Punic | |
---|---|
Phoenicio-Punic, Carthaginian | |
One of the Tripolitania Punic inscriptions, in both Latin (top) and Punic (bottom) script. | |
Region | Tunisia, coastal parts of Algeria, Morocco, southern Iberia, Balearic islands, Libya, Malta, western Sicily, southern and eastern Sardinia |
Era | 8th century BC to 6th century AD |
Early form | |
Phoenician alphabet | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | xpu |
xpu | |
Glottolog | puni1241 neop1239 Neo-Punic |
The Punic language, also called Phoenicio-Punic or Carthaginian, is an extinct variety of the Phoenician language, a Canaanite language of the Northwest Semitic branch of the Semitic languages. An offshoot of the Phoenician language of coastal West Asia (modern Lebanon and north western Syria), it was principally spoken on the Mediterranean coast of Northwest Africa, the Iberian peninsula and several Mediterranean islands, such as Malta, Sicily, and Sardinia by the Punic people, or western Phoenicians, throughout classical antiquity, from the 8th century BC to the 6th century AD. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Punic is considered to have gradually separated from its Phoenician parent around the time that Carthage became the leading Phoenician city under Mago I, but scholarly attempts to delineate the dialects lack precision and generally disagree on the classification. [7]
The Punics stayed in contact with the homeland of Phoenicia until the destruction of Carthage by the Roman Republic in 146 BC. At first, there was not much difference between Phoenician and Punic. Developments in the language before 146 BC are largely hidden from us by the adherence of Carthaginian scribes to a traditional Phoenician orthography, but there are occasional hints that the phonology and grammar of Punic had begun to diverge from Phoenician after the sixth century BC. [8] The clearest evidence for this comes from Motya in western Sicily, but there are also traces of it in sixth-century Carthaginian inscriptions and it is unclear whether these developments began in western Sicily and spread to Africa or vice versa. [9] From the fifth-century BC, a shared set of alphabetic, orthographic, and phonological rules are encountered in Punic inscriptions throughout the western Mediterranean, probably due to Carthaginian influence. [10]
Punic literary works were written in the period before 146 BC. For example, Mago wrote 28 volumes about animal husbandry. The Roman Senate appreciated the works so much that after taking Carthage, they presented them to Berber princes who owned libraries there. Mago's work was translated into Greek by Cassius Dionysius of Utica. A Latin version was probably translated from the Greek version. Further examples of Punic works of literature include the works of Hanno the Navigator, who wrote about his encounters during his naval voyages around what is today Africa and about the settling of new colonies in Iberia, North Africa and the Mediterranean. [11]
Neo-Punic refers to the dialect of Punic spoken after the fall of Carthage and after the Roman conquest of the former Punic territories in 146 BC. The dialect differed from the earlier Punic language, as is evident from divergent spelling compared to earlier Punic and by the use of non-Semitic names, mostly of Libyco-Berber or Iberian origin. The difference was due to the dialectal changes that Punic underwent as it spread among the northern Berber peoples. [12] Sallust (86 – 34 BC) claims Punic was "altered by their intermarriages with the Numidians". [13] That account agrees with other evidence found to suggest a North African Berber influence on Punic, such as Libyco-Berber names in the Onomasticon of Eusebius.[ ambiguous ] Neo-Punic is mostly known from inscriptions, including Lepcis Magna N 19 (= KAI 124; 92 AD).
Around the fourth century AD, Punic was still spoken in what is now northern parts of Tunisia and Algeria, other parts of Northwest Africa, and the Mediterranean. A version of Punic, known as Latino-Punic was written in the Latin alphabet and is known from seventy texts. These texts include the 1st-century Zliten LP1 and the second century Lepcis Magna LP1.[ clarification needed ] They were even written as late as the 4th century, Bir ed-Dreder LP2. Augustine of Hippo (d. 430) is generally considered the last major ancient writer to have some knowledge of Punic and is considered the "primary source on the survival of [late] Punic". According to him, Punic was still spoken in his region (Northern Africa) in the 5th century, centuries after the fall of Carthage, and there were still people who called themselves "chanani" ("Canaanite") at that time. [12] : 4 He wrote around 401:
And if the Punic language is rejected by you, you virtually deny what has been admitted by most learned men, that many things have been wisely preserved from oblivion in books written in the Punic tongue. Nay, you ought even to be ashamed of having been born in the country in which the cradle of this language is still warm. [14]
Besides Augustine, the only proof of Punic-speaking communities at such a late period is a series of trilingual funerary texts found in the Christian catacombs of Sirte, Libya: the gravestones are carved in Ancient Greek, Latin and Punic. It might have even survived the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, as the geographer al-Bakri describes a people speaking a language that was not Berber, Latin or Coptic in Sirte, [15] where spoken Punic survived well past written use. [16] However, it is likely that Arabization of Punic speakers was facilitated by their language belonging to the same group (both were Semitic languages) as that of the conquerors and so they had many grammatical and lexical similarities. [12] : 71
The idea that Punic was the origin of Maltese was first raised in 1565. [17] Modern linguistics has proved that Maltese is in fact derived from Arabic, probably Siculo-Arabic specifically, with a large number of loanwords from Italian. [18] However, Punic was indeed spoken on the island of Malta at some point in its history, as evidenced by both the Cippi of Melqart, which is integral to the decipherment of Punic after its extinction, and other inscriptions that were found on the islands. Punic itself, being Canaanite, was more similar to Modern Hebrew than to Arabic.
