 2–3) ‘he vowed the
ẓll to ḏġbt at Khl on behalf of his property at Ṯr **’.
note: See Hidalgo Chacon Dièz (2014, 18) for a a discussion of the place name
and its occurrence in the Dadanitic corpus. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 10.
Typology:: ẓll.
ṯrw verb, g, 3m.s. become abundant. Etym: ṯrw. khf / pn / bn / pn / mlk // ddn / w ṯrw
/ nʿm / b-h / nʿrgd ( JSLih 138) ‘cave(tomb) of pn son of pn king of Dadan and may
he become abundant in property/divine grace by means of him, Naʿrgadd*’.
note: Compare CAr. ṯaraytu bīk ‘I became abundant [in property] by means of
thee’ (Lane, 335b). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: funerary.
ṯtn numeral. two. Etym: ṯn. snt / ṯtn / l-tlmy / bn / h//n{ʾ}{s} ( JSLih 045/ 3–4) ‘year two
of [the reign of] Tlmy son of Hnʾs**’. snt / ʾr{b}//ʿn / w ṯtn / b-rʾ//y / ḏʾs¹lʿn / tlm//y
/ bn / hnʾs / ml//k / lḥyn (Al-Ḫuraybah 10) ‘year forty-two during the rising of the
asterism ḏʾslʿn*, [during the reign of] Tlmy son of Hnʾs king of Liḥyān**’.
note: See Macdonald (2008, 213) for a discussion of the form ṯtn ‘two’, which is
probably an assimilated form of *ṯintān, following the regular assimilation of n
to following stops in Dadanitic (cf. n-assimilation in phonology). Certainty:: cer-
tain. Frequency:: 4. Typology:: dating formula.

Ṭ–ṭ

ṭʿn active participle, m.s. to smite. Etym: ṭʿn. tqṭ / ʿr[r] {ḏ}ġ{b}//t / ṭʿn/ ʿrr ---- (ah 210)
‘he inscribed may ḏġbt dishonor by smiting(?) the one who mistreats …*’.
note: Compare CAr. ṭaʿana-hu ‘he pierced him, smote him, or wounded him’
(Lane, 1855b). See Hidalgo-Cahcón Díez (2008, 39–41) for a discussion of ṭʿn as a
verb. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: curse.
ṭʿn noun. setting of an asterism. Etym: ṭʿn. … snt / ʿs²r / w ṯlṯ / 13 / ymn / ḫlf / ṭʿn / ḏ//---
-l{ʿ}{b} / [t]lmy / bn / [l]ḏ{n} / ml{k} / {l}{ḥ}yn (ah 197/ 8–9) ‘year thirteen 13 two
days following the setting of the asterism … Tlmy son of Lḏn king of Liḥyān*’.
note: Given the formulaic context in which b-ṭʿn occurs in ah 197, it is almost
certainly semantically related to the more common form rʿy. See Hidalgo-Cahcón

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Díez (2008, 39–41) for a discussion of ṭʿn as a verb. Certainty:: uncertain. Fre-
quency:: 3. Typology:: dating formula.
ṭḥln theonym. ṭḥln. Etym: ṭḥl. f-mn yʿrrh // yʿrh nʿm // ḏġbt // w ṭḥln (ah 289) ‘and may
whoever mistreats it be stripped of property/divine grace, ḏġbt and ṭḥln*’. pn /
mlk ddn / fʿl // l-ṭḥln (Al-Saʿīd 2011.1) ‘pn king of Dadan made [it] for ṭḥln**’.
note: Translation based on context. Ṭḥln occurs once in Sab. as a patronym (Fa
124, dasi 14-2-2018). See al-Said (2011) for the first publication of Al-Saʿīd 2011.1
and a brief discussion of the theonym ṭḥln. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 3.
Typology:: curse; dedicatory.
ṭrq verb, g, 3m.s. to hammer. Etym: ṭrq. ṭrq / h-nqn / w ʿkb / (ah 287/ 2) ‘he hammered**
the two nq and he remained*’.
note: Compare CAr. ṭaraqa ‘the beating or striking of a thing in any manner’
(Lane, 1846a). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory?; graf-
fiti.
ṭrt noun. mountain. l-pn / w pn / w bnt-h / h-ṭrt // ḏt / wl / wrṯ-hm ( JSLih 313) ‘For pn
and pn and his daughter [is] this mountain and verily [it is] their inheritance*’.
note: Compare Aram. ṭūr ‘mountain’ (cal, 19-2-2018). Certainty:: uncertain. Fre-
quency:: 1. Typology:: legal?.

