Along with Phoenician, Hebrew, Moabite and Ammonite, Edomite belongs to the group of North-Western Semitic languages, representing the local variant of Canaanite language as spoken in Southern Transjordan, to the south and southeast of Judah's kingdom. Specific lexical features and onomastics clearly show influences from Arabic and Aramaic; at the same time, multifarious archaisms underscore its basic conservative character, so much so that under the guidance of M. Bartoli’s criteria for geographic linguistics, F. Israel referred to Edomite as a lateral area language. Epigraphically recorded from the 8^th century BC, Edomite died out by the end of the 6^th.

Ancient Writing Systems

Further information

1. Bibliography