Today there are a number of common Berber roots that descend from Punic, including the word for "learn" (*almid, *yulmad; compare Hebrew למד). [19]
Punic is known from inscriptions (most of them religious formulae) and personal name evidence. The play Poenulus by Plautus contains a few lines of vernacular Punic which have been subject to some research because unlike inscriptions, they largely preserve the vowels. [20]
Like its Phoenician parent, Punic was written from right to left, in horizontal lines, without vowels. [21]
Punic has 22 consonants. [22] Details of their pronunciation can be reconstructed from Punic and Neo-Punic texts written in Latin or Greek characters (inscriptions, and parts of Plautus's comedy Poenulus, 'The Little Punic'). [23]
Orthography | Name | Transliteration | Pronunciation | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Neo-Punic | Phoenician | |||||
![]() | ![]() | 𐤀 | ʾalp later ʾalf | ʾ | /ʔ/ | Sometimes also used for the indication of vowels. |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤁 | Bēt later Vēt | b v | /b/ /v/ | In Late Punic and in Late Phoenician, ⟨b⟩ (/b/) underwent a fricativization to ⟨v⟩ (/v/) in the 3rd century BCE. |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤂 | Gaml | g | /ɡ/ | Some words in Latin transliterations show a spirantization as [ ɣ ] at the end of the word, written indicated by "ẖ" instead of the usual "gh". |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤃 | Dalt | d | /d/ | |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤄 | Hē | h | /h/ | Under Roman influence often elided but was still pronounced in certain Carthaginian words. |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤅 | Waw | w | /w/ | Sometimes also used for the indication of the vowel "u". |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤆 | Zēn | z | /z/ | In a few names attested as "sd", like in Hasdrubal for "ʿazrubaʿl", "esde" for heze ("this", used in some Punic dialects), but most texts show a simple "s": "syt" for zut ("this", in Late Punic) |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤇 | Ḥēt | ḥ | /ħ/ | Sometimes used as a vowel for "a, e, i, o, u", the sound of Het was weakened, and words written usually with it were often instead written with the letter Alf in Late Punic inscriptions. |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤈 | Ṭēt | ṭ | /tˤ/ | |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤉 | Yod | y | /j/ | Sometimes also used for the indication of the vowel "i" but mostly in foreign names. |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤊 | Kap | k | /k/ | Some words in Latin transliterations show a spirantization as [ x ] at the end of the word, written indicated by "h" instead of the usual "ch". |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤋 | Lamd | l | /l/ | |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤌 | Mēm | m | /m/ | |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤍 | Nūn | n | /n/ | |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤎 | Semk | s | /s/ | |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤏 | ʿēn | ʿ | /ʕ/ | Often used for the vowel "a" and "o" in late Punic, mostly for foreign Latin names. |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤐 | Pi later Fi | p f | /p/ /f/ | In Late Punic and in Late Phoenician, ⟨p⟩ (/p/) underwent a fricativization to ⟨f⟩ (/f/) in the 3rd century BCE. |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤑 | Tsadē | ṣ | /sˤ/ | Attested as "ts" mostly as "s" in Latin and Ancient Greek and Hittite, Lydian and Etruscan texts. Attested in some Latin texts as "st". |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤒 | Qop later Qof | q | /q/ | |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤓 | Rūš | r | /r/ | |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤔 | Shin | š | /ʃ/ or /s/ | Pronunciation is debated: some [24] think it was /ʃ/; others [25] that it was /s/. |
![]() | ![]() | 𐤕 | Taw | t | /t/ |
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal / Velar | Uvular / Pharyngeal | Glottal | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | emphatic | |||||||||||
Nasal | m | n | ||||||||||
Stop | p ~ f | b ~ v | t | d | tˤ | k | ɡ | q | ʔ | |||
Fricative | s | z | sˤ | ʃ | ħ | ʕ | h | |||||
Approximant | w | l | j | |||||||||
Trill | r |
The vowels in Punic and Neo-Punic are: short a, i, and u; their long counterparts ā, ī, and ū; and ē and ō, which had developed out of the diphthongs ay and aw, respectively (for example Punic mēm, 'water', corresponds to Hebrew mayim).