W–w

wdd verb, q, 3m.s. to love(?) Etym: wdd. pn bn pn bn pn // wdd pn ( JaL 147 c) ‘pn son
of pn son of pn loved pn**’. pn / wdd pn w pn (Ph 395v) ‘pn loved pn and pn*’. ḫ-
---t / wdd / pn / ʿ----k---- // w wdd-h / w wdd ḏ(Nasif 1988: 94, pl. cxl/c) ‘… loved pn
… and he loved him and he loved ḏ*’. Variant: wd. pn / bn / pn / wd // pn ( JaL 116)
‘pn son of pn loved pn**’.
note: Compare CAr. wadda-hu ‘he loved or affected him or it’ (Lane, 2931b). Note
that wdd is also attested as a personal name, since the inscriptions where wdd
may be interpreted as a verb are mostly very short graffiti, these may be personal
names as well. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: wdd: 14; wd: 1. Typology:: graf-
fiti.
wdy verb, g, 3m.s. to place; to set up. Etym: wdy. ---- n / wdy / {n}fs / h-ʾl---- // ----( JSLih
040/ 5) ‘… he set up the funerary monument …*’. pn / pn / w---- // w wdy / h-q{y}ʿ-
--- (Müller, D.H. 1889: 86, no. 68) ‘pn pn … and he set up the … (?)*’. 3pl.:: wdyw.
wdyw / nfs / pn / bn / pn / m{h} // ʾḫḏ / ʿl -hmy / ḫrg ( JSLih 077) ‘they set up the
funerary monument for pn son of pn** which was placed upon them as a law-
suit*’.
note: Compare Geʿez wadaya ‘put, put in, add, put on (adornments), put under,
lay, place, set, throw’ (Leslau 1991, 605). Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: wdy: 2;
wdyq: 1. Typology:: legal; funerary?.

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whbt verb, g, 3f.s. to offer. Etym: whb. ---- {w}h{b}t / l-ḏġbt ----// (Umm Daraǧ 01) ‘{she
offered} to ḏġbt …**’.
note: Compare Sab. ‘to give, grant, hand over, transfer’ (Beeston et al 1982, 158);
CAr. wahaba la-hu šayʾan ‘he gave him a thing’ (Lane, 2968c). Certainty:: quite
certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory.
wl asseverative. verily, already. Etym: w + l. l-pn / w pn / w pn / h-ṭrt // ḏt / wl / wrṯ-
hm ( JSLih 313) ‘for pn and pn and his daughter [is] this mountain and verily [it
is] their inheritance*’. wl / ḥmm / b-bt-h ṣ{l}m / wl / slmn // b-ḥq[w]y / kfr / ḥmm
( JSLih 077: 6–7) ‘and verily he offered at his temple a statue and he has offered
two peace offerings (?) on the walls of (a?) cave/tomb* (J. Lundberg (pc.) pro-
posed to interpret this section as a chiastic structure)’.
note: In most Semitic languages, the asseverative is only used proclitically. But
compare Sab. in which both spellings occur: w-l yknn hʾ (Fa 30) ‘and may it be’
and w-l-yknn ʾln ʾs¹dn w-ʾnṯn (Fa 3) ‘and may these men and women be’. Certainty::
certain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: legal.
wld noun. son; child. Etym: wld. ---- [ḏ]//ġbt / ʾ{n}/yk{n}---- // l-h / {w}ld / f rḍ{y}[-h]
---- // w ʾḫrt-h {ḏ}---- (ah 203/ 2–4) ‘… ḏġbt that there may be a son … for him so
may he favor him … and his posterity …**’. ----rlh / w pn / bn[t]/ʾ----s / w pn / bn//t
/ pn / w h---- / bn / pn / ḏ-Tr//N / w wld-hm / ʾẓllw / h-ẓll(ah 244/ 1–3) ‘… and pn
daughter of … {pn} and pn daughter of pn and {pn}… son of pn of the lineage of
TrN and their children performed the ẓll*’.
note: Compare CAr. walad ‘a child, son, daughter’ and ‘children, sons, daughters,
offspring’ (Lane 2966b). Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 3. Typology:: dedicatory;
ẓll.
wqd verb, q, 3m.s. to offer. Etym: wqd. ---- ʿrḍy ---- // ----[h]wqd/h-s---- // ---- [ f ] rḍy{-
h} (Al-Ḫuraybah 08) ‘… pn … he offered the … [so] may he favor him**’.
note: See ʾqd. Since the C-stem verb ʾqd of the same root is attested and given
the fact that most dedicatory verbs are C-stem verbs, there was likely a h before
wqd, which is now lost. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedica-
tory.
wrṯ noun. descendants. Etym: wrṯ. pn / bn / pn / pn / bny / h-//kfr / l-h / w-l-wrṯ-h /
h-kfr / ḏh / kll-h ( JSLih 045/ 1–2) ‘pn son of pn pn built the tomb for him and his
descendants, all of this tomb**’.
note: Compare CAr. wāriṯ ‘an heir’ (Lane, 2934c). Certainty:: certain. Frequency::
1. Typology:: legal; construction; funerary.
wrṯ noun. inheritance. Etym: wrṯ. l-pn / w p//n / w pn / h-ṭrt // ḏt / wl / wrṯ-hm ( JSLih
313) ‘for pn and pn and his daughter [is] this mountain and verily [it is] their
inheritance*’.
note: Compare CAr. wāriṯ ‘an heir’ (Lane, 2934c). Certainty:: certain. Frequency::
1. Typology:: legal; construction; funerary.

