The Linguistic Issue

A language of the Arabs is hinted at already in an Assyrian letter from the time of Assurbanipal. ¹ But the earliest clear reference is in Agatharchides, who mentioned a plant named larimna in arabistí, ‘Arabic’ ² This stands in the context of a description of the Sabaeans and it can be doubted whether ‘Arabic’ is really a language especially connected with Arabs. The next occurrence is in the New Testament. In Acts it is told how everyone at the Pentecost, due to the miraculous effect of the Holy Spirit, heard the gospel preached in their own language, including that of the people from Arabia. ³ In the Periplus written at the same time as Acts, we hear about the Fish-eaters on the island of Sarapis, probably present-day Maṣīra in Oman, who are said to be holy men wearing loincloths and using the ‘Arabic language’, hē arabikē glōssa. ⁴ In a quotation from Uranius in Stephanus of Byzantium we hear that the name Mōthō means ‘place of death’ in the language of the árabes, hē arábōn phōnē. ⁵ The place was probably somewhere in southern Syria. From a region nearby also come the many ‘Arabic’ words adduced in the Talmud. ⁶ In Christian authors we have several references to an Arabic language used in the Arabian province. In the fourth century Epiphanius tells how the pagans celebrate a ritual in Elusa in the Negev, praising a virgin goddess in ‘Arabic dialect’, arabikē diálektos, and calling her khaamou in Arabic, arabistí, meaning ‘young woman’. ⁷ Finally, Hieronymus, familiar with the languages of Palestine and its surroundings, refers to the Arabicus sermo or Arabica lingua, the latter in connection with a remark on the linguistic peculiarities of the book of Job. ⁸