Two vowel changes are noteworthy. In many cases a stressed long ā developed into /o/, for example in the third person masculine singular of the suffixing conjugation of the verb, baròk, 'he has blessed' (compare Hebrew baràk). And in some cases that /o/ secondarily developed into ū, for example mū, 'what?', < mō < mā (cf. Hebrew māh, 'what?').
In late Punic and Neo-Punic the glottal stop and pharyngeal and laryngeal consonants were no longer pronounced. The signs’, ‘, h, and ḥ thus became available to indicate vowels. The ‘ayn (‘) came to be regularly used to indicate an /a/ sound, and also y and w increasingly were used to indicate /i/ and /o, u/, respectively. But a consistent system to write vowels never developed. [26]
In this section "Grammar" [27] the notation "XX (xxxx)" is used, where XX is the spelling in Punic characters (without vowels), while xxxx is a phonetic rendering, including vowels, as can be reconstructed from Punic language texts written in the Latin or Greek alphabets.
Nouns, including adjectives, in Punic and Neo-Punic can be of two genders (masculine or feminine), three numbers (singular, dual, or plural), and in two 'states', the absolute state or the so-called construct state. A word in the construct state has a close relation with the word that follows, a relation that is often translated by "of". For example, in the combination "sons of Hanno", "sons of" would be in the construct state, while "Hanno" would be in the absolute state.
Morphology:
masculine | (example) | feminine | (examples) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | absolute state | -Ø | BN (bin), 'son' | -T, -’T (-ot, -ut, -īt) | BT (bit), 'daughter' | |
construct state | BN (bin), 'son of' | BT, B‘T (bit), 'daughter of' | ||||
Dual | absolute state | -M (-ēm) | -M (-ēm) | [YD, 'hand':] YDM (yadēm), 'two hands' | ||
construct state | -Ø (-ē) | -Ø (-ē) | [‘YN, ‘N, 'eye':] ‘N (‘ēnē) , '[two] eyes of' | |||
Plural | absolute state | -M, -’M, -YM (-īm, -ēm) | BNM (banīm), 'sons' | -T, -’T (-ūt) | BNT (banūt), 'daughters' | |
construct state | -Ø (-ē) | BN’ (benē), 'sons of' | BNT (banūt), 'daughters of' |
The demonstrative pronoun 'this, these' was: [28]
Masculine | Feminine | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Z, ’Z, (ezdē); | Z (ezdō); | (Punic) | (cf. Hebrew zèh, fem. zōt) |
S (si); ST (sit) | Š’ (sō, sū); ST (sōt) | (Neo-Punic) | ||
Plural | ’L, ’L’ (’llē) | (Punic and Neo-Punic) | (cf. Hebrew ’ēllèh) |
The definite article was evolving from Phoenician ha- to an unaspirated article a-. By 406 BCE, both variants were attested in the same inscription (CIS I 5510). Although in later times the h- was no longer pronounced, the "historical" spelling H- kept being used, in addition to ’- and Ø-, and one even finds Ḥ-. [29]
The personal pronouns, when used on their own, are: [30] (forms between [...] are attested in Phoenician only)
Singular | Plural | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | feminine | (cf. Hebrew:) | masculine | feminine | (cf. Hebrew:) | |||
1st person | ’NK, ’NKY (’anīki, ’anīk) | = 'I, I myself' | ’ānokí | [(’)NḤN ((’a)náḥnu) ] | = 'we' | ’anáḥnū | ||
2nd person | ’T (’átta) | [’T (’atti) ] | = 'you' (singular) | ’attā(h); ’at | ’TM (’attím) | ? | = 'you' (plural) | ’attèm; ’attēn |
3rd person | H’ (hū, ū) | H’, HY (hī) | = 'he, she' | hū; hī | HMT (hēmat?) | = 'they' | hēmmā(h); hēnnā(h) |
When used as a direct or indirect object ('me, him', 'to me, to him') or as a possessive ('mine, his') the personal pronoun takes the form of a suffix. These suffixes can be combined with verbal forms, substantives, and paricles.