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Y–y

yʿr verb, g, 3m.s. pc. to mistreat, dishonor, disgrace. Etym: ʿrr. f mn yʿrrh // yʿrh nʿm
// ḏġbt // w ṭḥln (ah 289) ‘and may whoever mistreats it be stripped of property,
ḏġbt and ṭḥln (Ahmad Al-Jallad, pc.)’
note: Compare CAr. ʿarrar-hu and ʿarrara-hu ‘he disgraced or dishonored him’
and ‘he wronged him, or treated him unjustly or injuriously’ (Lane, 1990a). For the
more common form see the suffx conjugation ʿrr. Certainty:: certain. Frequency::
1. Typology:: curse.
yʿrr verb, g, 3m.s. jussive. to mistreat, dishonor, disgrace. Etym: ʿrr. f mn yʿrr-h // yʿr-h
nʿm // ḏġbt// w ṭḥln (ah 289) ‘and may whoever mistreats it be stripped of prop-
erty, ḏġbt and ṭḥln (Ahmad Al-Jallad, pc.)’ mn yʿrr ʿrr ḏġbt ʿṭ{ḥ}{l}r ( JSTham 251.3)
‘whoever mistreats [it] may ḏġbt disgrace [him] ???*’.
note: Compare CAr. ʿarrar-hu and ʿarrara-hu ‘he disgraced or dishonored him’
and ‘he wronged him, or treated him unjustly or injuriously’ (Lane, 1990a). For the
more common form see the suffix conjugation ʿrr. Certainty:: certain. Frequency::
2. Typology:: curse.
yd noun. hand, arm. pn / nṣb wasm h-yd wqṭ( JaL 152) ‘pn set up a cult stone [and]
inscribed the arm*’. b-yd pn ( JSLih 106) ‘by the hand of pn**’.
note: Compare CAr. yad ‘hand’ and ‘forearm’ (Steingass, 1238ab). The ‘wasm’ in
JaL 152 is a drawing of an arm the inscription seems to refer to the production of
the drawing. Note that bydh is attested as a pn in Dadanitic (JaL 166 c). Certainty::
certain. Frequency:: 2. Typology:: graffiti.
ylmʿ verb, g, 3m.s. pc. to make splenderous. Etym: lmʿ. f ysmʿ l-h ʾl // w ylmʿ-h ( JaL 016
a) ‘And may ʾēl listen to him and make him splenderous(?)*’.
note: Compare CAr. lmʿ ‘to shine very brightly, to flash’. Sima (1999, 113) pro-
posed to interpret ylmʿ as ‘to give a sign’ from CAr. lamaʿa ‘winken, e. Zeichen,
e. Signal geben’. Certainty:: uncertain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory; graf-
fiti.
ym noun. day. Etym: ywm. ----m / ym / stḥbl / ʾqd / h-rʿ / f rḍ-hm / w //---- (Al-Saʿīd
1420/1999: 3–14, no. 1/ 4) ‘… [the] day he pledged the dedication/produce of the
livestock so favor them and …*’. dual:: ymn. pn / w pn w //pn w pn w pn // w pn
/ pn pn // b-{ḏ}wh / ymn (Graf Abū al-Ḍibāʿ 2) ‘pn and pn and pn and pn and pn
and pn pn pn [were] at {ḏwh} for two days*’. snt / ʿs²r / w ṯlṯ / 13 / ymn / ḫlf / ṭʿn / ḏ
//----l{ʿ}{b} / [t]lmy / bn / [l]ḏ{n} / ml{k} / {l}{ḥ}yn (ah 197/ 8–9) ‘year thirteen 13
two days after** the setting of the asterism* …, Tlmy son of Lḏn king of Liḥyān**’.
pl.:: ʾym. {s}//nt / ʿs²rn / tmn{y} // ṯlt / ʾym / qbl // rʾy / slḥn ( JSLih 068/ 2–5) ‘year
twenty-{eight}, three days before** the rising of the asterism slḥn*’. pn / bn / pn
/t {q}ṭ / b-ʾym / pn / bn // pn / w pn / fḥt / ddn / b-rʾ[y] ---- ( JSLih 349) ‘pn son of
pn inscribed during the days of pn son of pn and pn governor of Dadan** during

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glossary 303

the rising of the asterism …*’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: ym: 1; ymn: 4; ʾym: 5.
Typology:: ẓll; legal; graffiti; dating formula. Usage: X ʾym qbl rʾy Y; X days before
the rising of the asterism Y.
ymn noun. south. Etym: ymn. l-pn // bn / pn / hn-//qbr / ḏh / {ḥ}{m} // ʿly / ymn // w
ʿly / s²m[l] // mn / ṯrqr ( JSLih 081) ‘for pn son of pn [is] this grave {ḥm} from the
south and from the north** from ṯrqr(?)*’.
note: Possibly compare the expression in JSLih 081 to Q.50.17 ʿan al-yamīn wa-
ʿan al-šimāl qaʿīd ‘seated on the right and on the left’. Lane (2546c) mentions this
in relation to expressions of concilliation: qaʿʿadtu-ka llaha ‘I beg God to preserve,
keep, guard, or watch thee’. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: funer-
ary.
ysmʿ verb, g, 3m.s. pc. to listen, to hear. Etym: smʿ. f ysmʿ l-h ʾl // w ylmʿ-h ( JaL 016 a)
‘And may ʾēl listen to him and make him splenderous(?)*’.
note: Compare CAr. samiʿa aš-šayʾ ‘he heard or listened to the thing’ (Lane
1427b). Sima (1999, 113) already proposed this interpretation of f-ysmʿ l-h and
compared the use of smʿ with the prepostition l- with this meaning to the texts
from Qaryat al-Faw. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: dedicatory; graf-
fiti. Usage: smʿ l-X; listen to so..
ysrg verb, g, 3m.s. jussive. it was rendered beautiful, embellished. Etym: srg. [/]ʾny
// ysrg [/] ʾb-hm / w {m}ʿn-h[m] // w {m}fr-h{m} / b-ms²hl (U 026/ 3–5) ‘that
their pasture may be beautified and their abode and their cultivated land at
Ms²hl**’.
note: ociana compares it to CAr. yusarragu ‘it was rendered beautiful, embel-
lished’. Certainty:: not quite certain. Frequency:: 1. Typology:: ẓll.

