Meroitic | |
---|---|
Kushite | |
Native to | Kingdom of Kush |
Region | Southern part of Upper Egypt around Aswan (Lower Nubia) to the Khartoum area of Sudan (Upper Nubia) |
Era | Possibly attested as early as 12th Dynasty Egypt (ca. 2000–ca. 1800 BC) and fully extinct no later than the 4th century AD[1] |
Meroitic alphabet | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | xmr |
xmr | |
Glottolog | mero1237 |
The Meroitic language (/mɛroʊˈɪtɪk/) was a language of uncertain linguistic affiliation spoken in Meroë (in present-day Sudan) during the Meroitic period (attested from 300 BC) and became extinct about 400 AD. It was written in two forms of the Meroitic alphabet: Meroitic Cursive, which was written with a stylus and was used for general record-keeping; and Meroitic Hieroglyphic, which was carved in stone or used for royal or religious documents. It is poorly understood, owing to the scarcity of bilingual texts.
200 BC - 4th century AD.