Examples:
The paradigm for the suffixed personal pronouns is: [31]
Singular | Plural | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | feminine | (cf. Hebrew:) | masculine | feminine | (cf. Hebrew:) | ||||
1st person | (possessive) | -Y (-ī) | = 'mine' | -ī | -N (-en, -on) | = 'us, our' | -nû | ||
(object) | -NY (-ni) | = 'me' | -ni | ||||||
2nd person | -K, -K’ (-ka) | -KY, -K (-kī) | = '(to) you, your' (singular) | -ka; -k | -KM (-kom) | ? | = '(to) you, your' (plural) | -kem | |
3rd person | -’, -‘, -‘’ (-o); -Ø, -Y, -Y’ (-yo) | -’, -‘, -‘’ (-a); -Y‘ (-ya) | = 'him, his; her' | -o; -āh | -M (-om); | -M (-am) | = 'them, their' | -ām, -ēm; -ān | |
-Ø, -Y, -’, -’Y (-i) [< -ih(u)] | -Y (-i) | -hu; -hā | -NM, -N’M, -NHM (-nom) | ||||||
-M (-im) | — |
The relative pronoun, 'who, that, which', in both Punic and Neo-Punic is’ Š (’īs). In late Neo-Punic M’ (mū) (originally an interrogative pronoun, 'what?') emerged as a second relative pronoun. Both pronouns were not inflected. The combination ’Š M’ (’īs mū) was also used in late Neo-Punic. [32]
A pronoun Š- (si-) was used to express an indirect genitival relationship between two substantives; it can be translated as 'of'. This uninflected pronoun was prefixed to the second of the two substantives. [33] Example:
There are two interrogative pronouns: [34]
Neither of the two pronouns was inflected.
In Punic and Neo-Punic there was no exclusive indefinite pronoun. Whenever such a pronoun might be needed, it was circumscribed by means of words like ’ḤD (’ḥḥad), 'one', ’Š (’īs) or ’DM (’adom), 'a man, a person', or KL (kil), 'all'. [36]
The nucleus of Punic and Neo-Punic verbs is a "root" consisting of three or, sometimes, two consonants. By adding prefixes and suffixes, and by varying the vowels that are inserted into the root, the various forms of the verb are formed. These belong to six "stems" (conjugations). The basic, and most common, stem type is the Qal. The other common stems are: [37]
A few other stems are found only very rarely:
The paradigm of the Qal is (the verb B-R-K (barok), 'to bless', is used as an example):
Form | (Neo-)Punic | Translation | (cf. Hebrew) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Perfect (Suffixing form) | Singular | 1 | BRKT (barakti) | = 'I bless' | beràkti | |
2 | masc. | BRKT (barakta) | = 'you (m.) bless' | berákta | ||
fem. | [BRKT (barakti) ] | = 'you (f.) bless' | berákt | |||
3 | masc. | BRK (barok) | = 'he blesses | berek~berák | ||
fem. | BRK, BRK’, BRK‘ (berka) | = 'she blesses' | berkāh | |||
Plural | 1 | BRKN (baraknu) | = 'we bless' | beràknū | ||
2 | masc. | BRKTM (biraktim) | = 'you (m. pl.) bless' | beraktèm | ||
fem. | — (not attested) | 'you (f.) bless' | beraktèn | |||
3 | BRK (barkū) | = 'they bless' | berkū | |||
Imperfect (Prefixing form A) and Iussive (Prefixing form B) | Singular | 1 | ’BRK (’ebrok, ’ibrok) | = 'I will bless, let me bless' | ’ávàrek | |
2 | masc. | TBRK (tibrok) | = 'you (m.) will bless, may you (m.) bless' | tevàrek | ||
fem. | [TBRKY (tibrokī) ] | = 'you (f.) will bless, may you (f.) bless' | tevàrkī | |||
3 | masc. | YBRK (yibrok) | = 'he will bless, may he bless' | yevàrek | ||
fem. | [TBRK (tibrok) ] | = 'she will bless, may she bless' | tevàrek | |||
Plural | 1 | NBRK (nibrok) | = 'we will bless, let us bless' | nevàrek | ||
2 | masc. | TBRKN (tibrakūn) | = 'you (m. pl.) will bless' (imperfect) | tevàrkū | ||
TBRK (tibrokū) | = 'may you (m. pl.) bless' (iussive) | |||||
fem. | YBRK (yibrok) | = 'you (f. pl.) will bless, may you (f.) bless' | tevàreknāh | |||
3 | masc. | [ YBRKN (yibrokūn) ] | = 'they (m.) will bless' (imperfect) | yevàrkū | ||
YBRK (yibrokū) | = 'may they (m.) bless' (iussive) | |||||
fem. | — (not attested) | 'they (f.) will bless, may they (f.) bless' | tevàreknāh | |||
Cohortative (Prefixing form C) | Singular | 1 | — (not attested) | 'let me bless!' | ’ávàrekāh | |
Plural | 1 | — (not attested) | 'let us bless!' | nevàrekāh | ||
Imperative | Singular | 2 | masc. | BRK (borok) | = 'bless!, you (man) must bless' | bàrek |
fem. | [BRK (birkī) ] | = 'bless!, you (woman) must bless' | bàrkī | |||
Plural | 2 | masc. | — (not attested) | 'bless!, you (men) must bless' | bàrkū | |
fem. | — (not attested) | 'bless!, you (women) must bless' | bàreknāh | |||
Infinitive | Infinitive construct | L-BRK (li-brūk) | = 'to bless' | levàrek | ||