Ẓ–ẓ

ẓll noun. the ẓll ceremony. Etym: ẓll. ʾẓ//llw / ẓll / h-nq / l-//ḏġbt / f rḍ-hm (ah 001/ 3–5)
‘they performed the ẓll ritual of the nq* for ḏġbt so favor them**’. Variant: ṭll. ----
[ʾ]ṭll // h-ṭll ---- (ah 009.1/ 1–2) ‘he performed the ṭll ceremony**’. dual:: ẓlln. pn /
bn / pn / b-khl // ʾẓll / h-ẓlln (U 034/ 1–2) ‘pn on of pn at Khl performed the two ẓll
ceremonies**’. pl.:: ʾẓlt. ʾẓll / l-ḏġbt / ṯl//ṯt / ʾẓlt (U 050/ 2–3) ‘he performed three ẓll
ceremonies**’. ʾgw / l-ḏġbt // ṯlṯt / ʾẓl//t (U 032/ 2–4) ‘he dedicated* to ḏġbt three
ẓll**’.
note: For a discussion of the proposed translations of ʾẓll h-ẓll so far see (Scaglia-
rini 2002, 573–575). Recently, a new interpretation of the form hẓl from same root
in Sabaic has been suggested, which links it to the act of writing, rather than
shade (http://sabaweb.uni‑jena.de/SabaWeb/Suche/Suche/SearchResultDetail?i
dxLemma=5547&showAll=0 consulted 04/10/2021. I would like to thank Peter
Stein for pointing me to this recent interpretation.). See Kootstra (2018) on the

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304 appendix

variation between ẓ and ṭ in Dadanitic and Kootstra (2022) for a new analysis
of the ẓll ritual as a reference to the inscription itself and part of local legal and
documentary practice. Certainty:: certain. Frequency:: ẓll: 123; ṭll: 14; ẓlln: 1; ʾẓlt:
2. Typology:: ẓll.

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Index of Inscriptions
Aramaic ah 061 76, 79
ah 062 76, 79, 112n51, 143
JSNab 334 4n6, 49, 116n63 ah 063 35, 176
JSNab 335 4n6, 49, 116n63 ah 064 35, 60, 85, 107, 143, 174,
JSNab 337 4n6, 49, 116n63 176, 180, 181, 194
ta 964 37, 38 ah 065 77n13, 79, 130, 138n20,
ta 1743 39 194
ta 2382 37, 38 ah 065.1 67
ta 2550 38 ah 066 79
ta 4915 38 ah 067 111
ta 4916 38 ah 069 78, 113n53
ta 6233 37, 39 ah 070 60, 113, 138n20, 194
Teima 2 16 ah 071 138n20
Teima 20 33, 39 ah 072 75, 79, 138n20, 143, 194,
tm.Tar.004 39 199
ah 073 78, 160
ah 074 60, 78, 157, 158n15
Dadanitic ah 075 60, 78
ah 076 78
ah 001 60, 61, 76, 92, 93, 98, 105, ah 077 78
112, 152, 165, 172 ah 078 96, 161
ah 003 75 ah 079 76, 98, 130, 142, 194
ah 004 132 ah 080 75, 111, 138n20, 143, 144,
ah 006 60, 73, 98, 130, 138n20, 194
142, 194 ah 081 72, 128, 129, 145, 152, 154,
ah 008.1 78 161, 175, 180, 184, 197n9
ah 009 114 ah 084 60, 78, 194
ah 009.1 24, 59, 60, 115, 178n48, ah 084.1 194
196 ah 087 75, 109n47, 140, 194
ah 010 60, 61, 78, 79 ah 087.1 60, 109n48, 142, 194
ah 011 75, 194, 197n9, 229 ah 088 75, 125
ah 011.3 72 ah 089 198, 199
ah 012 79, 143 ah 090 143
ah 013 35n8, 77, 85, 126, 167, 175 ah 091 76, 143, 144
ah 015 60, 75, 76, 101, 109n48, ah 094 112n51, 143
194 ah 096 79, 102, 199
ah 021 194 ah 099 194
ah 023 77, 194, 199 ah 100 60, 61, 75n9, 76–78, 114,
ah 026 194 132, 162
ah 031 132, 145, 146 ah 101 138n20, 143, 194
ah 032 60, 128, 140, 143, 152, 154, ah 107 31, 78
156, 171 ah 109 60, 103, 138n20, 194
ah 038 18, 194 ah 113 67, 194
ah 051 97, 142 ah 119 77, 157, 163, 238
ah 053 33 ah 120 25, 78, 95n10, 165n24,
ah 057 194 199, 228, 234, 240

