Numidian language
| Numidian | |
|---|---|
| Old Libyan | |
Numidian stela with Libyc text in the Bardo National Museum | |
| Native to | ancient Numidia |
| Region | Mainly modern day Algeria, parts of Tunisia and parts of west Libya (as result of Numidian expansion but with Libyan Berber languages) |
| Ethnicity | Numidians |
| Era | 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
Early form | |
| Dialects |
|
| Libyco-Berber alphabet (Proto-Tifinagh) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nxm |
nxm | |
| Glottolog | numi1241 |
Numidian /n(j)uːˈmɪdiən/ was a language spoken in ancient Numidia. The script in which it was written, the Libyco-Berber alphabet (from which Tifinagh descended), has been almost fully deciphered and most characters (apart from a few exceptions restricted to specific areas) have known values. Libyco-Berber inscriptions are attested from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD. As most surviving inscriptions are funerary steles with a simple format, only a few words have known meanings. The language can be confidently identified only as belonging to the Afroasiatic family, although it was likely part of the Berber languages, spoken at the start of the breakup of the Proto-Berber language, or possibly a sister branch to the modern Berber languages.