Infinitive absolute | BRK (barōk) | = 'bless' | bàrūk | |||
Participle (active) | Singular | masc. | BRK (būrek) | = '(a man:) blessing' | bàrūk | |
fem. | BRKT (būrekt) | = '(a woman:) blessing' | berūkāh | |||
Plural | masc. | BRKM (bōrkīm) | = '(men:) blessing' | berūkīm | ||
fem. | — (not attested) | '(women:) blessing' | berūkōt | |||
(passive) | Singular | masc. | — (not attested) | '(a man:) blessed' | bàrūk | |
fem. | BRKT (barūkt) | = '(a woman:) blessed' | berūkāh | |||
Plural | masc. | BRKM (berūkīm) | = '(men:) blessed' | berūkīm | ||
fem. | — (not attested) | '(women:) blessed' | berūkōt |
The following Niph‘al forms are attested in Punic and Neo-Punic (verb: P-‘-L, fel, 'to make'; < Phoenician pa‘ol):
Form | (Neo-)Punic | Translation | (cf. Hebrew) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Perfect (Suffixing form) | Singular | 3 | masc. | NP‘L (nef‘al) | = 'it (m.) is/was made' | niph‘al |
fem. | NP‘L’ (nef‘ala) | = 'it (f.) is/was made' | niph‘elāh | |||
Plural | 3 | masc. | NP‘L’, NP‘L (nef‘alū) | = 'they are/were made' | niph‘elū |
The following Pi‘el forms are attested in Punic and Neo-Punic (verb: Ḥ-D-Š, ḥados, 'to make new, to restore'):
Form | (Neo-)Punic | Translation | (cf. Hebrew) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Perfect (Suffixing form) | Singular | 1 | ḤDŠTY, ḤDŠT (ḥiddesti) | = 'I restore' | ḥiddàšti | |
3 | masc. | ḤYDŠ, ḤDŠ (ḥiddes) | = 'he restores' | ḥiddēš | ||
Plural | 3 | masc. | ḤDŠ (ḥiddesū) | = 'they restore' | ḥiddēšū | |
Imperfect | Singular | 3 | masc. | YḤDŠ (yeḥeddes) | = 'he will restore' | yeḥaddēš |
Imperative | Singular | 2 | masc. | ḤDŠ (ḥeddes) | = 'restore!' | ḥaddēš |
Infinitive | Infinitive construct | L-ḤDŠ (liḥeddes) | = 'to restore' | ḥaddēš | ||
Participle (active) | Singular | masc. | MḤDŠ (meḥeddes) | = 'restoring (man)' | meḥaddēš | |
Plural | masc. | MḤDŠM (meḥeddesīm) | = 'restoring (men)' | meḥaddešīm |
The following Yiph‘il forms are attested in Punic and Neo-Punic (verb: Q-D-Š, qados, 'to dedicate'):
Form | (Neo-)Punic | Translation | (cf. Hebrew Hiph‘il) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Perfect (Suffixing form) | Singular | 3 | masc. | ’YQDŠ, YQDŠ (iqdēs) | = 'he dedicates, has dedicated' | hiqdīš |
fem. | HQDYŠ‘ (iqdísa) | = 'she dedicates, has dedicated' | hiqdīšāh | |||
Plural | 3 | masc. | YQDŠ‘ (yiqdísū) | = 'they dedicate, have dedicated' | hiqdīšū | |
Imperfect | Plural | 3 | masc. | YQDŠN (yiqdisūn) | = 'they will dedicate' | yaqdišū |
Cohortative | Singular | 1 | ’QDŠ (iqdisa) | = 'let me dedicate' | ’aqdēš, ’aqdešāh | |
3 | masc. | YQDŠ(?) (yiqdisa) | = 'let him dedicate' | yaqdēš | ||
Imperative | Singular | 2 | masc. | HQDŠ (iqdes or aqdes) | = 'dedicate!' | haqdēš |
Infinitive | Infinitive construct | L-QDŠ (l-aqdīs) | = 'to dedicate' | haqdīš | ||
Infinitive absolute | YQDŠ (yeqdes) | = '(to) dedicate' | haqdēš | |||
Participle (active) | Singular | masc. | MYQDŠ, MQDŠ (miqdīs) | = 'dedicating (man)' | maqdīš |
Many (Neo-)Punic verbs are "weak": depending on the specific root consonants certain deviations of the standard verbal paradigm occur. For example in the group I-n (verbs with first consonant N-) the n may disappear through assimilation. Summary:
Group | Example | Phenomena |
---|---|---|
I-n (or פ״ן) | N-D-R (nador), 'to vow' | N- can disappear through assimilation |
I-y (פ״וי) | Y-T-N (yaton), 'to give' | Yiph‘il > yūph‘il |
III-y (ל״ה) | B-N-Y (bano), 'to build' | -Y can disappear |
II-gem (ע״ע) | Ḥ-N-N (ḥan), 'to show favor' | second and third root consonant are the same ("geminated") |
II-wy (ע״וי) | K-N (kōn), 'to be' | two-consonant root; Pi‘el > polel |
In Punic there was no one-on-one correlation between form and use. For example, the suffix form (perfect) is often translated by a present tense, but it may also refer to the past or future. Tense, aspect, and mood of verbal forms were determined by syntax, not by morphology. [38]
The tense, aspect and mood of a given verbal form may depend on:
The numbers from one to ten are:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(masculine form) | ’ḤD (’eḥḥad) | ŠNM (snēm) | ŠLŠ, Š‛LŠ (salūs) | ’RB‛ (’arba‛) | ḤMŠ (ḥames) | ŠŠ, Š’Š (ses) | ŠB‛ (séba‛) | ŠMN, ŠMN’ (samūne) | TŠ‛ (tésa‛) | ‛ŠR, ‛Š‛R, ‛SR (‛asar) |