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318 index of inscriptions

ah 125 60, 78, 95, 96, 113, ah 216 85, 151n2

165n24, 194 ah 217 72, 80, 97n14, 131, 132,
ah 131 72 150, 151n2, 194
ah 134 80 ah 218 92
ah 135 142, 194 ah 219 79, 85, 122, 131, 162, 175
ah 136 73 ah 220 22, 25, 87, 148, 217, 232,
ah 137 73 242
ah 138 60, 76, 78, 114, 138n20, ah 221 80, 85, 97n14, 131, 194
158, 158n15, 194 ah 222 33, 35, 80, 81, 84–86,
ah 140 80, 194 112n51, 115, 141, 175, 194
ah 141 78, 79, 138n20, 194 ah 225 76, 177, 180n51, 194
ah 142 60, 153n9, 166, 194 ah 226 33, 79, 131, 151n2, 162, 176,
ah 145 73 181, 194
ah 147 153n9 ah 227 162
ah 157 79, 130, 142, 165, 194 ah 229 109, 114
ah 163 60, 143, 194 ah 230 84
ah 164 114 ah 231 97n14, 131
ah 165 60 ah 233 80, 97n14, 113n52, 131
ah 176 121, 132 ah 234 97
ah 186 109, 122 ah 235 47, 60, 85, 97, 143
ah 197 2, 57, 58, 58n5, 72, 77, 80, ah 236 84
81, 97, 98, 102, 104, 112, ah 237 113n52
115n59, 117, 131, 138, 139, ah 239 79, 85, 115n59, 131,
150, 151n2, 152, 155, 158, 138n20, 162, 175, 179, 194
175, 180, 194, 203, 205, ah 241 151n2
206, 234 ah 243 97n13, 142, 194
ah 198 80, 130, 162 ah 244 76, 77, 85, 121, 143, 167,
ah 199 72, 73, 77, 94, 114, 125, 175, 176, 179, 181
127, 172, 197, 229 ah 245 114
ah 200 82, 97n12, 100, 127n3, 129, ah 246 200
151n2, 152, 153, 158 ah 247 82, 105n35
ah 201 80, 112n51, 119, 120, 142, ah 252 114
194 ah 255 200
ah 202 33, 35, 75, 77, 85, 92, ah 256 10, 146
112n51, 119, 120, 142, 177, ah 259 107
180n51, 194 ah 260 146, 147
ah 203 15, 105, 132, 134, 186 ah 265 71n3
ah 204 72, 77, 80, 85, 86, 92, 103, ah 271 112n51
142, 176, 181, 194 ah 272 114
ah 206 79, 80, 85, 113n52, 131, ah 287 151n2
162, 176, 181 ah 288 81, 84, 97n16, 100,
ah 207 109, 114, 146 102n30, 108, 119, 120,
ah 208 97, 129 130, 145, 151n2, 160, 170,
ah 209 81, 92, 97n15, 98, 114, 119, 194
120, 132, 137, 160, 197n10 ah 289 84, 135, 136, 168,
ah 210 84, 88, 148, 149 201
ah 213 100, 163, 232 ah 291 105, 106, 113, 137
ah 214 33n7 ah 300 72n6, 146n33, 150
ah 215 92, 197n10 ah 301 200

