Thamudic B
{{Short description|Central Semitic language}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Thamudic B
| region = Northwest Arabia, occasionally Syria, Egypt, or Yemen
| era = Mid- to late-1st millennium BCE
| familycolor = Afro-Asiatic
| fam1 = Afroasiatic
| fam2 = Semitic
| fam3 = West Semitic
| fam4 = Central Semitic
| fam5 = North Arabian
| fam6 = Ancient North Arabian
| isoexception = historical
}}
Thamudic B is a Central Semitic language and script concentrated in northwestern Arabia, with attestations in Syria, Egypt, and Yemen. As a poorly understood form of Ancient North Arabian, it is included in the Thamudic category. Mentions of the king of Babylon and the Nabataean god Dushara show that Thamudic B was written over a span of centuries, ranging at least from the seventh or sixth to fourth centuries BCE.{{Cite journal|last=Norris|first=Jérôme|title=Dushara dans une inscription thamoudique B de la région du Wādī Ramm (Jordanie du Sud)|date=2018|journal=Topoi. Orient-Occident|volume=22|issue=1|pages=185-223|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/topoi_1161-9473_2018_num_22_1_3246}}
Characteristics
Thamudic B is mostly written horizontally, from right to left. Salient linguistic features include the following:{{Cite contribution|last=Al-Jallad|first=Ahmad|contribution=The earliest stages of Arabic and its linguistic classification|contribution-url=https://www.academia.edu/18470301|date=2018|title=The Routledge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics|editor-last1=Benmamoun|editor-first1=Elabbas|editor-last2=Bassiouny|editor-first2=Reem|pages=315–331}}
- The suffix morpheme of the prefix conjugation in the first person is -t, as in Arabic and Northwest Semitic, as opposed to the -k of Ancient South Arabian and Ethiopic.
- The dative preposition is nm, which appears to be an assimilated form of an original *lima.
- The consonant /n/ often assimilates to a following contiguous consonant, ʔṯt, from earlier *ʾVnṯat and ʔt, from earlier *[ʔanta].
- Imperatives are often augmented by the energic suffix -n.