(feminine form) | ’ḤT (’eḥḥat) | ŠTM (stēm) | ŠLŠT (salūst) | ’RB‛T (’arbá‛at) | ḤMŠT (ḥamist) | ŠŠT (sésit) | ŠB‛T (sebá‛at) | ŠMNT (samūnīt) | TŠ‛T (tisá‛at) | ‛ŠRT (‛asert) |
(cf. Hebrew, masc.) | ’eḥād | šenáyim | šalóš | ’arbá‛ | ḥamēš | šēš | šèba‛ | šemonèh | tēša‛ | ‛èśer |
Punic and Neo-Punic take part in the so-called "Semitic polarity": the numbers 3-10 take the feminine form with masculine nouns, and vice versa. Thus with masculine BN (bin, 'son') or YM (yom, 'day'), numbers take the feminine form ending in -T, while with feminine ŠT (sat, 'year'), they take the masculine form without -T. [39] For example:
Multiples of ten take the form of a plural (-īm) of the word for 10 or 3-9:
20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(both masc. and fem.) | ‛SRM, HŠRM (‛esrīm) | ŠLŠM (salūsīm) | ’RB‛M, ’RBM (’arba‛īm, ’arbīm) | ḤMŠM, ‛MŠM (ḥamissīm) | ŠŠM, ŠYŠM (sissīm) | ŠB‛M (sib‛īm) | ŠMNM’ (samūnīm) | TŠM, ṬYŠM (tissīm) |
One hundred is M’T (mīt), its dual M’TM (mitēm) is 200; 1000 is ’LP (’èlef), and 10,000 is RB’ (ribō).
An important particle is the so-called nota objecti, or accusative particle, ’YT (’et) (rarely ’T; usuallyT- before a substantive with definite article or with demonstrative pronoun). It is placed before a substantive and indicates that that substantive is an object in the sentence (mostly a direct object). [40]
Word order in Punic and Neo-Punic can vary, but this variation has its grammatical limits. For example, in a clause with an imperfect prefixing form the subject can either precede or follow the verb. However, as a rule, if the verb precedes it refers to the present, while if the subject precedes, the verb refers to the future. [41]
The repertoire of possible ways in (Neo-)Punic to express a certain combination of tense, aspect, and mood seems to be more restricted than in Phoenician, but at the same time the rules seem to have become less strict.
Act V of Plautus's comedy Poenulus opens with Hanno speaking in Punic, his native language, in the first ten lines. Then follows a slightly different version of the same lines. Charles Krahmalkov is of the opinion that the first ten lines are Neo-Punic, the next ten Punic. [42] [43]
Krahmalkov proposed the theory that Plautus, who often translated Greek comedies into Latin, in this case too reworked a Greek original, the Karkhedonios ('The Carthaginian'; Athenian comic poet Alexis wrote a play with this title). In this case, there probably also existed a Punic translation of the Greek comedy, and Plautus took parts of this Punic version to give his Carthaginian character authentic speech. Moreover, in this way he could enter puns by introducing in his play would-be translators who, to comical effect, claimed to, but did not in fact, understand Punic, and thus gave nonsensical 'translations'. [44]
First version (Neo-Punic) | Second version (the "unknown text"; Punic) |
|
|
Plautus (or a later redactor [45] ) next provided a Latin translation of the preceding lines: [46]
Latin | English |
|
|
As a Latin transliteration, the text as recorded necessarily departs from the original Punic speech. Lines 930-939 have only survived in one manuscript, the "Ambrosianus" A (the "Ambrosian Palimpsest"). The "unknown" text, lines 940-949, has also survived in three manuscripts of the Palatine family (P). The several manuscript sources show many differences among them, with the P scripts showing some words being split out and some mis-interpretations. [48] [49] The "unknown" text used here is from the Ambrosianus A; both families have lost small chunks of text over time. Recently efforts have been made to, among other things, fill in the redactions in the "unknown language" part and to properly split the morphemes. The close mirroring between lines 930-931/940 and lines 937/947 (underlined above) suggests that the "unknown language" text (lines 940-949) is also Punic. Gratwick and Krahmalkov conclude that the more corrupted "unknown" form (940-949) is earlier (basically Plautus's own text in Punic), while lines 930-939 reflect a “late 'scholar's repair'” from Late Antiquity in Neo-Punic. [45] [50] [51]
Some Punic phrases known in the text include:
Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classical world. It became the capital city of the civilisation of Ancient Carthage and later Roman Carthage.