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index of inscriptions 319

ah 302 146n33 al-Mazroo and Nasīf 1992: 4, no. 3

ah 303 72n6, 73, 107, 109, 150 123, 201, 202
ah 304 73, 123 Al-Saʿīd 1419/1999
ah 309 33n7 3–14, no. 1 147
ah 311 200 4–24, no. 1, side 1–2
ah 312 59, 64n14, 65 25, 81, 108, 108n43,
ah 313 59, 61, 64n14, 114, 116, 109n44, 145, 194, 203,
178n48 206, 234, 240
ah 314 59, 64n14, 65 28–30, no. 5 112
ah 315 59, 64n14 Al-Saʿīd 1420/1999
ah 317 64n14 3–14, no. 1 38, 109, 176, 181, 194
ah 318 59, 64n14 15–22, no. 2 125
ah 319 64n14 15–26, no. 2 73, 82
ah 321 64n14 26–36, no. 3 97n12, 100, 115n59, 129,
ah 323 59, 61 156, 160, 175, 179
ah 324 64n14 Al-Saʿīd 1420/2000
ah 325 59, 61, 162 3–14, no. 1 156
ah 328 59 15–26, no. 2 100, 104, 129, 161
ah 331 59 Al-Saʿīd 2011.1 18, 33, 73, 81, 132
ah 332 59, 116 Al-Saʿīd 2011.2 18, 33, 81
ah 334 162 Al-ʿUḏayb 001 60, 97n13, 142, 194
ah 335 202 Al-ʿUḏayb 002 200
ah 336 59, 61 Al-ʿUḏayb 008 60, 98, 142, 194
ah 337 59, 61 Al-ʿUḏayb 009 60, 138n20, 194
ah 338 59, 61 Al-ʿUḏayb 011 194
ah 343 59, 61 Al-ʿUḏayb 016 202
ah 344 59 Al-ʿUḏayb 032 194
ah 345 106 Al-ʿUḏayb 041 76, 194
ah 347 59, 61 Al-ʿUḏayb 042 73
ahud 1 9, 18, 85, 177 Al-ʿUḏayb 043 97, 130
al-Ḫuraybah 01 201, 202 Al-ʿUḏayb 044 60
al-Ḫuraybah 04 87, 120 Al-ʿUḏayb 048 214
al-Ḫuraybah 05 87, 114, 120 Al-ʿUḏayb 050 202
al-Ḫuraybah 06 9, 18, 81, 119, 120, 160 Al-ʿUḏayb 061 143
al-Ḫuraybah 08 81 Al-ʿUḏayb 064 72, 143, 150, 197n9
al-Ḫuraybah 09 81, 97, 109n47, 137, 152n4, Al-ʿUḏayb 065 72, 143, 197n9
194 Al-ʿUḏayb 071 31, 78, 151
al-Ḫuraybah 10 36, 38, 177, 180n51 Al-ʿUḏayb 073 78, 114, 151
al-Ḫuraybah 11 97 Al-ʿUḏayb 074 124
al-Ḫuraybah 12 17, 18, 62, 63, 65, 81, 86, Al-ʿUḏayb 075 80, 97n14, 109n45, 131,
86n19, 87, 108, 138n20, 194, 197n9
140, 145, 160, 194 Al-ʿUḏayb 079 73
al-Ḫuraybah 13 81, 108, 109n44, 110, 112, Al-ʿUḏayb 080 60
145, 194 Al-ʿUḏayb 083 129
al-Ḫuraybah 14 81, 87, 108, 120, 145, 162, Al-ʿUḏayb 088 60, 107
194 Al-ʿUḏayb 113 194
al-Ḫuraybah 15 201, 202 Al-ʿUḏayb 124 99
al-Ḫuraybah 17 65, 66, 134, 162, 168, 169, Al-ʿUḏayb 129 73, 98, 142, 194
182, 186 Al-ʿUḏayb 132 78, 194

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320 index of inscriptions

Al-ʿUḏayb 138 75, 76, 194 JaL 063f. 117n65

Al-ʿUlā 1 202 JaL 064f. 117
Al-ʿUlā Museum 2 200 JaL 084 a 71n2, 88
Bogue 058 200 JaL 085 h 201n14
Bron-al-ʿUḏayb 1 143 JaL 102 b 114
Esk. 074 117 JaL 106 a 71n2
Esk. 253 117 JaL 111f. 112n51
Ğabal al-Ḫuraymāt 01 JaL 116 89
134n11 JaL 119 b 126
Ǧabal al-Ḫuraymāt 04 JaL 124 71n2, 88, 153n9, 201n14
158, 238 JaL 134 104
Ǧabal Iṯlib 06 169 JaL 135 a 201n14
Ǧabal Iṯlib 08 23n29, 89 JaL 142 153n9, 201n14
Graf 1983 no. 2 151n2 JaL 145 m 71n3
Graf Abū al-Ḍibāʿ 1 93n6, 105, 106, 113, 137 JaL 145 r 114
JaL 001 151n2, 152n4, 174, 178, 186, JaL 147 c 89
202, 217 JaL 152 89, 118, 146
JaL 002 174 JaL 155 d 194
JaL 002 b 133 JaL 156 d 201n14
JaL 003 86 Jal 157 ab 112
JaL 004 194 JaL 157 b 112
JaL 005 202 JaL 158 a 59
JaL 006 82, 97, 105n35, 109, 113, JaL 159 a 118
129 JaL 161 160
JaL 007 b 200 JaL 161 a 130, 148, 149, 162, 183
JaL 008 e 71n3 JaL 161 b 114
JaL 008 o 71n2, 88, 201n14 JaL 166 e 169
JaL 008 c 115 JaL 168f. 115
JaL 010 a 73, 150 JaL 169 af 89
JaL 010 b 114 JaL 169 k 200
JaL 012 b 112 JSLih 006 129, 147, 148, 185
JaL 014 b 153n9, 201n14 JSLih 007 59
JaL 016 a 10, 84, 88, 134 JSLih 008 80, 194
JaL 017 e 145 JSLih 014 126
JaL 021f 83, 157, 238 JSLih 035 17, 18, 18n22, 86, 86n19
JaL 022 c 117n65 JSLih 036 100, 125, 130
JaL 023 c 201n14 JSLih 037 161, 197n10
JaL 026 b 121 JSLih 040 133
JaL 029 d 117 JSLih 041 81, 137, 162
JaL 033 s 118 JSLih 042 109
JaL 033 o 120 JSLih 044 151n2
JaL 043 a 121 JSLih 045 38, 82, 83, 100, 129, 151n2,
JaL 045 c 104 155, 156, 160, 175
JaL 052 c 158 JSLih 047 178n48, 179, 180
JaL 060 c 126 JSLih 048 63, 64, 73, 200
JaL 061 d 99 JSLih 049 13, 41, 72, 73, 81, 97, 108,
JaL 061f. 23n29 110, 145, 150, 162, 194,
JaL 061 k 118 229n4
JaL 062 c 114 JSLih 050 202

