Kehek language
| Kehek | |
|---|---|
| Qeheq | |
| Region | Eastern parts of Ancient Libya |
| Ethnicity | Kehek |
| Era | Second to first millennia BC |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
| No indigenous writing, attested in only a hieratic papyrus | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
The Kehek language was spoken by the Kehek people of Ancient Libya. It is the earliest written non-Semitic and non-Egyptian Afroasiatic language. It is only attested scarcely in papyrus texts written in hieratic, pertaining to snake magic, written during the New Kingdom era. Whether other ancient Libyans such as the Meshwesh or the Libu spoke the same language as the Kehek is unknown. The language might also be the earliest example of a written down Berber, or Proto-Berber variety though its nature as a fragmentary text makes it hard to identify as anything other than Afro-Asiatic.