Matres lectionis are consonants that are used to indicate a vowel, primarily in the writing of Semitic languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac. The letters that do this in Hebrew are alephא, heה, vavו and yodי, and in Arabic, the matres lectionis are ʾalifا, wāwو and yāʾي. The 'yod and waw in particular are more often vowels than they are consonants.
The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Aramaic, Hebrew, and numerous other ancient and modern languages. They are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Malta, and in large immigrant and expatriate communities in North America, Europe, and Australasia. The terminology was first used in the 1780s by members of the Göttingen school of history, who derived the name from Shem, one of the three sons of Noah in the Book of Genesis.
The Phoenician alphabet is a consonantal alphabet used across the Mediterranean civilization of Phoenicia for most of the 1st millennium BCE. It was the first mature alphabet, and attested in Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions found across the Mediterranean region. In the history of writing systems, the Phoenician script also marked the first to have a fixed writing direction—while previous systems were multi-directional, Phoenician was written horizontally, from right to left. It developed directly from the Proto-Sinaitic script used during the Late Bronze Age, which was derived in turn from Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Phoenician is an extinct Canaanite Semitic language originally spoken in the region surrounding the cities of Tyre and Sidon. Extensive Tyro-Sidonian trade and commercial dominance led to Phoenician becoming a lingua franca of the maritime Mediterranean during the Iron Age. The Phoenician alphabet spread to Greece during this period, where it became the source of all modern European scripts.
Poenulus, also called The Little Carthaginian or The Little Punic Man, is a Latin comedic play for the early Roman theatre by Titus Maccius Plautus, probably written between 195 and 189 BC. The play is noteworthy for containing text in Carthaginian Punic, spoken by the character Hanno in the fifth act. Another remarkable feature is the sympathetic portrayal of the character of the Carthaginian Hanno at a time when only a few years previously the Romans had suffered huge losses in the 2nd Punic War fought against the Carthaginian general Hannibal.
The Canaanite languages, sometimes referred to as Canaanite dialects, are one of three subgroups of the Northwest Semitic languages, the others being Aramaic and Amorite. These closely related languages originate in the Levant and Mesopotamia, and were spoken by the ancient Semitic-speaking peoples of an area encompassing what is today Israel, Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, as well as some areas of southwestern Turkey (Anatolia), western and southern Iraq (Mesopotamia) and the northwestern corner of Saudi Arabia.
Biblical Hebrew, also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite branch of Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of the Jordan River and east of the Mediterranean Sea. The term "Hebrew" (ivrit) was not used for the language in the Hebrew Bible, which was referred to as שְֹפַת כְּנַעַן or יְהוּדִית, but the name was used in Ancient Greek and Mishnaic Hebrew texts.
Baal Hammon, properly Baʿal Ḥamon, meaning "Lord Hammon", was the chief god of Carthage. He was a weather god considered responsible for the fertility of vegetation and esteemed as King of the Gods. He was depicted as a bearded older man with curling ram's horns. Baʿal Ḥammon's female cult partner was Tanit.
Proto-Semitic is the reconstructed proto-language common ancestor to the Semitic language family. There is no consensus regarding the location of the Proto-Semitic Urheimat: scholars hypothesize that it may have originated in the Levant, the Sahara, the Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, or northern Africa. According to more recent sources nowadays the likeliest place of origin is North Africa.
Northwest Semitic is a division of the Semitic languages comprising the indigenous languages of the Levant. It emerged from Proto-Semitic in the Early Bronze Age. It is first attested in proper names identified as Amorite in the Middle Bronze Age. The oldest coherent texts are in Ugaritic, dating to the Late Bronze Age, which by the time of the Bronze Age collapse are joined by Old Aramaic, and by the Iron Age by Sutean and the Canaanite languages.
