Meroitic language
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Missing image
Meroitic_stela.png
Meroitic_stela.png
Meroitic funerary stela of Waleye son or daughter of Kadeye, from Sai, now at the British Museum.
The Meroitic language was spoken in Meroë and the Sudan during the Meroitic period (about 300 BC-400 AD), and is now extinct. It was written in the Meroitic alphabet. It is not very well understood, due to the paucity of bilingual texts; the few words whose meanings have been confirmed are inadequate to determine its genetic affiliation, but some linguists have tentatively suggested that it may be Nilo-Saharan, while others see it as a language isolate.
External links
- The Linguistic Position of Meroitic (http://www.arkamani.org/meroitic_studies/rilly.htm), Claude Rilly, CNRS