ABSTRACT

The Safaitic inscriptions were carved mostly by nomadic pastoralists, concentrated in the Syro-Jordanian Harrah, a basalt desert stretching from southern Syria to northwestern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic has usually been classified as an Ancient North Arabian “language.” Al-Jallad has suggested that the distinction between Safaitic and Old Arabic is arbitrary, and that, linguistically, these texts represent a dialect continuum of Old Arabic, spanning from the southern Levant to northwest Arabia. A considerable amount of linguistic variation is attested in the Safaitic corpus; however, the laconic nature of most inscriptions, combined with the fact that their authors were mobile, prevents people from interpreting the exact nature of this variation. The dating of the Safaitic inscriptions is wrought with difficulties. The suffix conjugation is a perfective that can denote realized and non-realized actions. Person, number and gender are indicated through suffixes to the verbal stem.