Yes,
North Arabian. Look at Michael MacDonald's book Literacy and
Identity in Pre-Islamic Arabia for more info. A major thesis of his is that
written language in such an environment can have several purposes, but not
necessarily the functions it might perform in a literate settled society. There
are a number of languages in nomadic environments (and this appears to
include some of the pre-Islamic Arabian dialects) that are used more for
'making one's mark'—recording one's name and reading others'—then for
functional literacy. A very similar system is in use today among the Taureg,
the Tifinagh: this alphabet is used as a game as for children and for grown-ups
it is used for recording names, for graffiti, typically while one is whiling
away the long days tending sheep or watching for enemies (I'm following
MacDonald here), doetimes for short notes. Tellingly,
when missionaries have attempted to use the system as a literary
vehicle, it has proved inadequate as it leaves too great a uncertainty of
vowelling etc. The Taureg,
then, a a people with high literacy in this system, but who are entirely an
oral culture, since it doesn't perform the role played by alphabets
in settled societies.
The North Arabian desert is filled with such inscriptions - from about the
eighth century BC, in Ancient North Arabian, particularly the Safaitic
variety. Before that you have drawings and tribal marks, but those don't cease.
I must admit the proto-Sinaiatic inscriptions came to mind when I re-read this
earlier,
though.
But Arabic itself, it seems, was even in use as a
literary language in pre-Islamic Arabia (this is not certain but seems
the current concensus, for which you can read, say, Gregor Schoeler's
writings), not for prose but for verse
'daftars', notebooks used by poetic rawīs (reciters and repositories of
oral poetry, usually attached to a poet, often in an apprenticeship
relationship). Such books weren't 'published' but could act as an aide
memoire and might be handed down.It wasn't, however, used as a graffiti
language like Safaitic and Tifinaghin pre-Islamic times.
John Leake
The Open University
________________________________
'inna SâHiba Hayâtin hanî'atin lâ yudawwinuhâ: 'innamâ, yaHyâhâ.
(He who lives a comfortable life doesn't write about it - he lives it.)
Tawfiq al-Hakim, Yawmiyyât Nâ'ib fil-'Aryâf.
________________________________
________________________________
From: R. Lehmann <[email protected]>
To: George Athas <[email protected]>
Cc: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, 11 April 2013, 16:07
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] akkadian bible?
George,
maybe we have, as for instance ancient North Arabian. But is is important to
see what kind of "literature" this was, dealing with sheep and goats, but not
with history and religion.
¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨
Dr. Reinhard G. Lehmann, Academic Director
Research Unit on Ancient Hebrew & Epigraphy
FB 01/ Faculty of Protestant Theology
Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz
D-55099 Mainz
Germany
[email protected]
http://www.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de/eng
11th Mainz International Colloquium on Ancient Hebrew (MICAH) 2013:
http://www.micah.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de/204.php
Am 11.04.2013 um 14:19 schrieb George Athas:
Thanks for the input, Dr Lehmann. Oral tradition for nomadic cultures is,
indeed, the norm. Writing is quite extraordinary. Do we have any examples of
writing from ancient nomadic cultures?
>
>
>
>
>GEORGE ATHAS
>Dean of Research,
>Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)
>Sydney, Australia
>
>From: "Dr. Reinhard G. Lehmann" <[email protected]>
>Date: Thursday, 11 April 2013 1:26 AM
>To: B-Hebrew <[email protected]>
>Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] akkadian bible?
>
>
>
>My goodness,
>will anyone of you maybe take into consideration that early Hebrew tradition
>was oral, as is normal and most efficient in nomadic societies?
>
>
>¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨
>Dr. Reinhard G. Lehmann, Academic Director
>Research Unit on Ancient Hebrew & Epigraphy
>FB 01/ Faculty of Protestant Theology
>Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz
>D-55099 Mainz
>Germany
>[email protected]
>http://www.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de/eng
>11th Mainz International Colloquium on Ancient Hebrew (MICAH) 2013:
>http://www.micah.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de/204.php
>
>
>
>
_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