The Punic people, usually known as the Carthaginians, were a Semitic people who migrated from Phoenicia to the Western Mediterranean during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term Punic, the Latin equivalent of the Greek-derived term Phoenician, is exclusively used to refer to Phoenicians in the western Mediterranean, following the line of the Greek East and Latin West. The largest Punic settlement was Ancient Carthage, but there were 300 other settlements along the North African coast from Leptis Magna in modern Libya to Mogador in southern Morocco, as well as western Sicily, southern Sardinia, the southern and eastern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, Malta, and Ibiza. Their language, Punic, was a dialect of Phoenician, one of the Northwest Semitic languages originating in the Levant.
The city of Carthage was founded in the 9th century BC on the coast of Northwest Africa, in what is now Tunisia, as one of a number of Phoenician settlements in the western Mediterranean created to facilitate trade from the city of Tyre on the coast of what is now Lebanon. The name of both the city and the wider republic that grew out of it, Carthage developed into a significant trading empire throughout the Mediterranean. The date from which Carthage can be counted as an independent power cannot exactly be determined, and probably nothing distinguished Carthage from the other Phoenician colonies in Northwest Africa and the Mediterranean during 800–700 BC. By the end of the 7th century BC, Carthage was becoming one of the leading commercial centres of the West Mediterranean region. After a long conflict with the emerging Roman Republic, known as the Punic Wars, Rome finally destroyed Carthage in 146 BC. A Roman Carthage was established on the ruins of the first. Roman Carthage was eventually destroyed—its walls torn down, its water supply cut off, and its harbours made unusable—following its conquest by Arab invaders at the close of the 7th century. It was replaced by Tunis as the major regional centre, which has spread to include the ancient site of Carthage in a modern suburb.
Ancient Carthage was an ancient Semitic civilisation based in North Africa. Initially a settlement in present-day Tunisia, it later became a city-state and then an empire. Founded by the Phoenicians in the ninth century BC, Carthage reached its height in the fourth century BC as one of the largest metropoleis in the world. It was the centre of the Carthaginian Empire, a major power led by the Punic people who dominated the ancient western and central Mediterranean Sea. Following the Punic Wars, Carthage was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC, who later rebuilt the city lavishly.
In several ancient Semitic-speaking cultures and associated historical regions, the shopheṭ or shofeṭ was a community leader of significant civic stature, often functioning as a chief magistrate with authority roughly equivalent to Roman consular powers.
The Honeyman inscription, also known as the Archaic Cyprus inscription, is a seven-line Phoenician gravestone inscription found in Cyprus and first published in 1939. It is the oldest detailed Phoenician inscription found in Cyprus.
The Agrigentum inscription is a Punic inscription found in 1934 during the excavations led by Gabriel-Guillaume Lapeyre at "Salambo", the infant and children's cemetery (tophet) of Carthage, and published in 1942. It probably refers to military events in Sicily in 406 BCE.
Phoenician–Punic literature is literature written in Phoenician, the language of the ancient civilization of Phoenicia, or in the Punic language that developed from Phoenician and was used in Ancient Carthage. It is surrounded by an aura of mystery due to the few preserved remains. All that is left is a series of inscriptions, few of which are of a purely literary nature, coins, fragments of Sanchuniathon's History and Mago's Treaty, the Greek translation of the voyage of Hanno the Navigator and a few lines in the Poenulus by Plautus.
The Carthage Festival inscription or Carthage Festival Offering inscription is an inscription from Carthage in the Punic language that probably describes the liturgy of a festival of, at least, five days. It is dated to the fourth or third century BCE.
The KNMY inscription is an inscription in the Punic language from Carthage that is believed to record a so-called "molk" child sacrifice. The text is inscribed on a 55 cm high stela that was discovered in 1922.
The place to begin is with a definition of what can be called a Punic script in relation to a Punic language. Conventionally, we call "Punic" the writing typical of Carthage, which spread to other colonies when the "New City" became the "capital" of the Phoenician west. Judging from the existing data on the history of the region, Carthage became leader of the other colonies around the middle to the end of the 6th century BC, when we first know of symbola with the Etruscan cities, the first treaty with Rome (ca. 509 BC), and the first Carthaginian involvement in wars in Sardinia and Sicily. One can suppose that, before this period, the Phoenician language, written according to Phoenician orthographic and paleographic conventions, was still in use in the west, with some local changes in the scripts from region to region or from city to city… As for language, the Phoenician-Punic grammars (the authors of which generally do not agree on the classification of the different phases and dialects of Phoenician) make a distinction between Phoenician and Punic. They lack precision, however, when they attempt to define the characteristics of Punic and the period in which it originated… We are able to distinguish Punic from Phoenician (in part) because of the orthography of the written language. The first linguistic characteristic we can recognize is the tendency to drop the pronunciation of the laryngeal ʾalep, followed by he (in Punic), and finally, the whole series of laryngeals and pharyngeals (in late Punic).
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