Numidian | |
---|---|
Old Libyan | |
![]() Numidian stela with Libyc text in the Bardo National Museum | |
Native to | ancient Numidia |
Region | Mainly modern day Algeria, parts of Tunisia and parts of west Libya (as result of Numidian expansion but with Libyan Berber languages) |
Ethnicity | Numidians |
Extinct | Developed into, or replaced with various modern Berber languages in the 3rd century AD[1] |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
Early form | |
Dialects |
|
Libyco-Berber alphabet (Proto-Tifinagh) | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | nxm |
nxm | |
Glottolog | numi1241 |
Numidian[needs IPA] was a language spoken in ancient Numidia. The script in which it was written, the Libyco-Berber alphabet (from which Tifinagh descended), has been almost fully deciphered and most characters (apart from a few exceptions restricted to specific areas) have known values. Despite this, the language has barely been transcribed and only a few words are known. Libyco-Berber inscriptions are attested from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD. The language is scarcely attested and can be confidently identified only as belonging to the Afroasiatic family, although it was most likely part of the Berber languages, spoken at the start of the breakup of the Proto-Berber language.[2][3][4]
c. 200 BC.