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index of inscriptions 321

JSLih 052 92, 162 JSLih 085 37, 77n12

JSLih 053 37, 73, 112n51, 118 JSLih 121 106
JSLih 054 80, 114, 141, 156, 194, 201 JSLih 127 136n17
JSLih 055 73, 101, 160, 161, 185 JSLih 128 23n29, 89, 114
JSLih 057 63, 162, 199, 200 JSLih 131 104
JSLih 059 17 JSLih 138 33, 102
JSLih 061 73, 80, 81, 109n47, 151n2, JSLih 139 88
155, 194 JSLih 144 68
JSLih 062 13, 81, 105, 108, 108n43, JSLih 147 71n2
109n44, 141, 194 JSLih 155 68
JSLih 063 13, 80, 113n53, 151, 155, JSLih 156 68
162, 194 JSLih 158 23, 68
JSLih 064 70, 95, 136, 150, 157, 168, JSLih 160 68
194 JSLih 161 68
JSLih 065 82, 83, 158, 201 JSLih 177 80, 101n26, 104, 119–121,
JSLih 066 82, 83, 125, 132, 158n16, 141, 142, 151, 152, 175, 177,
164 180n51, 194
JSLih 067 115, 150 JSLih 181 85, 89, 130, 138
JSLih 068 85, 115, 121, 155, 175, 176, JSLih 182 88, 89
178–182 JSLih 184 126
JSLih 069 185 JSLih 186 34n7
JSLih 070 85, 121, 160, 175, 177, 179, JSLih 187 34n7
181, 182 JSLih 206 114
JSLih 071 14, 45n25, 112n51, 115n59, JSLih 220 18, 232
163, 175, 179 JSLih 230 83
JSLih 072 70, 73, 83, 85, 86, 121, JSLih 238 107
151n2, 160–163, 171, 175, JSLih 249 114
180, 184, 201 JSLih 250 112n51
JSLih 073 81, 113, 113n52, 150, 161 JSLih 256 103, 107
JSLih 074 86 JSLih 257 83
JSLih 075 86, 87, 151n2, 153, 175, JSLih 264 103
194, 209 JSLih 268 92
JSLih 076 115, 193 JSLih 272 151n2
JSLih 077 38, 65, 70, 78, 85, 95, JSLih 276 14, 84, 157, 163, 238
105, 113n52, 123, 130, JSLih 277 73
138n20, 150, 151n2, 152, JSLih 279 89, 181
153, 158, 159, 161, 168, JSLih 282 72, 73, 109, 150, 197n9
173, 177, 183, 194, 197n10, JSLih 284 153n9
201 JSLih 288 65
JSLih 078 82, 113n52, 161, 170 JSLih 289 83
JSLih 079 29, 72, 82, 83, 98, 98n19, JSLih 290 161
117, 152, 154, 171, 197n9, JSLih 297 153n9
238 JSLih 302 73, 109, 150
JSLih 081 118, 119, 157 JSLih 306 82, 83, 160, 163, 182
JSLih 082 9, 22, 25, 33, 36–38, 40, JSLih 312 114, 157
87, 151n2, 163, 165, 177, JSLih 313 58, 58n5, 164, 183
232, 242 JSLih 317 148, 149
JSLih 083 112n51, 132, 164, 177, 181 JSLih 319 103
JSLih 084 83 JSLih 323 33n7

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322 index of inscriptions

JSLih 331 112 Rabeler 001 33, 35, 80, 85, 97n14, 130,
JSLih 334 112 131
JSLih 339 89 Ryckmans 3.30 78
JSLih 344 112, 158 ta 888 199, 200
JSLih 347 169 ta 11414.1 199, 200
JSLih 349 40, 85, 88, 89, 99 Tall al-Kaṯīb, no. 1 73, 100n25, 130, 138n18
JSLih 358 161 Tall al-Kaṯīb, no. 3 199, 200
JSLih 359 124 al-Theeb 2020 1 33
JSLih 363 112n51 al-Theeb 2020 2 33
JSLih 384 15, 16, 19, 94n7, 121, 126, 166 al-Theeb 2020 5 33
JSTham 251.3 130, 168 al-Theeb 2020 6 33
JSTham 539 200 U 001 63, 68, 197, 237
Müller, D.H. 1889 U 002 77
63–64, no. 8 37, 40, 82, 83, 85, 97, 122, U 003 77, 78, 148, 149
129, 174, 197n10 U 004 97, 109n48, 142, 194
63–64, no. 8/ 1–2 114 U 005 75, 76, 97, 101, 109n48,
63–64, no. 8/1–3 82 130, 142, 194
66, no. 11 200 U 006 75, 166
68, no. 16 194 U 007 77, 149
69, no. 17 163n22, 164, 199, 200, 208 U 008 17, 82, 83, 85, 97n12, 98,
77–78, no. 28 177 98n20, 100, 129, 176, 181
78, no. 29 168 U 010 75, 184
Nasif 1988 U 013 79, 123, 124, 144, 162n20
52, pl. xlvii 67 U 016 194
56, pl. lvi(b)/d 121 U 017.1 60
58, pl. lvii/e 114 U 018 93, 118
65, pl. lxxii 200 U 019 25, 75, 94, 96, 125, 127,
68, pl. lxxix 200 143, 228, 234, 240
69, pl. lxxxi(b) 200 U 020 138n20
86, pl. cxvi/e 81 U 021 77, 79, 129, 138n20, 149,
91, pl. cxxx/d 34n7 172, 194
92, pl. cxxxii 89, 130, 138 U 022 73
94, pl. cxl/c 89 U 023 72, 73, 97, 115, 142, 143,
96, pl. cxliv 85, 86, 174, 201 150, 178
96, pl. cxlv 85, 174 U 024 138n20
96, pl. cxlvi 72n6, 174 U 025 79, 138n20
97, pl. cxlvii 174, 200 U 026 79, 94n7, 109n48, 125,
97, pl. cxlix/a 121, 200 126, 135, 142, 151, 186,
98, pl. cl 34n7 186n57, 194
98, pl. cli 200 U 027 143, 197n9
99, pl. clvii 97n13, 113, 142, 174, 176, U 028 60, 79, 194
180, 181, 194 U 029 72, 128, 143
99, pl. clviii 77, 95, 138n20, 143, 153, U 031 75, 97, 104, 109n48, 142,
158, 197n10, 238 194
Ph 395 v 89 U 032 76, 115n59, 130, 138n20,
Private collection 1 77, 85, 109n48, 125, 142, 152, 155, 158n15, 175, 179,
194 194
Private collection 2 65, 109n44, 159, 160, 194 U 033 76
Qaṣr al-Ṣāniʿ 4 202 U 034 76, 79, 144, 155

