Palmyrene dialect

Palmyrene
Palmyrene inscribed tablet in the Musée du Louvre
Region	Palmyra
Extinct	1st millennium
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Northwest Semitic Aramaic Western Palmyrene
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Linguist list	qhy-pal

Palmyrene or Palmyrenean was a West Aramaic dialect spoken in the city of Palmyra, Syria, in the early centuries AD. The development of cursive versions of Aramaic led to the creation of the Palmyrene alphabets.

Other West Aramaic dialects include Nabataean and Judeo-Aramaic. West Aramaic dialects continue to be spoken in a few villages in Syria such as Ma'loula, Bakh`a and Jubb`adin.

Literature

• Delbert R. Hillers, Eleonora Cussini, Eleanora Cussini, Palmyrene Aramaic Texts, Johns Hopkins University Press (1996), ISBN 978-0-8018-5278-7
• Hans H. Spoer, "Palmyrene Inscriptions found at Palmyra in April, 1904", Journal of the American Oriental Society (1904)
• John Swinton, An Explication of All the Inscriptions in the Palmyrene Language and Character Hitherto Publish'd. In Five Letters from the Reverend Mr. John Swinton, M. A. of Christ-Church, Oxford, and F. R. S. to the Reverend Thomas Birch, D. D. Secret. R. S., Philosophical Transactions (1753).

Palmyrene script

See also

• Western Neo-Aramaic
• Palmyrene Empire