| Sabaic | |
|---|---|
| Himyaritic | |
| Spoken in | Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Ethiopia |
| Region | Horn of Africa & Arabian Peninsula |
| Native speakers | Extinct (date missing) |
| Language family |
Afro-Asiatic
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xsa |
Sabaean (Sabaic), also known as Himyarite (Himyaritic), was an Old South Arabian language spoken in Yemen from c. 1000 BC to the 6th century AD, by the Sabaeans; it was used as a written language by some other peoples (sha‘bs) of Ancient Yemen, including the Hashidites, Sirwahites, Humlanites, Ghaymanites, Himyarites, Radmanites etc.[1] It was written in the South Arabian alphabet.
The South Arabic alphabet used in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Yemen beginning in the 8th century BCE (all three locations) later evolved into the Ge'ez alphabet. The Ge'ez language is no longer thought, as previously assumed, to be an offshoot of Sabaean or Old South Arabian,[2] and there is linguistic evidence of Semitic languages being spoken in Eritrea and Ethiopia since at least 2000 BC.[3]