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index of inscriptions 323

U 035 97, 109n48, 110, 140, 142, U 079bis 77, 79, 138, 139, 194, 199,
194 203, 205, 206, 229, 234
U 036 165n24, 194, 197n9 U 080 78
U 037 72, 76, 93, 109n48, 110, U 082 194, 200
130, 142, 171, 194 U 084 194
U 037.1 60 U 088 97, 103, 123, 142, 194
U 038 60, 75, 76, 78, 79, 98, 100, U 089 79
117, 122, 138n20, 141, 142, U 091 79
150, 163, 184, 194 U 092 78, 138n20, 194
U 039 18 U 093 138n20
U 040.1 66, 67, 72, 84, 104, U 094 78, 143
138n20, 194 U 095 194
U 041 75, 78 U 096 72
U 043 76, 194 U 100 72n6
U 044 72, 78, 96, 138n20, 143, U 101 140, 143
194, 197n9 U 102 123
U 046 78, 114 U 102bis 79, 92, 143
U 047 143, 194, 197n9 U 106 61
U 048 59, 60, 115, 116, 165n24, U 108 78, 79, 92, 95n10, 103,
196 138n20, 166
U 049 76, 104, 119, 120, 142, 194 U 112 31, 78, 140, 143, 166
U 050 76, 78, 92, 115n59, 143, U 113 200
144, 152, 155, 158n15, 166, U 114 92
171 U 115 72, 115, 138n20, 150, 158,
U 053 107 194, 197n9
U 054 76, 143 U 116 67, 68, 75, 105, 111, 237
U 055 128, 143, 194 U 117 79, 121, 143
U 056 76, 92, 125, 143, 171 U 118 78, 114, 123
U 058 75, 76, 132, 143, 156, 162, U 119 76, 143
184, 185, 194 U 120 37n10, 93
U 059 31, 78, 79, 95, 96, 138n20, U 125 60, 113n53, 143, 194
142, 165n24, 168, 194 U 126 79, 98, 130, 142, 166, 194
U 060 143 Umm Daraǧ 04 72
U 063 80, 92, 97n14, 107, Umm Daraǧ 06 61
109n45, 122, 131, 197n9 Umm Daraǧ 22 80, 97n14, 131
U 064 72, 79, 98, 128, 143, 150, Umm Daraǧ 72 200
152, 197n9 W.Dad 16 83, 88, 89
U 066 79
U 068 79, 143, 166
U 069 31, 60, 78, 143, 150, Ḥaḍramitic
197n10
U 070 78, 138n20, 143 Qāniʾ 4 146n30
U 071 77, 79, 165n24, 194
U 073 113, 199
U 075 72, 79, 123, 128, 138n20, Hismaic
143, 194, 198, 199
U 076 143 kja 23 89n23
U 078 61, 92 kja 105 89n23
U 079 143

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324 index of inscriptions

Minaic Safaitic

JSMin 145 18, 29n37, 108n42, aaek 74 106n38

146n30 BRenv.A 2 53
JSMin 166 18, 29n37, 108n42, BRenv.B 1 53
146n30 C654 117n65
M 315 17 krs 185 53n37
Maʿīn 93 42n19 krs 2287 53
Maʿīn 94 42n19 krs 2327 53
Maʿīn 95 42n19 krs 2342 53
Maʿīn 98 42n19 krs 2889 117n65
res 3022 41, 42 lp 87 157
lp 424 120n72
rwq 45 106n38
Sabaic wh 188 120n72
wh 641.1 53
bl-Nashq? = Demirjian 1
42
Fa 3 183 Taymanitic
Fa 30 183
Ir 19 98n20 Esk. 025 51
Ir 22 98n20 Esk. 169 51, 170n32
Ir 49 98n20 Esk. 177 51, 170n32
Ja 650 98n20 WTay 20 51
Riyām 2006–2017 52, 53

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